The year was 1008. Ermengol, Count of Urgell, was putting his life in order by making his will. And one of the belongings he decided to give to a convent was a pair of chess pieces. For a long time, this was considered the oldest text mentioning chess in Europe, although years later, some Latin texts on chess would be found in the Benedictine Abbey of Einsiedeln, Switzerland, which could be some 50 years older. Be that as it may, the will shows that chess had already arrived in the territories of present-day Catalonia from Arab lands. A thousand-year-old tradition. And a centuries-old federation.