Caïssa is afictional (anachronistic)Thraciandryad portrayed as the goddess ofchess. The concept of a dryad of chess was first mentioned during theRenaissance byItalian poetHieronymus Vida.
The concept of Caïssa originated in a 658-line poem calledScacchia Ludus published in 1527 byHieronymus Vida (Marco Girolamo Vida), which describes in Latin Virgilianhexameters a chess game betweenApollo andMercury in the presence of the other gods, and among them a dryad of chess named Schacchia. In it, to avoid unclassical words such asrochus (chess rook) oralfinus (chess bishop), therooks are described as towers (armoredhowdahs) onelephants' backs, and thebishops asarchers:
Tum geminae velut extremis in cornibus arces
hinc atque hinc altis stant propugnacula muris,
quae dorso immanes gestant in bella Elephanti.
"Then twin, as if at the ends, citadels in the corners,
here and here stand ramparts with high walls,
which are carried into war on the back by immense elephants."
A leaked unauthorized 742-line draft version was published in 1525. Its text is very different, and in it the chess rook is acyclops, and the chess bishop is acentaur archer.
The description of towers led to the modern name "castle" for the chess rook, and thus the term "castling", and the modern shape of the European rook chesspiece. Also for a time, some chess players inEurope called the rook "elephant" and the bishop "archer". In German,Schütze ("archer") became a general word for a chess bishop until displaced byLäufer ("runner") in the 18th century.[1]
The young English orientalistWilliam Jones re-used the idea of a chess poem in 1763, in his own poemCaïssa or The Game at Chess[2] written in Englishheroic couplets. In his poem, Caïssa initially repels the advances of the god of war,Mars. Spurned, Mars seeks the aid of Euphron, God of Sport (Jones's invention), brother ofVenus, who creates the game of chess as a gift for Mars to win Caïssa's favor.
It is an unproven assumption that Jones's name "Caïssa" (ka-is-sa) is an equivalent[clarification needed] to Vida's name "Scacchia" (ska-ki-a).
The English version of Philidor's 1777Systematic introduction to the game and the analysis of chess[3] contained Jones's poem. In 1851 the poem was translated into French by Camille Théodore Frédéric Alliey.[4]
Caïssa is referred to in chess commentary.
The computer program that won the firstWorld Computer Chess Championship (in 1974) was namedKaissa.
The card gameAndroid: Netrunner features a program type named Caïssa, which are modeled after chess pieces.
In Michael Chabon’s novelThe Yiddish Policemen's Union, a character writes anAcrostic letter that spells Caissa.
Victoria Winifred's children's novel,The Princess, the Knight, and the Lost God: A Chess Story, features Caïssa as a character.[8]
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