This book is the outcome of a close study of the Ricote Valley and its famous Sufi Ibn Sab'in. Its purpose is to disclose more of the historical and comparative data. Arab Spaniards have created a glorious human story that lasted for centuries within the scope of the Mediterranean culture. However, a lot of the history of the Ricote Valley is only written in Spanish and still not in English. Andalusian scientists moved from the region of Murcia to the heart of the Islamic world. Their move had quite a deep effect. Among these scientists was the great Sufi philosopher, Muhammad Ibn-'Abdul-Haq...

Uno de los mas destacados autores espanoles en relacion a la Guerra Civil es Angel Vinas. Tiene dificultades en localizar al desconocido coronel Souza en un documento aleman de antes del golpe de Estado del 18 de julio de 1936 y especula con algunas personas que reciben el mismo apellido. Al no hallar a dicho coronel Souza, no da mucha credibilidad a este documento aleman. Souza era un hombre del alto nivel que pudo estar en contacto con el general Sanjurjo en estos anos. Por otro lado, la ciudad de Vigo esta situada al lado de Portugal y en este documento aleman, Souza relata que un general...

Waarom heeft de ene Nederlander succes in Spanje en moet de ander op hangende pootjes weer terugkeren? Een feit is het dat dergelijke dingen men niet op de Universiteit leert, doch wel met het dammen. Met het dammen en schaken leert men denken. Maar kan iedereen wel denken? Waarschijnlijk niet, want Henry Ford zei daarover: "Denken is het zwaarste werk dat er is, wat waarschijnlijk de reden is waarom zo weinigen zich ermee bezighouden." Alhoewel ik van een profesionale dammersloopbaan al vroeg heb afgezien, moet het me wel van het hart dat voor mij het zakenleven altijd dammen was. Die...

The first Spanish books about the game of draughts have a very high standard and date from the XVI century, while the first French book comes from the XVII century and the game description is very basic. Contrarily to this evidence scholars did not consider it necessary to grant Spain the honour of being the country of creation of the game of draughts and of the new modality in chess with the new dama. Both the Alquerque-3 and the Alquerque-9 games were known in Roman times. The situation is completely different for the Alquerque-12 game. It is said that the Alquerque has its origin in Egypt....

Blanca is the ideal place for the slow movement, to enjoy the charm of its landscapes and to relax and live better. One cannot hurry the act of creation. Maybe this is a reason that we find in this village so many painters. They all need pace, slowness, silence to be creative and productive. I came from Holland, 40 years ago, and hated in that country the long queues of cars, the great haste of the people. During my travels to many foreign countries as a result of international business I came to the conclusion that there for me are only two places to live well: Haiwai and Blanca. This book...

The new bishop in chess has been a great mystery from the XV century until now, because not only was the power of the Queen greatly introduced, but so was also the position of the church. Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza was the partisan of Princess (later Queen) Isabella I of Castile and fought for her in the Battle of Zamora and Toro between 1475 and 1476. This warrior churchman had a prominent part in placing Princess Isabella on the throne and served her tirelessly in her efforts to suppress the disorderly nobles of Castile with the money of the church. Cardinal Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza remains...

The Obres e Trobes (the first book printed in Spain in 1474 in Valencia) is an art competition held on March 25 of that year. There are many poets who have poems and couplets in this art competition, and we find three poets among them, writers of scachs d'amor: Francesc Castellvi, Bernard Fenollar and Narcis de Vinyoles. The Obres e Trobes is considered to be the first literary work printed in Spain of which the only known copy in the world is preserved in the University Library of Valencia. It consists of 60 leaves without foliation and signature and is written in Roman letters on paper with...

Today most chess historians agree that the weak chess queen, named "dame" in France as from the XIV century, changed to a powerful chess queen in Spain in 1475. Around this year we also see a change of the weak bishop to a strong bishop, according to the chess poem Scachs d'amor. In order to strengthen our hypothesis of Isabella I of Castile (Isabel la Catolica) we have written a book about the new bishop and a book about Scachs d'amor in English. Concentrating now on Virgin Mary in relationship with Isabella I of Castile we observe that the Augustinian monastic Martin de Cordoba wrote in...

This book should be considered a historical book, as it is the draughts' career of Baba Sy, a prominent Senegalese player. He was able to be the best in the world without reading any books. He had a natural talent and was a self-made man thanks to the game of checkers. I have witnessed the achievements of the great Baba Sy and I have been in the early stage of the great players like Harm Wiersma and Ton Sijbrands, on which I predicted in 1964 that they would be a future world champions. So I know the mentality that one must have to succeed in this mind sport. My 40 year stay in Spain and my...

This is the first bibliography in English of the protonotary Juan Ramirez de Lucena (1430-1504) who was one of the ambassadors of the Catholic monarchs. He was the father of Lucena, the writer of a chess book that was published in Salamanca in 1997. Knowing the biography of the protonotary and his activities in Italy and France in the highest sphere of society it is clear that his son Lucena could take advantage of this, because his father had opened the door in many places. No doubt that during the life of the protonotary Juan Ramirez de Lucena his son visited these places in Italy and...