THE CHESSGAME: IMAGE, POWER AND THE CHURCH (LATE TENTH-EARLY TWELFTH CENTURY)

Originated in the East, the chessgame was adapted to the Western social and military realities since the tenth century. The codes for the exercise of feudal power were symbolized through the manipulation of its pieces. The analysis of four uses of chess pieces outside the realm of the chessgame, in the churches of Munster, Aachen, Saint-Denis and Reims, underlines the contribution of chess for the definition of the German Empire and of the French Kingdom.