Maritime Republics Chess "Venice"

The raw material, marble dust from the quarries of Carrara, combined with the long experience of master craftsmen and highly professional designers, is what makes these artistic creations (statues, small animals, chess) unique: original and high level subjects to be proposed to fans and collectors.

The chess. Artistic creation composed by 32 pieces made with marble dust from the quarries of Carrara, aged and hand-painted with rich details by skilled masters of art.
They reproduce historical, art and fantasy figures, creating an extraordinary atmosphere that immerses players in a dense backdrop of realism.

Chess is a two-player strategy board game played on a checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an 8×8 square grid. Played by millions of people worldwide, chess is believed to be derived from the Indian game chaturanga sometime before the 7^th century. Chaturanga is also the likely ancestor of the East Asian strategy games xianggi (Chinese chess), janggi (Korean chess), and shogi (Japanese chess). Chess reached Europe via Persia and Arabia by the 9^th century, due to the Umayyad conquest of Hispania. The queen and bishop assumed their current powers in Spain in the late 15^th century, and the modern rules were standardized in the 19^th century.

Play involves no hidden information. Each player begins with 16 pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops and eight pawns. Each piece type moves differently, with the most powerful being the queen and the least powerful the pawn. The objective is to checkmate the opponent's king by placing it under an inescapable threat of capture. To this end, a player's pieces are used to attack and capture the opponent's pieces, while supporting one another. During the game, play typically involves exchanging pieces for the opponent's similar pieces, and finding and engineering opportunities to trade advantageously or to get a better position. In addition to checkmate, a player wins the game if the opponent resigns, or in a timed game, runs out of time. There are also several ways a game can end in a draw.

The Maritime Republics (Italian: repubbliche marinare) of the Mediterranean Basin were thalassocratic city-state in Italy and Dalmatia during the Middle Ages. The best known among them were Venice, Genoa, Pisa and Amalfi.

From the 10th century, they built fleets of ships both for their own protection and to support extensive trade networks across the Mediterranean, giving them an essential role in reestablishing contacts between Europe, Asia and Africa, which had been interrupted during the early Middle Ages. These contacts were not only commercial, but also cultural and artistic. They also had an essential role in the Crusades.

The expression "Maritime Republics" refers to the Italian city-state, that since the Middle Ages enjoyed, thanks to its maritime activities, political autonomy and economic prosperity. The economic growth of Europe around the year 1000, together with the hazards of the mainland trading routes, made possible the development of major commercial routes along the Mediterranean coast. The growing independence acquired by some coastal cities gave them a leading role in this development. These cities, exposed to pirate raids (mostly Saracen), organized their own defence, providing themselves substantial war fleets. Thus, in the 10th and 11th centuries they were able to switch to an offensive stance, taking advantage of the rivalry between the Byzantine and Islamic maritime powers and competing with them for the control of commerce and trade routes with Asia and Africa.

Venice, Genoa and Pisa had dominion over different overseas lands, including many Mediterranean islands (especially Sardinia and Corsica), lands on the Adriatic, Aegean, and Black Sea (Crimea), and commercial colonies in the Near East and in North Africa. Venice stands out from the rest in that it maintained enormous tracts of land in Greece, Cyprus, Istria and Dalmatia until as late as the mid-17th century.

The Republic of Venice, also known as La Serenissima (The Most Serene), came into being in 421 as a result of the development of trade relations with the Byzantine Empire, of which it was once formally a part, albeit with a substantial degree of independence. Venice remained an ally of Byzantium in the fight against Arabs and Normans. Around 1000 it began its expansion in the Adriatic, defeating the pirates who occupied the coast of Istria and Dalmatia and placing those regions and their principal townships under Venetian control. At the beginning of the 13th century, the city reached the peak of its power, dominating the commercial traffic in the Mediterranean and with the Orient.

During the Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) its fleet was decisive in the acquisition of the islands and the most commercially important seaside towns of the Byzantine Empire. The conquest of the important ports of Corfu (1207) and Crete (1209) gave it a trade that extended to the east and reached Syria and Egypt, endpoints of maritime trading routes. By the end of the 14th century, Venice had become one of the richest states in Europe. Its dominance in the eastern Mediterranean in later centuries was threatened by the expansion of the Ottoman Empire in those areas, despite the great naval victory in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 against the Turkish fleet, fought with the Holy League.

The Republic of Venice expanded strongly on the mainland, too. It became the largest of the maritime republics and was the most powerful state of Italy until 1797, when Napoleon invaded the Venetian lagoon and conquered Venice. The city passed between French and Austrian control over the next half-century, before briefly regaining its independence during the revolutions of 1848. Austrian rule resumed a year later, and continued until 1866, when Veneto passed into the Kingdom of Italy.