Caïssa


 * For similar words, see caisse.

Caïssa is a mythical Thracian dryad portrayed as the goddess of chess, as invented during the Renaissance by Italian poet Hieronymus Vida.

Vida's poem
Caïssa originated in a 658-line poem called "Scacchia, Ludus" published in 1527 by Hieronymus Vida (Marco Girolamo Vida), which describes in Latin Virgilian hexameters a chess game between Apollo and Mercury in the presence of the other gods. In it, to avoid unclassical references, the rooks are described as towers (armored howdahs) on elephants' backs, and the bishops as archers:
 * 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 there stand ramparts with high walls,
 * which, immense, are carried into war on the back of an elephant."

(A leaked unauthorized 742-line draft version was published in 1525. Its text is very different, and in it Caïssa is called Scacchia, the chess rook is a cyclops, and the chess bishop is a centaur archer.)

This 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 in Europe called the rook "elephant" and the bishop "archer". In German, Schütze ( "archer") became a general word for a chess bishop until displaced by Läufer ("runner") in the 18th century.

The poem may have been influenced by Scacchia ludus ('The Game of Chess') written in 1510 by Marco Girolamo Vida, an Italian poet and later Bishop of Alba. There the nymph is called Scacchis.

William Jones's poem
The pioneering English orientalist Sir William Jones re-used Vida's character Caïssa in 1763 in his own poem Caïssa  written in Latin hexameters. Jones also published an English language version of the poem.

In the poem, Caïssa initially repels the advances of the god of war, Mars. Spurned, Mars seeks the aid of the god of sport Euphron, brother of Venus, who creates the game of chess as a gift for Mars to win Caissa's favor.

Modern use
Caïssa is referred to in chess commentary. Garry Kasparov uses this reference now and again, especially in his epic five-volume work My Great Predecessors. It is used as a substitute for being fortunate – "Caïssa was with me" – especially in unclear situations, for example in sacrifices. Caïssa as a concept has also been explored by some who seek the evidence of the sacred feminine in chess.

The first (Russian) computer program that won the World Computer Chess Championship (in 1974) was also named Kaissa.