Italy’s famous chess game with human pieces, the centrepiece of a 600-person, 3-hour show, returns after Covid-enforced cancellation
- Every two years, townspeople in Marostica, Italy, stage a game of human chess set within a vast historical re-enactment
- A visit to witness the spectacle can be a great opportunity to discover some of the secrets of the Veneto region
Inside the ancient medieval walls that surround the bustling Italian hill town of Marostica, the sun is beginning to set on a scene that takes place in September once every two years.
This month’s event is extra special because the Covid-19 pandemic has meant it has been four long years since these proud citizens were able to stage their legendary La Partita di Scacchi.
A chess game like no other, La Partita is acted out by real people, who play the 32 pieces.
The game is the centrepiece in a production that lasts almost three hours and involves a cast of 600 locals who forget their normal lives for a few days to become jugglers, jesters and fire eaters, trumpeters and drummers, a harlequin and court jester, troops of archers, horsemen and pike-wielding soldiers, dancers and flamboyant twirling flag-throwers, nobility, peasants, and priests.
Although only 14,000 people live here today, this once important outpost of the Serene Republic of Venice is marked by three imposing castles.