Six Hundred Costumed Performers Played Out a Game of Chess in an Italian Castle Square as Living Pieces
Marostica staged its biennial re-enactment of a fifteenth century duel settled over a chessboard, with four performances in the first two weeks of September.
The town of Marostica in the Vicenza province of Veneto staged its living chess game in the Piazza Castello on 4, 5, 11 and 12 September 2026, with each performance beginning at nine in the evening.
About six hundred costumed performers take part, playing the pieces alongside horses, armed soldiers, flag-throwers, acrobats, fire-breathers and a court of lords and ladies. The game is staged every two years, in even-numbered years.
The legend behind it is dated to 1454. The knights Rinaldo d'Angarano and Vieri da Vallonara both loved Lionora, the daughter of the castellan Taddeo Parisio. Forbidden to duel, they were ordered to settle the matter in the noble game of chess, with the loser to marry Lionora's sister Oldrada.
Because the moves of the original game were never recorded, the organisers play out two famous historical games instead, the Immortal game and the Evergreen game.
The modern re-enactment was founded in 1923 by two university students, Mirko Vucetich and Francesco Pozza, and is run by the Associazione Pro Marostica.