"It is certainly a pleasant and ingenious amusement," said messer Federico. " But I think there is one defect in it. And that is,
there is too much to know, so that whoever would excel in the game of chess must spend much time on it, methinks, and give it
as much study as if he would learn some noble science or do anything else of importance you please; and yet in the end with all
his pains he has learned nothing but a game. Therefore I think a very unusual thing is true of it, namely that mediocrity is more
praiseworthy than excellence."
- Baldassare Castiglione, from
The Book of the Courtier (Il Cortegiano), publ. 1528
