O JOGO E O XADREZ: Entre Teorias e a História

Abstract

This paper analyzes the game and discusses about it as a part of culture and as a historical phenomenon. By considering culture as the set of significations produced by men throughout history, and the game as an element of a culture codified universe, it analyzes the relationship between game practice and the values of societies that adopt them. It also analyzes games in general and highlights the chess game, more specifically, as a representative side view of the relationship society/game. This work presents an overview of the chess game history, which began in the sixth century, and investigates its development, noticing changes that were made and metaphors that were produced throughout history, especially the representation of the old war and of the medieval society, showing how social changes influenced in many ways on this game, which is very antique. It discusses the importance of chess competitions during the Cold War period, showing how the communist and the U.S. governments valued their players victories. It also relates how this game was emphasized in the National Curricular Parameters (PCNs) and how the chess game has been used in schools as a pedagogical tool. Analyses are based on concepts developed by Huizinga (2007), especially in his book Homo ludens: game as a part of culture ( Homo ludens: o jogo como elemento da cultura ), published in 1938, in which the author considers the game as a primary category of life, from which culture arises in the form of language and poetry, and of rituals and sacred things, noticing, therefore, its importance to reasoning (homo sapiens) and construction of tools (homo faber). This study notices Huizinga's thesis about the decline of the playfulness factor in society by observing practices and highlights that are provided to contemporary competitions, such as the Olympics and world tournaments. It shows that in modern and contemporary society, the game has followed culture much more in the sense of one of its main features, the competition, rather than in the sense of the playfulness factor, as Huizinga argues. However, regarding the chess game, this study supports the idea that, despite the seriousness nature of tournaments and its pedagogical use, often as a compulsory subject in school curricula, the practice of chess playing is still encouraged by the playful competition. Another idea that is supported in this work is the fact that the seriousness of chess matches favors the playfulness factor, whether in school, where people seek to show citizenship attitudes through the game practice, or in matches that are played by amateurs and scholars.