Inspired by Marco Girolamo Vida's Scacchia Ludus, it is a narrative poetry work that describes a game of chess between two men, Fiedor and Borzuj, who fight for the right to marry Anna, princess of Denmark.

[1] In 1912, Alexander Wagner reconstructed the game described in the poem, while Yuri Averbakh found that it has three possible endings in 1967.

During his visit to the Italian lands in 1558–59, Jan Kochanowski encountered Scacchia Ludus, a poem by Marco Girolamo Vida, which describes a game of chess played on Mount Olympus between Apollo and Mercury.

[3] Inspired by Scacchia Ludus, Kochanowski decided to create his own poem with a chess game as the main topic.

[3] Until the second half of the 19th century, Chess was often thought to be only a paraphrase of Vida's poem, rather than an independent work.

[2] In his 1856 essay Chess in Poland (Polish: Szachy w Polszcze), historian Maurycy Dzieduszycki proved that Kochanowski's poem, while inspired by Scacchia Ludus, is dependent on it only to a small extent and should be considered a fully separate work of art.

Fiedor and Borzuj learn the rules and after spending some time training, meet in Tarses' palace for the game.

The game, described as a battle of anthropomorphised pieces starts, comprising the biggest part of the poem.

[1] Kochanowski uses the names of the pieces (which are often different from their equivalents in modern Polish) in literal sense, describing the game as a war between infantry soldiers (pawns), knights, bow-wielding priests (bishops), war elephants (rooks), queens and kings.

[1] At one point, Borzuj attempts to "resurrect" a dead knight, i.e. illegally put a captured piece on the board.

The match progresses to a position which seems to end with white inevitably mating in its next move (see the diagram).

Fiedor sees no way to evade his loss and makes no move, despite urging comments from Borzuj and advice to resign from members of Tarses' court who watch the game.

The sun sets with black still not making any move and it is decided that the players will stop the game for the night, to resume on the following day.

She also initially believes that there is no way to evade white's mate, but subsequently notices a chance for black.

Anna loudly expresses an enigmatic opinion: That knights know how to fight, priests are good at giving advice, infantry doesn't hesitate to walk forward and that it's no loss to change a dear thing for someone beloved.

Fiedor asks the guards about the turned rook and learns about Anna's visit and her words.

Fiedor starts to think deeply and understands that the princess' words are a message with a hidden hint for him: that he should not use the knight and the bishop, but sacrifice the most valuable piece his still has, the rook; before ending the game using the pawns.

To get the attention of his spectators, Fiedor proclaims that he will admit loss if he won't be able to mate his opponent in the next three moves.

[5] It was one of the first Polish language works created by Kochanowski, who was earlier mostly writing elegies and epigrams in Latin.

[6] According to prof. Edmund Kotarski of the Gdańsk University, Chess resembles a short story in the parts dealing with the human characters, while the battle of the chess pieces is a parody of heroic epos of Homer and Virgil, "following its style while presenting a plot which clearly was not monumental or grand", so that the "clash between seriousness and humour" results in humorous effects.

[1] The poem was described as more humane that Scacchia Ludus which inspired it,[6] as instead of mythological gods, Kochanowski tells a story of two young men fighting for their future.

[6] Chess theoretician Władysław Litmanowicz considers Borzuj and Fiedor's playing skills as not extraordinary, but notices that the game's theory was much less advanced in Kochanowski's times compared to the modern day.

[9] Wagner submitted his reconstruction under the pseudonym of "Wanda Reger Nelska" (an anagram of his name), so that his colleagues wouldn't be biased in judging the entries.

Kb1 c2# In his book В поисках истины (English: Searching for Truth), Grandmaster Yuri Averbakh also reconstructed the game.