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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/4902.txt b/4902.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9304fb8 --- /dev/null +++ b/4902.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7911 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Chess History and Reminiscences, by H. E. Bird + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Chess History and Reminiscences + +Author: H. E. Bird + +Release Date: January, 2004 [EBook #4902] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on March 23, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, CHESS HISTORY AND REMINISCENCES *** + + + + +This etext was produced by Stephen D. Leary + + + + + + + +CHESS HISTORY AND REMINISCENCES + +by H. E. Bird + + + + + +====== + +To +My Highly Esteemed +Chess Opponent And Patron +Of Nearly 40 Years +W. J. EVELYN, Esq., +Of Wotton, Surrey + +====== + +CONTENTS + +PREFACE +PECULIAR AND DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTIC +OF CHESS WRITERS, LACK OF CHESS HISTORY + +RETROSPECT, AND HABITS, AND IDIOSYNCRACIES +OF CHESS PLAYERS: +TEMPERAMENT, ATTITUDE AND DEPORTMENT, +STYLE, STAKES, LOSING, LOOKERS-ON, ODDITIES, +AND PATRONS + +CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF CHESS: +PREVAILING MISCONCEPTION +ITS EVER GROWING POPULARITY +THEORIES AS TO ITS INVENTION +TRADITIONS +THE THREE INDIAN TRADITIONS +EARLY AND MIDDLE AGE CONJECTURES +PROGRESS OF CHESS +INDIA +CHINA +EGYPT +THE ANCIENT GREEKS AND ROMANS +SCANDINAVIA +PERSIA + +ARABIA, SPAIN, FRANCE: +CHOSROES, AL WALID, HARUN, PRINCESS IRENE, +CHARLEMAGNE, OFFA, ALCUIN, EGBERT, AL MAMUN + +THE ROMAN EDICT OF 115 B.C.: +SUPPOSED EUROPEAN FIRST KNOWLEDGE: +SCANDINAVIA. ITALY. IRELAND. WALES. + +OPINIONS ON CHESS AND ITS ORIGIN: +POPE'S LINES +THE TRACK OF CHESS +(UNIQUE SPECIMEN)--THE INDIAN KING TO SASSA +THE KING OF HIND TO CHOSROES +THE EARLY EXAMPLES OF PRAISE AND CENSURE +THE REMARKABLE ADVANTAGES OF THE ASIATIC +SOCIETIES, AND PHYSICANS RECOMMENDATIONS. +FOOD FOR THE MIND AS WELL AS FOR THE BODY + +MIDDLE AGES AND MODERN: +CHAUCER TO LYDGATE +CAXTON, ELIZABETH'S REIGN +VIDA +PRATT +SAUL AND BARBIERE +SALVIC +CARRERA +ENCYCLOPAEDIA +AN AMERICAN VIEW +THE INDIAN PHILOSOPHER +SOVEREIGNS COMMEMORATED AS CHESS PLAYERS +PHILIDOR'S ASCENDENCY, POPULARITY & PATRONS + +THE NINETEENTH CENTURY: +SIMPSON'S 1828-1893-CHESS CLUBS +CHESS MASTERS OF THE DAY, MAGAZINE NOTIONS, +THE FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW, AND REPLY IN AN +IMPARTIAL ARTICLE from H. E. BIRD + +NATIONAL CHESS OF 1892, THE BELFAST CONGRESS +AND NEWCASTLE SUPPORT. SPECIMENS OF PLAY + +BLINDFOLD CHESS +THE GAME OF CHESS, (SUMMARY OR BIRD'S EYE VIEW) +Dedicated to Belfast and Newcastle + +FOUR STYLES OF CHESS, "THE LION," "THE +EAGLE," "THE SLOW WORM," AND THE LOCOMOTIVE +A SKIT + +VAN DER LINDE'S CONCLUSIONS +CHESS LOSSES +SUPPLEMENTAL AND SEPARATE. REVIEW OF +STEINITZ, PART 1, (8 pages.) + +NOTE. Postponed. "Times Reminiscences" (7 in number) +"Ruskin's letters" (28), "Bayley's Article" and "Fortnightly +Review" controversy, and "A few words with the German writer, +and the works of 1872 and 1884." + +NOTES AND REFERENCES-BECKETT, LUTHER, CRANMER, WOLSEY, &c. + + + + +PREFACE + +This little work is but a condensation and essence of a much +larger one, containing the result of what can be discovered +concerning the origin and history of chess, combined with +some of my own reminiscences of 46 years past both of chess play +and its exponents, dating back to the year 1846, the 18th of +Simpson's, 9 years after the death of A. McDonnell, and 6 after +that of L. de La Bourdonnais when chivalrous and first class +chess had come into the highest estimation, and emulatory matches +and tests of supremacy in chess skill were the order of the day. + +English chess was then in the ascendant, three years before +Howard Staunton had vanquished St. Amant of France, and was +the recognized world's chess champion, while H. T. Buckle the +renowned author of the History of Civilization was the foremost +in skill among chess amateurs, Mr. W. Lewis and Mr. George +Walker the well known and prolific writers on chess, were among +the ten or twelve strongest players, but were seldom seen in the +public circle, Mr. Slous and Mr. Perigal were other first rate +amateurs of about equal strength. Mr. Daniels who attended +Simpson's had just departed. Captain Evans and Captain Kennedy +were familiar figures, and most popular alike distinguished and +esteemed for amiability and good nature, and were the best +friends and encouragers of the younger aspirants. + +At this time Simpson's was the principal public arena for first +class chess practice and development: the St. George's Chess Club +was domiciled in Cavendish Square at back of the Polytechnic. The +London Chess Club (the oldest) met at the George and Vulture on +Cornhill, when Morphy came in 1858, and Steinitz in 1862, these +time honoured clubs were located at King St., St. James, and at +Purssell's, Cornhill respectively. + +Other clubs for the practice and cultivation of the game were +about thirteen in number, representing not five percent of those +now existing; the oldest seem to have been Manchester, Edinburgh, +and Dublin, closely followed by Bristol, Liverpool, Wakefield, +Leeds and Newcastle. + +Annual County Meetings commenced with that held at Leeds in +1841. The earliest perfectly open Tournaments were two on a +small scale at Simpson's in 1848 and 1849, and the first World's +International in the Exhibition year 1851, at the St. George's +Chess Club, Polytechnic Building, Cavendish Square. In each of +these Tournaments the writer participated. + +Three chess columns existed when I first visited Simpson's in +1846, viz., Bells Life managed by Mr. George Walker from 1834 +to 1873. The Illustrated London News from 15th February 1845 to +1878, in charge of Howard Staunton, and the Pictorial Times which +lasted from February 1845 to June 1848. The first column started +had appeared in the Lancet 1823, but it continued not quite one +year. + +The Chess Player's Chronicle issued in 1841 (Staunton), was then +the only regular magazine devoted to chess, but a fly leaf had +been published weekly about the year 1840, in rather a curious +form of which the following is found noted: + +About the year 1840 the Garrick Chess Divan was opened by Mr. +Huttman at No. 4 Little Russell St., Covent Garden. One of the +attractions of this little saloon was the publication every week +of a leaf containing a good chess problem, below it all the +gossip of the chess world in small type. The leaf was at first +sold for sixpence, including two of the finest Havannah Cigars, +or a fine Havannah and a delicious cup of coffee, but was +afterwards reduced to a penny without the cigars. The problem +leaf succeeding well, a leaf containing games was next produced, +and finally the two were merged in a publication of four pages +entitled the Palamede. + +The Gentleman's Magazine 1824, 1828, British Miscellany 1839, +Bath and Cheltenham Gazette 1840, and Saturday Magazine 1840, +1845, had contained contributions in chess, but of regular columns +there were only the three before mentioned, now there are about +one hundred and fifty, mostly of larger dimensions. + +Mr. George Walker's 1000 games published in 1844, gives no +game of earlier date than 1780, viz., one of Philidor's of whose +skill he gives 62 specimens, and there are 57 games by +correspondence played between 1824 and 1844. + +The list of chess works of consideration up to Philidor's time, +number about thirty, but there were several editions of Jacobus +de Cessolus (1275 to 1290) including translations by J. Ferron +and Jean De Vigny, from which last named Caxton's book of 1474 +was derived. + +Lucena, Vicenz, Damiano, and Jacob Mennell appeared before +1520, Ruy Lopez in 1561, Polerio, Gianuzio, Greco, Salvio, +Carrera, Gustavus Selenus and the translation of Greco, followed +in the interval from 1561 to 1656. + +I. Bertin 1735 and the six Italian works of the last century, +were the principal which followed with Philidor's manifold +editions, up to Sarratt the earliest of the nineteenth +century writers. + +Dr. A. Van der Linde, Berlin 1874, 1118 pages, 4098 names in +Index, and 540 diagrams includes notice of Cotton's complete +gamester 1664, and Seymour's complete gamester 1720, with +editions of Hoyle's games from 1740 to 1871, in fact about +one-fourth of Linde's book is devoted to the specification of +books and magazines, mostly of the nineteenth century, even down +to the A.B.C. of Chess, by a lady. + +Poems have been written on chess, of which the most esteemed +have been Aben Ezra 1175, (translated by Dr. Hyde) Conrad Von +Ammenhusen and Lydgate's "Love Battle" in the fourteenth century +Vida, Bishop of Alba 1525, Sir William Jones 1761, and Frithiofs +Saga by Esaias Tegner 1825. + +Of articles which have appeared during the last fifteen years, +the Retrospects of Chess in the Times particularly that of the +25th June 1883, (the first on record) mark events of lasting +interest in the practice of the game, which would well merit +reproduction. Professor Ruskin's modest but instructive letters +(28 in number 1884 to 1892), also contain much of value +concerning chess nomenclature, annotation, ethics and policy +combined with some estimable advice and suggestions for promoting +greater harmony in the chess world. + +The able article in Bailey's 1885, on chess competitions and the +progress of the game, and that in the Fortnightly Review of +December 1886, entitled "The Chess Masters of the Day," rank as +the other most noteworthy productions of the last seven years' +period in chess. + +I regret that it is not in my power to produce the more extended +work, for to bring that now submitted within assigned compass +and cost, I have had to omit much that would be needful to render +such a work complete, and to give but a Bird's eye view of +chapters which would well merit undiminished space. Thus the +complete scores and analyses of the matches, tournaments and +great personal tests of skill and statistics of the game would +be acceptable to a few, whilst the full accounts of individual +players such as Philidor, Staunton, Anderssen, Morphy, Lowenthal, +Steinitz, Zukertort, Blackburne and perhaps even Bird, (Bailey's +and Ruskin's opinions) would be regarded and read with interest +by many chess players. + +Respecting the supposed first source of chess the traditional +and conjectural theories which have grown up throughout so many +ages, regarding the origin of chess, have not become abandoned +even in our own days, and we generally hear of one or other of +them at the conclusion of a great tournament. It has been no +uncommon thing during the past few years to find Xerxes, +Palamedes, and even Moses and certain Kings of Babylon credited +with the invention of chess. + +The conclusions arrived at by the most able and trustworthy +authorities however, are, that chess originated in India, was +utterly unknown to the Greeks and Romans, and was first +introduced into Europe from Persia shortly after the sixth +century of our era. In its earliest Asiatic form styled the +Chaturanga, It was adapted for four persons, having four small +armies of eight each. King, three pieces answering to our Rook, +Bishop, and Knight, Elephant (Chariot or Ship,) and Horse, with +four Pawns. The players decided what piece to move by the throw +of an oblong die. + +About 1,350 years ago the game under the name Chatrang, +adapted for two persons with sixteen piece on each side, and the +same square board of 64 squares, became regularly practiced, but +when the dice became dispensed with is quite unknown. + +It may not be possible to trace the game of chess with absolute +certainty, back to its precise source amidst the dark periods +of antiquity, but it is easy to shew that the claim of the Hindus +as the inventors, is supported by better evidence both inferential +and positive than that of any other people, and unless we are to +assume the Sanskrit accounts of it to be unreliable or spurious, +or the translations of Dr. Hyde, Sir William Jones and Professor +Duncan Forbes to be disingenuous and untrustworthy concoctions +(as Linde the German writer seems to insinuate) we are justified +in dismissing from our minds all reasonable doubts as to the +validity of the claims of the Hindu Chaturanga as the foundation +of the Persian, Arabian, Medieval and Modern Chess, which it so +essentially resembled in its main principles, in fact the ancient +Hindu Chaturanga is the oldest game not only of chess but of +anything ever shown to be at all like it, and we have the frank +admissions of the Persians as well as the Chinese that they both +received the game from India. + +The Saracens put the origin of chess at 226, says the "Westminster +Papers," (although the Indians claim we think with justice to have +invented it about 108 B.C. Artaxerxes a Persian King is said to +have been the inventor of a game which the Germans call Bret-spiel +and chess was invented as a rival game. + +The connecting links of chess evidence and confirmation when +gathered together and placed in order form, combined so harmonious +a chain, that the progress of chess from Persia to Arabia and into +Spain has been considered as quite satisfactorily proved and +established by authorities deemed trustworthy, both native and +foreign, and are quite consistent with a fair summary up of the +more recent views expressed by the German writers themselves, +and with the reasonable conclusions to be deduced even from the +very voluminous but not always best selected evidence of +Van der Linde. + +So much has a very lively interest in chess depended in modern +times upon the enthusiasm of individuals, that the loss of a single +prominent supporter or player, has always seemed to sensibly affect +it. This was notably felt on the death of Sir Abram Janssens and +Philidor towards the end of the last century, and of Count Bruhl, +Mr. G. Atwood and General Conway in this. During the last 15 +years the loss of Staunton, Buckle, Cap. Kennedy, Barnes, +Cochrane and Boden, and yet more recently of such friends of +British chess as F. H. Lewis, I. C. H. Taylor and Captain +Mackenzie left a void, which in the absence of any fresh like +popular players and supporters, goes far to account for the +depression and degeneracy of first class chess in England. + +Though the game is advancing more in estimation than ever, and +each succeeding year furnishes conclusive evidence of its +increasing progress, in twenty years more under present auspices, +a British Chess Master will be a thing of the past, and the +sceptre of McDonnell and of Staunton will have crumpled into dust, +at the very time when in the natural course of things according +to present indications, the practice of the game shall have +reached the highest point in its development. + +We miss our patrons and supporters of the past who were ever +ready to encourage rising enterprize. None have arisen to supply +their places. The distinguished and noble names we find in the +programmes of our Congresses and Meetings, and in the 1884 British +Chess Association are there as form only, and it seems surprising +that so many well known and highly esteemed public men should +allow their names to continue to be published year after year as +Patrons, Presidents, or Vice-Presidents of concerns in which +apparently they take not; or at least evince not, the slightest +interest. + +Of the score or so of English born Chess Masters on the British +Chess Association lists of 1862, but five remain, two alone of +whom are now residing in this country. + +The British Chess Association of 1884, which constituted itself +the power to watch over the interests of national chess, has +long since ceased to have any real or useful existence, and why +the name is still kept up is not easy to be explained. + +It has practically lapsed since the year 1889, when last any +efforts were made to collect in annual or promised subscriptions, +or to carry out its originally avowed objects, and the keeping up +in print annually, of the names of the President and Vice-President +Lord Tennyson, Prof. Ruskin, Lord Randolph Churchill, and Sir +Robert Peel seems highly objectionable. + +The exponents of chess for the 19th century certainly merit more +notice than my space admits of. After Philidor who died in 1795, +and his immediate successors Verdoni and E. Sarratt, W. Lewis, +G. Walker, John Cochrane, Deschapelles and de La Bourdonnais, +have always been regarded as the most able and interesting, and +consequently the most notable of those for the quarter of a +century up to 1820, and the above with the genial A. McDonnell +of Belfast, who came to the front in 1828, and excelled all his +countrymen in Great Britain ever known before him, constitute the +principal players who flourished up to 1834, when the series of +splendid contests between La Bourdonnais and McDonnell cast all +other previous and contemporary play into the shade. + +The next period of seventeen years to 1851, had produced +Harrwitz, Horwitz and Lowenthal from abroad, and Buckle, Cap. +Kennedy, Bird and Boden at home, whilst the great International +Chess Tournament of that year witnessed the triumph of the great +Anderssen, and introduced us to Szen and Kiezeritzky, then +followed a lull in first class chess amongst us from 1851 to 7, +succeeded by a year of surpassing interest, for 1858 welcomed +the invincible Paul Morphy of New Orleans, considered by some +superior even to La Bourdonnais, Staunton and Anderssen the three +greatest players who had preceded him. + +In the year 1862 England's second great gathering took place and +Anderssen was again victorious. In the four years after Morphy's +short but brilliant campaign, a wonderful array of distinguished +players had come forward, comprising Mackenzie, Paulsen, Steinitz, +Burn and Blackburne, The Rev. G. A. MacDonnell, C. De Vere, +Barnes, Wormald, Brien and Campbell. In another ten years two +more of the most illustrious chess players appeared in the persons +of Zukertort and Gunsberg, and we read of matches between +Steinitz, Zukertort and Blackburne, for a modest ten pound note +(see growth of stakes in chess). + +In 1867 at Paris, 1870 at Baden, 1873 at Vienna, and 1878 again +at Paris, four more International Chess Tournaments of nearly equal +interest to the 1851 and 1862 of London took place, and they were +won respectively by Kolisch, Anderssen, (third time) Steinitz and +Zukertort, Berlin 1881, a very fine victory for Blackburne, 1882 +Vienna, honours divided by Steinitz and Winawer, and 1883 the +Criterion, London, a second remarkable victory for Zukertort +represent the other most noteworthy tournaments. + +Of all sorts International and National, there have been 34 +meetings with 46 County local gatherings, as well as 20 of the +University matches between Oxford and Cambridge, of which the +two first and greatest were held at Perrott's, Milk St., in 1873 +and 1874. + +Continuing with the chess giants of more modern date, Mason's +great powers became developed in 1876, and Tchigorin of St. +Petersburg, a splendid player came to the front in 1881. Equal to +him in force, perhaps, if not in style, and yet more remarkable in +their records of success are the present champions Dr. Tarrasch of +Nuremberg and E. Lasker of Berlin. The Havanna people, who, +for five or six years past have spent more money on great personal +chess encounters than all the rest of the world combined, have put +forth Walbrodt of Leipzig. In the above mentioned four players, +chess interest for a time will mostly centre, with Steinitz, yet +unvanquished, and, as many consider, able to beat them all, the +future must be of unique interest, and the year 1893 may decide +which of five favourite foreign players will be entitled to +rank as the world's champion of chess, so far as can be decided +by matches played on existing conditions. + +Chess with clocks and the tedious slow time limit of fifteen +moves an hour (say a working day for a single game) must not be +confounded with genuine, useful and enjoyable chess without +distracting time encumbrances as formerly played. Played at the +pace and on the conditions which the exigencies of daily, yea +hourly, life and labour admit of experience shews that there are +yet English exponents that can render a good account of any of +the foreign players. + +First class chess enthusiasm and support for the past year has +been limited to Newcastle-on-Tyne and Belfast. The unbounded +and impartial liberality of these very important cities has met +with gratifying reward in the increased appreciation of their +efforts and the enhanced number of club members and interest in +the general circle. These highly successful meetings, however, +have caused no impetus in metropolitan management, and has seemed +to divert the attention of chess editors and the responsible +powers entirely from the fact that the London 1892 First Class +International Chess Tournament promised has been altogether +neglected, if not forgotten. We are thus in grave default with +the German and Dutch Chess Associations, who have so faithfully +and punctually fulfilled every engagement. + +The forthcoming monster chess competition at Birmingham, +from which first class players are excluded can scarcely be deemed +a fitting substitute for our owing International engagement with +any true lover of chess and its friendly reciprocity, and least +of all in the eyes of our foreign chess brethren and entertainers. + +NOTE. This monster Chess Contest between the North and the South of +England, represented by 106 competitors on each side, which +terminated in a victory for the South by 53 1/2 to 52 1/2, took +place at Birmingham on Saturday, the 28th January last, and has +occasioned considerable interest among the votaries of the game +and reports pronounce it a great success. + +As affording indications of general chess progress, since the +game became a recognized item of public recreationary +intelligence, and the time of the pioneer International Chess +Tournament of all nations, London 1851, the event may be deemed +of some import and significance, as evidence of the vastly +increased popularity of the game, but the play seems not to have +been productive of many very high specimens of the art of chess, +and has not been conspicuous for enterprise or originality, and +if these exhibitions are to take the place of the kind of +International Tournaments hitherto held, much improvement must +be manifested, before they can be deemed worthy substitutes, +even from a national point of view only. + +Books on the openings in chess have continued fairly popular, +but it is singular how very little novelty or originality has +been imparted into them. Since Staunton and Wormald's works, and +the German hand-books, the Modern Chess Instructor of Mr. +Steinitz, 1889, was looked forward to with the greatest +interest, and the second of the several volumes of which it was to +consist, promised for September, 1890, is still awaited with +anxious expectation. In regard to the practice of the game, the +lack of national chess spirit, or organization, and the +extraordinary denominating influence of the foreign element, is +the remarkable and conspicuous characteristic, and the modest +seat assigned to British Masters in the Retrospects of 1889 +and 1890 (Times), will it is feared have to be placed yet +further back. + + + + +The Chess Openings: +Considered Critically And Practically +By H. E. BIRD. + +"This is the work of one of the most distinguished of +English players. Since the death of Mr. Staunton +nobody can more fairly claim to represent the national +school of players than Mr. H. E. BIRD, who took part in the first +International Tournament of 1851, and also played at Vienna in +1873, at Philadelphia, and recently at Paris. Perhaps his most +brilliant performances have been in single matches, in two of +which he made an equal score with Falkbeer, while, in 1867, +when contending against Steinitz (fresh from his victory over +Anderssen), he won six games against his opponent's seven, while +seven others were drawn. Six years later Mr. BIRD once more +proved his right to be considered second to none among English +players, by defeating Mr. Wisker, the holder of the British +Association Challenge Cup, after a protracted struggle. So far, +therefore, as practical proficiency constitutes a claim to +respect as a teacher of chess-theory, the author of `The +Chess Openings' is in no need of an excuse for coming forward as +an instructor. Mr. BIRD by no means confines himself to mere +reproduction. He has the merit of having identified his name with +several original variations, and of having revived several older +defences, such as the Cunningham Gambit, with no small degree +of success. The book has been evidently the result of painstaking +and accurate analysis, and it may be confidently recommended to +the more advanced players who have graduated in the beaten tracks +of the 'Handbuch,' and are willing to follow in the steps of an +able and original guide. In addition to the usual Appendix of +problems, Mr. BIRD supplies a very useful and attractive feature +in a series of end game positions from the most celebrated +modern match-games. Owing to clear type and large diagrams, the +volume will prove an agreeable companion when a board is out +of reach."--Athenaeum, September 7th, 1880. + +------ + +Chess Masterpieces: +Comprising--A Collection of 156 Choice Games of the past quarter +of a century, with notes, including the finest Games in the +Exhibition of 1851, and in the Vienna Tournament of 1873, with +excellent specimens of the styles of Anderssen, Blackburne, +Der Laza, Hanstein, Kolisch, Lowenthal, Morphy, Staunton, +Steinitz, and the principal English Players. Supplemented by +Games of La Bourdonnais, McDonnell and Cochrane, contested prior +to 1849, Compiled by H. E. BIRD. Cloth, black lettered, 3/6; or, +handsomely bound, gilt and gilt edges 4/-. + +The entire series will be found full of interest and points of +excellence, and can scarcely fail to afford amusement and +pleasure, as well as to impart instruction, to all who may avail +themselves of the opportunity of examining them, they will be of +especial service to amateurs who aspire to preeminence in chess. + +------ + +Times, Biographical Notices, Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic, +Pictorial World, American and Continental, Newcastle Chronicle, +and Hereford Times. + +Professor Ruskin (from 28 letters in all, since 1884). +"Your games always delight me, as they seem in my humble judgment +specimens of chess skill remarkable for originality and +vivacity."--12th June, 1884. + +"Indeed I feel that you have done more for chess at home and +abroad than any other living player."--16th April, 1885. + +"Your Catalogue is quite admirably drawn up, and if ever I can +recover some peace of life and mind I hope to be of some use +in furthering the sale of the book and recommending its +views."--7th June, 1887. + +H.R.H. PRINCE LEOPOLD, EARL DARTREY, SIR C. RUSSELL, LORD +RANDOLPH CHURCHILL, Etc., Etc., (also great Musicians, Amateur +Chess Players, letters and support.) + +------ + +STEINITZ + +As a player, analyst, critic and author. Considerations of his +book on the openings. Notes on his general play, and conduct of +the game, &c., are dealt with in review of Modern Chess Instructor. + +Steinitz claims with justice to be very conscientious in the +performance of his work at all times, and he had no need to +excuse himself for the following criticism, which occupied him +(he told me) months in its preparation. It seems to me that an +author has reason to be obliged to any who may point out his real +errors and shortcomings. Steinitz, however, was betrayed into a +degree of unfairness and prejudice in dealing with Staunton and +Wormald's books, and Morphy's play, bordering almost on +imbecility. That the great artist himself is not infallible +appears from my review of his Modern Chess Instructor. + +STEINITZ'S REVIEW + +The Field, December, 1879. + +CHESS OPENINGS, 1879. + +The Chess Opening, Considered Critically and Practically. +By H. E. Bird. +London: Dean & Son, 160, Fleet Street. + +The public record of chess matches and great tournaments places +the name of the author of this work above that of any living +English competitor for chess honours, excepting Mr. Blackburne. +It is therefore all the more disappointing to find that +Mr. Bird's book has not done justice to his great reputation as +a player. The author's chief defect as an analyst arises probably +from one of his distinguishing qualities as a practitioner over +the board. Few chess masters could excel Mr. Bird in rapid survey +of position and in the formation and execution of surprising +maneuvers, which, though not always sound--and sometimes, as he +admits, even eccentric--tend to raise confusing complications, +difficult for the adversary to disentangle at a quick rate. +These qualities make Mr. Bird one of the most dangerous opponents +in "skittle play," or in matches regulated by a fast time limit; +but they prove almost antagonistic to the acquirement of +excellency as an author on the game. For the first-class analyst +is not merely expected to record results, but to judge the +causes of success or failure from the strictly scientific point +of view, and he has often to supplement with patient research the +shortcomings of great masters in actual play. In such cases every +move of a main variation becomes a problem which has to be studied +for a great length of time; and the best authors have watched the +progress of different openings in matches and tournaments for +years, and pronounced their judgment only after the most careful +comparisons, Mr. Bird is, however, too much of an advocate to be +a good judge, and he evinces great partiality for ingenious traps +and seductive combinations, which form an attractive feature of +his own style in actual play, but which mostly occur only in +light skirmishes. Moreover he often treats his duties as an +analyst in a cavalier fashion. In his quotations from other +authors he embodies variations which stand already severely +condemned by first-class chess critics in various chess +periodicals; and his original researches contain a considerable +portion of "skittle" analysis, which does not bear cursory +examination. + +We have no room for lengthened demonstrations, and must confine +ourselves to a few instances of the latter description, all +occurring in the compiler's new additions. On page 6, he +overlooks the winning of a clear piece which White can effect +by Q to R4, followed by P to QR3 if the B be defended. On page +22 Black can win a piece on the 16th move by P to KB4, followed +by P to KKt3, and there is no chance of any counter-attack by +P to KKt4, for Black may afterwards interpose the B at K4, and +get the K into the corner. On page 105 a piece can be won by +Black on the l0th move by B to Q5, for the Kt has no retreat, +a mate being threatened at KB3. The ending of a game between +Messrs. Bird and MacDonnell affords a still more remarkable +illustration. There is abundant proof that the author must have +examined the position at least more than once, for, by a singular +error, the identical ending appears twice in the book--on pages +183 and 197,--each time with a large diagram. On each occasion +a win is demonstrated for White in nine moves, while at least a +piece can be gained at once by Q to K7, followed accordingly by +P to Q6 dis. ch., or B to KKt5. Mr. Bird would be annoyed to +make such oversights over the board; and there is no excuse for +such shallow examples being recommended to the student without +the least comment on their weak points. + +As regards the general arrangement, we have to remark that the +variations sometimes seem to have been examined loosely and +separately, irrespective of their relation to each other, or to +the main propositions of the author in reference to the form of +opening he deals with; and the brevity or length of space +assigned to different forms of play have apparently been decided +in a whimsical and arbitrary manner. For instance, on page 29, +in the Philidor's defence, 7. Kt to KB3, is described to afford +the most satisfactory and secure opening for Black. On the next +page the move is repeated under the separate heading, Example II, +and it looks odd enough that one single move should have +received such prominence, the only addition being, "Won by +Harrwitz in 40 moves," as if it were to be forced by Black in +that number, while at the time the positions show little +difference. But, stranger still, four pages later on (page 34) +the identical variation reappears, taken from the same game +between Morphy and Harrwitz (though this is not stated), with +three more moves on each side added to it, but this time the +remark is made, that "White has a good position." To take another +example. On page 78 there is a repetition of 10 moves on each +side, merely for the purpose of indicating a different 11th move +for White. It is scarcely necessary to point out that in each +case the stronger move should have been inserted in the main +variation, while the weaker one could have been disposed of in +a foot-note of one line. + +While on this subject we cannot refrain from mentioning the +frequent references to "Chess Masterpieces," a work previously +published by the author, which contained a collection of fine +games partly reproduced from Howard Taylor's "Chess Brilliants," +and other publications, with additions mostly from Mr. Bird's own +practice. We must confess that some of the so-called variations +extracted from the "Masterpieces," appear to be nothing more than +advertisements. Notably, on page 157, four "examples" are given, +which do not go beyond the 4th move, and leave no mark on the +positions, and then we are gravely informed, in a manner already +described, that White or Black won in so-and-so many moves. + +We notice with great pleasure the handsome and courteous +manner in which almost all the prominent chess masters of the day +are mentioned in the book, and the sense of fairness evinced by +Mr. Bird in the selection of variations and examples from his own +practice, irrespective of his victory or defeat. But his chess +historical references are unreliable, and he often wrongly ascribes +the adoption of certain variations to different players in a manner +which could have been easily rectified by taking a little more +trouble. This is not unimportant, for the reputed strength of a +player is evidence of the strength of an opening he favours in +matches and tournaments. We can only adduce a few instances which +are more within the writer's personal knowledge. + +The statement about 5. Q to K2, in the Buy Lopez, on page 16, +is much confused. The move was adopted by Mr. Blackburne in +the final tie match of the Vienna tournament, but it never occurred +in the first game of the Steinitz-Blackburne match, as Mr. Bird can +convince himself from his own book, where the latter game is +published in full on page 171. Steinitz is also erroneously credited +with strongly favouring the attack in the Scotch Gambit, for we do +not remember a single game on record in which he ever adopted that +form of opening as first player. On the other hand, a variation in +the Evans Gambit is ascribed to Zukertort, which actually occurred +first in a game between Steinitz and Blackburne, played in the +London Grand Tournament of 1872. This error seems to have been +quoted from Staunton and Wormald's "Chess Theory and Practice." + +A few more words about the problems at the end of the book and +we have done with the details. There are about a dozen compositions +mostly by high-class American authors, and some of them of very +good quality; but, unfortunately, Mr. Bird has omitted to indicate +their solutions. We must suppose this to be due to an oversight, +as he gives the key moves of the four problems by English composers. +The omission is deplorable, for many students would wish to +appreciate the author's idea, and the merits of the construction, +if they fail to solve the problem. To quote an instance from our +own experience; we could not find any solution to the problem on +page 224, which composition, we conclude, is either of the highest +order or suffers from the gravest of all faults, that of being +impossible. In either case we should have liked to examine the +solution. + +Our judgment of the book, on the whole, is that it cannot be +ranked in the first class with the works of Heydebrand, Zukertort, +Staunton, Lowenthal, Neuman and Suhle, Lange, &c.; but it will +satisfy the demands of the great number of lovers of the game who +do not aspire above the second rank. Mr. Bird's ability and +ingenuity is beyond doubt, and there is ample evidence of his +qualifications in the book before us, but he has not yet acquired +that element of genius which has been defined as the capacity +for taking pains. Mr. Bird could produce a much better book than +this, and we hope he will. + + + + +Variously estimated from 3,000 to 1,000 B.C. +CHATURANGA. +The Primeval Hindu Chess. + +bp--krnb +np--pppp +rp------ +kp------ +------pk +------pr +pppp--pn +bnrk--pb + +[Diagram of a Chaturanga board with 4 armies. Yellow is in upper +left. Black is in upper right. Green is in lower left. Red is in +lower right.] + +------ + +The Medieval and Modern Chess. + White +RNBKQBNR +PPPPPPPP +-------- +-------- +-------- +-------- +pppppppp +rnbkqbnr + Black + +[Diagram of a standard chessboard, white pieces at the top, +black pieces at the bottom.] + +Derived from the Persian Chatrang, 537-540 A.D. + +------ + +833-842. +Problem I. by the Caliph MU'TASIM BILLAH. + Black +-k------ +RnR----- +bN-p--r- +p-nQpB-- +p--N-b-r +-------- +-P--P--- +-qBK---- + White +White to move, and give checkmate at the ninth move. + +------ + +About 1380. +Problem II. by 'ALI SHATRANJ. + Black +---r---r +ppq---R- +b--bkp-p +-------- +--PP---- +PP-B-Q-- +--K---PP +--B----- + White +White to play and mate in eight moves. + + + + +CHESS HISTORY AND REMINISCENCES + +CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF CHESS + +A not unfair criterion is afforded of the long prevailing and +continued misconception as to the origin of chess, by the lack of +knowledge regarding early records as to its history exhibited in +the literature of last century, and the press and magazine articles +of this even to the present year. We refer not to lines of poets +such as Pope, Dryden and others, with whom the ancient order of +fiction is permissible, or to writers of previous periods, from +Aben Ezra to Ruy Lopez, Chaucer and Lydgate, or Caxton and +Barbiere, but to presumably studied and special articles, such +as those given in Dictionaries of Arts and Sciences and in +Encyclopaedias. The great work of 1727 dedicated to the King-- +which claimed to embody a reasonable and fair account--and even +the best knowledge on all subjects referred to in it; contains an +article on chess of some dimensions, which may well be taken as +an example of the average ignorance of the knowledge of +information existing at the time. The Chinese, it says, claim to +date back their acquaintance with chess to a very remote period; +so with the best testimonies of that country, which acknowledge its +receipt from India in the sixth century the writer seems to +have been quite unacquainted. Nothing occurs in the article as +to the transit of chess from India into Persia, next to Arabia and +Greece, and by the Saracens into Spain; neither does a line +appear as to Egyptian probabilities, or the nature of the game +inscribed on edifices in that country. Though abounding in +traditional names of Trojan heroes, and others equally mythical +as regards chess, the more genuine ones of Chosroes of Persia, +Harun, Mamun and Mutasem of Bagdad, Walid of Cordova, +the Carlovingian Charlemagne of France, Canute the Dane, +William of Normandy the English kings are entirely absent, nor +is there a word concerning Roman games or the edict which +refers to them in which Chess and Draughts (both mentioned) +were specially protected and exempted from the interdiction +against other games; which has escaped all writers, and would +certainly, if known about, have been deemed of some significance. +The Persian and Arabian periods from the time of Chosroes, to +Harun, covers the Golden Age of Arabian literature, which is +more prolific in chess incident than any other; yet even this and +Firdausi's celebrated Persian Shahnama, and Anna Comnena's +historical work escapes notice. We may perhaps, not implicitly +trust or credit, all we read of in some of the Eastern manuscripts +biographical sketches; but there is much of reasonable +narrative we need not discredit nor reject. We may feel +disposed to accept, with some reservation, the account of the 6,000 +male and 6,000 female slaves, and 60,000 horses of Al Mutasem, +(the eighth of Abbasside). The prodigious bridal expenditure, +comprising gifts of Estates, houses, jewels, horses, described in +the history of Al Mamun (the seventh of Abbasside, and the most +glorious of his race), may seem fabulous to us; the extraordinary +memories of certain scholars narrated in biographies, who could +recite thousands of verses and whole books by heart may appear +worthy of confirmation; the composition of two thousand manuscripts +by one writer, and the possession of forty thousand volumes +by another, may somewhat tax our credulity. We may feel a little +surprised to hear that Chosroes' chess men were worth an amount +equivalent to one million of our money in the present day; we +may doubt, or disagree with the opinions attributed to Hippocrates, +or to Galen; that cures were effected, or even assisted of +such complaints as diarrhea and erysipelas by the means of chess; +or, that, as the Persian suggests it has been found a remedy of +beneficial in many ailments from the heart ache to the tooth ache. +We may doubt whether the two Lydian brothers, Lydo and +Tyrrhene, in the story of Herodotus really diminished the pangs +of hunger much by it; but, amidst all our incredulity, we can +believe, and do believe, that Chosroes and chess, Harun and +chess, Charlemagne and chess, Al Mamun and chess, Canute and +chess, are as well authenticated and worthy of credit, as other +more important incidents found in history, notwithstanding that +encyclopaediasts and writers down from the days of the Eastern +manuscripts, the Persian Shahnama and Anna Comnenas history +to the days of Pope and Philidor, and of the initiation of +Sanskrit knowledge among the learned, never mention their names +in connection with chess as exponents of which the Ravan, king of +Lanka of the Hindoo law books, the famous prince Yudhisthira +and the sage Vyasa of the Sanskrit, and Nala of the poems, and +in more modern accounts, Indian King Porus, Alexander the +Great and Aristotle, are far more reasonable names inferentially, +if not sufficiently attested, than those cherished by traditionists +such as Palamedes, Xerxes, Moses, Hermes, or any of the Kings of +Babylon or their philosophers. + +NOTE. The ever growing popularity of chess is forcibly and +abundantly proved in a variety of ways. One conclusive proof of +it is afforded by the enormous and ever increasing sale of +Chess Equipages, Boards, Men and Figures, Diagrams, Scoring +Books, Sheets, &c., a somewhat matter of fact, it is true, but +at the same time practical, reliable, and satisfactory species +of evidence. Its progress is further attested by the extreme +favour in which Chess Tournaments both International and National, +are held, at home and abroad, which attract a degree of attention +and awaken an interest little dreamt of during any past period of +the history of the game; and it is further illustrated by the +continued formation of Chess Clubs in every sphere, the ever +widening interest in the home circle, and by many other facts +which indicate with absolute certainty its highly enhanced +appreciation among the thoughtful and intelligent of all classes +of the community. + +The humble and working classes have, in recent years, began to +avail themselves very considerably of the enjoyment of the game, +and this is a powerful and laudable ground for gratification, +because chess, besides being innocent, intellectual and mentally +highly invigorating, though soothing also, is essentially +inexpensive and does not tend to the sort of excitement too often +occasioned by some other games where the temptation, too often +indulged, of spending money principally when losing, in hopes of +obtaining supposed stimulating consolation and nerve, is so +frequently manifested, that it appears at times to be so +irresistible an accompaniment of the game as to become almost a +condition and part of the play. + +Chess in fact, affords the greatest maximum of enjoyment, with +the smallest minimum of expense; it is at the same time the most +pleasingly absorbing, yet the most scientific of games; it is +also looked upon as the most ancient, and with, perhaps, the +exception of Draughts probably is. The reason why it has been +for so many ages, and still is called the "Royal Game" is, because +it came to Europe from Persia, and took its name from Schach or +Shah, which, in that language signifies King, and Matt dead from +the Arabic language making combined "Schach Matt" the King is +dead, which is the derivation of our "Checkmate." + +The degree of intellectual skill which chess admits of, has +been considered and pronounced so high, that Leibnitz declared +it to be far less a game than a science. Euler, Franklin, Buckle +and others have expressed similar views; and the Egyptians, the +Persians, and the Arabians according to many writers, including +Mr. Warton and the Rev. Mr. Lambe, have also so regarded it. + +Chess is so ancient that, by that distinction alone, it seems +taken beyond the category of games altogether; and it has been +said that it probably would have perished long ago, if it had +not been destined to live for ever. It affords so much genuine +intrinsic interest that it can be played without pecuniary stake; +and has been so played more than all other games put together, +and continues to be so during the present time on occasions, +by the very finest players. It exists, flourishes, and gains +ground continually and prodigiously, although the average annual +support in amount for first class chivalrous chess competitions, +tournaments and matches in all Great Britain does not equal that +put on in former years as the stake of a good prize fight; whilst +the receipts of a great football match at Bradford and other +important cities, which can be named, exceeds the combined +incomes of all the few remaining British chess masters derived +from chess instruction and skill in play. + +Chess is, moreover, surrounded by a host of associations, and is +suggestive of a pleasant mass of memories, anecdotes, manners, +and incidents, such as no other game, and hardly any science may +presume to boast; and though never yet honoured throughout its +long life by any continuous history, or consecutive and connected +record, its traditions from time immemorial have been of the most +illustrious, royal, and noble character. + +More apt at figures, than at diction, I have no claim to powers +of writing or learning, which can afford me any hopes of doing +full justice to so important a task as a worthy work on the +history of chess would be; my labours and experience, however, +may have enabled me to gather together materials for a more +solid and substantial chess structure, than at present exists +and I am not without confidence that competent and skilful +workers will be found to construct an edifice more worthy of our +day, which present, and pending, grand developments will still +further consolidate in interest and glory; a building in fact +cemented by the noblest and most worthy, praiseworthy, and +commendable associations with which the aspiring and deserving +artisan and mechanic of the present and future, may be as +closely identified as the greatest rulers, deepest thinkers, +and most accomplished and profound scholars, and distinguished +men of science of the past; affording also a substantial boon, +which may be conferred by philanthropists on their less +fortunate brethren in society, as it is calculated to induce +temperate as well as peaceful and thoughtful habits. A bond of +social union also to all who appreciate and care to avail +themselves of the relief and advantages which chess is so +well known to afford, over other less innocent, less +intellectual and more expensive and objectionable movements. + +------ + +The following notice of chess shortly after the death of +Dr. Zukertort, add materially to an increasing appreciation of +chess among the working classes, and help the good work on. + +"THE WEEKLY DISPATCH," June 24th, 1888. + +By the sudden death of Dr. Zukertort, last Wednesday morning, +the royal game of chess loses one of its most interesting and +brilliant exponents. This distinguished master was only forty-six, +and he has been cut off right in the middle of an interesting +tournament at the British Chess Club, in which he stood the best +chance of winning the first prize. Amongst his last conversations +was his arranging to play Blackburne on Saturday, the 23rd, and +Bird on Monday, the 25th. The extreme painfulness of Zukertort's +death to his friends cannot be estimated by the general public. +Famous cricketers and famous actors are applauded by those they +entertain or amuse. The chess master receives no applause; over +the board, however, he enters into conversation with amateurs, +and is rewarded by friendships that far outweigh the wildest +ephemeral outbursts of approval. The friendships so formed by +Zukertort have now been snapped, and his removal has caused, in +the words of the old player Bird, "a severe blank." Bird himself +is an interesting character. He is by far the oldest chess master, +does the chess correspondence for the Times, and is as well known +by his chess books as by his play. The game between him and +Zukertort in the tournament now in progress was looked forward to +with intense interest, for he and Zukertort were the leading +scorers, and the fight for the first prize would have centred in +this contest. A good feature in Bird's character is his disposition +to make acquaintances with working men. He has taught many of them +his "charming game," and has frequently been told afterwards +that it has been the means of saving them a few shillings every +week. This is easily understood, for a man that plays chess is +not likely to play "penny nap" nor to drink much four-ale. Such at +any rate, is Mr. Bird's theory; and he is just now endeavouring to +promote a scheme for the popularising of chess amongst the +industrial classes. + + + + +CHESS NOTES AND REFERENCES + +THEORIES AS TO THE INVENTION OF CHESS + +The honour of the invention of chess has been claimed, we are +told, by seven countries, China, India, Egypt, Greece, Assyria, +Persia and Arabia. + +Capt. Kennedy, in one of his chess sketches observes, and Mr. +Staunton, in his Chess Player's Chronicle repeats the statement, +thus: "That this is as many countries as aforetime there were +cities in Greece, each of which, it is said, having peacefully +allowed Homer to starve during his life-time, started up after he +died in a fierce contention for the glory of having given him +birth. + +My old friends, Capt. Kennedy and Mr. Staunton, no doubt, +used the words "starved" figuratively, for neglected by his country, +for myself, I really do not know whether Homer really was +neglected by his country or not. + +------ + +TRADITIONS AS TO THE ORIGIN + +The traditions of chess are numerous and conflicting, Zakaria +Yahya a writer of the tenth century in "The Delight of the +Intelligent in Description of Chess" referring to stories extant +and fables respecting its invention to that time remarks, "It +is said to have been played by Aristotle, by Yafet Ibn Nuh +(Japhet son of Noah) by Sam ben Nuh (Shem) by Solomon for the +loss of his son, and even by Adam when he grieved for Abel. + +Aben Ezra, the famous Rabbi, interpreter, and expounder of +scripture, and who is said to have excelled in every branch of +knowledge, attributed the invention of chess to Moses. His +celebrated poem on chess, written about 1130 A.D., has been +translated into nearly all languages of the civilized globe, +into English by Dr. Thomas Hyde, Oxford, 1694. + +The unknown Persian, author of the imperfect M.S. presented +by Major Price the eminent Orientalist, to the Asiatic Society, +and upon which N. Bland, Esq., mainly bases his admirable +treatise on Persian Chess, 1850, says--"Hermes, a Grecian +sage, invented chess, and that it was abridged and sent to +Persia in the sixth century of our era." + +The famous Shahnama, by Firdausi, called the Homer of +Persia, and other Eastern manuscripts as well as the M.S. of the +Asiatic Society, give less ancient traditions of the adaption of +chess relating to the time of Alexander the Great and Indian +Kings, Fur, Poris, and Kaid; in one of these the reward of a grain +of corn doubled sixty-four times was stipulated for by the +philosopher, and the seeming insignificance of the demand +astonished and displeased the King, who wished to make a +substantial recognition worthy of his own greatness and power, +and it occasioned sneers and ridicule on the part of the King's +treasurer and accountant at Sassa's supposed lack of wisdom and +judgment. However, astonishment and chagrin succeeded before +they were half way through their computation, for when the total +was arrived at, it was found to exceed all the wealth of the +world, and the King knew not which to admire most, the +ingenuity of the game itself, or that of the minister's demand. + +The earliest European work on chess is supposed to be that of +Jacobus de Cessolus, a monk of Picardy, which appeared (it is +said) in 1290 (scheilt swischen 1250-1275 Linde 1-10). His +favourite names are Evil Merodach, King of Babylon and a +philosopher named Xerxes, Massman, 1830, gives Ammelin, +Amilin, Amilon and Selenus, Ibl, Xerxes whose Greek name was +Philometer to whom 597 B.C. has been assigned. + +Palamedes and Diomedes of Trojan celebrity, the Lydians of +Herodotus, the Thoth of Plato, the Hermes of the Asiatic Society's +philosopher; in fact nearly every one of the Gods who has in turn +served as the Great Mythological Divinity has been credited with +the discovery of chess. + +NOTE. There are few parts of learning so involved in obscurity, as +the history of Pagan idolatry. It may, perhaps, be some +satisfaction to us to think that the ancients themselves knew +even less of the matter than we do; but if so, it furnishes a +strong argument for the necessity of being very cautious in +drawing our conclusions. We believe it may safely be said, that +there is not one among all the fabled deities of antiquity, whom +(if the writers of antiquity may be trusted) it is not possible +to identify with every other--Saturn, Jupiter, Mercury, Pan, +Hercules, Priapus, Bacchus, Bel, Moloch, Chemosh, Taut, Thoth, +Osiris, Buddha, Vishnou, Siva, all and each of these may be shown +to be one and the same person. And whether we suppose this person +to have been the Sun, or to have been Adam, or Seth, or Enoch, +or Noah, or Shem, or Ham, or Japhet, the conclusion will be still +the same, each of them, it may be shewn was worshipped as the Sun, +and all of them, wherever their worship was established, were +severally considered as the Great Mythological Divinity. + +So far, It would not appear that there is any room for much +difference of opinion, at least, not if ancient authorities may +be depended on. + +------ + +Dr. Salvic states on the strength of one of his authorities, and +Alexandre apparently quite seriously has repeated the statement +that the text in Samuel of Abner and Joab's twelve chosen +champions "Let the young men now arise and play before us" +may be applicable to chess, but the context of the chapter is +opposed to any such conclusion. All the foregoing fabulous +accounts may be at least declared "not proven" if not utterly +unworthy even of the verdict pronounced in those two words. +There are three more modern traditions or accounts, the first of +which is referred to Alexander the Great's time 336 to 322 B.C., +and the two others to about the time of Chosroes--900 years later. +Forbes devotes thirteen pages to them and they are given with +less detail by the Rev. R. Lambe in 1764 and N. Bland in 1850. + +------ + +THE THREE INDIAN TRADITIONS + +In this, the first Indian tradition referred to the time of +Alexander the Great, it is related in the Shahnama that a very +powerful King of India named Kaid, satiated with war, and having +no enemies without, or rebellious subjects within his kingdom, +thus addressed his minister Sassa. + +"Day and night my mind is harassed with the thoughts of war +and strife; when in the hours of the night sleep overpowers me, I +dream of nothing but battlefields and conquests, and in the +morning, when I awake, I still think over my imaginary combats and +victories. Now you are well aware that I have no longer one +single enemy or rebel in my whole dominions with whom to +contend. It is utterly repugnant to justice and common sense, +to go to war without any cause. If I were to do so God would be +displeased with me, and a severe retribution for my evil deeds +would soon overtake me, even in this world, for is it not said +that a kingdom governed by falsehood and oppression is void of +stability, and it will soon pass away. Tell me, then, O Sassa, +for great is thy wisdom, what am I to do in order to regain my +peace of mind, and obtain relief from my present state of +weariness and disgust?" + +Sassa hereupon bethought himself of a rare game, the invention +of an ancient Grecian sage, by name Hermes, which had recently +been introduced into India by Alexander and his soldiers, who +used to play it at times of leisure. Sassa procured and modified +the game and board from 56 pieces and 112 squares to 32 pieces +and 64 squares, and explained it to the king, who practised it with +both satisfaction and delight, Sassa's stipulation of a reward of +a grain of corn doubled again and again 64 times, which was at +first deemed ridiculous, was found to amount to +18,446,744,073,709,551,615 rating the barley corn at two +shillings the bushel, the value required from the Indian king by +the philosopher was 3,385,966,239,667 pounds and 12s an +unexpected and amazing sum. + +The second version is of another highly ambitious and successful +king of Hind, name Fur, who died and left a young son, +inexperienced in war and in danger of losing his possessions. The +wise men consulted together, and Sassa, the son of Dahir, +brought the chess board and men to the Prince, saying, "Here +you have an exact image of war, which is conducted on principles +similar to those which regulate this wonderful game. The same +caution in attack and coolness in defence which you have to +exercise here, you will have to put in practice in the battlefield. +The Prince with eagerness availed himself of Sassa's instructions +until he made himself fully acquainted with the principles of the +game. He then assembled his army and went forth in full +confidence to encounter his enemies, whom he defeated at all +points. He then returned home in triumph, and ever after he +cherished his love for the game of chess to a knowledge of +which he considered himself indebted for the preservation of +his honour, his kingdom and his life." + +The third account relates--"After Belugi, reigned Giumhur +who had this royal seat in the City of Sandali, in the province of +Cachemir. When he died, his brother, called May, was chosen +King, who had two sons, Ghav and Talachand. Upon the death of +May, their mother Paritchera, that is, endued with angelic beauty, +reigned. These two young Princes being grown to maturity, +desire to know from their mother who of them was to be her +successor. The mother concealing her mind, gave them both hopes +separately. In the meantime, the brothers quarrel, and raise +armies, and the mother endeavored to reconcile them by her +good advice, but in vain, for soon after they broke out into open +war. After various battles, it fell out that Talachand was slain. +Upon this, the mother goes to her surviving son, and complains to +him of these things. + +"Then the wise men of the kingdom set about to compose the +game Shatranji, representing the battle of Ghav and Talachand. + +"The sorrowful mother contemplates this game, and by daily +playing it, brings into her mind the battle and death of her son +Talachand. She could not forbear to torment herself with the +remembrance of his death, and every day for a long time, to give +herself up to the meditation thereof."--SHAHNAMA. + +------ + +>From the early ages of the Christian era back to the times of +Homer, Herodotus, Sophocles, Plato, and Aristotle, traditions, +concerning the origin of this wonderful game have come down to +us of a very various and conflicting character; the Arabian and +Persian historians from the commentators on the Koran interdict +against lots and images to the days of the Persian Shahnama of +Firdausi and the Asiatic Society's famous manuscript, have spoken +of the origin and history of chess, Aben Ezra, the famous Rabbi, +contemporary of Maimonides, Jacobus de Cessolus the Monk of +Picardy, Ruy Lopez the Spanish priest, Damiano the Portuguese +Apothecary, Gustavus Selenus (the Duke of Luneburg), Dr. Salvic, +Carrera, and the writers of the Italian school, have all contributed +to the remarkably delusive and often mythical theories propounded +in regard to it. In our own Country we have them from Chaucer, +Lydgate, Caxton, Barbiere and the Encyclopaediasts, and Pope +writing just before knowledge of the Sanskrit became imparted +among the learned, and ere the classical Sir William Jones had +began to enlighten us, thought probably he had set the matter at +rest by declaring that the invention of chess, (which we had and +could enjoy without caring to know from whence it came) and +which was an imperishable monument of the wisdom of its +unknown founder, involved a problem which never would be solved. + +------ + +PROGRESS OF CHESS + +It has been a subject of regret with writers that complete games +of chess cannot be found for the earlier ages, and it has been +suggested that a few well annotated games of the great Eastern +players of one thousand years ago, and of the rival champions of +Spain, Italy and Sicily in the Sixteenth century would be of +more interest than all the problems and positions handed down +to us in existence and, it certainly would be pleasing and +instructive to be able to compare the styles Ali Suli, Adali, +Lajlaj, Abbas and Razi, the great players of the Golden Age of +Arabian Literature, and that of Ali Shatranji of Timur's Court +and Ruy Lopez, Leonardo and Paolo Boi with those of Philidor and +the leaders of the Nineteenth century. + +The first half of the Nineteenth century witnessed the +commencement of Press notice, and the growth of a literature for +chess, and was distinguished by the number of works devoted to +the play of the game, not half a score of books could be traced in +England before Philidor's, besides which Caxton, 1474, dedicated +to the Duke of Clarence, Rowbotham, 1561, to the Earl of +Leicester, and Saul and Barbiere, 1617 and 1640, to Lucy, Countess +of Bedford, which constitute the most noted works recorded, +conveyed but little knowledge concerning the game, and were +scarcely more than translations of foreign works from that of +Jacobus de Cesso1us, 1290, and others, and were rather moralities +and philosophical treatises than works of practical utility from a +scientific point of view. + +During the second half, the advance in the appreciation and +practice of chess has been yet more astonishing as compared with +the single club in St. James' Street, and the meeting place for +chess players in St. Martin's Lane, which existed in Philidor's +time, and the thirty clubs or so which had arisen by 1851, we +have now at least five hundred, and as against the earliest chess +columns in the Lancet, Bell's Life, and the Illustrated London +News, we can specify near one hundred. It is among the middle +and humbler classes that the spread of a taste for chess has been +most apparent, with the fashionable or higher classes, so far as +any manifestation of public interest or support is to be taken as +a criterion, its appreciation has died out, and for twenty noble +names among its patrons in Philidor's time, we cannot reckon +one in ours. Another singular feature is the grave diminution +in the recognized number of able exponents, commonly called +Masters, which in the British list are reduced to less than a +third of the well-known names of 1862. The support of chess, +trifling as it is, comes from about a score of Her Majesty's +subjects, and the total in a year does not now equal a sum very +usual in a glove fight, or a Championship Billiard match, and +the sums provided in a generation by our present machinery would +not equal the value of one Al Mamun's musk balls or the rewards +to Ruy Lopez for a single match. + +The time allowed for consideration of the moves in chess, and +the management of the clocks used to regulate such is a most +important element in estimating the relative strength of chess +players. So important, in fact, that pure chess, and chess with +clocks is found by experience to be a very different thing with +certain players. Bird finds the clocks more trouble than the +chess, and as everybody knows is heavily handicapped by them, +hence his force and success in ordinary play is far greater than in +tournaments. Take the time limit alone for two players of equal +reputation, who may not be disturbed or distracted by the clocks, +a difference in the time limit of ten or even five moves an hour +would in some cases turn the scale between them. Passing over the +faster Bird; and other English players who prefer the slower rate +take a very notable example, Steinitz and Zukertort. After the +Criterion Great Tournament of 1883 opinions differed much as to +which of these was the stronger player, but after the match at +15 moves an hour, in the United States, won by Steinitz with a +score of 10 to 4, the palm has been generally awarded to +Steinitz, and without any qualification whatever the term of +champion of the chess world has been universally accorded to him +and still continues to be so, notwithstanding the superior claims +of Dr. Tarrasch based upon victory in three successive +International Chess Tournaments, Breslan 1889, Manchester 1890, +and Dresden in 1892, in the two first named not losing a single +game, and in the last, one only, feats never accomplished by +Steinitz. + +Zukertort was undoubtedly a far more ready, and we have long +thought a finer player than Steinitz, but skill was so nicely +balanced between them that a very slight variation or acceleration +in rate would have been in Zukertort's favour. At 25 moves +an hour or at any faster rate it would have been odds on Zukertort, +at 15 moves an hour or less it would have been safer to back +Steinitz. Staunton, Kolisch, and Paulsen seem to have been the +slowest of the players, 10 moves an hour would suit them better +than 15, a 10 or 12 hour game with them was not uncommon. +Bird is the fastest, and his best games have averaged 40 moves an +hour or two or three hours for a game, a reasonable rate for +recreationary chess. + +In the last century one-and-a-half or two hours was considered +a fair duration for a good game, 30 moves an hour would give +three hours for a game of 45 moves or four for a game of 60 +moves, and such could be finished at the usual sitting without +adjournment. + +The period dating from the France and England Championship +Match between St. Amant and Staunton in 1843, to the Vienna +Tournament of 1873, was singularly prolific in very great chess +players. In addition to Anderssen 1851, and Morphy 1858, there +appeared in the metropolis in 1862 Louis Paulsen, William +Steinitz, and J. H. Blackburne, three players who, as well as +Captain Mackenzie competed in the British Chess Association's +Tournaments of that year, and were destined with Zukertort and +Gunsberg of ten years later growth, to rank as conspicuously +successful among even the score or so of the pre-eminently +distinguished players of the highest class the world has ever +produced, the Rev. G. A. MacDonnel1 and Barnes were of five and +Boden of 12 years earlier reputation, all were competing in the +1862 contest, Buckle died in this year, and his opponent Bird +had retired from chess, other pursuits entirely absorbing his +time mostly abroad. He had been the hardest fighter and most +active of the English combatants of 15 years before, and it was +his fate about four years later, once more to become not the +least prominent and interesting of the leading chess players. + +Chess as now played with the Queen of present powers, imported +into the game dates back about four centuries, to near the time +when the works of the Spanish writers, Vicenz and Lucena, +appeared in 1495, and shortly before that of Damiano the +Portuguese in 1512. In 1561 Ruy Lopez, the Spanish priest of +Cafra, a name familiar to the present generation, from one of the +openings most approved in modern practice being named after +him, wrote the best work of a scientific character which had +appeared in Europe to that time, and he was considered in Spain +the very best player in the world, until the memorable contests +between him and Leonardo da Cutri, and Paolo Boi of Syracuse +left the question of supremacy doubtful. These famous struggles +are reverted to not without interest in our days, when the not +very profitable task of attempting to institute comparisons between +past and present great players is indulged in, for in the absence +of a single published complete and annotated game until the 19th +century, there is little advantage in conjecturing whether Al Suli +was equal to Philidor, Razi or Greco to A. McDonnell of Belfast, +Ali Shatranji to La Bourdonnais, Paoli Boi to Anderssen, Ruy +Lopez to Staunton, or Leonardo to Morphy, though these +conjectural comparisons in varied forms are not uncommon in +modern chess talk. + +The records of incidents, and the anecdotes appertaining to chess +or chess players in the middle ages, are so scattered, scant, and +meagre, that no writer has attempted to put them into shape, or +make a consecutive or connected narrative of them. Even +Professor Duncan Forbes the most elaborate of all the European +writers on the history of chess, dismisses the period from 750 to +1500 A.D., in a very few words not vouchsafing to it in his volume +of 400 pages a chapter of a single page, though his book able as it +is, contains much description of games of the past in different +countries, the interest in which seems not considerable in present +days. The Hon. Daines Barrington writing in 1787, says, (and +others have followed him to a like effect), "Our ancestors +certainly played much at chess before the general introduction of +cards, as no fewer than twenty-six English families have +emblazened chess boards and chess rooks on their arms, and it +therefore must have been considered as a valuable +accomplishment." + +The opinions so commonly entertained and expressed, however, +so far at least as they can be taken to apply to the period before +Queen Elizabeth's reign, rest upon but slender data, and it is +highly probable that even in that monarch's reign the practice of +chess was confined to a very limited circle for we read of no fine +player, great games, or matches, or public competitions of any +kind, in our climes until Philidor's time; his career in England +though intermittant extended close upon fifty years and from his +time may be dated the budding forth of the popularity of chess, +which began to come to full bloom about 1828, (33 years after his +death) and produced its fruits in the France and England +championship contests of 1834 and 1843, and the inception of +International Tournaments in 1851 which first established +Germany's great reputation and furnished a chess champion of the +world from among them. + +Though the contests between the rival champions of Spain and +Italy, were promoted as tests of skill, at the courts of Philip and +Sebastian, and rewarded with a liberality unheard of, since the +days of Chosroes and Al Mamun, and took place during the +contemporary reign of Queen Elizabeth, when chess had become +decidedly fashionable in England, we find no record of the games, +or that any interest or enthusiasm appears to have been evoked by +them in any country except those where they took place. They +seem to have led to no emulation in other parts of Europe, and we +read of no chess competitions of any kind in France, Germany, or +England. It was not till a century later that the debut and +successes of the brilliant Greco the Calabrian, in Paris, began +to cause a little more chess ambition in France and gave the +ascendancy in the game to that country which it still held in +Legalle and Philidor's time in 1750, and continued to maintain +until the matches of 1834, between Alex. McDonnell of Belfast +and the famous Louis de La Bourdonnais of Paris, followed in 1843 +by Staunton's victory over M. S. Amant, first advanced British +claims to a first class position in chess, and left our countryman +Staunton the admitted world's champion in chess, until the title +was wrested from him by Professor Anderssen of Breslau, in the +International tournament held in London during the Exhibition +year 1851. + +The career of England's champion, Staunton, for about ten years +successful as it was, is considered generally to have been even +surpassed by that of Anderssen which lasted till his death in 1879 +near thirty years. Their chess performances like those of Philidor +from 1746 to 1795, and of Paul Morphy from 1855 to 1858, +would well merit full record in a longer work. + +NOTE. A translation of Greco was published in London in 1656, +with a likeness of Charles the First in it. + +------ + +Space precludes the admission of the sketches and +comparisons of the chess careers of Philidor, Staunton, Anderssen, +and Morphy, and confines us to the brief account of Philidor's +extraordinary support and influence on the future of chess and +such references as occur in the sketches of Simpson's. + +Continuously from the date of Philidor's death in 1795, to the +ascendancy of Deschapelles in 1820, France maintained the +lead in chess which she had held for one hundred and fifty years, +producing in the interval the famous de La Bourdonnais, who for +genius, invention and force has never been excelled, and may be +ranked with Anderssen, whose supremacy for Germany first became +manifested in 1851, and the unparalleled Paul Morphy, of New +Orleans, who in 1857 and 1858, electrified the whole chess world +by his signal successes in New York, London and Paris. + +Taking strength, style, and rapidity of conception combined, +these are probably the three greatest players which the world has +produced since Al Suli in the Tenth century who was considered +a marvel among the best of the Eastern players, and Paolo Boi, +Leonardo and Ruy Lopez in the Sixteenth century. + +Even in the pools at Paris in 1820, when Deschapelles essayed +to give the pawn and move to La Bourdonnais and Cochrane, and +in a boastful manner challenged the whole world on the same +terms the superiority of La Bourdonnais was already manifested, +and for succeeding years became unquestionable. + +There are yet remaining old chess enthusiasts who recall with +pleasure the satisfaction of the British chess circle at the zeal +and prowess of Alexander McDonnell, of Belfast, on his appearance +in London in 1828, and his continued pluck, perseverance +and improvement, and gallant stand against the most formidable +of French or living chess players, and which first began to +establish English chess claims to equality with France and the +very learned German school which had sprung up of which Dr. +Bledow, Heydebrand Der Lasa, Hanstein and Bilguer soon became +like Anderssen so especially distinguished. Staunton, a household +word in chess, first came decisively to the front in 1840, the year +in which La Bourdonnais died. McDonnell had already departed +in 1837. They lie close together in the northwest corner of +Kensal Green Cemetery. Staunton became the recognised English +Champion, and by defeating St. Amant, the French representative, +and all other players he encountered, further enhanced British +chess reputation by upholding his title against all comers, until his +wane and defeat by Anderssen, of Breslau, in the First +International Tournament of 1851, a result quite unexpected at home +and abroad, but subsequent events confirmed what the character +of Staunton's play in this competition seemed to indicate that he +had passed his best, for two English amateurs, very young, but +rising into fame, not then considered by any means equal in force +to Staunton, yet fully held their own in 1852 against Anderssen, +the first great German conqueror in games which Germany has +ever held in very high estimation. + +In British chess circles, H. T. Buckle, writer and historian +was now the most patient and scientific of the players. S. S. +Boden, the most learned and profound, H. E. Bird the most rapid, +ready and enthusiastic. The last-named, a favourite opponent of +the English leaders, also encountered one by one the phalanx of +great Foreign players assembled, such as Anderssen himself, Szen, +Lowenthal, Kieseritzky, Harrwitz and Horwitz, and sustained our +chess reputation, particularly in those dashing contests of short +duration, which exigencies of time and other pursuits alone +rendered practicable. The years 1853 to 1857 were not notable +for first-class chess contests. Boden and Bird had both retired. +The appearance of the invincible Paul Morphy from America in +1858, caused a revival of chess; he came to play a great match +with Staunton, but no individual contest ever took place between +them. Barnes a very strong amateur chess player encountered +Morphy but lost by a large majority. Boden next came forth +from his retirement and played some excellent games with him. +Bird, long out of chess happening to return from a long absence +abroad, also met him, but neither English player proved equal to +Morphy, and it was regretted that the more experienced Staunton +would not, and that Buckle could not test conclusions with +him, Lowenthal and Paulsen had both been defeated by Morphy +in America, and the young American proved decisively successful +in matches against Lowenthal and Anderssen in London [Paris], and +Harrwitz in Paris. + +NOTE. Schallop, Dufresne and Alexis at the Berlin Chess Club +pointed out the great appreciation by Anderssen for these games +when Bird was in Berlin some years ago. + + + + +CHESS HISTORY AND REMINISCENCES + +THE ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY OF CHESS + +When it first entered my thoughts to say a few words about chess +and its principal exponents during the Nineteenth century, and +particularly of the forty years during which I have been in the +circle, any idea of inquiring or examining into, and much less +of attempting to reconcile the many conflicting theories so well +known to exist in regard to the early history and progress of the +game, had never once occurred to me. Like many others, I was +slightly acquainted with Professor Forbes' important work of 1860, +in which the age of chess was fixed at about 5,000 years, and +India assigned as its birthplace; and I was more or less familiar +with the theories advanced as to its supposed first introduction +into Europe and also into our own country. That the assumed great +starting point of chess on a board of sixty-four squares (as at +present used), with thirty-two figures, and played by two persons, +was Persia, and that the time was during the reign of Chosroes +Cosrues, or Khosrus (as it is variously written), about A.D. +540, was to the limited few who took any particular interest in the +matter, considered, if not altogether absolutely free from doubt, +certainly one of the best attested facts in early chess history; +whilst the opinions of Sir William Jones (1763), the Rev. R. +Lambe (1764), Hon. Daines Barrington (1787), F. Douce, Esq. (1793), +and Sir Frederick Madden (1832), to the effect that chess first +found its way into England from France after the first Crusade, +at about. A.D. 1100, were, I know--although unfounded and +erroneous--generally accepted as embodying the most probable +theory. + +The circumstance which first induced me to take some additional +interest in this question of chess origin, was the perusal of the +lines attributed to Pope (quoted by Forbes at the foot of Chapter +XII of his book), and the vague and uncertain, and I now think +unreasonable date fixed for our own probable first knowledge of +the game, though concurred in with tolerable unanimity by so many +ancient writers among those regarded as the chief authorities on +the subject. + +This, however, is not all, for in regard to the European origin +of the game of chess, as to which there is such a consensus of +agreement; it may be that all the authors are yet still more at +fault; for with one accord they all assume that chess reached +Europe from Persia not earlier than the sixth century, the Arabs +and Saracens getting it about A.D. 600, Spain and the Aquitaine +Dominions being commonly pointed to as the countries which first +received it from the Arabs or Saracens in Europe after the Persian +period above named. There is no indication in any of the works of +a notion of the knowledge and practice of chess in Europe at an +earlier date, so it appears not unreasonable to conclude that the +following extract, which applies to a period seven hundred years +before the Persian epoch, must have entirely escaped the notice +of all the writers. The article occurs in the "Biographical +Dictionary of the Society for Diffusing Useful Knowledge" +(Longman & Co., Vol. I, Part II, pp. 842, 512), under the head +of "Ahenobarbus." The following is an extract of the Biography, +which is given in full in the Appendix: + +"Ahenobarbus triumphed at Rome for his victory over Averni, +and, according to Cicero, over the Allobroges also, in +B.C. 120. In their Consulship (B.C. 115), Ahenobarbus and his +colleague, L. Coecilius Metellus Dalmatius, prohibited all +scenic exhibitions at Rome, except that of the Latin flute +players, and all games of chance, except Chess or Draughts, +&c., &c." + +(Signed) W. B. D. +(Presumably William Bodham Donne.) + +The contributions of W. B. D. are not frequent in the Biography +as those of Duncan Forbes, Aloys Sprenger, Pascual de Gayangos, +and William Plates are, and he does not apparently write, like them, +as an authority upon Eastern questions, and I might have overlooked +this reference to chess had I not read through the whole of the +volumes. + +It will be observed that both Chess and Draughts are referred to +in the notice, which is important, for had chess alone been +mentioned, it is probable that exception would be taken that +the game was but a species of the latter; it is doubtful, also, +whether Ludus Latrunculorum, a game of the Romans, might not +also have been suggested. + +I cannot find any writer who has referred to chess in Rome or +elsewhere at this period, and it is not improbable that the extract +given may cause some little astonishment to those well-known +writers who have assumed that the Romans knew nothing of chess +till some centuries later. The generally accepted theory is +that chess reached Persia from India in the sixth century of our +era during Chosroes' reign, as stated by Lambe, 1764; Bland, +1850; and others; and this is almost universally concurred in. +The practice of chess in Rome, as indicated by the foregoing +edict seven hundred years before, may, however, tend somewhat +to disturb all existing theories as to its first European +origin, and it will be of interest to know what the learned in +such matters will think in regard to it, while it may tend to +closer investigation by more learned and able men, who have +already devoted attention to the subject, and have greater +facilities for extracting reliable information. + +Spain is stated by all authorities to be the first country in +Europe where chess was known, 600 to 700 A.D. being the period +assigned. The Franks and Aquitaines had it very soon afterwards, +certainly in Charles Martell's reign, and evidence that the +game was held in high esteem during the reigns of his successors, +Pepin and Charlemagne, may now be regarded as perfectly +satisfactory. + +As the views of Pope before referred to represent something like +those of many others, and they may not be altogether devoid of +interest in the present day, I append them, with Forbes' sweeping +animadversions thereon. The lines which have been published as +original (or without acknowledgment) by more than one chess writer +in modern magazines, are as follows: + +"When and where chess was invented is a problem which we +believe never will be solved. The origin of the game recedes every +day further back into the regions of the past and unknown. +Individuals deep in antiquarian lore have very praiseworthily +puzzled themselves and their readers in vain, in their endeavours +to ascertain to their satisfaction how this wonderful pastime +sprang into existence. + +"Whether it was the product of some peaceful age, when science +and philosophy reigned supreme, or whether it was nurtured amid +the tented field of the warrior, are questions which it is equally +futile and unnecessary now to ask. Sufficient for us that the game +exists, and that it has been sung of by Homer, that it has been +the delight of kings, scholars, and philosophers in almost every +age; that it is now on the flood tide of success, and is going +on its way gathering fresh votaries at every step, and that it +seems destined to go down to succeeding ages as an imperishable +monument of the genius and skill of its unknown founder." + +Forbes introduces this article by observing: "Pope has much to +answer for as the originator of a vast deal of rhetorical rubbish +upon us in chess lectures and chess articles in periodicals. +Here (he says), for example, is a fair stereotype specimen of +this sort," and he concludes: "We recommend the above eloquent +moreceaux, taken from a chess periodical now defunct, to the +attention of chessmen at chess reunions, chess lectures, and +those who are ambitious to do a spicy article for a chess +periodical." + +This appears somewhat severe on Pope, even if it be reasonable +and consistent, which may be doubted; for Forbes himself, writing +to the "Chess Player's Chronicle," in 1853, about 120 years +after Pope, and seven years before the appearance of his own +"History of Chess," thus expressed himself: + +"In the present day it is impossible to trace the game of chess +with moral certainty back to its source amidst the dark shades of +antiquity, but I am quite ready to prove that the claim of the +Hindoos as the inventors, is far more satisfactory than that of +any other people." + +Pope needs no defenders. There are writers of more recent date, +who have inflicted what Forbes would probably call more rhetorical +rubbish upon chess readers. Here is one other example, which +appeared in 1865: + +"Though the precise birth and parentage of chess are absolutely +unknown, yet a light marks the track of this royal personage adown +the ages, by which we may clearly enough discern one significant +note of his progress, that he has always kept the very best of +company. We find him ever in the bosom of civilization, the +companion of the wise and thoughtful, the beloved of the studious +and mild. Barbarous men had to be humanized and elevated before +he would come to them. While the East remained the better part +of the world he confined himself to the East; when the West was +to be regenerated he attended with the other agents of beneficial +destiny, and helped the good work on. He seems to have entered +Europe on two opposite sides. Along with philosophy and letters +Spain and Portugal received him, with other good gifts, from their +benefactors the Saracens; and he is seen in the eighth century +at Constantinople, quietly biding his time for a further advance. +>From that time to the present, chess has been the delight of +kings and kaisers, of the reflecting, the witty, and the good." + +------ + +The Indian and American views will be found in the sequel. + +It is a peculiar and distinguishing characteristic in the very +long life of chess, that at no period of its existence has any +attempt ever been made to place on record a narrative of its +events, either contemporary or retrospective, or to preserve its +materials and to construct a lasting history for it; and, +notwithstanding, the enormous advance and increase in chess +appreciation and chess reporting in 19th century ages, it will +not, perhaps, be very rash to predict that a future generation +will be scarcely better informed of our chess doings than we are +of the past, and that the 20th century will, in this respect, be +to the 19th as that is to the 18th and preceding ones. The +valuable scientific and weighty works of Dr. Hyde, Sir William +Jones, and Professor Duncan Forbes were mostly devoted to chess +in the East, and to arguments on the probabilities of its origin +and proofs that it came from India. The book of Forbes, the most +elaborate and latest of them, is much devoted to the Sanskrit +translations of the accounts of the ancient Hindu Chaturanga; +and descriptions of other games which, however able and +interesting from a scientific point of view, observation and +experience seem to indicate to us, few care to follow or study +much in the present day. + +The period of 750 to 1500 is dismissed by Forbes in less than a +single page. His work contains no account of Philidor or his works, +nor of the progress of chess in this century up to 1860 when his +own book appears, and makes no mention of modern chess events or +players and it is an expensive work when viewed by popular notions +on the subject. These foregoing works with the admirable +contributions and treatises of the Rev. R. Lambe, the Hon. Daines +Barrington, F. Douce, H. Twiss, P. Pratt, Sir F. Madden, +W. Lewis, Sarratt, George Walker, C. Kenny, C. Tomlinson, +Captain Kennedy, Staunton and Professor Bland all combined fail +to supply our wants, besides which there is no summing up of them +or their parts, or attempt to blend them into one harmonious +whole, and each writer has appeared too well satisfied with his +own conclusions to care to trouble himself much about those of +anybody else. + +The Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and French writers who refer +to chess, and in our own country Chaucer, Lydgate, Caxton, +Barbiere, Pope, Dryden, Philidor, and the Encyclopaediasts deal +mainly with traditions, each having a pet theory; all, however, +conclude by declaring in words, but slightly varied, that the +origin of chess is enshrouded in mist and obscurity, lost in +the remote ages of antiquity, or like Pope pronounce it a problem +which never will be solved. + +The incomparable game of chess, London, 1820, says, under +"Traditions of Chess." Some historians have referred to the +invention of chess to the philosopher Xerxes, others to the +Grecian Prince Palamedes, some to the brothers Lydo and Tyrrhene +and others, again, to the Egyptians, the Chinese, the Hindus, +the Persians, the Arabians, the Irish, the Welsh, the Araucanians, +the Jews, the Scythians, and, finally, their fair Majesties +Semiramis and Zenobia also prefer their claims to be considered +as the originators of chess. + +Chess history, it may be assumed, has never been regarded as a +very profitable subject to write upon; and, even in these days of +very advanced appreciation of chess, it is highly probable, that +only a very few among the more curious of its admirers, who care to +consider the basis and essence of things, will take any particular +interest in this branch of the subject; but it is just for such that +we venture to submit a very brief outline of what we find suggested +from the fairest inferences, which can be gathered from existing +information, as to the source from whence our favourite and +charming game first sprung. + +Enquiries as to the habits and the idiosyncrasies of chess +players known to fame, have, always, appeared to be of interest, +and have been frequent and continuous from our earliest +recollections, both at home and abroad. We have met with people, +who would devote an hour to questions of this sort, who would not +care to listen five minutes to chess history or devote that time to +look at the finest game. In America, once, a most pertinacious +investigator, in for a very long sitting (not an interviewer with +his excellent bait and exquisite powers of incision but a genuine +home brew), was easily disposed of by the bare mention of the +words India, Persia, China, Chaturanga, Chatrang, Shatranji and +Chess Masterpieces. + +This thirster after knowledge would have absorbed willingly +any account of Staunton's appearance and manners, his elevated +eyebrows and rolling forehead, Munchausen anecdotes, Havannah +cigars and tobacco plantations, Buckle's peculiarities, pedantic +and sarcastic Johnsonian's gold-headed walking stick, so often +lost yet always found, but once, and the frequent affinity between +his hat and the spittoon, the yet greater absence of mind of +Morphy and Paulsen and their only speeches, the gallantry, kid +gloves, lectures of Lowenthal and his bewilderment on the subject +of Charlemagne, the linguistic proficiency of Rosenthal, the chess +chivalry, bluntness extreme taciturnity, amorous nature and +extreme admiration for English female beauty, of Anderssen, +McDonnell's jokes and after dinner speeches, Boden's recollections, +Pickwickian and other quotations, and in fact little incidents +relative to most of the celebrated chess players, constantly flit +through the memory in social chat, which invariably seem to +entertain chess listeners whom a minute's conversation about the +history, science, or theory of the game would utterly fail to +please. + +The early censurer of chess in the old Arabian manuscript who +declared that the chess player was ever absorbed in his chess +"and full of care" may have reflected the chess of his time, but +he did not live in the Nineteenth century and had never seen a +La Bourdonnais, a McDonnell or a Bird play or he might have +modified his views as to the undue seriousness of chess. The +Fortnightly Review in its article of December, 1886 devoted some +space to the fancy shirt fronts of Lowenthal, the unsavoury +cigars of Winawer, the distinguished friends of one of the +writers, the Foreign secretary, denial that Zukertort came over in +two ships, and other less momentous matters, so we may assume +that the authors who greatly control the destinies of chess +could even, themselves, at times appreciate a joke. + +Despite however the preference so decidedly evinced on these +subjects, concerning which we are advised to say a little, the real +origin of chess, the opinions in regard to it and its traditions +and fables interest us more, and tempt a few remarks upon +prevailing misconceptions which it appears desirable as far as +possible to dispel, besides there may yet be a possibility that +some of the more learned who admire the game may produce a work +more worthy of the subject, which, though perhaps of trifling +importance to real science and profound literature, certainly +appears to merit, from its many marked epochs, and interesting +associations, somewhat more attention than it has ever yet received. + +------ + +CHESS AND OPINIONS IN REGARD TO ITS ORIGIN + +Chess is the English name for the most intellectual as well as +diverting and entertaining of games. It is called in the East the +game of the King, and the word Schach mat, or Shah mat in the +Persian language signifies the King is dead, "Checkmate." Chess +allows the utmost scope for art and strategy, and gives the most +various and extensive employment to the powers of the +understanding. Men whose wisdom and sagacity are unquestioned have +not hesitated to assert that it possesses qualities which render it +superior to all other games, mental as well as physical; it has so +much intrinsic interest that it can be played without any stake +whatsoever, and it has been so played and by the very finest players, +more than all other games put together. The invention of chess +has been termed an admirable effort of the human mind, it has +been described as the most entertaining game the wit of man has +ever devised, and an imperishable monument of human wisdom. +It is not a mere idle amusement, says Franklin, partakes rather +of the nature of a science than a game, says Leibnitz and Sir +Walter Scott, and would have perished long ago, say the Americans +if it had not been destined to live for ever. + +The earliest opinion found on record concerning chess, after the +Muslim commentaries on the Koran passage concerning lots and +images, is from a philosopher of Basra named Hasan, of celebrity +in his day, who died A.D. 728, who modestly and plainly termed +it "an innocent and intellectual amusement after the mind has +been engrossed with too much care or study." + +In our age, Buckle, foremost in skill, who died at Damascus +in 1862, and more recently Professor Ruskin and very eminent +divines have expressed themselves to a like effect; highly valuing +the power of diversion the game affords and giving reasons for its +preference over other games; Buckle called his patiently hard +contested games of three, four or five hours each a half-holiday +relief; Boden and Bird, two very young rising amateurs, then +approaching the highest prevailing force at the time would, to +Buckle's dismay, rattle off ten lively skirmishes in half the time +he took for one. The younger of the two aspirants became in +1849 a favourite opponent of the distinguished writer and historian +whom, however, he somewhat disconcerted at times by the rapidity +of his movements and once, and once only, the usually placid +Buckle falling into an early snare as he termed it; and emulating +Canute of old and Lord Stair in modern times got angry and +toppled over the pieces. + +Colonel Stewart used frequently to play at chess with Lord +Stair who was very fond of the game; but an unexpected checkmate +used to put his Lordship into such a passion that he was +ready to throw a candlestick or anything else that was near him, +at his adversary: for which reason the Colonel always took care +to be on his feet to fly to the farthest corner of the room when he +said "Checkmate, my Lord." + +In older times the narrative is silent as to the temper of +Charlemagne when he lost his wager game to Guerin de Montglave, +but Eastern annals, the historians of Timur, Gibbon and others tell +us that the great potentates of the East, Al Walid, Harun Ar +Rashid, Al Mamun and Tamerlane shewed no displeasure at being +beaten, but rather appreciated and rewarded the skill of their +opponents. They manifested, however, great indignation against +those who played deceitfully or attempted to flatter by allowing +themselves to be overplayed by their Monarchs. + +Concerning the origin of chess considerable misconception has +always prevailed, and the traditions which had grown up as to its +invention before knowledge of the Sanskrit became first imported +to the learned, are various and conflicting, comprising several +of a very remarkable and even mythical character, which is the +more extraordinary because old Eastern manuscripts, the +Shahnama of Persia, the Kalila Wa Dimna, the fables of Pilpay +in its translations and the Princess Anna Comnena's history +of the twelfth century (all combined) with the admissions of the +Chinese and the Persians in their best testimonies to point out +and indicate what has been since more fully established by Dr. +Hyde, Sir William Jones, Professor Duncan Forbes and native +works, that for the first source of chess or any game with pieces +of distinct and various moves, powers and values we must look to +India and nowhere else, notwithstanding some negative opposition +from those who do not attempt to say where it came from or to +contravert the testimony adduced by Dr. Hyde, Sir William Jones +and Professor Duncan Forbes, and despite the opinion of the +author of the Asiatic Society's M.S. and Mill in British India +that the Hindoos were far too stupid to have invented chess +or anything half so clever. + +Not a particle of evidence has ever yet been adduced by any +other nation of so early a knowledge of a game resembling chess, +much less of its invention, and it is in the highest degree +improbable that any such evidence ever will be forthcoming. + +NOTE. There are some who do not concur in this wholesale +reflection on Indian intelligence, among others, may be mentioned +Sir William Jones, Professor Wilson, a writer in Fraser's, and +Professor Duncan Forbes. + + + + +AS TO THE SUPPOSED ORIGIN OF CHESS + +One of Sir William Jones' Brahman correspondents, Radha +Kant, informed him that it is stated in an old Hindoo law book, +that the wife of Ravan King of Lanka, the capital of Ceylon +invented chess to amuse him with an image of war, when his +metropolis was besieged by Rama in the second age of the world, +and this is the only tradition which takes precedence in date of +the Hindu Chaturanga. + +The Princess Anna Comnena in the life of her father Alexius +Comnenus, Emperor of Constantinople who died A.D. 1118, informs +us that the game of chess which she calls Zatrikion was +introduced by the Arabians into Greece, The Arabians had it from +the Persians, who say that they themselves did not invent it, but +that they received it from the Indians, who brought it into +Persia in the time of the Great Chosroes, who reigned in Persia +48 years, and died A.D. 576, he was contemporary with the +Emperor Justinian who did A.D. 565. + +Of all the claims which have been advanced to the invention +and origin of chess, that of the Hindu Game the Chaturanga is the +most ancient, and its accounts contain the earliest allusion worthy +of serious notice to anything partaking of the principles and form +of chess. The description of it is taken from the Sanskrit text, +and our first knowledge of it is obtained through the works of Dr. +Hyde, 1693, and Sir William Jones, 1784, Professor Duncan +Forbes in a History of Chess, dedicated to Sir Frederic Madden +and Howard Staunton, published in 1860, further elaborated the +researches of his predecessors and claims by the aid of his better +acquaintance with chess, and improved knowledge of the Sanskrit +to have proved the Chaturanga as the first form of chess beyond +a shadow of doubt. Accounts of it also appear in native works +published in Calcutta and Serampore in the first half of this +century, and it receives further confirmation in material points, +from eminent Sanskrit scholars, who refer to it rather incidentally +than as chess-players. + +The accounts of the Hindu Chaturanga (which means game of +"four angas," four armies, or "four species of forces," in the +native language, Hasty-aswa-ratha-padatum, signifying +elephants, horses, chariots and foot soldiers) (According to the +Amara Kosha, and other native works as explained by Dr. Hyde and +Sir William Jones) give a description of the game sufficiently +clear to enable anyone to play it in the present day. + +NOTE. We have tried it recently. So great of course is the element +of luck in the throw, that the percentage of skill though it might +tell in the long run is small, perhaps equal to that at Whist. + +------ + +With every allowance for more moderate estimates of antiquity by +some Sanskrit scholars, the Chaturanga comes before any +of the games mentioned in other countries sometimes called chess, +but which seem to bear no affinity to it. The oldest of these +games is one of China, 2300 B.C., attributed to Emperor Yao or +his time, another in Egypt of Queen Hatasu daughter of Thotmes +I, 1771 to 1778 B.C., and that inscribed on Medinet Abu at +Egyptian Thebes, the palace constructed by Rameses IV +(Rhameses Meiammun, supposed grandfather of Sesostris) who +according to the scrolls, we are told reigned 1559 to 1493 B.C., +and is said to be the monarch represented on its walls. According +to the Bible Chronology he would be contemporary with Moses +who lived 1611 to 1491 B.C. + +The moves of all the pieces employed in the Chaturanga were +the same as those made in Asia and Europe down to the close of +the Fifteenth century of our era. The Queen up to that time was +a piece with only a single square move, the Bishop in the original +game was represented by a ship, the Castle or Rook (as it is now +indiscriminately called) by an elephant, the Knight by a horse, +the two last named have never at any time undergone the slightest +change, the alteration in the Bishop consists only in the extension +of its power of two clear moves, to the entire command of its own +coloured diagonal. The total force on each side taking a Pawn +as 1 for the unit was about 26 in the Chaturanga as compared +with 32 in our game. There appear ample grounds for believing +that the dice used, constituted the greatest if not the main charm +in the game with the Brahmans, and that the elimination of that +element of chance and excitement, destroyed its popularity with +them. + +------ + +THE ANCIENT HINDU CHATURANGA + +The Chaturanga signifies the game of four angas, or four species of +forces, which, according to the Amira Kosha of Amara Sinha and +other authorities means elephants, horses, chariots and foot +soldiers, which, in the native tongue is Hasty, aswa, ratha, +padatum. It was first brought to notice by the learned Dr. Thomas +Hyde of Oxford, in his work De Ludus Orientalibus, 1694. +About 90 years later the classical Sir William Jones, also of +Oxford, who became Judge of the Supreme Court in India from +1783 to 1794 gave translations of the accounts of the Chaturanga. +This was at a time when knowledge of Sanskrit had been only +just disclosed to European scholars, the code of Gentoo laws, &c., +London 1781, being the first work mentioned, though by the year +1830 according to reviews, 760 books had appeared translated +from that language, no mention of the Chaturanga is found in +Europe before the time of Dr. Hyde, and all the traditionists +down to the days of Sir William Jones would seem to have been +unacquainted with it. In respect to Asia, so far as can be judged +or gathered, the details and essence of the Sanskrit translations +mentioned in the biography of the famous and magnificent Al +Mamun of Bagdad 813 to 833 or those for the enlightened Akbar +1556 to 1605 are unknown to European scholars; there are no +references to any translation of them, or to the nature of those +alluded to in the Fihrist of Abu L. Faraj. + +Eminent contributors to the Archaeologia, F. Douce, 1793, and +Sir F. Madden, 1828, adopt the conclusions of Dr. Hyde and Sir +William Jones and they receive confirmation from native works of +this century, and incidentally from Sanskrit scholars who wrote +not as chess players. + +Duncan Forbes, L.L.D., Professor of Oriental languages in +King's College, London, is the next great authority upon the +Chaturanga; in a work of 400 pages published in 1860 dedicated +to Sir Frederic Madden and Howard Staunton, Esq., he further +elaborated the investigations of Dr. Hyde and Sir William Jones +and claimed by a better acquaintance with chess and choice of +manuscripts and improved knowledge of the Sanskrit language to +have proved that the game of chess was invented in India and no +where else, in very remote times or, as he finally puts it at page +43: "But to conclude I think from all the evidence I have laid +before the reader, I may safely say, that the game of chess has +existed in India from the time of Pandu and his five sons down +to the reign of our gracious Sovereign Queen Victoria (who now +rules over these same Eastern realms), that is for a period of +five thousand years and that this very ancient game, in the +sacred language of the Brahmans, has, during that long space +of time retained its original and expressive name of Chaturanga." + +The Chaturanga is ascribed to a period of about 3,000 years +before our era. + +According to the Sanskrit Text of the Bavishya Purana from +which the account is taken, Prince Yudhisthira the eldest and +most renowned of the five sons of King Pandu, consulted Vyasa, +the wise man and nestor of the age as to the mysteries of a game +then said to be popular in the country, saying: + +"Explain to me, O thou super-eminent in virtue, the nature of +the game that is played on the eight times eight square board. +Tell me, O my master, how the Chaturaji (Checkmate) may +be accomplished." + +Vyasa thus replied: + +"O, my Prince, having delineated a square board, with eight +houses on each of the four sides, then draw up the red warriors +on the east, on the south array the army clad in green, on the +west let the yellow troops be stationed, and let the black +combatants occupy the north. + +"Let each player place his Elephant on the left of his King, +next to that the Horse, and last of all the Ship, and in each of +the four Armies, let the Infantry be drawn up in front. The Ship +shall occupy the left hand corner next to it the Horse, then the +Elephant, and lastly the King, the Foot Soldiers, as are stated +being drawn up in front." + +The sage commences general directions for play with the +following advice: + +"Let each player preserve his own forces with excessive care, +and remember that the King is the most important of all." + +The sage adds: + +"O Prince, from inattention to the humbler forces the king +himself may fall into disaster." + +"If, on throwing the die, the number should turn up five, the +King or one of the Pawns must move; if four, the Elephant; if +three, the Horse; and if the throw be two, then, O Prince, the +Ship must move." + +------ + +ON THE MOVES OF THE PIECES + +"The King moves one square in all directions; the Pawn moves +one square straightforward, but smites an enemy through either +angle, in advance; the Elephant, O Prince of many lands, moves, +(so far as his path is clear), In the direction of the four +cardinal points, according to his own pleasure. The Horse moves +over the three squares in an oblique direction; and the Ship, O +Yudhisthira, moves two squares diagonally." + +NOTE. The Elephant had the same move as our Rook has, the Horse +the same as our Knight. The ship had two clear moves diagonally +(a limited form of our Bishop). The King one square in all +directions the same as now. The Pawn one square straightforward. +There was no Queen in the Chaturanga, but a piece, with a one +square move, existed in the two handed modified Chatrang. The +Queen, of present powers is first mentioned in the game at the +end of the 15th century, when the works of the Spanish writers +Lucena and Vicenz appeared in 1495. + +------ + +About two thousand six hundred years are supposed to have +elapsed between the time of King Pandu, Prince Yudhisthira, +Vyasa, and the records of the ancient Chaturanga, to the days of +Alexander the Great, to which period the references concerning +chess and the Indian Kings contained in Eastern accounts, +Firdausi's Persian Shahnama and the Asiatic Society's M.S. +presented to them by Major Price, relate. + +NOTE. The Shahnama, it is recorded, occupied thirty years in its +preparation and contains one hundred and twenty thousand verses. + +The long interval of three or four thousand years, between the +date ascribed to the Chaturanga, and its reappearance as the +Chatrang in Persia, and the Shatranj in Arabia, has perplexed +all writers, for none can offer a vestige of trace of evidence, +either of the conversion of Chaturanga into Chatrang or Shatranj; +or that the game ever continued to be practiced in its old form +either with or without the dice, it is conjectured merely, that +when the dice had to be dispensed with, as contrary to the law +and the religion of the Hindus and when such laws were vigorously +enforced, it then became a test of pure skill only, and was +probably more generally engaged in by two competitors than four; +but, it appears reasonable, when we recollect the oft translated +story of Nala, and the evident fascination of the dice to the +Hindus, to suppose that the dice formed far too an important +element in the Chaturanga to be so easily surrendered; and it is +not at all improbable that the prohibition and suppression of +the dice destroyed much of its popularity and that the game +became much less practiced and ceased to be regarded with a +degree of estimation sufficiently high to make it national in +character, or deemed worthy of the kind of record likely to be +handed down to prosperity. Notwithstanding that the moves of +Kings, Rooks and Knights in the Chaturanga were the same as they +are now, the absence of a Queen, (which even in the two-handed +chess was long only represented by a piece with a single square +move) and the limited power of the Bishops and Pawns, must have +made the Chaturanga a dull affair compared with present +chess as improved towards the close of the Fifteenth century; +and it is not so very remarkable that it should have occurred +to Tamerlane to desire some extension of its principles, even +with our present charming and, as some consider, perfect game, +we find that during the 17th and 18th centuries, up to Philidor's +time not a good recorded game or page of connected chess history +is to be found and we may cease to wonder so much at the absence +of record for four or three thousand years or more, for a game +so inferior to ours. Were the Chaturanga now to be revived +without the dice it would probably not prove very popular. + +Authorities say "But, unquestionably, the favourite game among +the ancient Hindus, was that of chess; a knowledge of which in +those primitive times formed one of the requisite accomplishments +of a hero, just as skill in chess was considered among us in the +palmy days of Chivalry." + +What this game was is not explained; beyond the description of +the oblong die of four sides, used to determine which piece had +to move in the Chaturanga; we have no information how a game of +interest could be made with dice alone, as is not easy to understand. + +------ + +We have no means of ascertaining, says Forbes the exact era at +which the Chaturanga passed into the Shatranj, or in other words +at what period as the Muhammadans view it, the Hindus invented +the latter form of the game. The earlier writers of Arabia and +Persia do not agree on the point, some of them placing it as early +as the time of Alexander the Great and others as late as that of +Naushurawan. Even the poet Firdausi, the very best authority +among them though he devotes a very long and a very romantic +episode to the occasion of the invention of the Shatranj, is quite +silent as to the exact period; all that he lets us know on that +point is that it took place in the reign of a certain prince who +ruled over northern India and whose name was Gau, the son of +Jamhur. + +Sir William Jones was Judge of a Supreme Court of Judicature +in Bengal, from 27 April, 1783 to 27 April, 1794, when he died +at Calcutta. It is recorded that he came much in contact with +intelligent Brahmans and was much esteemed. He states on the +authority of his friend the Brahman "Radha Kant" "that this +game is mentioned in the oldest (Hindu) law books; and that it +was invented by the wife of Ravan, King of Lanka, the capital +of Ceylon, in order to amuse him with an image of war while +his metropolis was closely besieged by Rama in the second age +of the world." + +NOTE. Sir William Jones says: If evidence be required to prove +that chess was invented by the Hindus, we may be satisfied with +the testimony of the Persians, who, though as much inclined as +other nations to appropriate the ingenious inventions of a foreign +people, unanimously agree that the game was imported from the west +of India, together with the charming fables of Vishnusarma, in the +Sixth century of our era. It seems to have been immemorially known +in Hindustan by the name of Chaturanga, that is the four "angas" +or members of an army, which are said in the Amarakosha to be +Hasty-aswa-ratha-padatum, or Elephants, Horses, Chariots and Foot +Soldiers, and in this sense the word is frequently used by epic +poets in their descriptions of real armies. By a natural corruption +of the pure Sanskrit word, it was changed by the old Persians into +Chatrang; but the Arabs, who soon after took possession of their +country, had neither the initial or final letter of that word in +their alphabet, and consequently altered it further into Shatranj, +which found its way presently into the modern Persian, and at +length into the dialects of India, where the true derivation of +the name is known only to the learned. Thus has a very significant +word in the sacred language of the Brahmans been transferred by +successive changes into axedres, scacchi, echecs, chess and by a +whimsical concurrence of circumstances given birth to the English +word check, and even a name to the Exchequer of Great Britain! + +"The beautiful simplicity and extreme perfection of the game, as +it is commonly played in Europe and Asia, convince me that it was +invented by one effect of some great genius; not completed by +gradual improvements, but formed to use the phrase of the +Italian critics, by the first intention, yet of this simple game, +so exquisitely contrived and so certainly invented in India. I +cannot find any account in the classical writings of the Brahmans." + +------ + +Eminent contributors to the Archaeological Society and to +Asiatic Researches have adopted the conclusions of the foregoing +authors, (Dr. Hyde, Sir W. Jones and Professor Forbes). Francis +Douce, Esq., after referring to Dr. Hyde's labours, says, "Yet I +shall avail myself of this opportunity of mentioning the latest and +perhaps most satisfactory opinion upon this subject; for which we +are indebted to the labours of that accomplished scholar Sir +William Jones." He has informed us that chess was invented +by the Hindoos from the testimony of the Persians who, +unanimously, agree that it was imported from the West of India in +the Sixth century and immemorially known in Hindustan by the name +of Chaturanga or the four members of an army, viz. Elephants, +Horses, Chariots and Foot Soldiers. + +Sir F. Madden, 1828, remarks: "It is sufficient, at present, to +assume on the authorities produced by the learned Dr. Hyde and +Sir William Jones that for the invention and earliest form of +this game we must look to India, from whence through the +medium of the Persians and the Arabs, as proved demonstratively +by the names of the chessmen it was afterwards transmitted to +the nations of Europe." + +It seems that we may be satisfied that chess is of Asiatic origin, +and India its birth place without subscribing entirely to the +view that even the ancient Hindu Chaturanga so minutely +described and which comes so long before any other game +mentioned in China or Egypt is even the first of chess; but we +may say this much, that, notwithstanding, the doubts expressed by +Crawford in his history and Rajah Brooke in his journal, and the +negative opposition of Dr. Van der Linde, we cannot bring +ourselves to be skeptical enough to discredit the trustworthiness of +the accounts furnished to us in the works of Dr. Hyde, Sir. William +Jones and Professor Duncan Forbes of the existence of the game +called the Chaturanga at the time stated. + +NOTE. The Amara Kosha was one of the most valued works of Amara +Sinha one of the nine gems which adorned the throne of Vikramaditya. +The period, when he lived, was that from which the Hindoos date +their present chronology; that is he lived about the middle of +the first century B.C. The Amara Kosha was one of his numerous +works preserved, if not the only one that escaped. They perished, +it is said, like all other Buddhistical writings at the time of +the persecutions raised by the Brahmans against those who +professed the religion of Buddha. + +------ + +Sanskrit scholars, including Colebrooke and Captain Cox, writing +rather incidentally than as chess players, inform us that the pieces +used in our game, viz. the Rook, Knight, and Bishop are +referred to in old Indian treatises, under their respective names of +Elephant, Horse, and Ship, which is a most convincing item of +evidence to chess players. This is one of the three main things +which historians fail to notice; the Roman Edict of 115 B.C. and +790 to 793 A.D., the least unlikely period for English acquirement +of the game, on Alcuin's three years visit from Charlemagne's +court, being the two others most meriting attention and noticed in +their respective places. + +NOTE. The Roman Edict of 115 B.C. exempting chess and Draughts from +prohibition, when other games were being interdicted, seems to +have escaped the notice of all writers, and does not harmonize +with the Germans Weber and Van der Linde's theories of 954 A.D. +for the earliest knowledge of chess in its precise form. + +NOTE. Alcuin, 735-804, is a name forgotten by all writers in +considering the Charlemagne, Koran, and Princess Irene period +and English probabilities. + +NOTE. The Sanskrit translations for the glorious Al Mamun, 813 +to 833, those mentioned in the Sikust (980), and for the +enlightened Akbar, 1556 to 1615, seem to have been unknown to +European scholars, who throughout the early and middle ages do +not strike us as having been remarkable for zeal and application. + +------ + +The Chinese claims made apparently rather for than by them, +are recorded in the annals of the Asiatic Society as being in +respect of a game called "War Kie," played with 360 pieces, said +to have been invented by Emperor Yao so far back as B.C. 2300, +the next account is of a game called Hsiang Kie, attributed to +Wa Wung B.C. 1122, with 16 pieces on each side, like draughts +with characters written on each so recently as 1866, it was claimed +to be played all over the country. The great dictionary of Arts +and Sciences dedicated to our King in 1727, merely says: + +"The Chinese claim to date back their acquaintance with chess +to a very remote period." The Chinese call chess the game of the +Elephant, and say that they had it from the Indians. The +Haipiene or great Chinese Directory under the word Sianghki, +says that this happened in the reign of Vouti, about the year of +Christ 537. Notwithstanding this statement there is an account +of Real Chess given in 1793, by Eyles Irwin, Esq., a gentleman +who had passed many years of his life in India, and contained in +a communication to the President of the Irish Society. He says +379 years after the time of Confucius (which is equal to 172 B.C.), +King Cochu, King of Kiangnan, sent an expedition into the Shensi +Country, under the command of a Mandarin, called Hansing, to +conquer it, and during the winter season, to allay the discontent +of his army at inaction, chess was invented to amuse them, with +results entirely satisfactory. + +The board, or game, Irwin says, is called Chong Ki or Royal +Game. Forbes says the game is called by the Chinese "Choke +Choo Hong Ki." + +The board is 64 squares with a chasm in the middle, the army +9 pieces, 2 rocket boys, and 5 pawns on each side. + +It has become the fashion to this day to dish up the great poets' +lines more or less seasoned or to repeat, one or the other of the +fabulous stories, or fallacious theories so constantly put forward +in regard to the origin of chess, so it may be not amiss to state +what is known or can be gathered in regard to it, concerning the +claims of countries other than India. + +Such consideration as can be found devoted to the game in Egypt +mostly relates to hypothesis and conjectures in regard to the +inscriptions on tombs and on the walls of temples and palaces; +some discussion has arisen in our own time, in notes and queries, +and particularly in regard to Mr. Disraeli's references in the book +Alroy, concerning which the Westminster Chess papers in 1872, +instituted a criticism. Chapter 16 of Alroy begins "Two stout +soldiers were playing chess in a coffee house," and Mr. Disraeli +inserts on this the following note (80). "On the walls of the +palace of Amenoph II, called Medeenet Abuh, at Egyptian Thebes, +the King is represented playing chess with the Queen. This +monarch reigned long before the Trojan War." + +A critic, calling himself the author of Fossil Chess adds "In +the same work may be found some account of the paintings on +the tombs at Beni Hassan, presumably the oldest in Egypt, dating +from the time of Osirtasen I, twenty centuries before the +Christian era, and eight hundred years anterior to the reign of +Rameses III, by whom the temple of Medeenet Abuh was commenced, +and who is the Rameses portrayed on its walls." An unaccountable +error on Mr. Disraeli's part in the same note assigns its +erection to Amenoph II, who lived 1414 B.C. + +Closer investigators of the Hieroglyphics of Ancient Egypt, state +Rameses Merammun (15th King of the 18th dynasty and grandfather +of Sesostris), who reigned as Ramses IV from 1559 to 1493 B.C., +is the name that appears on the great palace of Medinet Abu, and +some other buildings in the ruins of Thebes. + +According to the tables of Egyptian Chronology most approved +in 1827 reviews Sethos or Sesostris reigned as Ramses VI from +1473 to 1418 B.C. The reviews observe that Herodotus thought +that Sesostris ascended the throne a few years later than +1360 B.C. Amenophis II reigned from 1687 to 1657 B.C. + +The draughtmen and board of Queen Hatasu among her relicts +in the Manchester Exhibition of 1887, are assigned to 1600 B.C.; +but she was the daughter of Thotmes I, who according to the +tables referred to, reigned 1791 to 1778 B.C. + +Egyptian chronology seems not to be conclusively agreed upon; +however, the game found inscribed on the walls of Medinet Abu is +not proved to resemble chess, and is generally assumed to be +draughts, besides whether ascribed to Amenoph II 1687 to 1657 +B.C., or to Ramses IV 1559 to 1493 B.C.; the date is long after the +period ascribed to the Sanskrit writings, (said to be about 3000 +B.C.) even taking the shortest estimate of the age of the Ancient +Hindu and Brahman writings assigned by Sanskrit scholars. + +Sir Gardiner Wilkinson says, the pieces are all of the same size +and form, and deduces from this the inference that the game +represented a species of draughts. + +Mr. Lane the Egyptologist, apparently no chess player himself, +in describing the sedentary games of Egypt, says that the people +of that country take great pleasure in chess, (which they call +Sutreng), Draughts (Dameh), and Backgammon (Tawooleh). + +Sir F. Madden says, it is however possible that the Ancient +Egyptians may also have possessed a knowledge of chess, for +among the plates of Hieroglyphics by Dr. Burton No. 1, we find +at Medinet Habou two representations of some tabular game, closely +resembling it, and I am informed that a more perfect representation +exists on the Temples at Thebes. + +Sir John Gardiner Wilkinson, the celebrated Egyptologist, +in a note appended to Mr. George Rawlinson's of Herodotus +says: + +"Still more common was the game of Draughts miscalled +chess, which is Hab, a word now used by the Arabs for Men or +Counters. This was also a game in Greece, where they often +drew for the move, this was done by the Romans also in their +Duodecim Scripta, and Terence says-- + + Ti ludis tesseris. +Si illud, quod maxime opus est facto non cadit. +Illud quod cecedit forte, id arte ut corrigus. + Adelph iv. 7. 22-24. + +NOTES. According to Dr. Young, 1815, and M. Champollion, 1824, +Ramses III was the 15th Monarch of the 18th dynasty, the date +affixed to him being 1561 to 1559 B.C., but the British Museum +Catalogue, page 60 says: The principal part of the monuments in +this room are of the age of King Ramses II, the Sesostris of the +Greeks, and the greatest monarch of the 19th dynasty; but, in the +tables, he appears as the 14th of the 18th dynasty 1565 to +1561 B.C. and the catalogue is probably a slip. + +No consensus of agreement however has been arrived as to +Egyptian Chronology. Sesostris for example 1473 to 1418 B.C., +(Manetho, the scrolls Young, Champollion) Herodotus thought, +ascended the throne about 1360 B.C. + +Some Bible Commentators have even called the Shishak of Scripture +558 B.C. Sesostris. + +Bishop Warburton was wont to vent his displeasure on those who +did not agree with him. For instance, on one Nicholas Mann, +whose provocation was that he argued for the identity of Osiris +and Sesostris after Warburton had pronounced that they were to be +distinguished, he revenged himself by saying to Archbishop Potter +in an abrupt way, "I suppose, you know, you have chosen an Arian." + +Under Exodus 1 C.B. 1604 a note occurs. + +The Pharaoh, in whose reign Moses was born, is known in general +history by the name of Rameses IV, surnamed Mei Amoun. He reigned +66 years, which agrees with the account given Ch. 4, 19, that he +lived till long after Moses had retired to the desert. The +Pharaoh who reigned when the Israelites went out of Egypt was +Rameses V surnamed Amenophis. + +Moses' birth is under B.C. 1531, Exodus ii., his death under +B.C. 1451, Deuteronomy xxxiv., but as he was 120 years old when +he died, one of these dates must be wrong, he was probably born +B.C. 1571. + +Opposite Chapter 14 v.25 of 1st of Kings B.C. 958 says: There +can be no rational doubt that this Shishak was the famous +Sesostris the conqueror of Asia. Herodotus, the father of +profane history, relates that he, himself, has seen stones in +Palestine erected by the Conqueror, and recording his achievements. + +------ + +It is confidently asserted by the writers of the Eighteenth +century, and this, that the ancient Greeks and Romans were totally +unacquainted with chess, but a Roman edict of 115. B.C., specially +exempting "Chess and Draughts" from prohibition passes +unobserved by all the writers; and might have materially qualified +their perhaps too hasty and ill-matured conclusions, and have +suggested further inquiry into the nature of the sedentary games +and amusements practiced and permitted by the Romans. + +The Roman edict mentioned by Mr. W. B. Donne, in his +biographical sketch of Ahenholarbus, 842, has evidently escaped the +observation of all writers on the game. Chess and Draughts are +specially exempted in it from the list of prohibited games of +chance under date B.C. 115. The Hon. Daines Barrington 1787, +Sir F. Madden 1832, Herbert Coleridge, Esq., 1854, and Professor +Duncan Forbes 1860 are prominent among those who confidently +assert that the Romans as well as the ancient Greeks were quite +unacquainted with the game of chess, at least, says Coleridge, +without giving any reason for his qualification, before the time of +Hadrian. These writers having apparently satisfied themselves +that the Romans as well as the Greeks played a game with pebbles, +assume therefore that they knew not chess, but might have known +a game something like Draughts. Here in the edict, however, +Chess and Draughts are both mentioned inferring a recognized +distinction between the two. It seems reasonable to assume that +the writers would have paused and have searched a little deeper +into the nature of the sedentary games which the Romans knew +and permitted if they had seen this explicit statement. It has +never been suggested by any writer that the Romans ever left an +inkling or taste for intellectual pastimes in Britain. The name +of Agricola or that of any other Roman is not associated with +any tradition or story of the game, even Aristotle and Alexander +the Great and Indian Porus (names we find in Eastern accounts) +are names not so familiar in speculatory traditions as to chess, +though less remote, than that of Thoth the Egyptian Mercury who +Plato says invented chess "Hermes" (Asiatic M.S.) or the more +frequently mentioned Moses, and the Kings of Babylon with their +philosophers. The favoured notion that chess (first) came into +Europe through the Arabs in Spain about 710 to 715 A.D. may yet +prove ill matured and require modification, and for English first +knowledge of the game, we may on inferential and presumptive +evidence prefer the contemporary period of Offa, Egbert and +Alcuin when Charlemagne, the Greek Emperors and the Khalifs +of the East so much practised and patronized the game, rather +than the conquest or Crusaders theory of origin among us, which +is also beside inconsistent with incidents related in the earlier +reigns of Athelstan, Edgar and Canute, and moreover is not +based upon any direct testimony whatever. + +In proof of the ancient use of chess among the Scandinavians. +In the Sages of Ragnar Lodbrog printed in Bioiners collection, +and in an ancient account of the Danish invasion of Northumberland +in the Ninth century entitled Nordymbra, it is stated that +after the death of Ragnar, messengers were sent to his sons in +Denmark by King Alla to communicate the intelligence and to +mark their behaviour when they received it. They were thus +occupied, Sigurd Snakeseye played at chess with Huitzeck the +bold; but Biorn Ironside was polishing the shaft of a spear in the +middle of the hall. As the messengers proceeded with their story +Huitzeck and Sigurd dropped their game and listened to what +was said with great attention, Ivar put various questions and +Biorn leant on the spear he was polishing. But when the +messengers came to the death of the chief, and told his expiring +words that the young bears would gnarl their tusks (literally +grunt) if they knew their parent's fate, Biorn grasped the handle +of his spear so tight with emotion that the marks of his fingers +remained on it, and when the tale was finished dashed it in pieces, +Huitzeck compressed a chessman he had taken so with his +fingers that the blood started from each whilst Sigurd Snakeseye +paring his nails with a knife was so wrapped up in attention +that he cut himself to the bone without feeling it. + +All authorities down to the end of the Eighteenth century, +ascribe the first knowledge of chess in England, to the time of the +reign of William the Conqueror, or to that of the return of the +first Crusaders, some adding not earlier than 1100 A.D., H. T. +Buckle the author and historian who was foremost in skill among +chess amateurs, in his references to the game, satisfied apparently +with the evidence of Canute's partiality for it, (1017 to 1035) +thought it probable that it was familiarly known in England a +century or so before that monarch's reign. Sir Frederick Madden +writing from 1828 to 1832 at the outset of his highly interesting +communications to the Asiatic Society, at first inclined to the +Crusaders theory, but upon further investigation later in his articles +he arrived at the conclusion that chess might have been known +among us in Athelstan's reign from 925 to 941, and Professor +Forbes writing from 1854 to 1860 concurred in that view. Both +of these authorities after quoting old chess incidents and anecdotes +of Pepin's and Charlemagne's times with other references to chess +in France, Germany, and Scandinavia, then pass on to chess in +England, and after asserting the probability that the Saxons most +likely received chess from their neighbours the Danes then fix +apparently somewhat inconsistently so late as the Tenth century +for it. They assert that the tradition of the game having been +brought from the North certainly existed, and is mentioned by +Gaimar who wrote about the year 1150, when speaking of the +mission of Edelwolth from King Edgar to the castle of Earl Orgar, +in Devonshire to verify the reports of his daughter Elstreuth's +beauty. When he arrived at the mansion, + + "Orgar juout a un esches, + Un gin k'il aprist des Daneis, + Od lui juout Elstruat lu bele, + Sus ciel n'ont donc tele damesele." + + "Orgar was playing at the chess, + A game he had learnt of the Danes, + With him played the fair Elstrueth, + A fairer maiden was not under heaven." + +Edgar reigned from 958 to 975, English history referring to +this incident among the amours of Edgar, make no mention of the +Earl of Devonshire and his daughter being found playing chess +together. Hume says Elfrida was daughter and heir of Olgar +Earl of Devonshire and though she had been educated in the +country, and had never appeared at court, she had filled all +England with the reputation of her beauty. + +The mission of Earl Athelwold, his deception of the king, and +marriage of Elfrida follows, next the king's discovery, the murder +of Athelwold by the King, and his espousal of Elfrida. + +This incident with others, such as the presentation to Harold +Harfagra, King of Norway of a very fine and rich chess table, +and the account of and description of seventy chess men of +different sizes belonging to various sets dug up in the parish of +Uig, in the Isle of Lewis, are referred to by the writers as the +chess allusions of the North, but Sir Frederick Madden who confines +himself to the supposition of the Saxons having received the game +from the Danes, rather disregards a statement of Strutt, Henry +and others, based on a passage in the Ramsey chronicle that chess +was introduced among the Saxons, so early as the Tenth century. +Forbes however who usually agrees with Madden, sees no +improbability in it or grounds for disputing, and thinks that England +may have obtained its knowledge from France between the Eighth +and Tenth centuries. It is curious that Forbes stops here like +Madden and all other writers, he evidently knew nothing of the +Roman edict of 115 B.C., and neither of them cast a thought to the +earlier reigns of Alfred, Egbert, and Offa, which were +contemporary with the Golden Age of Literature in Arabia and the +period when chess had so long travelled from Persia to other +countries, and was so well known and appreciated in Arabia; +Constantinople, Spain, and among the Aquitaines as well as by +the Carlovingian Monarchs. Al Walid the first Khalif noted for +chess, the most powerful of the house of Umeyyah, who (through +his generals Tarak and Musa invaded, conquered, and entered +Spain, reigned from 705 to 715 B.C.), and comes before Offa, +whose reign commenced five years after the foundation of the +mighty Abbasside Dynasty, which displaced the first house of +Umeyyah, and thirteen years before that of Charlemagne, with +whom he was contemporary 26 years, and Egbert was 13 years. +Harun Ar Rashid; of Abbasside, the Princess Irene, and the +Emperor Nicephorus of Constantinople, and the successors of +Harun, viz., Al Amin, Al Mamun, the Great Al Mutasem and Al +Wathik (the two last contemporary with our Alfred), all +cultivated and practiced chess and the strongest inference, and +a far more striking one than any yet adduced, is that we got +chess during the long reign of Charlemagne, and his Greek, +Arabian and Spanish contemporaries, and this might well happen, +for Charlemagne knew both Offa and Egbert (the latter personally), +and the knowledge becomes somewhat more than a matter of +inference, for the Saxon scholar Alcuin was in England from +790 to 793, on a farewell visit after being domesticated in +Charlemagne's household as his treasured friend, adviser, and +tutor and preceptor in the sciences for more than twenty years, +and could not be otherwise than familiar with the Emperor's +practice and enthusiasm for chess, in which he may to some extent +have shared. Alcuin would certainly have communicated a game like +this, in which he knew other civilized people were taking so much +interest, to his countrymen. The connecting links of evidence +which Sir F. Madden and Professor Forbes have illustrated in +Athelstan's and Edgar's reigns, would have been greatly +strengthened and confirmed, if they had thought of Alcuin's +residence and influence at a court where chess was not only +played, but talked about and corresponded upon. Charlemagne's +presents included the wonderful chess men which he valued so +highly, and with which we are tolerably familiar through the +reports of Dr. Hyde, F. Douce, Sir F. Madden, and H. Twiss, and +the engravings in Willeman's work, and by Winckelman and Art +Journal. These chessmen (still preserved) were perhaps often seen +by Alcuin and were possibly also shewn by Charlemagne to the +youthful Egbert when in refuge at his court, and on the whole it +seems unreasonable to assume that chess was unknown in England +after Alcuin's last sojourn, and during Egbert's reign. + +It may be also that on further consideration of the Roman edict +and references to their games, and the accounts relating to the +fourth century B.C., many will be indisposed to accept the dictum +that Herodotus, Plato and Aristotle meant nothing more than a game +of pebbles, when they referred to chess and propounded their +theories as to its invention. + +------ + +PERSIA + +"Khusra Anushirawan" Naushirawan or Chosroes as he is +more frequently called, being the Byzantine title applied to him, +was King of Persia and reigned 48 years, from 528 to 576 as +stated by some authors, or from 531 to 579 according to others. +He is described also as Chosroes the Just. The receipt of chess +in Persia from India early in his reign, and the great appreciation +and encouragement of it, is the best attested fact in chess history, +if not really the only one as to which there is entire concurrence +in opinion among all writers. + +The Persian and Arabian historians are unanimous that the +game of chess was invented in India, some time previous to the +Sixth century of our Era, and was introduced into Persia during +the reign of Kisra Naushirawan, the Chosroes of the Byzantine +historians, and the contemporary of Justinian, they differ only as +to the time of its modification, some ascribing it to about this +period, and others to that of Alexander the Great, 336 to 323 B.C. + +Although several works concur in stating that chess first came +to Persia from India, through Burzuvia the physician, most +learned in languages with the materials of the book called Culila +Dimna, quite early in Chosroes' reign, some think differently and +attribute Burzuvia's mission to India and return to a late date. +It is related from the Shahnama, the great Persian poem that it +came from Kanoj, Kanauj, commonly written Canoge, by means +of a magnificent embassy from the King of Hind, accompanied by +a train of elephants with rich canopies, together with a thousand +camels heavily laden, the whole escorted by a numerous and +gallant army of Scindian cavalry. After depositing the various +and costly presents, last of all the Ambassador displayed before +the King and the astonished court, a chess board, elaborately +constructed together with the chessmen, tastefully and curiously +carved from solid pieces of ivory and ebony. Then the +Ambassador presented a letter richly illumined, written by the hand +of the Sovereign of Hind, to Naushirawan the translation of which +is given as follows: + +The King of Hind's address to Chosroes with the Chess + +"O, King, may you live as long as the celestial spheres continue +to revolve; I pray of you to examine this chess board, and to lay +it before such of your people as are most distinguished for learning +and wisdom. Let them carefully deliberate, one with another; +and if they can, let them discover the principles of this wonderful +game. Let them find out the uses of the various pieces, and how +each is to be moved, and in to what particular squares. Let them +discover the laws which regulate the evolutions of this mimic +army, and the rules applicable to the Pawns, and to the Elephants, +and to the Rukhs (or warriors), and to the Horses, and to the +Farzin, and to the King. If they should succeed in discovering +the principles and expounding the practice of this rare game, +assuredly they will be entitled to admission into the number of +the wise, and in such case I promise to acknowledge myself, as +hitherto, your Majesty's tributary. On the other hand, should you +and the wise men of Iran collectively fail in discovering the nature +and principles of this cunning game, it will evince a clear proof +that you are not our equals in wisdom; and consequently you will +have no right any longer to exact from us either tribute or impost. +On the contrary we shall feel ourselves justified in demanding +hereafter the same tribute from you; for man's true greatness +consists in wisdom, not in territory, and troops, and riches, all +of which are liable to decay." + +When Naushirawan had perused the letter from the Sovereign +of Hind, long did he ponder over its contents. Then he carefully +examined the chess board and the pieces and asked a few questions +of the Envoy respecting their nature and use. + +The latter, in general terms, replied, Sire, what you wish to +know can be learned only by playing the game, suffice it for me, +to say, that the board represents a battle field, and the pieces +the different species of forces engaged in the combat. Then the +King said to the Envoy, grant us the space of seven days for the +purpose of deliberation; on the eighth day we engage to play with +you the game, or acknowledge our inferiority. + +Then followed the assembling of the men esteemed learned and +wise, the sages of Iran, and seven days of perplexity. At last +Buzerjmihr hastened to the presence of Naushirawan and said: +"O, King of victorious destiny, I have carefully examined this +board and these pieces, and at length by your Majesty's good +fortune, I have succeeded in discovering the nature of the game. +It is a most shrewd and faithful representation of a battle field, +which it is proper your Majesty should inspect in the first place. +In the mean time let the Indian Ambassador be summoned into +the royal presence together with the more distinguished among +his retinue, also a few of the wise and learned of our own court +that they may all bear witness how we have acquitted ourselves in +accomplishing the task imposed upon us by the King of Kancj. +When Buzerjmihr had explained the evolutions of the ebony and +ivory warriors, the whole assembly stood mute in admiration and +astonishment. The Indian Ambassador was filled with mingled +vexation and surprise, he looked upon Buzerjmihr as a man +endowed with intelligence far beyond that of mere mortals, and +thus he pondered in his own mind: How could he have discovered +the nature and principles of this profound game? Can it be +possible that he has received his information from the sages of +Hind? Or is it really the result of his own penetrating research, +guided by the acuteness of his unaided judgment? Assuredly +Buzerjmihr has not this day his equal in the whole world. In the +meanwhile Naushirawan in public acknowledged the unparalleled +wisdom of his favourite Counsellor. He sent for the most costly +and massive goblet in his palace and filled the same with the +rarest of jewels. These, together with a war steed, richly +caparisoned, and a purse full of gold pieces he presented to +Buzerjmihr." + +The other version of the first receipt of chess in Persia, based +upon eastern works and perhaps more reasonable, if not resting +upon yet better attestation, records that Burzuvia, a physician, +and the most expert that could be found in the knowledge of +languages, and art and ability in acquiring them, at the request +or command of Chosroes, King of Persia, undertook to explore the +national work of the Brahmans and the famous book, the Kurtuk +Dunmix, and the result of his mission and labours were, after +considerable research in India, the materials for and production +of the Culila Dinma, a national work greatly treasured by Chosroes +and future kings of Persia, and which work contained the art of +playing chess. This work is said to have been jointly translated +by Burzuvia and Buzerjmihr the vizier of Chosroes and it is highly +probable that the latter did assist, and thus learnt the secret, and +this seems to form the most likely solution of the circumstance of +his unraveling the mysteries of chess as alleged, without the +slightest clue, to the amazement and delight of Chosroes and his +court, when it was received as a test of wisdom and profound +secret from the King of Hind. Writers who concur in or do not +dissent from either of these accounts, yet differ as to which should +take priority in point of date, the more reasonable supposition +seems to be, that Burzuvia not unwilling to propitiate Chosroes' +favourite vizier and Counsellor, reserved his knowledge from all but +Buzerjmihr in which no doubt he exercised wise policy and did +not himself go unrewarded. The chief Counsellor and vizier of a +great King was a desirable person to conciliate in those days, and +afterwards as is abundantly proved throughout Eastern history +and dynastics from the time of Abu Bekr, Omar, Osman, Abdullah, +and the Prophet, and later from Harun, and Al Mamun (786-833) +even to the time of the enlightened Akbar, (1556-1605), continued +examples are to be found in the reigns of the rulers through all +these ages where the real sway vested in the vizier who frequently +combined a great knowledge of learning with an extraordinary +capacity for war. + +------ + +THE TEN ADVANTAGES OF CHESS ACCORDING TO THE PERSIAN +PHILOSOPHER, ARE THUS GIVEN IN TRANSLATION. + +The "first advantage" of which the commencement is wanting +in the M.S., turns chiefly on the benefits of food and exercise +for the mind in which chess is marked out as an active agent, +intended by its inventor to conduce to intellectual energy in +pursuit of knowledge, for as the human body is nourished by +eating which is its food, and from which it obtains life and +strength, and without which the body dies, so the mind of man is +nourished by learning which is the food of the soul, and without +which he would incur spiritual death; that is ignorance, and it is +current that a wise man's sleep is better than a fool's devotion. +The glory of man then is knowledge, and chess is the nourishment +of the mind, the solace of the spirit, the polisher of intelligence, +the bright sun of understanding, and has been preferred by the +philosopher its inventor, to all other means by which we arrive +at wisdom. + +The Second Advantage is in Religion, illustrating the Muhammedan +doctrines of predestination (Sabr and Cadar) by the free +will of man in playing chess, moving when he will, or where he +will, and which piece he thinks best, but restricted in some +degree by compulsion, as he may not play against certain laws, +nor give to one piece the move of another, whereas, on the +contrary, Nerd (Eastern Backgammon) is mere free will, while in +Dice again all is compulsion. This argument is pursued at some +length in the text. Passing from this singular application of +theology to chess play, we find the Third Advantage relates to +Government, the principles of which the author declares to be +best learned from chess. The board is compared to the world, +and the adverse sets of men to two monarchs with their subjects, +each possessing one half of the world, and with true eastern +ambition desiring the other, but unable to accomplish his design +without the utmost caution and policy. Perwiz and Ardeshir are +quoted as having attributed all their wisdom of government to +the study and knowledge of chess. + +The Fourth Advantage relates to war, the resemblance to which +of the mimic armies of chess, is too obvious to detain the +philosopher long. + +The Fifth Advantage of chess is in its resemblance to the +Heavens. He says, the board represents the Heavens, in which +squares are the Celestial houses and the pieces Stars. The +superior pieces are assimilated to the Moving Stars, and the Pawns +which have only one movement to the Fixed Stars. The King is +as the Sun, and the Wazir in place of the Moon, and the Elephants +and Taliah in the place of Saturn; and the Rukhs and Dabbabah +in that of Mars, and the Horses and Camel in that of Jupiter, +and the Ferzin and Zarafah in that of Venus, and all these pieces +have their accidents, corresponding with the Trines and Quadrates, +and Conjunction and Opposition, and Ascendancy and Decline, +such as the heavenly bodies have, and the Eclipse of the Sun is +figured by Shah Caim or Stale Mate. This parallel is completed +by indicating the functions of the different pieces in connection +with the influence of their respective planets, and chess players +are even invited to consult Astrology in adapting their moves to +the various aspects. + +The Sixth Advantage is derived from the preceding, and assigns +to each piece, according to the planet it represents, certain +physical temperaments, as the Warm, the Cold, the Wet, the Dry, +answering to the four principal movements of chess, (viz, the +Straight, Oblique, Mixed or Knights, and the Pawns move). This +system is extended to the beneficial influence of chess on the +body, prescribing it as a cure for various ailings of a lighter +kind, as pains in the head and toothache, which are dissipated by +the amusement of play; and no illness is more grievous than +hunger and thirst, yet both these, when the mind is engaged in +chess, are no longer thought of. + +Advantage Seven, "In obtaining repose for the soul." The +Philosopher says, the soul hath illnesses, like as the body hath, +and the cure of these last is known, but of the soul's illness there +be also many kinds, and of these I will mention a few. The first is +Ignorance, and another is Disobedience, the third Haste, the +Fourth Cunning, the fifth Avarice, sixth Tyranny, seventh Lying, +the eighth Pride, the ninth Deceit, and Deceit is of two kinds, +that which deceiveth others, and that by which we deceive +ourselves; and the tenth is Envy, and of this also there be many +kinds, and there is no one disorder of the soul greater than +Ignorance for it is the soul's death, as learning is its life; and +for this disease is chess an especial cure, since there is no way by +which men arrive more speedily at knowledge and wisdom, and in +like manner, by its practice all the faults which form the diseases +of the soul, are converted into their corresponding virtues. Thus, +Ignorance is exchanged for learning, obstinacy for docility, and +precipitation for patience, rashness for prudence, lying for truth, +cowardice for bravery, and avarice for generosity, tyranny for +justice, irreligion for piety, deceitfulness for sincerity, hatred +for affection, emnity for friendship. + +The Eighth may be called a social advantage of chess, bringing +men nearer to Kings and nobles, and as a cause of intimacy and +friendship, and also as a preventive to disputes and idleness and +vain pursuits. + +The Tenth and last advantage is in combining war with sport, +the utile with the dulce, in like manner as other philosophers +have put moral in the mouths of beasts, and birds, and reptiles, +and encouraged the love of virtue and inculcated its doctrines by +allegorical writings such as the Marzaban, Namah, and Kalila wa +Dimnah, under the attractive illusion of fable. + +------ + +VIDA + +There is scarcely any writer who has gone through so many +editions and translations as Marcus Hieronymus Vida, Bishop of +Alba. The Scacchia Ludus was published at Rome in 1527, and +since then no fewer than twenty-four editions have been published +in the original Latin, the last at London in 1813. Of translation +there have been eleven in Italian, four in French, and eight in +English, including the one ascribed to Goldsmith, which appears +in an edition of that poet's works published by Murray in 1856. +The only German translation hitherto noticed in this country is +that printed at the end of Kochs Codex (1814) but we learn from +an editorial note that the version now given in the Schachtzeitung +is by Herr Pastor Jesse, and that it was published at Hanover in +1830. It was from Vida that Sir William Jones obtained the idea +of his poem Caissa, which Mr. Peter Pratt described in his Studies +of chess as an "elegant embellishment" an "admired effusion" +and a classical offering to chess. In the Introduction is found: + +To THE READER, GREETING. Strange perchance may it seem +to some (courteous Reader) that anie man should employ his time +and bestow his labour in setting out such bookes, whereby men +may learn to play, when indeede most men are given rather to +play, than to studie and travell, which were true, if it were for +the teaching of games unlawfull, as dice play, or cogging, or +falsehoods in card play, or such like, but forasmuch as this game +or kingly pastime is not only devoid of craft, fraud, and guile, +swearing, staring, impatience, fretting and falling out, but also +breedeth in the players a certaine studie, wit, pollicie, forecaste, +and memorie not only in the play thereof, but also in action of +publick government, both in peace and warre, wherein both +Counsellors at home and Captaines abroade may picke out of these +wodden pieces some prettie pollicie both how to govern their +subjects in peace, how to leade or conduct lively men in the field +in warre: for this game hath the similitude of a ranged battell, +as by placing the men and setting them forth on the march +may very easily appeare. The King standeth in the field in +middle of his army, and hath his Queene next unto him and his +Nobilitie about him, with his soldiers to defend him in the +forefront of the battell. + +Sith therefore this game is pleasant to all, profitable to most, +hurtful to none. I pray thee (gentle reader) take this my labour +in good part, and thou shalt animate me hereafter to the setting +forth of deeper matters. Farewell. LUDUS SCACCHI. + +Peter Pratt of Lincoln's Inn, author of the "Theory of Chess," +(1799) a work referred to by Professor Allen, the biographer of +Philidor as "the most divertingly absurd of all chess books." +Some idea of the plan and style of the work may be obtained +from the following extract from the author's preface: "The game +of chess, though generally considered as an emblem of war (the +blood stained specie of it) seemed to him (the author) more to +resemble those less ensanguined political hostilities which take +place between great men in free countries, an idea which was at +once suggested and confirmed by observing that when one +combatant is said to have conquered another, instead of doing +anything like killing or wounding him, he only casts him from his +place and gets into it himself." Fortified in this conceit the +ingenious author converts the Pawns into Members of the House +of Commons, the Rooks into Peers, while the Queen is transformed +into a Minister, and the whole effect of this curious nomenclature +upon the notation of the games is ludicrous in the extreme. + +An American view was presented in the following words, it +would probably have also have disturbed the equanimity of +Forbes like that of Pope's did (page 20). + +The date to which I have referred the origin of chess will +probably astonish those persons who have only regarded it as the +amusement of idle hours, and have never troubled themselves to +peruse those able essays in which the best of antiquaries and +investigators have dissipated the cloudy obscurity which once +enshrouded this subject. Those who do not know the inherent +life which it possesses will wonder at its long and enduring career. +They will be startled to learn that chess was played before +Columbus discovered America, before Charlemagne revived the +Western Empire, before Romulus founded Rome, before Achilles +went up to the Siege of Troy, and that it is still played as widely +and as zealously as ever now that those events have been for +ages a part of history. It will be difficult for them to comprehend +how, amid the wreck of nations, the destruction of races, the +revolutions of time, and the lapse of centuries, this mere game +has survived, when so many things of far greater importance +have either passed away from the memories of men, or still exist +only in the dusty pages of the chroniclers. It owes, of course, +much of its tenacity of existence to the amazing inexhaustibility +of its nature. Some chess writers have loved to dwell upon the +unending fertility of its powers of combinations. They have +calculated by arithmetical rules the myriads of positions of which +the pieces and pawns are susceptible. They have told us that a +life time of many ages would hardly suffice even to count them. +We know, too, that while the composers of the orient and the +occident have displayed during long centuries an admirable +subtility and ingenuity in the fabrications of problems, yet the +chess stratagems of the last quarter of a century have never been +excelled in intricacy and beauty. We have witnessed, in our day +contests brilliant with skilful maneuvers unknown to the sagacious +and dexterous chess artists of the Eighteenth century. + +Within the last thirty years we have seen the invention of an +opening as correct in theory, and as elegant in practice as any +upon the board, and of which our fathers were utterly ignorant. +The world is not likely to tire of an amusement which never +repeats itself, of a game which presents today, features as novel, +and charms as fresh as those with which it delighted, in the +morning of history, the dwellers on the banks of the Ganges and +Indus. + +An Indian philosopher thus described it: + +It is a representative contest, a bloodless combat, an image, not +only of actual military operations, but of that greater warfare +which every son of the earth, from the cradle to the grave, is +continually waging, the battle of life. Its virtues are as +innumerable as the sands of African Sahara. It heals the mind in +sickness, and exercises it in health. It is rest to the overworked +intellect, and relaxation to the fatigued body. It lessens the +grief of the mourner, and heightens the enjoyment of the happy. +It teaches the angry man to restrain his passions, the light-minded +to become grave, the cautious to be bold, and the venturesome to be +prudent. It affords a keen delight to youth, a sober pleasure to +manhood, and a perpetual solace to old age. It induces the poor to +forget their poverty, and the rich to be careless of their wealth. +It admonishes Kings to love and respect their people, and instructs +subjects to obey and reverence their rulers. It shows how the +humblest citizens, by the practise of virtue and the efforts of +labour, may rise to the loftiest stations, and how the haughtiest +lords, by the love of vice and the commission of errors, may fall +from their elevated estate. It is an amusement and an art, a sport +and a science. The erudite and untaught, the high and the low, +the powerful and the weak, acknowledge its charms and confirm +its enticements. We learn to like it in the years of our youth, +but as increased familiarity has developed its beauties, and +unfolded its lessons, our enthusiasm has grown stronger, and our +fondness more confirmed. + +NOTE. The earliest example of praise and censure of chess strikes +us as very curious and sufficiently interesting to be presented +as illustrating two varieties of Arabian style, and as exhibiting +two sides of the question. It is from one of the early Arabian +manuscripts called the Yawakit ul Mawakit in the collection Baron +Hammer Purgstall at Vienna. + + By Ibn Ul Mutazz. + CENSURE OF CHESS. + +The chess player is ever absorbed in his chess and full of care, +swearing false oaths and making many vain excuses, one who careth +only for himself and angereth his Maker. 'Tis the game of him who +keepeth the fast only when he is hungry, of the official who is in +disgrace, of the drunkard till he recovereth from his drunkenness, +and in the Yatimat ul Dehr it is said, Abul Casim al Kesrawi hated +chess, and constantly abused it, saying, you never see a chess +player rich who is not a sordid miser, nor hear a squabbling that +is not on a question of the chess board. + + IN PRAISE OF CHESS + +O thou whose cynic sneers express the censure of our favourite chess, +Know that its skill is science self, its play distraction from + distress, +It soothes the anxious lover's care, it weans the drunkard from excess, +It counsels warriors in their art, when dangers threat and perils press, +And yields us when we need them most, companions in our loneliness. + +------ + +The manuscript of the Asiatic Society presented to them by +Major Price, is a curious but interesting production, the author is +unknown, but he is regarded as a very quaint individual, an +opinion perhaps not unwarranted by his preface, and many a one +(he says) has experienced a relief from sorrow, and affliction in +consequence of this magic recreation, and this same fact has been +asserted by the celebrated physician, Mohammed Zakaria Razi, +in his book, entitled "The Essence of Things," "and such is +likewise the opinion of the physician Abi Bin Firdaus as I shall +notice more fully towards the end of the present work for the +composing of which I am in the hope of receiving my reward +from God, who is most high and most glorious. + +"I have passed my life since the age of fifteen among all the +masters of chess living in my time, and since that period till now, +when I have arrived at middle age, I have travelled through Irak +Arab, and Irak Ajarm, and Khurasam and the regions of Mawara +al Nahr (Transoxania), and I have there met with many a master +of this art, and I have played with all of them, and through the +favour of Him who is adorable and Most High, I have come off +victorious. Likewise in playing without seeing the board I have +overcome most opponents, nor had they the power to cope with +me. I, the humble sinner now addressing you have played with +one opponent over the board and at the same time I have +carried on four different games with as many adversaries without +seeing the board, whilst I conversed freely with my friends all +along and through the Divine favour I conquered them all." + +The ten advantages of chess as set forth by the anonymous +author of the Asiatic Society's M.S. form the most remarkable +specimens of chess criticism. The first discusses it as food and +exercise for the mind, the second, he says is in Religion and free +will, 3 relates to Government, 4 to war, 5 to the Heavens +and stars, 6 to the Temperaments, 7 in obtaining repose, 8 +The social advantage of chess, 9 Wisdom and knowledge, 10, +In combining war with sport. + +Advantage the ninth is in wisdom and knowledge, and that +wise men do play chess, and to those who object that foolish men +also play chess, and though constantly engaged in it, become no +wiser, it may be answered, that the distinction between wise and +foolish men in playing chess, is as that of man and beast in eating +of the tree, that the man chooses its ripe and sweet fruit, while +the beast eats but the leaves and branches, and the unripe and +bitter fruit, and so it is with players of chess. The wise man +plays for those virtues and advantages which have been already +mentioned, and the foolish man plays it for mere sport and gambling, +and regards not its advantages and virtues. Thus may be seen, +one man who breaks the stone of the fruit and eats the kernel, +while another will even skin it to obtain the innermost part, and +in pursuit of knowledge men do likewise. One man is content +with the exterior and apparent meaning of the words, nor seeks +its hidden sense, and this is the man who eats the fruit and throws +away the kernel. Another desires to be acquainted with the +secret and inmost meaning that he may enjoy the whole benefit +of it, and he is like unto the man who takes out the very oil of +the nut, and mixes it with sugar and makes therewith a precious +sweetmeat, which he eats and throws away the rest. This is the +condition of the wise man, and the foolish man in playing chess. + +The game of chess received by the Arabians from the Persians +was differently regarded by the various sects, some practising, +others disapproving it. Familiar references occur to it in the +time of the Prophet, who died 632 A.D. Commentators considered +that a passage in the Koran concerning lots and images embraced +chess within the meaning of the latter term. The words are "O +true believers, surely wine, and lots, and images, and divining +arrows are an abomination of the works of Satan, therefore avoid +ye them that ye may prosper." + +Mussulman commentators supposed that the interdict applied +not to the game itself in which chance had no part, but to the +carved figures, representing the pieces, Men, Horses, Elephants, +&c. + +According to Sokeiker of Damascus, the author of the book +Mustatraph and others, it is related from the Sunna. That about +the time of Mahomet they played in the East at chess with figured +men. As Ali accidentally passed by some men playing at chess +he said to them, "What are these small images upon which ye are +so intent." From which it appears says the historian, the +Prophet saw small images of which he knew not the use. The +Mahometans of the Persian sect, it is said, used figures, and the +Turks and Arabians plain pieces. + +The Arabians had among them very expert chess players. + +The progress of chess from Persia to Arabia plainly appears +from the number of Persian words which are never used by the +Arabians except in this game. The Elephants which held a place +in it, and the Chariot, Ship, or Boat, original terms for the Bishop +of our game are among the proofs adduced of its Indian origin +which neither European nor Asiatic writers seem to doubt, whilst +with chess players the agreement in principle and identity of +pieces in the present game with the ancient Chaturanga is deemed +almost conclusive. + +Al Suli, who died in 946 is recorded to have been the greatest +player among the Arabians. Adali al Rumi was also a player of +the very highest class, both of these as well as Abul Abbas a +physician, who died in 899, and Lajlaj in the same age wrote +treatises on the game. Ibn Dandun and Al Kunaf, both of +Bagdad were of the first class, called Aliyat. + +NOTE. Khusra Naushirawan, King of Persia, who reigned 528 to 576 +(Anna Comnena, Lambe) or 531 to 579 (Forbes and biographers) seems +to be the first Royal patron of chess and if we consider the +accounts of Alexander the Great, and his contemporary Indian +Kings insufficiently vouched Shahnama, (Asiatic Society's M.S.), +ranks as our earliest reigning great patron, (Justinian perhaps +coming next). Al Walid, conqueror of Spain, 705 to 715 A.D. is +the first mentioned among Arabian rulers before the famous Harun Ar +Rashid. The enlightened, mild and humane Al Mamun (second son of +Harun) the great patron of science, comes seventh on the list, and +is supposed to have been the most enthusiastic and liberal of all +the Khalifs, and we are told that it was a happy thing for any +worthy man of learning or scholar to become known to him. "Unluckily +it is said for Oriental literature, but few of the Arabian treasures +have been preserved, and of those that have, scarcely any are +translated," but there are abundant references to shew that some +of the most powerful Eastern rulers were chess players, (Gibbon +and others and Eastern historians) and probably as has been +suggested, (Lambe, Bland, Forbes, &c., &c.,) many of them were +devoted to or partial to the game, list of the Khalifs, Sultans, +Emperors and Kings of the East, Africa, Spain and at times of +Egypt and Persia, from Abu Bekr 632 to 1212 A.D. (the great battle) +which finally overthrew the Moorish ascendancy. + +The versions of Persian Chess. Burzuvia 1, King of Hind 2. + +------ + +Abu Feda, who is regarded as one of the most reliable historians +in the annals of the Muslims, records the following letter from +Nicephorus, Emperor of the Romans to Harun, "Sovereign of +the Arabs," the date given being about 802 A.D. + +After the usual compliments the epistle proceeds: + +"The Empress (Irene) into whose place I have succeeded +looked upon you as a Rukh, and herself as a mere Pawn, +therefore she submitted to pay you a tribute more than the double +of which she ought to have exacted from you. All this has +been owing to female weakness and timidity. Now, however, +I insist that you immediately on reading this letter repay to me +all the sums of money you ever received from her. If you +hesitate, the sword shall settle our accounts." + +In reply to this pithy epistle, Harun in great wrath wrote on +the back of the leaf: + +"`In the name of God the Merciful and Gracious.' From +Harun the Commander of the Faithful to the Roman dog, +Nicephorus. + +"I have read thine epistle, thou son of an infidel mother. My +answer to it thou shalt see not here. Nicephorus had to sue for +peace, and to pay the tribute as before." + +The above is adduced as tending to confirm by the familiar +allusion to Rukh and Pawn that the game was known to the +Greeks and Arabians in the eighth century. + +NOTE. The unknown Persian philosopher in his M.S. presented by +Major Price, the eminent Orientalist to the Asiatic Society +attributes the invention of chess to Hermes, who lived in the +time of Moses. This M.S. which is the one upon which Bland mainly +bases his admirable treatise on Persian Chess is imperfect, many +pages being missing, including that in which the title, name of +author and date would doubtless appear if the M. S. was perfect, +what exists however is singularly curious and interesting. It +commences with a description of the author himself, and his +prowess and achievements. It then sets forth under ten headings +the advantages of chess, explains its terms, and describes it +fully, gives the names of great players with many positions, +including some of Al Mutasem, eighth Khalif of Abbaside, (833 to +842) and 18 by Ali Shaturanji the Philidor of Timur's time. Bland +assigns about the Tenth century, between the time of the death of +Al Razi the physician of Bagdad, and that of the poet Firdausi, as +the age of the document. Forbes strongly contends that it was +more probably written in the time of Tamerlane, between 1380 and +1400 A.D. and hints that it may have been prepared to please that +monarch himself with an illustration of the great game called the +Complete or Perfect Chess of Timur (with 56 pieces and 112 squares) +to which he had become much attached. Blindfold play by the author +and others is described in the M.S. as well as the giving of odds, +there being no less than thirteen grades of players enumerated. + +Anna Comnena was born 1083 and died 1148, she was the daughter of +the Emperor "Alexis Comnenus" and "The Empress Irene." During the +latter years of her life she composed a work to which she gave +the name of Alexius, which is divided into 15 books, and has +been more or less esteemed by critics, generally, and is called +a memorable work by all. + +The Biographical Dictionary 1842 describes it as one of the most +important and interesting works of the time, and the chief source +for the life of Alexius I, mention is made of her great beauty and +extraordinary talents, also of her learning, and that her palace +was the rendezvous of the most eminent Greek scholars, poets, +artists, and statesmen, and was surrounded by many of the +distinguished barons of the first Crusaders, on their appearance +at Constantinople; reference is made to her attachment to arts and +sciences, but as to chess or music, or the diversions, or recreations, +common to the period, or favoured at the Court not one word is said, +and this seems very remarkable, as due prominence is given to her +notice of chess by chess writers. The article is initialed W. P. +William Plate, L.L.D., M.R., Geographical Society of Paris. This +gentleman may have been unacquainted with chess, and so may Don +Pascual de Gayangos and Dr. Sprenger, the other writers in the +Biography, but it happens that many of the articles in the same +volume are by Duncan Forbes, who in other works so prominently +makes due mention of Anna Comnena and her references to chess, and +the fact that her father Alexius was in the habit of playing +the game. + +We are told by Hyde that the Princess Anna Comnena relates, in +the Alexius a work written by her in the beginning of the 12th +century, "that the Emperor (Alexius), her father, in order to +dispel the cares arising from affairs of state, occasionally +played chess at night with some of his relations or kinsfolk. +She then says that this game had been originally brought into use +among the Byzantines from the Assyrians." The fair historian says +nothing as to the time when the game came from Assyria, which may +have been five centuries before she wrote, her statement, however, +proves that it came from Persia, and not from Arabia, for Assyria +formed an important portion of the Persian Empire under the +Sassassian dynasty, and in fact was for some centuries a kind of +debatable land, and alternately occupied by the Persians and Romans, +according as victory swayed to one side or the other. The term +Assyria, then, denoting Persia in general, is used here in a well +known figurative sense "per synecdechen," a part taken for the +whole, just as the term Fers is employed to at this day to denote +the whole of Persia, whereas it is only the name of a single +insignificant province of that kingdom. Finally, the once splendid +empire of Assyria, of Media, and of Persia, had all passed away +long before Anna Comnena wrote, so that one name is just as +likely to be employed by her as another. (Forbes.) + +------ + +The European origin of chess, or rather the supposed time of +its first introduction through the Arabs into Spain 713, 715, +though resting on a general consensus of agreement may yet prove +to be ill matured, for though it is clear that Spain did get +knowledge of it at the conquest and occupancy during Al Walid's +reign by the armies under Musa Ibn Nosseyr and Tarik Ibn Yeyzad +it is not so certain, if the Romans were acquainted with it at +the time of the edict, 830 years earlier, that it may not have +been known in some parts of Europe before the time supposed, +besides which we have the Asiatic Society's statement, through +its Persian M.S., and from the Shahnama applicable to Alexander +the Great's time, and the Indian Kings in treaty with him. + +The commonly accepted theory, that England first got chess +through William of Normandy at the Conquest or on the return +of the first Crusaders (in the latter case about 1100 A.D.), +though concurred in with tolerable unanimity by all writers until +Sir Frederic Madden raised his doubts in 1828 also appears scarcely +consistent with previous incidents found on record. Canute's +partiality for chess (he reigned 1017 to 1035) events mentioned +in the reigns of Athelstan and Edgar and the chess pieces and +boards we read of including those dug up at the Isle of Lewis, +and of Pepin, Charlemagne, Harfagia, King of Norway, and in +Iceland seem to be unnoticed or too slightly regarded by those +who wrote on assumed Saxon or English chess, first knowledge. +The period assigned for chess in England is 500 years later than its +arrival in Persia, and subsequent receipt in Arabia, and probably +in Greece, and nearly 400 years after its practice among the +Spaniards, the Aquitaines and the Franks. The Saxon monarchs +who first became most given to the search after knowledge of all +kinds and who were acquainted with and contemporary with +Pepin and Charlemagne and Harun and the great Al Mamun may +well have heard of and acquired some knowledge of a game so +popular as chess had become at the Carlovingian and Greek +Courts, and in the Eastern dominions and Mohammedan Spain. + +The reigns of Offa and Egbert seem not improbable ones in +which chess might have become known among us, the scholar +Alcuin from his long sojourn and domestication with Charlemagne +and his family, by all of whom he was revered and beloved, was +familiar with that monarch's tastes and amusements. He was in fact +his preceptor in the sciences. By arrangement with Charlemagne he +paid a visit to his native country, England, during the years 790 +to 793 A.D., he probably knew chess and was familiar with the +celebrated chess men which the Emperor valued so much, and +have been reported on in our own times, and he seems the least +unlikely person to have noticed and assisted in encouraging a +judicious practice of it in England. Offa also corresponded with +Charlemagne. Egbert took refuge at his Court before he began to +reign and was well received, and for a time served in the +Emperor's army, and that those kings may have known of +the royal game, through Alcuin, or even direct is not impossible +or even improbable. + +H. T. Buckle, the author and historian, (born 1822, died at +Damascus in 1862) foremost in skill among chess amateurs, +satisfied with the evidence of Canute's partiality for the game +thought it very probable that it might have been known before +the commencement of that monarch's reign (1016), and suggested +perhaps a century earlier. Sir Frederick Madden (1828 to 1832) +at the outset of some highly interesting communications to the +"Asiatic Researches," at first inclined to the Crusaders' theory, +but upon later consideration in his articles he arrived at the +conclusion that chess must have been known among us as early as +the reign of Athelstan (925 to 940), and Professor Duncan Forbes +(1854 to 1860) concurred in that view, both writers regard the +incident related of the Earl of Devonshire and his beautiful +daughter being found playing chess together, when Earl +Athelwold, King Edgar's messenger arrived to test the report of +her great beauty as not unworthy of credit. Edgar reigned from +958 to 975. English history referring to this incident among the +amours of Edgar makes no mention of the Earl of Devonshire and +his daughter being found playing chess together. Hume says +Elfrida was daughter and heir of Olgar (Orgar), Earl of +Devonshire, and though she had been educated in the country and had +never appeared in Court she had filled all England with the +reputation of her beauty. The mission of Earl Athelwold, his +deception of the King and his own marriage with Elfrida follows, +next the King's discovery, the murder of Athelwold by the King, +and his espousal of Elfrida. + +This incident in Edgar's reign with some in Athelstan's, +including the present to Harold Harfagra, King of Norway, of a +very fine and rich chess table, and the account and description of +seventy chessmen of different sizes, belonging to various sets, dug +up in the parish of Uig, Isle of Lewis, are mentioned among the +matters which cause the impression and assumption that a +knowledge of chess had existed in the north of Europe, and in +England earlier than the Conquest days assigned to it by all +writers before Madden's views of 1832 appeared. + +So early as the Eighth century some courtesies began to be +extended and enquiries made between contemporary monarchs on +theological, scientific, and social matters. The presents received +by the Carlovingian rulers from Constantinople and the East +included the chess equipages deposited and preserved as sacred +relics in France, which had belonged to Pepin and to Charlemagne. +The latter was contemporary with the famous Harun Ar Rashid +of Bagdad and Princess Irene and her successor Emperor +Nicephorus of Constantinople. Greetings and embassies passed +between them. + +Offa corresponded with Charlemagne and despatched the +scholar Alcuin to assist him in refuting certain religious +heresies (as alleged) propounded by one Felix, a bishop of +Urgel. Egbert, we read, took refuge at Charlemagne's Court, +was well received by him and served for a time in his army. +Alcuin was the preceptor and became the life-long friend and +adviser of Charlemagne, was domesticated with him and greatly +revered in his family. 232 letters of Alcuin's are referred to +in Forbes' edition. + +The Emperor's taste for chess, his celebrated chessmen and +his communications on scientific and social matters with the East +and elsewhere could be no secrets to Alcuin. + +Charlemagne seems to have fancied himself at chess, and from +his avidity to find an opponent Alcuin may have been induced to +test conclusions of chess skill with him. On his visit to England +in 793 Alcuin brought his knowledge with him and he is the +least unlikely person to have noticed chess and to have assisted +in diffusing a knowledge of it in England. + +Egbert, a young man of the most promising hopes gave +great jealously to Brithric, the reigning prince, both because he +seemed by his birth better entitled to the crown, and because he +had acquired, to an eminent degree the affections of the people. +Egbert, sensible of his danger from the suspicions of Brithric, +secretly withdrew into France where he was well received by +Charlemagne. By living in the Court, and serving in the armies +of that prince, the most able and most generous that had appeared +in Europe during several ages, he acquired those accomplishments +which afterwards enabled him to make such a shining figure on the +throne, and familiarizing himself to the manners of the French, +who, as Malmesbury observes, were eminent, both for valour and +civility above all the Western Nations, he learned to polish the +rudeness and barbarity of the Saxon character, his early +misfortunes thus proved a singular advantage to him. + +------ + +THEORIES AS TO THE INVENTION OF CHESS + +In the second volume of the "History of British India," by +James Mill, Esq., we are told that the Araucanians invented the +game of chess. + +Forbes sums up an article upon this claim by saying, "We must +in charity suppose that Mr. Mill really knew nothing of chess, +whether Hindu, Persian, or Chinese." + +Professor Wilson's opinion of Mr. Mill's work is better worth +recording. "History of British India," by James Mill, Esq., +fourth edition, with notes and continuation, by Horace Hayman +Wilson, M.A., F.R.S., &c., London 1840, 9 vols., 8 vo., Vide +Preface by Professor Wilson, page vii, &c. + +Of the proofs which may be discovered in Mr. Mill's history of +the operation of preconceived opinions, in confining a vigorous +and active understanding to a partial and one-sided view of a +great question, no instance is more remarkable than the +unrelenting pertinacity with which he labours to establish the +barbarism of the Hindus. Indignant at the exalted, and it may +be granted, sometimes exaggerated descriptions of their advance +in civilization, of their learning, their sciences, their talents, +their virtues which emanated from the amiable enthusiasm of Sir +William Jones, Mr. Mill has entered the lists against him with +equal enthusiasm, but a less commendable purpose, and has sought +to reduce them as far below their proper level as their encomiasts +may have formerly elevated them above it. With very imperfect +knowledge, with materials exceedingly defective, with an implicit +faith in all testimony hostile to Hindu pretensions, he has +elaborated a portrait of the Hindus which has no resemblance +whatever to the original, and which almost outrages humanity. +As he represents them, the Hindus are not only on a par with the +least civilized nations of the old and new world, but they are +plunged almost without exception in the lowest depths of +immorality and crime. Considered merely in a literary capacity, +the description of the Hindus, in the history of British India is +open to censure for its obvious unfairness and injustice, but in +the effect which it is likely to exercise upon the connexion +between the people of England and the people of India, it is +chargeable with more than literary element, its tendency is evil, +it is calculated to destroy all sympathy between the rulers and +the ruled. + +A writer in Fraser's Magazine, observes: "The native +of India is defective in that mental and moral energy, that +restless enterprise, which distinguishes the Anglo Saxon genius, +and which gives him such a preponderance over the impassive +and contemplative Oriental, but, on the other hand, the +native of India possesses in a high degree that acute perception +and common sense strengthened by numerical traditions and +maxims, which enable him to judge correctly of both the acts and +motives of his Foreign superior. It should be recollected to their +credit, that the germ of almost every known invention, the +original idea of nearly every useful secret in arts, the knowledge +of the highest branches of the abstract sciences, had been familiar +to the wise men of the East, and were taught in the most perfect +language in the world, the mother of all other languages, the +Sanskrit. + +The anonymous or rather unknown author of the Asiatic +Society's M.S. often declares that the Hindus were far too stupid +a people to have invented chess. + +------ + +SALVIO, DOCTOR OF CIVIL LAWS + +The inventor as some authors declare, and among them Jacobus +de Cessolus, a Friar and Master of the Dominican Order, is Xerxes, +a philosopher and minister of Ammolius, King of Babylon whose +object was to admonish his monarch of the errors that had been +committed in the government of the realm. This opinion is +followed by many, of whom the author of the Historia del Mondo +is one. St. Gregory of Nazianzen in his third oration, Cassiodorus +the Great in his thirty-first epistle and eighth book, Allesandri +Allesandro in the third book and twenty first chapter of his Dies +Geniales, Torquato Tasso in his Romeo del Gioco, Thomas Actius +in his Tractatus de Ludo Scaccherum, and other legal authors who +have treated of play, say that chess owes its origin to Palamedes +who at the siege of Troy, employed it in order that his soldiers +should not remain inactive, and not being able to practice actual +warfare, they might amuse themselves with mimic conflicts. For +which reason Palamedes played it with Thersites, as Homer tells +us in the second book of the Iliad, so also did the other heroes +of the Grecian armies, as is related by Euripides in his tragedies. + +Carrera 1617, published a large volume concerning the origin +of chess, in which he attempts to prove from Herodotus, +Euripides, Sophocles, Philostratus, Homer, Virgil, Aristotle, +Seneca, Plato, Ovid, Horace, Quintilian, and Martial Vida, that +Palamedes invented chess at the siege of Troy. + +The Encyclopaedia or Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, +dedicated to the King in 1727, contains an account of chess, but +it is neither a well informed nor useful article beyond the +statement that Schach is originally Persian, and that Schachmat in +that language, signifies the king is dead, it vouchsafes neither +reasonable nor useful information. + +The traditionary names mentioned in the article are Schatrinscha +a Persian philosopher, Palamedes, Diogenes and Pyrrhus, its +authorities, Nicod, Bochart, Scriverius, Fabricius, and Donates, +and it concludes with a sample of the stereotyped character, with +which we are so familiar of the trace of chess origin, being lost +in the remote ages of antiquity. Chess is thus described in it: + +"An ingenious game, played or performed with little round +pieces of wood, on a board divided into 64 squares, where art and +address are so indispensably requisite, that chance seems to have +no place, and a person never loses but by his own fault. On +each side are eight noblemen and as many pawns, which are to be +moved and shifted, according to certain rules and laws of the +game." + +The same work specifies the various ancient opinions upon the +origin of the game, inclining to those of Nicod and Bochart, +supported by Scriverius, who state that Schach is originally +Persian, and Schachmat in that language signifies the king dead. + +Another opinion is that of all the theories enunciated, the most +probable is that of Fabricius, who avers that a celebrated Persian +astronomer, one Schatrinscha, invented the game, and gave it his +own name, which it still bears in that country. It adds, Donatus +observes, that Pyrrhus the most knowing and expert prince of his +age, ranging a battle, made use of the men at chess, to form his +designs, and to shew the secrets thereof to other. The common +opinion was that it was invented by Palamedes at the siege of +Troy, others attributed it to Diomedes, who lived in the time of +Alexander, but the text concludes by remarking, "The truth +appears to be that the game is so very ancient, there is no tracing +its author." + +------ + +CHAUCER + +In the Fourteenth and Fifteenth centuries, chess continued to be +extremely popular, Chaucer in one of his minor poems "The +Boke of the Duchesse," introduces himself in a dream as playing +at chess with Fortune, and speaks of false moves, as though +dishonest tricks were sometimes practised in the game. +He tells us: + + At chesse with me she gan to playe, + With her fals draughts (moves) dyvers, + She staale on me and toke my fers (Queen), + And wharne I sawe my fers awaye, + Allas I couthe no longer playe, + But seyde, farewell swete yuys, + And farewell ul that ever ther ys, + Therwith fortune seyde Chek here, + And mayte in the myd poynt of the Chek here, (chess board) + WIth a paune (pawn) errante allas, + Ful craftier to playe she was, + Than Athalus that made the game, + First of the chesse, so was hys name. + (ROBERT BELL)-CHAUCER, Vol. VI. p. 157. + +------ + +SAUL AND BARBIERE + +Barbiere 1640, in his work, "The famous game of chess play," +dedicated to Lucy, Countess of Bedford, observes: + +"For the antiquity of this game, I find upon record, that it was +invented 614 years before the Nativity of Christ, so that it is now +2,252 years since it hath been practiced, and it is thought that +Xerxes (a puissant King) was the deviser thereof, though some be +of opinion that it was made by excellent learned men, as well +appeareth by the wonderful invention of the same." + +The title is quaintly expressed. + +The famous game of chesse play, "Being a princely exercise +wherein the learner may profit more by reading of this small book, +than by playing of a thousand mates. Now augmented by many +material things formerly wanting and beautified by a threefold +methode of the Chesse men, of the Chesse play, of the Chesse +moves." + by J. BARBIERE, P. +To which is added representation of a chesse board and pieces, +with two players thereat, in the act of drawing for the move with +the following lines: + + "If on your man you light, + The first draught you may play, + If not tis mine by right, + At first to leade the way. + +Printed in London, for John Jackson, dwelling without Temple +Barre, 1460. + +The introduction is in the following words: + + To + The Right +Honourable, Thrice Noble, and Vertuous Lady, +Lucy Countesse of Bedford, one of the Ladies of Her +Majesties Privie Chamber. + +This little book, not so much for the subject sake (though much +esteemed), as for bearing in front your Honour's honoured name +having found that good acceptance with the world, as now to come +to be re-imprinted. I have been desired by the printer, my friend, +little to review it, and finding it indeed a prettie thing, but with +some wants specially or a good methode, I have to my best skill +rectified it for him, leaving to the author (now deceased), with +the good respect and commendation due to him for his honest and +generous endeavour, his phrase and stile whole as farre as I might +of this Madame, I now presume to offer your Honour the censure +whose singular judgment, and love in and unto this noble +exercise, is reported to be a chief grace to the same, that so both +his labour and mine herein, may returne to the sacred Shrine of +your Honour's vertues, there still to receive protection against +ignorance and malice. + +For which attempt of mine, humbly craving pardon I rest, + Noble Madame of Your Honour, + The most submissive observant, J. BARBIERE, P. + +------ + +JOHN LYDGATE + +The earliest English references to chess, are in the works of +Chaucer, Gower, Occreve, Price, Denham, Sir Philip Sydney, Sir +Walter Raleigh, &c. + +John Lydgate the English Monk of St. Edmund's-Bury, calls +this game, the Game Royal, and he dedicates his book, written in +the manner of a love poem, to the admirers of chess, which he +compares to a love battle, in the following words: M.S. + + JOHN LYDGATE. + + To all Folky's vertuose, + That gentil bene and amerouse, + Which love the fair play notable, + Of the Chesse most delytable, + Whith all her hoole full entente, + Where they shall fynde, and son anoone, + How that I not yere agoone, + Was of a Fers so Fortunate, + Into a corner drive and maat. + +The old English names in Lydgate, are 1, Kynge, 2, Queen or +Fers, 3, Awfn, or Alfin, 4, Knyght, or Horseman, 5, Roke or +Rochus, 6, Paune. + +Although Shakespeare makes no mention of chess in his works, +some of his brother dramatists, and other writers who were +contemporary with him, were fond of referring to it. Skelton, poet +laureate to Henry the Eighth, says: + + For ye play so at the chesse, + As they suppose and guess, + That some of you but late, + Hath played so checkmate, + With Lords of High estate, + And again, + Our dayes be datyed, + To be check matyed. + +Many other poets and writers of that age, drew similes and +figures of speech from the chess board, including Spencer, Cowley, +Denham, Beaumont and Fletcher, quaint Arthur Saul and John +Dryden. + +Middleton's Comedy of Chesse, 1624, was acted at the Globe. +It was however a sort of religious controversy, the game being +played by a member of the Church of England, and another of +the Church of Rome, the former in the end gaining the victory. +The play being considered too political, the author was cast into +prison, from which he obtained his release by the following +petition to the King. + + A harmless game, coyned only for delight, + T'was played betwixt the black house and the white, + The white house won, yet still the black doth brag, + They had the power to put me in the bag, + Use but your hand, tw'll set me free, + T'is but removing of a man, that's me. + +Philidor states in his work that historians have commemorated +the following Sovereigns as chess players: Charlemagne, +Tamerlane, Sebastian, King of Portugal, Philip II King of +Spain, The Emperor Charles V, Catherine of Medecis, Queen of +France, Pope Leo X, Henry IV of France, Queen Elizabeth, +Louis XIII, James I of England (who used to call the game a +philosophical folly,) Louis XIV, William III, Charles XII, and +Frederick of Russia. + +Of these, Charlemagne, who reigned 768 to 814 is the earliest +name. Tamerlane or Timur who dominated at the end of the +14th century is the next. The remainder date from the 16th +century. + +To this list the renowned and esteemed Philidor might have +made some very material additions. If the first Indian account +of Kings, Kaid and Porus, in Alexander the Great's time, is to +be relied on, the Macedonian conqueror who was in friendly +alliance with Porus in 326 B.C., might have become acquainted +with chess, and Aristotle, some time his tutor, may have played +it as supposed in one of the Arabian manuscripts. Chosroes, +King of Persia, who reigned from 531 to 579, Harun Ar Rashid, +786 to 809, Al Amin, his first son, 809 to 813, the magnificent +Al Mamun, his second son, 813 to 833, Al Mutasem, the most +skilful player among the rulers, 833 to 842, and Al Wathick, +842 to 847, the five successive Caliphs of the powerful Abbasside +dynasty, during the palmy period called the Golden Age of +Arabian Literature, are identified with a very interesting period +of chess practice and progress, and are all recorded to have been +chess players. Al Walid the Sixth, of Umeyyah, 705 to 715, +who through his generals, Tarik Ibn Zeyyad and Musa Ibn +Nosseyr and their armies invaded, conquered and occupied Spain, +is the earliest ruler we read of as a chess player after its first +great friend and patron Chosroes, but it is pretty certain that +Justinian, who died in 565, and was contemporary with Chosroes, +was also an exponent and supporter of the game. + +Of the one hundred and sixty monarchs who ruled the East +Africa and Spain from the days of Bekr, Omar, and the Prophet to +the downfall of Moorish ascendancy in the middle of the +Thirteenth century, we read of several who emulated the tastes +of their most famous predecessors, and the Rahmans, Mansur and +An Nassirs vied with Harun and Al Mamum in their patronage +and encouragement of all sorts of learning arts and sciences. +Of the powerful Abbasside dynasty which lasted from 749 to 1258, +there were 37 Caliphs whose chess doings and sayings alone +would, it is said fill a good-sized volume. + +NOTE. In addition to the 37 of Abbas and 14 of Umeyyah 664 to 749, +there were 17 of Beni Umeyyah 755 to 1030, there were 14 Fatimites, +893 to 1169, 5 Almmoravides (exclusive of Abdullah, the founder), +the Mahdi, 1059 to 1145, 13 Almohades, 1130 to 1269, and 8 Sultans +of Almowat, 1095 to 1256. These with about 52 other rulers, +Sultans, Emperors or Kings of Cordova, Toledo, Seville, Khorassan, +Valentia and Badajoz, make up a list of about 160 rulers, who +swayed the East Africa and Mohammedan Spain for about 650 years. +The Moors after suffering great defeats in 1085 and 1139 received +a final check in the great battle of 1212, and in 1248 when +Ferdinand III of Castile took Seville their powers of aggression +had vanished. + +NOTE. Abbasides is the name generally given to the Beni Abbas or +descendants of Abbas, who succeeded the Beni Umeyyah in the +Empire of the East. Owing to their descent from the uncle of the +Prophet, they had ever since the introduction of Islam been held +in great esteem by the Arabs, and had frequently aspired to the +Khalifate. In the year 132, A.D. 749-750, Abul-abbas Abdullah, +son of Mohammed, son of Ali, son of Abdullah, son of Abbas Ibn +Aldi-l-Mutalib, uncle of the Prophet Mohammed, revolted at Kujah, +and after putting to death Merwan II, the last Khalif of the house +of Umeyyah, was unanimously raised to the throne. Thirty-seven +Khalifs of the dynasty of Abbas reigned for a period of 523 lunar +or Mohammedan years over the East (Spain, Africa and Egypt) +having been successively detached from their Empire, until the +last of them, Al Mut'assem, was deprived both of his kingdom and +his life by the Tartars under Hulaku Khan, 1258. + +NOTE. The Khalif Al Mamum was one day playing with one of his +courtiers, who moved negligently and in a careless manner, the +Khalif perceived it and got wrath, and turned over the board and +men, and said: "He wants to deceive me and practice on my +understanding; and he vowed on earth that this person should never +play with him again." In like manner, it is related of Walid ben +Abdul Malik ben Merwan, that on an occasion when one of his +courtiers, who used to play with him negligently at chess, +omitted to follow the proper rules of the game, the Khalif +struck him a blow with the Ferzin (or Queen) which broke his +head, saying: "Woe unto thee! Art thou playing chess, and art +thou in thy senses." + +NOTE. The 37th and last Khalif of Abbaside, was dethroned and put +to death by Hulaku. the son of Genghis Khan in 1258, when the +Tartars were also sorely troubling part of the Christian world, +and frightening the Popes. Unluckily for Oriental Literature we +are told, scarcely any of the comparatively few works of the +"Golden Age of Arabian Literature" saved from destruction, have +been translated or made known to us, but we may conclude that of +the one hundred and sixty rulers, not a few emulating Harun, Mamun, +Walid and Mutasem, were more or less like them, devoted to the +game. The powerful Abbaside Dynasty lasted from 749 to 1258, and +there were 37 Khalifs of that race, the chess sayings and doings +of whom alone, it is said, would fill a good-size volume, chess +has had to contend against the consideration that the greatest +historians and biographers, with the exception of Cunningham and +Forbes, and perhaps Gibbon were not players, hence what we do +possess is gathered from scattered allusion, incidental and +accidental rather than sustained or connected narrative or +biographical notice. Canute the Dane, 1016-1035, William the First, +and other English Kings, not so well attested, are absent from +Philidor's list. Henry I, John, two of the Edwards, I and IV, +and Charles I are identified with the chess incidents. Accounts +of Henry VII and Henry VIII, contain items of expense connected +with the game. The bluff king it is said played chess, as Wolsey +and Cranmer did, and as Pitt, and Wilberforce, and Sunderland, +Bolingbroke and Sydney Smyth have in our generations. The vain and +tyrant king, like the Ras of Abyssinia, who we hear of through +Salt and Buckle much preferred winning, and was probably readily +accommodated. Less magnanimous and wise, these two, Henry and Ras, +did not in this respect resemble Al Mamun and Tamerlane, whom Ibn +Arabshah, Gibbon and others tell us, had no dislike to being beaten, +but rather honored their opponents. The chessmen of Henry VIII were +last heard of in the possession of Sir Thomas Herbert, those of +Charles I were with Lord Barrington. Chess men were kept for Queen +Elizabeth's use by Lord Cecil, the Earl of Leicester, and Sir +John Harrington. + +In olden times as supposed, Alexander the Great, perhaps from +acquaintance with India and its Kings, and their powerful Porus, +326 B.C., may have known chess and possibly Aristotle, sometime his +tutor, who some say, invented chess, also played it. The most +ancient names are the renowned Prince Yudhistheira, eldest son of +King Pandu of the Sanskrit chess period, the yet earlier Prince +Nala of the translated poems, and further back we have the Brahmin +Radha Kants account from the old Hindu law book, that the wife of +Ravan, King of Lanka, Ceylon, invented chess in the second age of +the world. Associated with games not chess, but more like Draughts +in China, there are Emperor Yao, 2300 B.C., Wa Wung 1122 B.C., +Confucius 551 B.C., Hung Cochu, 172 B.C, and in Egypt, Queen Hatasu +about 1750 B.C., Amenoph II, 1687 to 1657 B.C., and Rameses IV +1559 to 1493 B.C. + +NOTE. The Throne, Cartouche, Signet, and other relics. The +Draught Box and Draughtsmen of Queen Hatasu in the Manchester +Exhibition 1887. Date B.C. 1600. The catalogue says: These +remarkable relics, the workmanship of royal artists 3,500 +years ago, i.e., 200 years before the birth of Moses, are now +being exhibited for the first time, by the kind permission of +their owner, Jesse Haworth, Esq. Queen Hatasu was the favourite +daughter of Thotmes I, and the sister of Thotmes II and III, +Egyptian Kings of the XVIII dynasty. She reigned conjointly with +her eldest brother, then alone for 15 years, and for a short time +with her younger brother, Thotmes III. She was the Elizabeth of +Egyptian history: had a masculine genius and unbounded ambition. +A woman, she assumed male attire; was addressed as a king even in +the inscriptions upon her monument. Her edifices are said to be +"the most tasteful, most complete and brilliant creations which +ever left the hands of an Egyptian architect." The largest and +most beautifully executed obelisk; still standing at Karnak, bears +her name. On the walls of her unique and beautiful temple at Dayr +el Baharee, we see a naval expedition sent to explore the unknown +land of Punt, the Somali country on the East coast of Africa near +Cape Guardafui 600 years before the fleets of Solomon, and +returning laden with foreign woods, rare trees, gums, perfumes +and strange beasts. Here we have 1. Queen Hatasu's throne, made of +wood foreign to Egypt, the legs most elegantly carved in imitation +of the legs of an animal, covered with gold down to the hoof, +finishing with a silver band. Each leg has carved in relief two +Uroei, the sacred cobra serpent of Egypt, symbolic of a goddess. +These are plated with gold. Each arm is ornamented with a serpent +curving gracefully along from head to tail, the scales admirably +imitated by hundreds of inlaid silver rings. The only remaining +rail is plated with silver. The gold and silver are of the +purest quality. + +2. A fragment of the Cartouche or oval bearing the royal name, and +once attached to the Throne; the hieroglyphics are very elegantly +carved in relief, with a scroll pattern round the edge, and around +one margin, and a palm frond pattern around the other. About one +fourth of the oval remains, by means of which our distinguished +Egyptologist, Miss Amelia B. Edwards, L.L.D., has been able to +complete the name and identify the throne. On one side is the +great Queen's throne name, Ru-ma-ka. On the other the family name, +Amen Knum Hat Shepsu, commonly read Hatasu. With all its +imperfections it is unique, being the only throne which has ever +been disinterred in Egypt. + +3. A female face boldy, but exquisitely carved in dark wood, from +the lid of a coffin, the effigy strongly resembling the face of +the sitting statue of Hatasu in the Berlin Museum: the eyes and +double crown are lost. + +4. The Signet: This is a Scarabaeus, in turquoise bearing the +Cartouche of Queen Hatasu, once worn as a ring. + +5. The Draught Box and Draughtmen: The box is of dark wood, +divided on its upper side by strips of ivory into 30 squares, on +its under side into 20 squares, 12 being at one end and 8 down the +centre; some of these contained hieroglyphics inlaid, three of +which still remain, also a drawer for holding the draughts. +These draughts consist of about 20 pieces, carved with most +exquisite art and finish in the form of lions' heads--the +hieroglyphic sign for "Hat" in Hatasu. Also two little standing +figures of Egyptian men like pages or attendants, perfect, and +admirable specimens of the delicate Egyptian art. These may have +been markers, or perhaps the principle pieces. Two sides of +another draught box, of blue porcelain and ivory, with which are +two conical draughts of blue porcelain and ivory and three other +ivory pieces. + +6. Also parts of two porcelain rings and porcelain rods, probably +for some unknown game. + +7. With the above were found a kind of salvo or perfume spoon in +green slate, and a second in alabaster. + +The coffin of Thotmes I and the bodies of Thotmes II and III, were +found at Dayr el Baharee in 1881, that of their sister, Queen +Hatasu, had disappeared but her cabinet was there, and is now in +the Boulack Museum, and I have no doubt whatever, says Miss +Edwards, "that this throne and these other relics are from +that tomb." + +HIEROGLYPHICS OF ANCIENT EGYPT + +NOTE. The name which occurs most frequently on the finest monuments +of Egyptian art is Ramses, which immediately recalls the names of +Rhamses, Ramesses, or Ramestes, and Raamses, (Exod. i., 11) +occuring in Hebrew, Greek and Roman writers, and when we find this +name with all its adjuncts, distinguishing some of the finest +remains of antiquity from the extremity of Nubia to the shores +of the Mediterranean, we are immediately led to ask whether this +must not have been the title of Sesostris. The Flaminian obelisk +at Rome, its copy, the Salustian, the Mahutean, and Medicean, in +the same place; those at El-Ocsor, the ancient Thebes, and a +bilingual inscription at Nahr-el-Kelb, in Syria, all bear this +legend. The power and dominions of this Prince, must therefore +have been of no ordinary magnitude; and such was in fact that of +the Rhamses, whom the priests at Thebes described to Germanicus +as the greatest conqueror who ever lived (Tacit. Annal. 11 +p. 78 ed, Elzevir, 1649). But none of the ancient historians give +this name to Sesostris. He is however called Sethos by Manetho who +tells us (Joseph, contra, Apion, 1 p. 1053) that he was also +called Rhamesses, from his grandfather Rhampses, and thus affords +a clue by which all doubt is removed; and as Sethos, Sesostris and +Sessosis, are virtually the same name, and confessedly belong to +the same person, so was the Rhamses of Tacitus and the REMSS of +these hieroglyphical inscriptions, no other than that mighty +conqueror. His grandfather is called Rhameses Meiammun by Manetho +(15th King of the 18th dynasty) and that name appears in the +great palace of Medinet Abu and some other buildings in the ruins +of Thebes, but the one is always named Ramses Ammon-mei and has +distinctive titles different from those of the other. This is alone +sufficient to identify them; for as the Ptolemies were distinguished +by their surnames Philadelphus, Epiphanes, Soter &c., so were the +ancient Egyptian Kings by their peculiar titles, as is manifest +from the double scrolls by which their names are usually expressed. +>From the tomb of Ramses Mei-ammun, in the Biban-el-muluk, +Mr. Belzoni brought the cover of his sarcophagus of red granite, +ornamented with a recumbent figure of the deceased King in the +character of Osiris. It is now preserved in the Fitz-William +Museum at Cambridge, to which it was presented by that justly +regretted traveller. + +CORRECTION. The 16th King of the 18th dynasty he must have been +if they were seventeen, for Sesostris in the tables is 1st King +of the 19th dynasty. + +------ + +It is not unreasonable to infer that Egbert and even Offa, at +about the end of the Eighth century may have known chess, +which had become popular during their times, in Arabia, Greece, +Spain and among the Franks and Aquitaines, these Saxon +Kings were of an enquiring turn of mind, and not indifferent to +what was passing on in other countries. Two hundred and fifty +years had elapsed since chess had reached Persia, and +contemporary monarchs were not altogether strange to one another's +tastes and pursuits. Justinian and Chosroes held communication on +historical and social matters, Harun of Bagdad, and the Princess +Irene of Constantinople, as well as her predecessor, made special +presents to Pepin and Charlemagne, including chess equipages +which probably were considered suitable and fitting compliments +at the time, and they seem to have been appreciated and highly +valued, especially by Charlemagne, who evidently fancied himself +at chess, and we find was somewhat demonstrative in his challenges. + +Charlemagne must have known Egbert, who took refuge at his +court for a time, before he became King of England, from the +usurper Brithric. The biography of the celebrated scholar Alcuin, +says that Charlemagne met him in Parma; but Hume is probably +right in his statement that he was sent by Offa as the most proper +person to meet the Emperor's views in aiding him to confute +certain alleged heresies. This scholar was much esteemed and +venerated by Charlemagne, and his family, and from his long +domestication in his household, and familiarity with his habits +and pursuits, could scarcely be ignorant of Charlemagne's +enthusiasm for chess, and such a popular exponent of learning at +the time as Alcuin was, might well have been known and +favourably regarded by such a patron and enquirer as the famous +Harun Ar Rashid of Bagdad, who must have corresponded with +Charlemagne and sent his presents at the very time that Alcuin +was residing with the Emperor. + +NOTE. Offa died 794, Alcuin 804, Harun 809, Charlemagne 814, the +great Al Mamun commenced to reign in 813, and he is undoubtedly +reputed to have been the most mild, humane and enlightened of all +the Khalifs. He was, however warlike also and expressed his +surprise that he could not manage the mimic armies of the chess +board like large forces on the field of battle. + +------ + +Canute's great partiality for chess seems well attested. The +three successive royal assassinations recorded in Scandinavian +history associated with chess incidents, need not alone be relied on +and form not the most pleasing reading in connection with our now +innocent, and harmless chess; neither perhaps is it a +recommendation or evidence of the calmness, meditative tranquility +and imperturbability so generally supposed to be incidental to the +game, to repeat the authenticated statement that the son of Okbar +was killed by King Pepin's son through the jealousy and irritation +of the latter at being constantly beaten at chess, or that William +the Conqueror in early days had to beat a precipitate retreat from +France through assaulting the King's son over the chess board, +and a somewhat similar misadventure in early days to Henry I, +and John's unseemly fracas. It is related that an English knight +seized the bridle of Philip Le Gros in battle, crying out, the king +is taken, but was struck down by that monarch who observed, +"Ne fais tu pas que aux echecs on ne prend pas le roi." + +Among English monarchs, indeed, there are several which may +be added to the list presented by Philidor which comprises only +Elizabeth; James I and William III, of those omitted Canute, +the first William, and perhaps Edwards I and IV, are the most +notable before the time of the unfortunate Charles I, whose +likeness is in one of the chess books, and whose chess men +exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries were preserved in the +possession of Lord Barrington. Items referring to chess are +mentioned in expense accounts of Henry VII and Henry VIII. In a +closet in the old royal palace of Greenwich, the last-named had +a payre of chess men in a case of black lether--(Warton). The +celebrated Ras, at Chelicut, was passionately fond of chess, +provided he won, Charles the XII was much devoted to the game. +In 1740 Frederick the Great writes: "Je suis comme le roi et +echecs de Charles XII qui marchait toujours." + +------ + +CANUTE + +Sir Frederick Madden states in p. 280: Snorr Sturleson relates an +anecdote of King Canute, which would prove that monarch to have +been a great lover of the game. About the year 1028, whilst +engaged in his warfare against the Kings of Norway and Sweden, +Canute rode over to Roskild, to visit Earl Ulfr, the husband of +his sister. An entertainment was prepared for their guest, but +the King was out of spirits and did not enjoy it. They attempted +to restore his cheerfulness by conversation, but without success. +At length, the Earl challenged the King to play at chess, which +was accepted, and, the chess table being brought, they sat down to +their game. After they had played awhile, the King made a false +move, in consequence of which Ulfr captured one of his opponent's +Knights. But the King would not allow it, and replacing his piece, +bade the Earl play differently. On this, the Earl (who was of a +hasty disposition) waxing angry, overturned the chess board and +left the room. The King called after him, saying, Ulfr, thou coward, +dost thou thus flee? The Earl returned to the door, and said: You +would have taken a longer flight in the river Helga, had I not come +to your assistance, when the Swedes beat you like a dog--you did not +then call me a coward. He then retired, and some days afterwards +was murdered by the King's orders. This anecdote is corroborated +(so far as the chess is concerned) by a passage in the anonymous +history of the monastery of Ramsey, composed probably about the +time of Henry I, where we are told, that Bishop Etheric coming +one night at a late hour on urgent business to King Canute, +found the monarch and his courtiers amusing themselves at the +games of dice and chess. + +In the year 1157 the Kingdom of Denmark was divided between three +Monarchs: Svend, Valdemar, and Canute the Fifth. This took place +after many years of contest, between Svend on the one hand, and +Valdemar and Canute on the other. Each King was to rule over a +third of the realm, and each swore before the altar to preserve +the contract inviolate. But it did not last long. Canute asked his +brother monarchs to spend a few days of festivity with him at +Roskilde. Svend came with a crowd of soldiers. One evening +Valdemar sat at the chess board where the battle waxed warm. +His adversary was a nobleman, and Canute sat by Valdemar's side +watching the game. All at once, Canute observing some suspicious +consultations between Svend and one of his Captains, and feeling +a presentiment of evil, threw his arms round Valdemar's neck and +kissed him. Why so merry, cousin? asked the latter without +removing his eyes from the chess board. You will soon see, replied +Canute in an apprehensive tone. Just then the armed soldiery of +Svend rushed into the apartment, slew Canute and severely wounded +Valdemar. The last named having strapped his mantle about his arm +to serve for a shield, extinguished the lights, and fought like +a lion. He succeeded in making his escape and is known in history +as the powerful Valdemar the Great. + +A century later chess again makes its appearance upon the historic +stage of Denmark. At that time, Eric Plovpenning or Ploughpenny as +he was called, ruled wisely and well over the fierce and war loving +people of that country. In the summer of 1250 he was on his way to +defend the town of Rendsborg against the attack of some German +bands, when he received an invitation from his brother Abel to +visit him in Slesvig. The unsuspecting and open hearted Eric +accepted. After dinner, on the 9th of August, the same day of his +arrival, he retired to a little pleasure house near the water to +enjoy a quiet game of chess with a knight whose name was Henrik +Kerkwerder. As they were playing the black-hearted Abel entered +the room, marched up to the chess table, accompanied by several +of his followers, and began to overwhelm the King with abuse. At +length, the unfortunate Eric was thrown into chains and was basely +murdered that very night. + +The American Chess Monthly gives the following anecdote, but does +not state its source. + +THE PRINCESS CHARLOTTE AND CHESS + +Among the anecdotes related of the childhood of the Princess +Charlotte, the daughter of a rascally father, and of an +unfortunate mother, there is a story which we do not remember +to have seen in any periodical devoted to the game. It is +perfectly authentic, and runs thus: + +"Being one evening present when a game of chess was playing. The +sudden and triumphant exclamation of checkmate was given. On her +inquiring its meaning, she was informed, it is when the King is +enprise by any particular piece, and cannot move without falling +into the hands of an enemy. `That is indeed a bad situation for +a King,' said the little patriotic stateswoman, but it can never +be the fate of the King of England, so long as he conforms to +the laws, for then he meet with protection from his subjects." + +------ + +We can find nothing in the form of evidence, as to whether +either of our four kings, the Georges, took any interest in chess, +or played at it. Some of our greatest men we hear, looked in +occasionally at the club in St. James St., to witness Philidor's +performances. Chatham, Fox, Pitt, Godolphin, Sunderland, +Rockingham, Wedderburn, St. John, Sir G. Elliott, and many +others, most distinguished and celebrated at the time, have been +specially mentioned as visitors or members. As only those who +know or care for the game subscribe to chess books, the three +hundred principal names on Philidor's edition of 1777, affords a +significant proof of the extraordinary appreciation and support of +the game, throughout the period of his ascendancy, viz., from +1746 to 1795. + +Twenty-six ladies of title grace that list, which contains a large +proportion of the nobility, cabinet ministers, men distinguished in +science, and at the bar, and on the bench, and several eminent +divines. + +Prince Leopold's support of chess, and encouraging remarks +concerning it at Oxford, in Scotland and at the Birkbeck, had +much to do with the taste for the game which sprung up among +the humbler working classes, and which happily has been +continuously though steadily progressing. + +One of our most genial and reliable chess editors has recently +informed us, on very high authority, that even our Most Gracious +Majesty Queen Victoria, has at times shewn an appreciation of +chess. + +Three years after the commencement of her reign the first +County Chess Association, was formed in Yorkshire. There were +at this time but twelve chess clubs in this country. The year +1849 signalised the first Chess Tournament found on record, it +took place at Simpson's, and Mr. H. T. Buckle writer and author, +the best amateur at this time, came forth first. This was two years +before the first world's International Chess Tournament of 1851, +was held in London, of which the Prince Consort was patron, since +then thirty-four National Tournaments and forty-eight country +meetings, and twenty University matches between Oxford and +Cambridge have taken place. + +It is now reasonably estimated that there are quite five hundred +clubs, and institutions where chess is practiced and cultivated, +and near one hundred and fifty chess columns, and both press +notice and chess clubs are continually on the increase. + +------ + +THE NINETEENTH CENTURY + +Simpson's renowned establishment was opened by Mr. Samuel +Ries on its present site 100 and 101 Strand in 1828. It was soon +found to afford the most admirable facilities for the quiet and +comfortable enjoyment of chess, and hence became greatly +appreciated and proportionately patronized, and has always been +regarded by the best and most impartial friends of chess with +sentiments of extraordinary partiality. + +Its influence on the practice and development of chess has been +of a very remarkable character, and of the first and highest +importance, and notwithstanding the migration of some of its +members on the occasions of the formation of the ill-fated +Westminster and West End Chess Clubs in 1867 and 1875, and +again on the institution of the present British Chess Club in +1885, its popularity is maintained to this day. + +The chess events, anecdotes, and reminiscences of Simpson's +must ever form a most interesting chapter in the English or +National history of chess for the Nineteenth century, and is +intimately linked with that of the whole chess world. As the +arena of the finest and most brilliant chess play Simpson's still +stands, and has ever done so, pre-eminently first, from the time of +A. McDonnell of Belfast, and L. de La Bourdonnais of Paris, and +their first appearance there in 1828 and 1829 to the present day, +and it is there (and there alone) that can still be witnessed in +this country a competition or tournament open to all comers +conceived in the spirit of pure enthusiasm only, and it is to +Simpson's that lovers of the game must still resort if they wish +to see really fine contests between the recognized greatest +players. It was here that H. T. Buckle, the writer and author in +1849 gained leading honours in the first tournament ever held on +British soil, or so far as is known, on any soil. About this time +it was that the school of young players with some of whose games +the public have become familiarized and pleased in later years, +begun to radiate, educate, and progress. Bird as a boy, became a +favourite opponent of Mr. Buckle, so early as 1846. Boden soon +followed, and by the year 1851, both had, it was supposed, reached +about the force of Mr. Buckle, and were hailed with welcome as +British chess representatives of the highest class, and at this +period and for a quarter of a century afterwards no games were +watched with greater interest than those in the love contests +between Boden and Bird, and no names are more familiarly associated +with Divan chess play. The former has departed this life, but the +latter still plays, having within the past year or two, twice +secured first prize in Simpson's Tournaments, and first position in +1889 and third in 1890, though his forte is rather for rapid and +lively play, which he cultivates now rather more than in his younger +days, otherwise his style of 1848 and 1852 compared with 1873, 1889 +and 1892 remains the same in its characteristic features. Bird's +games with Anderssen in 1852 (his best performance), with those +against Morphy in 1858, Steinitz in 1866, and Wisker (British +Champion) in 1873, rank among the most notable encounters at +Simpson's. Among the most recent events of the greatest interest at +Simpson's have been the visit of Dr. Tarrasch, of Nuremberg, +after his great International victory at Manchester, the splendid +performance of young Loman the Dutch Champion in Simpson's +Spring Tournament (following his grand City of London successes +and that in Holland). The recent games of Blackburne and Bird, +and Lasker and Bird have been other events of popular +chess interest. + +To return to old times, (to boyhood days), it was during the +years 1844 to 1850 that English ascendancy in chess first became +universally recognized. As noticed in the History of Chess +elsewhere the supremacy of chess in past ages back to the Sixth +century, when Persia (as well as China received chess from India) +has alternately rested with Arabia, Spain, Italy and France, +while the question of the hour now is whether Germany or England is +best entitled to claim possession of the chess sceptre. The famous +series of contests in 1834 at the old Westminster Chess Club in +Bedford Street, Covent Garden, between McDonnell and de La +Bourdonnais may certainly be regarded as the inauguration of +the spirited matches between individuals and representatives, +both International and National, which have since become so +popular. The following was the result of this great conflict, +La Bourdonnais won 41, McDonnell 29, and there were 13 drawn. +The Evans attack, which had been invented by Capt. W. D. Evans +in 1830, was played 23 times: the attack won 15, the defence 5, +and 3 were drawn. These memorable contests are generally +considered to have given the first great impetus to International +chess competition which became further cemented and consolidated +by the match between the Champions of England and France, +Staunton and St. Amant in 1843, and the first World's Tournament +held at the St. George's Chess Club Rooms in Cavendish Square, +London, in 1851. Staunton maintained his title to the British +Championship until this great International event took place which +was signalized by the decisive victory of Prof. Anderssen, of +Breslau. Staunton made no real effort to recover his laurels +afterwards or to in any way reassert English claims to supremacy. +The foreign players, after the Tournament, Szen, Lowenthal, +Kiezeritzky, Mayet, Jaenisch, Harrwitz and Horwitz frequented +Simpson's and Anderssen (like Morphy seven years later) greatly +favoured the place, and readily engaged in skirmishes of the more +lively enterprising, and brilliant description in which he ever +met a willing opponent in Bird, who, though a comparatively young +player, to the surprise and gratification of all spectators, made +even games. This young player who it seems had acquired his utmost +form at this time, also won the two only even games he ever played +with Staunton, and also two from Szen, which occasioned yet more +astonishment, the last-named having been regarded by many +deemed good judges, the best player in the world before the +Tournament was held, and even in higher estimation than his +fellow countryman Lowenthal, and considered not inferior to +Staunton himself. Judging from the success of this the youngest +player who was certainly not superior if equal to Buckle or Boden, +it is not unreasonable to conclude that Staunton with his greater +experience and skill, had he possessed the same temperament as +Bird, and at the slow time limit which suited him as well as it +has Steinitz (his exact counterpart in force and style) would +have regained his ascendancy for Great Britain. It is undoubtedly +owing to the opportunities at Simpson's that Boden and Bird so +rapidly acquired first rank and the partial withdrawal of the +former, and the entire relinquishment of chess by the latter from +1852 to 1858 was unfortunate for English chess renown, for on +the appearance of the phenomenon, Paul Morphy, and Staunton's +default in meeting him, there was no English player in practise +able to do honor to Morphy over the board, except a new comer, +Barnes; and Boden and Bird, but acquiesced in a general wish, +(albeit an equal pleasure to themselves) in revisiting Simpson's to +play with the subsequently found to be invincible Morphy. + +Simpson's Divan was naturally the first resort of the +incomparable Paul Morphy, and he greatly preferred it to any other +chess room he ever saw, he even went so far as to say it was +"very nice," which was a great deal from him, the most +undemonstrative young man we ever met with. Certainly nothing else in +London, from St. Paul's, Westminster Abbey and the Tower to +our Picture Galleries and Crystal Palace, not even the Duke of +Wellington's Equestrian Statue, elicited such praise from him as +"very nice," at least as applied to any inanimate object. + +Louis Paulsen arriving from America in 1861, at once visited +the Divan and played twelve games blindfold simultaneously +there against a very powerful team amid much enthusiasm, it +being the earliest exhibition among us on so large a scale. Morphy +had in 1858 played eight games blindfold both in Birmingham +and Paris. This was 63 years after Philidor's exhibition of two +games blindfold (and one over the board) a performance then +thought marvellous, and which it was predicted would not be +believed or attempted in any future generation. However we read +of A. McDonnell playing without seeing the board and men in +1830. Bilguer in like manner did so sometime before his death +in 1841. La Bourdonnais in 1842, and Harrwitz at Hull in 1847, +but neither more than two games. Paulsen in the West of America +1855-6-7, was the first to accomplish ten or twelve games blindfold, +which he did with very marked success. Steinitz from Prague, +who for twenty-two years, from 1867 to 1889, has been regarded +as chess champion of the world, at the usual slow time limit is +now residing in Brooklyn, New York. Soon after his arrival from +Vienna in 1862 he became a tolerably regular attendant at +Simpson's, and it was through this that his appointment of Chess +Editor to the "Field" arose, as well as that of Mr. Hoffer who +superseded him in that post. Mr. Walsh, chief Editor of the +"Field," had been for many years a constant visitor at Simpson's, +and the column for a long time was not favourable to our chess +interests. Foreign influence and views became far too +conspicuously manifested. The great English chess players were of a +retiring nature after the disappearance of the powerful Staunton +and Captain Kennedy, and the retirement of the genial +McDonnell; Boden was as reserved as Buckle or as Morphy, Bird +cared only for his game. Such eggs of chess patronage as +continued to exist, somehow or other always found their way into +one and the same basket, to which no British master could have +access. No eminent English player had any voice in chess +management, and though the Jubilee year's proceedings, bid fair +to balance matters on a more cosmopolitan basis, the facts +remain that for the three last German Tournaments at Frankfort, +Breslau and Dresden, neither Lee nor Pollock, the youngest, nor +Bird, the oldest master, could on either occasion manage to +participate. + +Small, but very enjoyable first class Tournaments have been +held at Simpson's, which have always evoked a considerable degree +of enthusiasm, and at times stimulated energy in the constituted +authorities, and been productive of Tournaments on a larger scale +elsewhere. + +Notwithstanding that the Mammoth laws of Limited Liability +in 1867, absorbed the gorgeous and spacious Divan Saloon, for the +present ladies dining room, and somewhat lessened the chess +accommodation, the distinguishing characteristics of the place +have remained unchanged, while the glorious chess events and +reminiscences continue nearly as vividly fixed in the recollection +as ever. + +The interest felt in the associations of Simpson's, have in fact +continued unabated from the days of the supremacy of La +Bourdonnais, Staunton, and Morphy, to the time of Steinitz's +appearance in 1862, and, to the triumphs of Blackburne, Cap. +Mackenzie and Gunsberg in our own days, and Bird the winner of the +Tournament just held there, who has frequented the room for +forty-five years, still plays the game, with a vigour equal to that +displayed against the greatest foreign players in 1852, and with +scarcely less success. The transactions in chess connected with +Simpson's for the last quarter of a century, would fill a good size +volume, only including events of the greatest interest to chess +players. The lapse of the British Chess Association of 1862, and +the wane of the less successful B.C.A. of 1885, during a period +when chess has been making such rapid strides that clubs have +more than doubled, is a very remarkable feature in modern chess +play and its management. The seven years operations and +accounts of the present British Chess Association, though it had +the advantage of such names as Tennyson, Ruskin, Churchill and +Peel, on its presidential list, have not resulted in one half the +patronage, accorded to the Tournaments of 1851 and 1883, mainly +promoted by one single club, (the St. Georges') at times when no +Association of a public kind, ostensibly for the support, +improvement, and extension of worthy chess existed. + +The eminent masters of the art of chess, registered in the list +of the British Chess Association of 1862, numbered 30, now there +are but 10, such has been the effect of the management of a game +yearly and daily increasing in favourable estimation, and the +practice of which, judging from the increase of chess clubs, press +notice and favour, sale of chess equipages of all kinds, and other +indications conclusively prove, must have increased at least +ten-fold in the present generation. + +Simpson's has done most to assist in cultivating force and style +in chess, and to prevent it becoming the idle amusement which +at least one great philosopher has told us it is not, and ought not +to be, and the only three recognized new masters which have risen +up in the Metropolis during the present generation, can be +directly traced to its opportunities and influence. This same +period has witnessed the rise and fall of two chess clubs, the +Westminster formed in 1867, at Covent Garden, and the West +End in Coventry St., in 1875, both (wonderfully successful at +first), having lamentably failed through the predominating card +influence and lack of undivided fealty and devotion to their +legitimate and avowed objects, viz., the chivalrous practice and +earnest cultivation of the noble and royal game of chess. Cards +and social pleasures (so called) cliquism, with the principles of +mutual admiration so strongly in force there, have already +seriously undermined the constitution of the British Chess Club, +or the British Club as it is now more properly called, and the fate +of this third combination from its original avowed point of view +that is for chess purposes, may be considered as virtually sealed, +unless chess be at once restored to something nearer approaching +its acknowledged true position. + +At Simpson's of our own countrymen, A. McDonnell in 1829, +and Howard Staunton in 1842, each first in fame of his time, and +the two greatest British chess players who ever lived mostly +practiced. + +Steinitz admits that his pre-eminency in chess is greatly due to +the facilities of Simpson's, and the courtesies of his early +opponents. The luxurious couches, tables, and mirrors, (NOTE. When +Bird first visited Simpson's and was playing his first game, he +became uneasy at finding so great a mirror at his back, and was +greatly troubled at the bare possibility of his coming in contact +with it. He was however completely reassured by John, who solemnly +informed him that the glass was thicker than his head, and much +less likely to crack.) with the splendid light afforded, tempted +many visitors who played not chess, to resort there for pleasing +converse, combined with ease and comfort, and a record of the +distinguished men who have been seen in the Divan, would make an +illustrious list. H. T. Buckle (already referred to as most eminent +of amateur players) in his chess references, calls Simpson's a +favourite half holiday resort, for an occasional change and +striking relief in a game of chess, so different from his usual +meditative pursuits, and the arena and play of chess, has been so +regarded by eminent men of all grades and branches of knowledge. +Among other English chess players of the past and present generation, +that have come into front rank there, are Boden and Bird, the +most successful of the young rising players during Staunton's ten +years chess reign. No games on record seem to have occasioned more +interest than the contests between these two favourite opponents, +unfortunately neither made any practice of recording games, which +is rather a subject of regret, for they were much in request by +chess editors in England as well as in America and Germany. The +few on record owe their preservation mostly to lookers on, who took +them down. Boden and Bird were never known to play for a stake, not +even for the time honored and customary shilling. In 1852 Barnes, +and a few years later Cap. Mackenzie, the Rev. G. A. MacDonnell, +and Cecil de Vere, began to adorn the first class chess circle, in +1862 our unsurpassed Blackburne appeared to the front almost +simultaneously with Steinitz, and ten years later the amiable Dr. +Zukertort (the winner of the Paris International of 1878, and the +great London "Criterion" Tournament of 1883), came to this +country, and was destined to create nearly as much sensation in +chess circles as Paul Morphy (who appeared 14 years before him, +and 4 before Steinitz and Blackburne) had done, and it may be +safely asserted that Dr. Zukertort's play in 1883, has never been +surpassed even by Morphy's and Anderssen's very best +performances, though Anderssen excelled both in fertility of invention. +The "fondness" of Dr. Zukertort, like that of his distinguished +Berlin townsman, Anderssen the renowned winner of 1851, 1862 +and 1870), for Simpson's, and its Associations was very great, and +increased very much towards the latter part of his life, and the +place has always formed a strong bond of union between Foreign +and English players. Zukertort was engaged in conversation +with the writer and others, in his usual genial manner, and spent +some happy hours with us on the evening preceding his death. +Every true lover of chess must appreciate the chivalry and good +feelings always observable in chess play at Simpson's. There +only leading players for mutual pleasure and without stake, and +to the interest of spectators play many an emulatory game which +may bear comparison with the best of the few good ones to be +found in the most recent tedious chess matches played for amounts +not thought of in previous times, and sufficient to disconcert and +make timid both of the opponents. With our Foreign visitors, +Simpson's Divan is the first resort to meet old friends, to hear +chess news, to compare notes, and to discuss topics of interest. +It is a kind of landmark, or where the pilot comes aboard. When +they do not dine at Simpson's, which is regarded as "par +excellence," but retire to Darmstatters, the Floric or the Cheshire +Cheese for refreshment, the Divan is yet the Appetizer, or Sherry +and Bitter starting point, in fact, wherever the abodes of our +distinguished chess brethren may be, Simpson's is always the centre +and home of friendly attraction throughout their stay in this +country, and so long as harmony and good feeling prevails it is +ever likely to continue so. + + For Clubs may come, and Clubs may go, + And make us ask what's next to see; + But Simpson's ever should remain, + The place for Chess in ecstacy. + +The above article was run off for the late deeply lamented +Captain Mackenzie, the amiable and dignified United States +Chess Champion, on one of his visits here. I dedicate it to our +surviving foreign visitors. + + + + +CHESS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY + +The following article from The British Chess Magazine +furnished by the writer has been regarded with much interest, +we are tempted to re-produce it. + +THE CHESS MASTERS OF THE DAY, IMPARTIALLY +CONSIDERED BY AN OLD ENGLISH PLAYER. + +An article appeared in The Fortnightly Review of December, +1886 bearing the signature of L. Hoffer, Secretary of the B.C.A., +entitled "The Chess Masters of the Day." We are informed +that the British Masters, who have read it are unanimous in +condemning its tone and spirit; and a short letter of protest has been +inserted in the March number of the same magazine, from H. E. +Bird, specifying their principal objections to it! In a letter to +us, Mr. Bird, incidentally, mentions that the article bears the +semblance of having been prepared by more than one writer; and +he suggests that a confusion of ideas may account for the +discrepancies in it? He then proceeds to question Mr. Hoffer's +authority for adding B.C.A. after his name, presumably for the +purpose of giving weight to the article which it is contended does +not meet with the general approbation of members of the British +Chess Association, or other real lovers of chess and friends to its +cause and advancement. The remarks of Mr. Bird, which we +understand, are heartily concurred in by all the British Chess +Masters, we give precisely in his own words. + +------ + +However entertaining and amusing the article which appears +in The Fortnightly Review, entitled "The Chess Masters of the +Day," bearing the signature of L. Hoffer, may prove to the +general reader, there are reasons why it is not likely to pass the +more observant chess friend and true lover of the game without +grave misgivings and deep regret; and it is probably not very +rash to predict that, notwithstanding, the smile that may be +evoked here and there at the expense of the unhappy lampooned +Chess Masters, the feeling most predominant at the close of +reading the article will be very near akin to extreme +disappointment? + +It is but fair, at the outset, to observe that the writer does +not seem to claim that his article is a disquisition on the game +of chess; that it is not so may, at once, be granted; but, it is +unfortunate that even as a record of what it purports to be, +viz., "The Chess Masters of the Day," a few lines will suffice +to show that it is not sufficiently connected, reliable, or complete +to form a chapter in chess history, or to be of any lasting interest +from a descriptive Chess Master's point of view. + +Having first generalised the main contents of the article, we +may then proceed to point out its shortcomings, as well as the +more serious objections to it. + +Of the 13 pages and 533 lines to which the article extends, +more than three-fourths are devoted to foreign players; that +apportioned, by the author, to panegyric of his present colleague, +Zukertort and to sneers, and personalities bordering on +vituperation of his past friend, the World's Champion, Steinitz, +being about equally balanced. + +To the English Chess Masters mentioned, four in number, +Blackburne, Burn, Bird, and Mackenzie, the space allotted is less +than a fifth of that given to four foreign Masters, Zukertort, +Steinitz, Rosenthal, and Lowenthal. The writer himself also +figuring somewhat conspicuously. + +The reason for the introduction, and at such length, of the +name of the distinguished Hungarian player, Lowenthal, into an +article presumably by title intended for living Masters, is not at +all apparent--he died in 1876. Anderssen, far more successful +if not far greater as a chess-player considered by many, including +the writer of this article, as King of all chess-players, who lived +till 1879, is not even mentioned. The selection may seem to +have been made for effect, and for the purpose of reproducing +certain too oft repeated jokes and quaint notions commonly +attributed to Lowenthal; that highly agreeable and justly popular +gentleman having apparently been regarded (if the expression +may be permitted) as a very convenient peg on which to hang +some funny sayings and ideas. + +Horwitz, who died in 1884, is also in the article, supplying +further pleasantry. There will not be wanting, however, many +chess-players who will consider a description of Anderssen's play, +and great Championship and Tournament Victories of 1851, 1862, +and 1870 of at least equal interest. + +Rosenthal of Paris, next to Steinitz and Zukertort, absorbs the +largest space among living players, more in fact than all the +British Masters combined; here again supposed witticisms and +pleasantries open up at the expense of the volatile and amiable +Polish player; no other plausible explanation appears to offer +for the prominency and length of space devoted to Rosenthal. +The name of a much greater though more demure Master, +happily still in the flesh, Von Heydebrand Der Lasa, considered +by many, including Morphy, as the finest chess-player of his +time, and certainly one of the most distinguished of foreign +writers, is not even mentioned. + +The Prussian Masters are entirely omitted; Paulsen, most +modest and distinguished, certainly, one of the greatest players +and not second to any but Blackburne as a blindfold artist, why +is he forgotten? Bardeleben, winner of the Vizayanagram +All-comers' Tournament, Criterion, London, 1883, is another +unaccountable omission. Where is the incomparable Schallopp, the +present Prussian champion? His welcome visits from Berlin, +and performances unsurpassed for brilliancy at Hereford in 1885, +as well as London and Nottingham this year, are still pleasurably +remembered by us all. The absence of Paulsen, Bardeleben, +Schallopp, and Riemann, all living Masters of the highest +excellence, has the effect of excluding Prussia altogether, and +makes a portentous void, as it would do in any article on chess. + +Tchigorin of St. Petersburg would probably, at the present +time, be equal favourite against any player in the world except +perhaps Steinitz. Though behind the Champion in Tournament +record, the young Russian player has been successful against him +in three out of four individual contests. + +Tchigorin is leader of the Russian Chess Committee in the +St. Petersburg Chess Club now conducting the telegraph match +against the British Chess Club. His absence from a list of the +greatest living Masters is a grave oversight, and this most likely +is accidental; the omission of the only great Russian chess +representative, we have had the honour of welcoming to our Chess +Circle, could hardly have been intended. + +Coming to players of the past in our own country, Great +Britain is made to occupy a very far back seat, and in this +respect at least Russia, Prussia, and England, through their +representatives, may join in mutual sympathy and condolence. + +There can be no jealousy where all are ignored! We are +tempted to ask, "What can be thought or said of an article which, +professing to portray and describe Chess Masters, devotes near a +page to Lowenthal and more to Rosenthal, yet not a line to +Staunton or to Buckle?" Can the Reviewer have forgotten that +Staunton and Lowenthal were contemporary; if not, what can be +the explanation of such an omission? + +Howard Staunton's name is certainly not second to any, +however illustrious, ever known in chess, he will ever be +remembered as the greatest chess-player of his day; and was +the most vigorous and entertaining of chess writers. Having +witnessed his play during 1845 to 1849, when he was still in full +force, deep impressions remain with us of his extraordinary +powers of combination, his soundness and accuracy. Although +comparison of chess-players, who lived or were in practice at +different times appear of little use or value, we yet have been +tempted once more to compare Staunton's, Anderssen's, Morphy's +and Steinitz's best games without arriving at any conclusion +except that Anderssen's style still appears more inventive and +finer than any other, while Steinitz is pre-eminent for care and +patience. + +H. T. Buckle, writer and author, who died in 1862, was for +many years the strongest amateur player, mostly considered a +shade weaker than Staunton, but regarded by many as equal, +like Steinitz in style, sound and safe, running no risks, exactly +the reverse of that of Bird, who became his opponent on equal +terms in 1852. + +All chess admirers, not in this country alone, but throughout +the world, would like to have seen the names of Staunton and +Buckle, and the more recent ones of Boden and Wisker as much +as those of Lowenthal and Horwitz. Less convenient for +facetious observation, it is yet more than probable that the grand +chess researches, works and sayings of the English champion and +Shakespearian Editor, and the Diary Chess Extracts of the highly +accomplished author of "The History of Civilization," (in which +reference is made to the relief and enjoyment afforded by chess), +would have interested the chess public fully as much as the +description of Lowenthal's shirt front, Rosenthal's grammar, +Winawer's inodorous and unsavoury cigars, or the fact that the +author had played billiards with M. Grevy, the President of the +French Republic, and that he was in a position to contradict the +statement that Zukertort came over in two ships. There are +many old players and admirers, and perhaps some young ones, +who would have felt both gratified and interested at a brief, +descriptive sketch of de La Bourdonnais and McDonnell, and +their great and never to be forgotten contests; Staunton and St. +Amant's championship match, England v. France, which +occasioned more genuine interest and enthusiasm than any other +chess event of this century, would also have been a welcome and +pleasing addition. + +Coming to English players, the absence of the name of the +Rev. G. A. MacDonnell, one of the most accomplished writers, +experts, and masters of the game, cannot be satisfactorily +explained. He is (though rarely practising) full of vigour. +Independently of his skill as a player, he is regarded as a living +institution in chess. For a quarter of a century, with the late +Mr. Boden, and Bird still living he has been one of the foremost +amateurs; as a writer, he has contributed as much to the +amusement and edification of chess readers as any author known. He +always has been, and is still highly popular, with many intensely +so; his geniality is so great, as well as his wit, that his society +is eagerly sought, and always enjoyed. The omission of the name +of such a notable, worthy representative and general favourite, +is alone sufficient to detract from the value of the article to no +inconsiderable extent; if really intended as a trustworthy narrative +and record of the world's Chess Masters. + +The Amateur Masters are not so numerous that they need have +been passed over. The Rev. W. Wayte is alike distinguished for +his honorary writings in support of chess, and his brilliant +victories, at times, against the finest players, extending over a +long period, not very far short of the experience of the writer of +these lines. He is, in addition to his many well-known scholarly +qualifications, a very distinguished amateur chess master, a liberal +supporter of the game, and by many looked up to as the head of +the circle. His name would grace any article. Mr. Minchin's +national and international services are too well-known to require +comment and he would deprecate any reference to them; still I +must express the opinion that he has earned the gratitude of the +entire chess-playing world for his disinterested services in +promoting and so largely contributing to the success of great and +popular gatherings. Mr. Thorold's eminence as an exponent, and +modesty and courtesy as an opponent, are known to all; whilst +Mr. Watkinson, though now out of practice, was an equally +forcible player, and has rendered inestimable benefits to the cause +of chess by conducting, for many years, a journal of the highest +class; which has never wounded the susceptibilities of a member +of the circle. The life-long services of the Rev. Mr. Skipworth +ought not to be forgotten; he is, when free from his official duties, +quite formidable as an adversary, and is ever ready and willing +to test conclusions with the best of players. The Rev. C. E. +Ranken, too, a very strong player and analyst, has, in many ways, +been of great service to the cause of chess. + +Should the reader's stock of astonishment be at all limited, +heavy draws will have been already made upon it; yet another +call, however, remains, and that the most recent and in many +respects the most unaccountable. The advent of a new chess +master after a lapse of twenty years is in itself an event of +considerable interest in the chess world. W. H. K. Pollock was +early last year admittedly a master, in the opinion of many +considered competent to judge. In August of last year he won +the first prize in the "Irish Chess Association one game Master +Tournament," winning from Blackburne, Burn, and six leading +Irish players. He is most modest and very chivalrous, always +ready to play on convenient occasions for pure love of the game +and credit of victory alone. This is truly a strange omission. + +The author's assertion with regard to Morphy is that "He +was head and shoulders above the players of his time." What +precise degree of superiority that may imply in chess is not easy +to define, and must be left to the imagination of the reader. As +a matter of fact Mr. Hoffer never saw Morphy; and his statement +is based upon his published games and public chess opinion; +which, it is true, mostly awards Morphy the highest place in +modern chess history; his title, however, is principally based +upon his victories over Anderssen and Lowenthal, the former +in bad health, and not in his best form at the time! Staunton +and Buckle, the best English players of their day, never +encountered Morphy. Against Harrwitz he won five to three, and +fourteen to six against Barnes. Morphy's record, though great, +is not superior to Staunton's before, and Steinitz's after him. +There do not appear sufficient grounds for estimating one more +highly than the other. Foreign critics sometimes as well as +English ones have been apt for purposes of inferential comparison +to exalt one player and proportionately disparage another; thus +chess critics, with whom Staunton does not stand in the highest +favour in the past, or Steinitz in the present, too often indulge +in the most extravagant statements as to Morphy's immeasurable +superiority, not based on conclusive grounds; when the games and +evidence are closely and impartially tested. + +The rapidly advancing chess skill of so many young amateurs +in the present day is a great stimulus to the rising generation of +chess-players, especially to such as aim at a high state of +proficiency; and, though this may be regarded as one of the most +interesting and popular features in the pursuit the author of the +article in question makes no reference to this branch of the +subject. The gradual introduction of the game as a mental +recreation into seats of learning and industrial establishments, +and the formation of many Working Men's Chess Clubs are now +well known; the result is that for the first time within the +recollection of present players several amateurs have come to +the front scarcely inferior in force to the new Master, Pollock, +whilst some in style may compete with him! Anger, Donisthorpe, +Guest, Hooke, Hunter, Jacobs, and Mills, with the most successful +of the past University Chess Teams, Chepmell, Gattie, Gwinner, +Locock, Plunkett, and Wainwright, are names scarcely less +familiar than those of the half dozen older masters left, who form +the remnant of the little band of twenty recognised masters living +in 1854. + +Chess has become far more general than it formerly was +because it is better understood. Old fashioned notions that it +was too serious and necessitated an unreasonable absorption of +time, are passing away. A well-known amateur, whose games +please the public much and are greatly admired in Professor +Ruskin's letters has played many of his best specimens within an +hour, some in half that time. This same player states that he +recurs with great interest, though melancholy in its character, +to some games, he has played with those afflicted in various ways, +on account of the solace and consolation as well as pleasure it has +been found to afford him! The excellent contests some blind boys +made against him with their raised boards; the enjoyment +they expressed and felt, as conveyed to him by the master of the +Asylum, is vivid in his remembrance. Chess has proved highly +beneficial to such of the lower classes, as have been fortunate +enough to resort to it, in place of more exciting and expensive +indoor games. The mental exercise called into play is of the +most healthy character; and those who interest themselves in the +welfare of their less fortunate brethren may benefit them +and society, by assisting to diffuse a better knowledge of its +advantages for those at present uninterested in it. + +There may be something in the author's opinion that no +extraordinary mental power is needed for chess excellence; but his +views, probably, would have been more valuable if less general, +and expressed with such qualifications as the history of its masters +suggests; his idea, however, that anyone of average capacity +may play average chess, is not in accordance with experience, if, +indeed, it is not decidedly in opposition to it. Some of the finest +players may appear to Mr. Hoffer to possess but average intellect; +but, whether he is right or not, one thing is certain, that many +with the greatest endowments and known powers of calculation +and thought have failed at it and some have been candid enough +to admit that they abandoned the game because dissatisfied with +their own progress and skill at it. Buckle in his opinion given +by MacDonnell in "Life Pictures," (the amusing and interesting +work of the latter), considers imagination and calculation +necessary, but discards any idea of superior mental capacity. + +It is clear, however, that the qualifications necessary to be met +with cannot well be defined; we have never found any successful +attempt to do so. Franklin did not attempt it. We find by +experience that a likely man fails and an unlikely one succeeds. +Stock-brokers have been very successful--mathematicians quite +the reverse. Twenty or thirty eminent players, barristers and +solicitors, may be quoted to four engineers and accountants, the +latter, however, including one of the masters! The Church has +been very prolific as well as medicine. + +>From the programmes of our more recent tournaments we find +the most distinguished names of supporters, and the British Chess +Association is honoured with those of Lord Tennyson, Lord +Randolph Churchill, Professor Ruskin, and Sir Robert Peel on its +presidential list. The late Prince Leopold was Patron of the St. +George's Club, and President of the Oxford University Chess Club. +The late J. P. Benjamin, Q.C., and formerly, Sir C. Russell were +among its admirers and supporters. Sir H. James and Sir H. +Giffard also honour the list; and a very brilliant amateur in past +days, (scarcely inferior to John Cochrane and Mr. Daniels), W. +Mackeson, Q.C., still honours the chess clubs with an occasional +visit, willingly taking a board and invariably running a hard +race of combination with the best performers. Earl Granville, +the Marquis of Hartington, the Marquis of Ripon, and the Right +Hon. H. C. Childers, M.P., have also appeared as patrons and +supporters. + +Blackburne, Steinitz, and Zukertort, our three greatest +professional players, will not feel highly complimented to hear, +for the first time, that their excellence arises from twenty years +hard labour; and that inferentially their capacity, otherwise, is +but common. Memory, a quality not mentioned by the Reviewer or +by Mr. Buckle, must be essential in the playing of chess for hours +without sight of board or men; it must be also advantageous in +the ordinary game, when many variations have to be worked out; +or the earlier combinations might be forgotten when the latter +are maturing. + +Steinitz is now residing in New York, (this fact might well +have been stated) and the attacks upon him in his absence, +moreover, can hardly interest or gratify chess readers. These +attacks are in the worst possible taste; being calculated to lead +to controversy with his friends and supporters, who are still +numerous, both here and abroad. They will arouse a well merited +and just sense of indignation for despite his faults of temper and +a disposition, at times, prone to be touchy and contentious, Steinitz +is a true artist, a painstaking, careful, conscientious, and +impartial annotator, whilst as a describer of play he is unrivalled. +Willing, at all times, to render full justice to the skill, style, +and play of others, he has been frequently heard to observe that the +"difference in force between the six leading chess-players +is so slight, that the result of a contest between two of them would +be always uncertain." + +As a chess-player he is far from lacking modesty. No "head +and shoulders" comparison or claim of superiority has ever been +made by Steinitz. He is exceedingly courteous to young aspirants, +and fairly communicative to all; he is, when vexed, as likely, (or +more so), to offend his best friends as strangers. With all his +shortcomings, however, it is doubtful whether any real admirer of +chess from its highest aspect will feel aught but regret at the +remarks applied to him; the space devoted to these attacks +(exceeding that allotted to all the English players) might well have +been devoted to chess in its social aspect, to its advantages and +prospects, or to some more agreeable phase of it than extreme +personality. Even another page or two of chess-players' jokes +and eccentricities would have been less objectionable. + +The personalities and lack of impartiality in the article cannot +but be regarded as a very serious drawback; it is not written in a +tone which is likely to benefit chess or advance its cause; and it is +to be feared, that it will afford but little instruction or lasting +interest and pleasure to its readers. + + + + +NATIONAL CHESS. +CHESS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. +BELFAST, (THE MOST RECENT MEETING). + +As the events of the day or of the hour generally command +the most immediate interest in chess (as in many more important +things), we may commence notice of National Chess with the +memorable event which has most recently engaged public chess +attention, viz., the North of Ireland Chess Congress just +concluded in the City of Belfast. The history of First Class +Modern Chess Competition upon an emulatory scale in our country +may be almost said to begin with Ireland. We know that a little +band of chess enthusiasts assembled regularly in Dublin so early +as 1819, and that the knowledge of it had a material influence on +the advance of chess practice at the time, and so far as we can +gather the letter from Trinity College, Dublin, in 1850, was the +suggestion which first led to discussions which resulted in the +World's International Chess Tournament, (the first on record) +held in London in the succeeding year. There is little doubt +moreover among old chess players, and probably will be with +observant young ones either, that from the appearance of the +courteous and chivalrous A. McDonnell, of Belfast, in 1828, +may be dated the origin of genuine first class chess rivalry. It +was McDonnell's skill, courage, perseverance and gallant stand +against the famous Louis de La Bourdonnais, of France, in 1834, +and his successes against all the other competitors he met with, +and the encouragement that his example inspired, which first +established British claims to ability in chess, and an equal +reputation with the best of other countries in the exposition +of the game. + +>From Greco's debut in Paris in 1626 to Philidor's first +appearance at London in 1746, (about 120 years) forms the first +of three previous epochs of chess progress; Philidor's own +distinguished career to 1795, a second, and the next quarter of a +century, to the first great correspondence match between Edinburgh +and London, when books on the game, literature, and the formation of +chess clubs first became conspicuous, marks the third epoch, from +Queen Elizabeth's time when probably chess first became the subject +of any considerable notice, or indication of approach to more +general practice and appreciation. + +NOTE. The extent to which the 1851 and 1883 Tournaments were +aided by Indian feeling and support is another great and pleasing +feature. The names of Cochrane and Minchin stand foremost in +memory among the inceptors. + +------ + +The wonderful Evans Gambit attack which has ever in its +manifold branches continued so intensely popular, had been +invented by Capt. W. D. Evans, in 1830. + +It was played 23 times, the attack won 15, the defence 5, and +3 were drawn. + +The Belfast amateur gained considerably in form in the latter +stages and at the conclusion, whether in brilliancy or depth, there +was not much to choose between them, though the great French +professional would seem to have been the more rapid player. + +McDonnell died on the 14th September, 1834, aged 37, and +La Bourdonnais on the 13th December, 1840, aged 43, being about +five years before the appearance in the chess arena of the writer +of this article, and who now, owing to the hospitality and liberality +of Belfast has the honour and pleasure of taking part in a national +British competition in the native place of one who so greatly +contributed to the pioneering of these interesting tests of skill. + +NOTE. The match between La Bourdonnais and McDonnell produced games +which for originality, enterprise and spirit have never been +surpassed. They commanded the admiration and enthusiasm of all +lovers of chess at the time, besides securing press notice and +arousing a taste for its practice, and a genuine emulation never +witnessed before this great example, and the appreciation of the +games is now as great as ever, and few modern matches can bear +comparison with them. + +Different versions of the score have appeared; it was probably +finally La Bourdonnais 43, McDonnell 29, and draws 13. + +------ + +The Chess Congress of the North of Ireland, which will sound +yet more familiar to many ears, under the title of the Belfast or +Belfast and Holywood Chess Congress (for it is to the spirit and +liberality of these two places that the meeting owes its origin) +commenced in the Central Hall, Belfast, on September 12th, and +concluded with one of Mr. Blackburne's marvellous blindfold +performances on September 24th, an ordinary simultaneous +competition of twenty-one games by Mr. Bird, on September 21st, +having also apparently afforded some pleasure and satisfaction. + +The Belfast meeting must, owing to the originality and +enterprise of its conception, and the complete success which has +attended it form a unique item in Great Britain's local chess +records, and will not form one of the least interesting and +significant features in the national chess history of this +generation, for it is the first occasion in the record of the +forty-eight counties gatherings held since the first of 1841, in +Leeds, that the idea has been conceived of adding a contest between +the greatest living masters in the country on terms the most +liberal and deeply appreciated. + +The proceedings of the Congress, and the scores of the players +in the Tournaments have been reported from day to day in the +Belfast papers, and the games of the masters with some selected +from the amateur handicaps have also been given, and save that +the same have been presented without comment on the merits of +the play, description, or notes which are found so useful and +acceptable to the general reader, otherwise considered, from a purely +local point of view, nothing remained to be desired. From a +national chess point of view, however, it seems to have been too +lightly regarded by the Press, some trophy in the amateur +competitions to commemorate the name of Alexander McDonnell, a +native of Belfast, who did more in his time than any other man to +uphold British chess reputation, might also not have been +inappropriate on such an occasion. Personally I was surprised that +the name of McDonnell did not appear to be more vividly +remembered in his native city. + +It seems desirable, if not indeed absolutely necessary before +describing the games contested by the four masters, Blackburne, +Bird, Lee, and Mason, to say a few words about the original +inception of the great matches in which it was at one time +proposed that two other eminent players, not British born should +participate, but who at the last moment sought certain undue +advantages beyond the very liberal bonuses provided, and even a +controlling influence never anticipated by the committee, and to +which of course it could not, with any full sense of propriety or +regard to originally avowed intentions and subscribers views consent. + +Asking pardon for a slight digression I will first say a word or +two about the absentees in not an ill-natured way before coming +to the essence of the play. + +It so happens that during the past few years the countries that +furnished us with visits from the chivalrous Anderssen, the +hospitable and princely Kolisch, the distinguished and retiring Szen, +the singularly modest Paulsen, the courteous and gallant Lowenthal, +the amiable, unassuming, and as some think incomparable Zukertort, +and the genuine and in many respects greatest of all chess artists, +Steinitz, have also domiciled with us two more recent additions of +chess experts, who arrived at the age when chess players most +excel, and playing under conditions of time and clocks most +favourable to them have each in turn achieved such remarkable +successes, that native players have retired entirely to the shade, +and a forty year Bird (competitor of Buckle, Staunton, Anderssen, +Morphy and Steinitz, and still the most successful representative +of the rapid amusement school), and a thirty year Blackburne, +perhaps the greatest all round chess genius who ever lived fade +into significance before these foreign champions who, with the +most commendable energy, combined with unbounded confidence +and assurance, attempt to, and well nigh succeed in placing chess +influence at their feet with a Boss the shows determination openly +and unequivocally expressed. The control of most of the London +chess columns, and a large number of the Provincial is also +in foreign hands and proves a very powerful weapon in advancing +personal interests. + +NOTE. The chess of the Daily News, Evening News and Post, +Standard, Field, and Telegraph and nearly all the Provincial +papers are conducted by German players. No leading British +player has a regular chess column. + +------ + +Gunsberg, the elder of the two (slightly it is feared on the wane +though still champion of many columns) and Lasker twenty-four +years of age, still at his height, are both wonderful performers, +and enjoy a vast popularity among their race, and in certain +circles, but in the long run it is not unlikely that either will +feel extremely dissatisfied if he can maintain for half the time +the sustained reputation of the oldest English players who so +contentedly and modestly at present occupy their retired back seats, +and there are not wanting reasons to believe that both Gunsberg +and Lasker became most anxious to enter for the prizes in the +Belfast competition at the very time when it was finally determined +to confine it to four leading national representatives. + +------ + +NORTH OF IRELAND (BELFAST) CHESS CONGRESS, +MASTERS' COMPETITION. + +The proceedings opened at the Central Hall, Rosemary Street, +Belfast, on Monday, with an admirable address from Dr. Barnett, +who wished the players a happy and harmonious time and +extended to them a hearty welcome. + +No.1. Bird against Blackburne offered an Evans Gambit. +This game was the only one played without clocks; both players +seemed at ease, and glad to be free from the formality and +encumbrance of time regulators and it is a happy omen that it +proved one of the most interesting in the programme: + +The following is the complete list of the masters' games: + +J. H. Blackburne, H. E. Bird, T. J. Lee, and J. Mason + +1 Bird Blackburne Evans declined 64 moves Drawn +2 Lee Mason Petroff 75 " Mason +3 Bird Lee Queens Pawn counter 47 " Drawn +4 Blackburne Mason Vienna 44 " Blackburne +5 Lee Blackburne Kt KB3 PQ4 48 " Blackburne +6 Mason Bird KP and QP 62 " Mason +7 Blackburne Bird Ruy Lopez Kt Q5 47 " Bird +8 Mason Lee KP and QP 18 " Drawn +9 Lee Bird PQ4 37 " Bird +10 Mason Blackburne Ruy Lopez 28 " Draw +11 Blackburne Lee Ruy Lopez 43 " Blackburne +12 Bird Mason Two Knights Def 38 " Mason +13 Lee Mason Kt KB3 PKB4 35 " Mason +14 Bird Blackburne KP1 KPB2 42 " Draw +15 Bird Lee KP one 73 " Draw +16 Blackburne Mason Giuoco Piano 30 " Draw +17 Mason Bird Sicilian 27 " Bird +18 Lee Blackburne Four Kts 20 " Draw + +No.1 is the best and most instructive; No.17 was the most +lively and entertaining. Of the eight draws, two are legitimate, +the other six being unworthy the name of games. + +That Lee when out of the running, directed a care and energy +against Bird which he did not against Blackburne and Mason will +be readily observable by a comparison of the games, especially +No. 9, 15, and 18; in the last he indeed made no attempt to win +at all, and a draw is the utmost he seems ever to have hoped for +in the other. + +In the final score Bird, Blackburne and Mason were even in +their play, but Bird only scored 2 out of 3 with Lee, whilst the +others gained 2 1/2 out of 3 against him, this difference of half +a game placed Bird third only. + +The two last games, the 17th and 18th, were finished about the +same time; thus, when Bird had won from Mason (doing his best in a +game which in no way effected his position) Blackburne and Lee +agreed to draw, which was a disappointment to the spectators, and +of course, to Bird, who was entitled to, and would have liked to +have seen the game played out. + +These games present a very striking contrast. We particularly +commend the last, and the other draw to the consideration of all +who would wish to see chess continued as a noble and worthy +game. Bird by consenting to a draw with Mason could at once +have given him the first prize. + + No.17. +Game played in the Masters' Tournament, 23rd September, +1892, between Messrs. James Mason and H. E. Bird: + + White Black + MASON H. E. BIRD +1 P to K4 P to QB4 +2 Kt to KB3 Kt to QB3 +3 P to Q4 P takes P +4 Kt takes P P to Q3 +5 Kt to QB3 B to Q2 +6 Kt takes Kt B takes Kt +7 B to Q3 P to K3 +8 Castles P to KKt3 +9 P to B4 P to KR4 +10 P to B5 Kt P takes P +11 P takes P Q to Kt3 ch +12 K to R square Castles +13 P takes P P takes P +14 Q to K2 P to K4 +15 B to K4 Kt to K2 +16 B to Kt5 P to Q4 +17 B takes Kt B takes B +18 B to B5 ch K to Kt square +19 P to QKt3 P to K5 +20 Kt to R4 Q to B2 +21 P to B4 Q to K4 +22 P takes P B to Q3 +23 P to Kt3 B takes P +24 QR to B square P to K6 ch +25 K to Kt square QR to KKt square +26 R to B3 B takes R +27 Q takes B R to KB square +Resigns. + + No.18. +Game played in the Masters' Tournament, 23rd September, +1892, between Messrs. F. J. Lee and J. H. Blackburne: + + A Contrast. + + White Black + LEE BLACKBURNE +1 P to K4 P to K4 +2 Kt to QB3 Kt to KB3 +3 Kt to B3 Kt to B3 +4 P to QR3 B to K2 +5 P to Q4 P to Q3 +6 B to K2 Castles +7 Castles B to Kt5 +8 P to Q5 Kt to Kt square +9 P to R3 B to R4 +10 Kt to KR2 B to Kt3 +11 B to Q3 QKt to Q2 +12 B to K3 Kt to B4 +13 P to B3 Kt takes B +14 P takes Kt Kt to Q2 +15 P to KKt4 P to QR3 +16 Kt to K2 B to Kt4 +17 B to B2 B to R5 +18 B to K3 B to Kt4 +19 B to B2 B to R5 +20 B to K3 B to Kt4 + Drawn. + +------ + + GAMES AT THE BELFAST CHESS CONGRESS + IN THE QUADRANGULAR COMPETITION + BETWEEN +J. H. Blackburne, H. E. Bird, F. J. Lee, and J. Mason, + Sept. 12th to Sept. 23rd, 1892. + +Of the eighteen games competed for by the above, eight are +worthy to be placed in a first class collection. They are--No. 1, +"Evans Gambit Declined," (Bird v. Blackburne) which is thought +in some respects the best, as illustrating the styles and resources +of the two players, besides containing many instructive phases. +No. 4, "A Vienna Opening," between Blackburne and Mason, was +a game of considerable enterprise and interest, though the latter +missed an ingenious and promising opportunity, which would +have given him a considerable advantage, sufficient for so careful +and reliable a player (who seldom misses chances) to have won. +No. 7, a Kt to Q5 defence to the Ruy Lopez) a form not approved +by the authorities, condemned once more by Mr. Hoffer, in the +Field, but passed without comment by Mr. Mason in the B. C. M.) +was a popular game with the spectators and was won by Bird, +defending against Blackburne, who also succeeded in No. 17 on +the last day against Mason with a Sicilian in a short and +decisive game, pleasing and amusing to the lookers on who liked +to see a lively and decisive game. No. 9, "A Queen's Pawn +opening" produced fine combinations and critical positions and +a brilliant finish (Bird scoring from Lee). No. 11, "A Two +Knight's Defence" terminated in a clever and meritorious victory +for Mason as second player over Bird. + +The above six games were the most entertaining of the series, +viz.--l, 4, 7, 9, 11 & 17. + +No. 5 Lee and Blackburne, Kt to KB3, and No. 12, Blackburne +and Lee, a Ruy Lopez were steady, but rather dull, but furnished +excellent specimens of Blackburne's skill and masterly conduct +of end games. + +Next to the foregoing eight games in order of interest were +No. 3, Bird and Lee. Counter Queen's Pawn opening and No. +13, Bird and Blackburne KP one, these, though both drawn, were +steady, well-played and instructive games. In No. 2, Lee and +Mason, a Petroff, the former should have drawn, but lost on his +75th move. In No. 6, Mason was at a decided disadvantage with +Bird who committed an ingenious suicide in a game he could +have drawn. + +In No. 13, a Kt to KB3 opening, P KB4 reply. Lee had much +the better game with a Pawn more against Mason, but made a +palpable blunder at his 34th move and resigned. + +No. 8, a tame draw in 18 moves, Mason and Lee 10, Mason and +Blackburne, 28 moves, not much better 16, Blackburne and Mason +30 moves, of no interest, and No. 18, the last game 20 moves +between Lee and Blackburne, from which something was expected, +but which baffles polite description, and cannot be dignified by +the name of, or as a game, completes the list. This was a Four +Knights game, 15 Blackburne and Mason a Giuoco Piano 30 moves +was a lamentable specimen of wood shifting. + +The following game presented some very instructive positions +towards the close: + +Game played in the Masters' Tournament, 16th September, 1892, +between Messrs. H. E. Bird and F. J. Lee. + + White Black + LEE BIRD +1 P to Q4 P to Q4 +2 Kt to KB3 P to K3 +3 P to B4 Kt to KB3 +4 P to K3 QKt to Q2 +5 B to Q3 B to K2 +6 Kt to B3 Castles +7 Castles R to K square +8 P to QKt3 P to B3 +9 B to Kt2 B to Q3 +10 Q to B2 P takes P +11 P takes P B to Kt square +12 Kt to K2 Q to R4 +13 P to B5 P to K4 +14 B to B3 Q to Q square +15 Kt to Kt3 P takes P +16 B takes P Kt to K4 +17 B takes Kt B takes B +18 Kt takes B R takes Kt +19 KR to Q square Q to K2 +20 QR to B square B to Kt5 +21 P to B3 B to K3 +22 R to K square P to KKt3 +23 P to B4 R to Q4 +24 P to K4 R to Q5 +25 P to B5 QR to Q square! +26 P to K5! Kt to Kt5 +27 P takes B R takes B +28 P takes P ch Q takes P +29 Kt to K4 Q to KB5 +30 Q to QB4 ch K to Kt2 +31 P to KKt3 Q to R3 +32 R to B2 R to Q8. Good +33 Q to K2 R takes R ch +34 Q takes R Q to K6 ch +35 K to B square Q to KB6 ch +36 R to KB2 Q to R8 ch +37 K to K2 Q takes K8 ch +Resigns. + +------ + +THE NORTH OF IRELAND (Belfast & Holywood) CHESS CONGRESS + MASTERS QUADRANGULAR OOMPETITION. +H. E. Bird, J. H. Blackburne, F. Lee, and J. Mason. + + FIRST ROUND. + +September 12--Blackburne drew with Bird, Lee v. Mason +adjourned after forty-two moves. Resumed on Thursday, Mason +won. + +September 13--Bird drew with Lee, Blackburne beat Mason. + +September 14--Blackburne beat Lee, Mason beat Bird. + + SECOND ROUND. + +September 15--Bird beat Blackburne, Lee drew with Mason. + +September 16--Bird beat Lee; Blackburne drew with Mason. + +September 19--Bird lost to Mason, Blackburne beat Lee. + + THIRD ROUND. + +September 20--Bird drew to Blackburne, Lee lost to Mason. + +September 22--Bird drew with Lee, Blackburne drew with +Mason. + +September 23--Bird beat Mason, Blackburne v. Lee, drawn. + + Blackburne won 2 out of 3 from Mason. + Mason " 2 " 3 " Bird. + Bird " 2 " 3 " Blackburne. + These three scores being equal. + +Blackburne and Mason each won 2 1/2 out of 3 with Lee, but Bird +only 2 out of 3. + + Final score--J. H. Blackburne... ... 5 1/2 + J. Mason ... ... ... 5 1/2 + H. E. Bird ... ... 5 + F. J. Lee ... ... ... 2 + ------ + 18 + + + GAME No. 7.--RUY LOPEZ ATTACK. + Kt to Queen's fifth Defence (Bird.) + Note. This defence is condemned by all authorities. +The following was considered the game of the Tournament and +must be admired: + + White Black White Black +BLACKBURNE BIRD BLACKBURNE BIRD +1 P to K4 P to K4 25 P takes P B to B5 +2 Kt to KB3 QKt to B3 26 B to K2 B takes B +3 B to Kt5 Kt to Q5 27 R takes B P to Q4 +4 Kt takes Kt P takes Kt 28 P takes P R takes R +5 P to Q3 P to KR4 29 Kt takes R P takes P +6 P to QB3 B to B4 30 Kt to Q4 R to K square +7 Castles P to QB3 31 P to B5 R to K5 +8 B to R4 P to Q3 32 Kt to K6 ch K to Q3 +9 Q to K square Q to B3 33 Kt to Kt7 R takes P +10 K to R square Kt to R3 34 P to B6 Kt to B2 +11 P to KB3 P to R5 35 Kt to B5 ch K to K4 +12 B to B2 B to Q2 36 Kt takes P P to Q5 +13 P takes P B takes P 37 Kt to Kt6 ch K to K5 +14 Kt to B3 Castles QR 38 K to Kt square R to Kt7 +15 B to K3 QR to K square 39 P to KR4 P takes P en pas +16 B takes B Q takes B 40 P takes P P to Q6 +17 Q to B2 Q takes Q 41 R to K square ch K to B4 +18 R takes Q P to KKt4 42 Kt to K7 ch K takes P +19 P to QKt4 P to KB4 43 Kt to Q5 ch K to B4 +20 R to K2 P to Kt5 44 Kt to K3 ch K to Kt3 +21 P to KB4 KR to B square 45 Kt to B4 R takes P +22 R to KB square K to B2 46 R to Q square P to Kt4 +23 B to Q square B to K3 47 Kt to Q2 Kt to Kt4 +24 R to QB2 P takes P 48 K to B square Kt takes P + +Mr. Blackburne might as the annotators observe well have +resigned here, he did so on the 73rd move. + +This was also a game of great interest which Black should have +been contented to draw after his ill-judged and fanciful 29th move +had destroyed his chance of winning. + + White Black White Black + MASON BIRD MASON BIRD +1 P to K4 P to Q4 16 B takes Kt Q takes B +2 P takes P Q takes P 17 P to QKt4 P to QR4 +3 Kt to QB3 Q to Q square 18 Kt to B2 P takes P +4 P to Q4 P to KKt3 19 Kt takes P Q to Q3 +5 B to KB4 B to Kt2 20 Q to K2 P to QB4 +6 Kt to Kt5 Kt to QR3 21 P takes P Q takes P +7 P to QB3 P to QB3 22 QR to QB square QR to Q square +8 Kt to R3 Kt to B2 23 KR to Q square Q to R4 +9 Kt to B3 Kt to B3 24 B to K3 R takes R ch +10 P to KR3 KKt to Q4 25 Q takes R R to Q square +11 B to Q2 Castles 26 Kt to Q4 Q to K4 +12 B to Q3 R to K square 27 Q to K square Kt takes Kt +13 Castles Kt to K3 28 P takes Kt Q to K5 +14 R to K square P to QKt4 29 P to KB3 Q takes B ch +15 B to K4 B to QKt2 30 Q takes Q B takes P + +Mason played the opening of this the following game with spirit +and originality, but missed advantageous opportunities at moves +14 and 18, and Blackburne remaining with a superior position +and Pawn more won easily in the end game. + + White Black White Black +BLACKBURNE MASON BLACKBURNE MASON +1 P to K4 P to K4 11 QKt to B4 B to R3 ch +2 Kt to QB3 Kt to KB3 12 P to Q3 QR to K square +3 P to B4 P to Q4 13 P to KKt3 Q to Kt5 +4 BP takes P Kt takes P 14 K to Kt2 R takes P +5 Q to B3 P to KB4 15 P takes Kt Q takes Q ch +6 Kt to R3 Kt to QB3 16 K takes Q P takes P ch +7 B to Kt5 Q to R5 ch 17 K to Kt2 P to Kt4 +8 K to B B to B4 18 Kt takes P R takes Kt +9 Kt takes P Castles 19 Kt to R3 R to Kt3 +10 B takes Kt P takes B 20 B to B4 B to K7 + + White Black White Black + BIRD LEE BIRD LEE +1 P to K3 P to K4 31 P to R3 R to KB2 +2 P to QKt3 P to Q4 32 K to R2 Q to Q +3 B to Kt2 B to Q3 33 R to QB P to QR4 +4 Kt to KB3 Q to K2 34 R to KKt P takes P +5 P to B4 P to QB3 35 P takes P Q to K2 +6 P takes P P takes P 36 B to B5 Q to Q +7 Kt to B3 Kt to KB3 37 B to Q4 Q to K2 +8 Kt to Kt5 Kt to B3 38 B to B3 B to R3 +9 Kt takes B ch Q takes Kt 39 Q to R3 B to K7 +10 B to Kt5 P to K5 40 P to KKt5 BP takes P +11 Kt to K5 Castles 41 P takes P P to Q5 +12 B takes Kt P takes B 42 B takes P R takes B +13 R to QB B to Kt2 43 P takes R P takes P +14 Castles Kt to Q2 44 R to B2 P to Kt5 +15 P to B4 Kt takes Kt 45 Q to Kt3 B to B6 +16 B takes Kt Q to K2 46 R to QR R takes P +17 B to Q4 KR to K 47 R to R8 ch K to R2 +18 Q to Kt4 P to B3 48 K to Kt Q takes P +19 R to B5 P to QR3 49 Q to R4 ch K to Kt3 +20 KR to QB QR to B 50 R to KR8 P to Kt6 +21 P to B5 K to R 51 Q to R7 ch K to B3 +22 R to KB R to B2 52 Q to R4 ch K to Kt3 +23 R to KB4 Q to B2 53 Q to R7 ch K to B3 +24 Q to R3 R to KB 54 Q to R4 ch K to Kt3 +25 P to KKt4 K to Kt 55 Q to R7 ch K to B3 +26 Q to Kt3 P to R3 56 Q to R4 ch R to Kt4 +27 P to Kt4 R to Q2 57 Q to B4 ch K to Kt3 +28 R to QB R to QR 58 R takes B P takes R +29 P to KR4 Q to K2 59 Q to K4 ch R to B4 +30 R to B5 R to KB 60 Q to K6 ch R to B3 + +Lee for once in this Tournament worked his very hardest and +his 41st move was of the highest order. Bird's attack seemed +irresistible. + +And the game was drawn after 73 moves. + +The games in the amateur competitions for spirit and liveliness +contrasted in many instances with some in the Masters' +Tournament, and we would gladly have given a larger selection of +them had they reached us a little earlier. + +The proceedings of the North of Ireland Congress and its play +were worthy of a special work. + + White Black White Black +R. S. GAMBLE R. BOYD R. S. GAMBLE R. BOYD +1 P to K4 P to K4 19 P to Q5 P to QB4 +2 Kt to KB3 Kt to QB3 20 R to K4 P to B3 +3 B to QKt5 B to B4 21 B to B4 QR to K square +4 P to QB3 Kt to KB3 22 QR to K square P to KKt4 +5 P to Q4 P takes P 23 B to R2 K to R square +6 P to K5 Kt to KKt5 24 P to KKt4 Kt to R5 +7 P takes P B to QKt3 25 Kt takes Kt P takes Kt +8 Castles Castles 26 Q to R6 B to Q square +9 P to KR3 Kt to KR3 27 R to K6 B to Kt2 +10 B to K3 Kt to KB4 28 Q to R5 B to K2 +11 Q to Q3 P to Q3 29 Q to KB5 B to Q square +12 B takes Kt P takes B 30 B takes P R to KKt square +13 B to Kt5 Q to Q2 31 Kt to K4 B to B square +14 P takes P P takes P 32 Kt takes P R takes R +15 Kt to QB3 P to QR4 33 R takes R Q to KB2 +16 R to K square B to QKt2 34 B to K5 B to B2 +17 P to Kt3 B to R3 35 Kt takes R ch B takes B +18 Q to Q2 B to B2 + and wins. + + White Black +R. A. WILLIAMS LT. COL. CHALLICE +1 P to K4 P to Q4 +2 P takes P Q takes P +3 Kt to QB3 Q to Q square +4 P to Q4 Kt to KB3 +5 B to K2 B to B4 +6 B to K3 P to K3 +7 P to QR3 B to K2 +8 Kt to KB3 Castles +9 Kt to K5 Kt to K5 +10 B to B3 Kt takes Kt +11 P takes Kt P to QB3 +12 P to KKt4 B to Kt3 +13 Q to Q2 Q to B2 +14 P to KR4 P to KR3 +15 P to R5 B to R2 +16 P to Kt5 P takes P +17 KR to Kt B to Q3 +18 Kt to Q3 P to B3 +19 K to K2 Kt to Q2 +20 R to Kt2 QR to K1 +21 P to R6 P take P +22 QR to R square K to Kt2 +23 R takes P K takes R +24 B take P ch + and mates in three moves. + +Game played in the Championship Tournament (Tie) between +Messrs. E. A. Robinson and W. L. Harvey, September 27th, 1892: + + White Black +W. L. HARVEY E. A. ROBINSON +1 P to K4 P to K4 +2 Kt to KB3 Kt to QB3 +3 B to Kt5 Kt to KB3 +4 P to Q3 P to Q3 +5 P to B3 P to QR3 +6 B to R4 B to Q2 +7 Kt to Q2 P to KKt3 +8 Kt to B square + +Steinitz favours this continuation, which however is considered +to lose time for White's attack. + +8 B to Kt2 +9 B to B2 Kt to K2 +10 B to K3 + +10 B to KKt5 at once seems to be much better. + +10 Kt to Kt5 +11 B to KKt5 P to KB3 +12 B to R4 B to K3 +13 P to KR3 Kt to R3 +14 Q to Q2 Kt to B2 +15 Kt to K3 Q to Q2 +16 P to Q4 P to B3 +17 P to Q5 + +17 P to QB4 is preferable at this point. + +17 P takes P +18 P takes P B to B4 +19 B takes B + +Turning the chances in favour of Black. If 19 Kt takes B, +leaving Bishops of different colours, there is all appearance of a +draw. + +19 Kt takes B +20 P to KKt4 Kt takes B +21 Kt takes Kt Kt to Kt4 +22 Q to K2 Castles KR +(one hour) +23 Castles QR P to QKt4 +24 Kt (on R4) to Kt2 Q to QB2 +25 P to KR4 Kt to B2 +26 P to R5 P to Kt4 +27 Kt to B5 + +Threatening trouble by P to R6, followed by Kt to Kt7, &c. + +27 P to R3 +28 Q to K4 (!) Kt to Q square +29 Kt (on Kt2) to K3 Kt to Kt2 +30 Kt takes B Q takes Kt +31 Q to Kt6 + +The position here bristles with interest. Examination will +show that Black is in more serious danger than lies on the surface. + +31 P to KB4 +32 Kt takes P R takes Kt + +Judiciously giving up the exchange and Pawn to escape the +fatal attack threatened on Rook's file. + +33 P takes R R to B square +34 R to R2 R to B3 +35 Q to K8 ch K to R2 +36 P to KB4 Kts P takes P +37 R (on R2!) to R square + +The other R to R square, doubling, seems much stronger. If +then R x P, 38 Q to Kt6 ch! From this point White plays a +weak game. + +37 R takes P +38 Q to Kt6 ch Q takes Q +39 P takes Q ch K takes P +40 P to QKt4 P to K5 +41 R (Q sq) to Kt sq ch R interposes +42 K to Q2 Kt to Q square +43 R takes R ch P takes R +44 R to R8 + +After this it is only a matter of time. The Pawns cannot be +stopped. + +44 Kt to B2 +45 R to Kt8 ch K to R2 +46 R to K8 P to K6 ch +47 K to K2 K to Kt3 +48 R to K6 ch K to B4 +49 R to K7 Kt to K4 +50 R to K8 P to Kt5 +51 R to B8 ch + +Driving him where he wants to go! + +51 K to K5 +52 R to B6 P to B6 ch +53 K to Q sq P to Kt6 +54 R to B8 P to Kt7 +55 R to Kt8 P to B7 +Resigns. + +------ + +BLINDFOLD CHESS + +The Arabs are the first we read of among the people of the +East who excelled in playing chess without seeing the board. The +introduction to one of Dr. Lee's manuscripts in his Oriental +collection, relates examples of the early Mohammedan doctors, +and even of companions and followers of the Prophet, who either +themselves played chess or were spectators of the game. Some of +them also are said to have played behind their back, i.e. without +looking at the board, and it may not be generally known that the +manuscript in the British Museum 16,856 copied in 1612, which +is a translation and abridgment of an older work in Arabic, +contains a full chapter with a lengthy description, combined with +maxims and advice for playing chess without seeing the board. +Al Suli, who died A.D. 946, and Ali Shatranji, at Timur's Court, +1377 A.D. (the chess giants of their respective ages), were each +highly proficient in Blindfold Chess. A man named Buzecca, in +1266, on the invitation of Guido du Novelli, the friend and +munificent patron of Dante, and who was Master of Ravenna, gave +an exhibition of his powers at Florence, which occasioned much +surprise and admiration. + +The unknown author of the famous and unique manuscript, +bequeathed by Major Price, the eminent Orientalist, to the Asiatic +Society, which has formed the subject of so much discussion among +the learned, parades his own chess prowess, in a manner not +unworthy of some great chess exponents of the present age. "And +many a one," he says in his preface, "has experienced a relief +from sorrow and affliction in consequence of this magic recreation"; +and this same fact has been asserted by the celebrated physician +Muhammad Zakaria Razi, in his book entitled: "The Essence of +Things": "And such is likewise the opinion of the physician Ali +Bin Firdaus, as I shall notice more fully towards the end of the +present works, for the composing of which I am in the hope of +receiving my reward from God, who is Most High and Most +Glorious." + +The philosopher continues: "I have passed my life since the +age of fifteen years among all the masters of chess living in my +time, and since that period till now, when I have arrived at middle +age, I have travelled through Irak Arab, and Irak Ajam, and +Khurasan, and the regions of Mawara al Nahr (Transoxania), and +I have there met with many a master in this art, and I have played +with all of them, and through the favour of Him who is Adorable +and Most High I come off victorious." + +"Likewise in playing without seeing the board I have overcome +most opponents, nor had they the power to cope with me. I the +humble sinner now addressing you, have frequently played with +one opponent over the board and at the same time I have carried +on four different games, with as many adversaries, without seeing +the board, whilst I conversed freely with my friends all along, +and through the Divine favour I conquered them all. Also in the +great chess, I have invented sundry positions as well as several +openings, which no one else ever imagined or contrived." + +Notwithstanding the accounts and allusions to Blindfold Chess +here referred to, it would seem to have been generally unknown +to us at the time when Philidor performed his intellectual feat of +playing two games blindfold, and one over the board, on several +occasions at the St. James Street Chess Club, about a century ago. +The club which was held at Parsloes Hotel, was formed in 1770, +and its members comprised many prominent, celebrated, and +distinguished men: Pitt, Earl of Chatham, C. J. Fox, Rockingham, +St. John, Mansfield, Wedderburn, Sir G. Elliott, and other +well-known names are recorded among the visitors and spectators there. +Whilst the players who contended against Philidor at the slightest +shade of odds included Sir Abraham Janssens, the Hon. Henry +Conway, Count Bruhl, Mr. George Atwood (mathematician and +one of Pitt's financial secretaries), Dr. Black, the Rev. Mr. +Boudler, and Mr. Cotter. Stamma, of Aleppo, engaged in London +on works of translation, and who was one of the best chess players, +was matched against Philidor, but won only one out of eight games. +These contests took place at Slaughter's Coffee House, in St. +Martin's Lane, long a principal meeting place for leading chess +players. Philidor does not seem to have tried more than two +games blindfold, but such was the astonishment they caused at the +time, that doubts were expressed whether such an intellectual feat +would ever be repeated; and certainly from the tenor of press +notices of the event, and Philidor's own memoranda, it seems that +it could not have been contemplated or conceived that +performances on the scale we have witnessed in our days by Louis +Paulsen, 1; Paul Morphy, 2; J. H. Blackburne, 3; and Dr. J. H. +Zukertort, 4, would become, comparatively speaking, so common +in a future generation. The following article, from a newspaper +of the period, was thought to reflect with tolerable accuracy the +general impression prevailing at the time in regard to these +performances. + +The World, a London newspaper in its issue of the 28th May, +1783, makes the following remarks upon Philidor's performance +of playing two games simultaneously without sight of the board. +It scarcely, however, comes up to our American cousin's views of +Morphy in 1858, just three-quarters of a century later. It says: +"This brief article is the record of more than sport and fashion, +it is a phenomenon in the history of man and so should be hoarded +among the best samples of human memory, till memory shall be +no more. The ability of fixing on the mind the entire plan of two +chess tables without seeing either, with the multiplied vicissitudes +of two and thirty pieces in possible employment on each table, is a +wonder of such magnitude as could not be credible without +repeated experience of the fact." + +Philidor himself notes also, being of opinion that an entire +collection of the games he has played without looking over the chess +board would not be of any service to amateurs, he will only publish +a few parties which he has played against three players at once, +subjoining the names of his respectable adversaries in order to +prove and transmit to posterity a fact of which future ages might +otherwise entertain some doubt. + +During the years 1855-6 and 7, Louis Paulsen at Chicago, and +other cities in the west of America, first accomplished the feat of +playing ten games at chess simultaneously, without seeing the board +or pieces, now familiarly called Blindfold Chess; and at Bristol, in +1861, and at Simpson's Divan, London, in the same year, he repeated +the performance, on the last occasion meeting twelve very +powerful opponents. + +The phenomenon Paul Morphy, from New Orleans, when twenty +years of age only, conducted eight games blindfold at Birmingham, +in August, 1858, losing one to Dr. Salmon of Dublin, drawing +with Mr. Alderman Thomas Avery, and winning the remaining +six. Morphy at Paris, in March, 1859, repeated the performance, +and won all eight games; his play was superb, and all agree has +never been surpassed, if equalled, and drew forth press notice +even more gushing than that bestowed upon his predecessor +Philidor. + +J. H. Blackburne appeared in 1862, and with Louis Paulsen, +the pioneer of the art upon the extended scale, was engaged by +the British Chess Association at their International Gathering, in +1862, to give blindfold exhibitions; each played ten games with +great success, amid much appreciation. Mr. Blackburne's +subsequent thirty years blindfold chess is too well known to require +comment, he is admitted to be second to none in the exposition of +the art, some even claim superiority for him over all others. + +Dr. Zukertort, on the 21st December, 1876, at the St. George's +Chess Club, contended blindfold with sixteen competitors, +comprising the best players that could be found to oppose him. From +a physiological point of view Zukertort's powers appear the most +extraordinary, because his abstraction for chess was far less +pronounced, and his mind seemed to be of a more varied and even +discursive kind. It would scarcely have been less surprising to +have seen players like Staunton, Buckle, or Der Lasa performing +blindfold chess. + +The number of players of all grades of chess force who now +can play without seeing the board is amazing; a tournament for +blindfold play only could well be held. The faculty of playing +chess blindfold is thought to apply mostly to those who have +extraordinary retentive memories of a peculiar kind, and great +powers of abstraction very slightly brought into action or diverted +by other pursuits. This seems to be confirmed in considering the +great chess exponents who have played blindfold, and those who +have not, a comparison has been adduced but which might seem +invidious to expatiate on. + +NOTE. Sachieri, a Jesuit of Turin, who lived in the 17th century, +had a most surprising memory. He could play at chess with three +different persons without seeing one of the three boards, his +representative only telling him every move of the adversary. +Sachieri would direct him what man to play, and converse with +company all the time. If there happened a dispute about the +place of a man, he could repeat every move made by both parties +from the beginning of the game, in order to ascertain where the +man ought to stand. He could deliver a sermon an hour long in the +same words and order in which he heard it. This is very remarkable, +as the Italian sermons are unmethodical and unconnected, and full +of sentences and maxims. + +Blackburne does the same. At one of the few blindfold performances +I have witnessed by him, viz., at Montreal, in 1889, during our +adjournment to dinner the positions had become disarranged, but +Blackburne on resumption called over all the eight games, with +great facility, and perfect accuracy, the resumption being delayed +not more than five minutes. + +The Razi referred to above (called by our medieval writers Rhasis) +was a celebrated physician of Bagdad, where he died about A.D. 922. + +The Author of the British Museum M.S. says: + +"Some men from long practice, have arrived at such a degree of +perfection in this art, as to have played blindfold at four or +five boards at one and the same time, and never to have committed +a mistake in any of the games." He further tells us that--"some +have been known to have recited poetry, or told amusing stories, +or conversed with the company present, during the progress of the +contest." In another sentence he says--"I have seen it written in +a book, that one man played blindfold at ten boards simultaneously, +and gained all the games; he even corrected many errors committed +by his opponents and friends, in describing the moves. + +It was a saying in the East, "He plays at chess like Al Suli." +So that many believed him to be the inventor of this game, but +erroneously. + +The Arabians say that a certain great man showed one of his +friends his garden, full of fine flowers, and said to him, +"Did you ever see a finer sight than this? Yes," he replied, +"Al Suli's game at chess is more beautiful than this garden +and everything that is in it." + +Al Suli died A. D. 946. + +------ + +The writer is not enamoured of blindfold play, preferring not +to attempt to do that without his eyes, which he can do better +with. "Blindfold Play" the term used nowadays, or "playing +behind your back," as one of the old Arabian manuscripts has it, +seems not the most happy expression for the art, playing "Sans +Voir" or without sight of chess board or pieces clearly expresses +it. Good players, actually blind, may be mentioned, the writer +has played with such, in a simultaneous exhibition of chess play +at Sheffield, a game against two blind boys from the Asylum, +proved one of the best contested and most interesting in the series, +and these bright but afflicted lads evidently, with their kind +attendant, derived the greatest pleasure from the meeting. + +------ + +THE GAME OF CHESS + +Elaborate and learned works have appeared treating on the +supposed origin of chess. Oriental manuscripts, Eastern fables, +and the early poets have been quoted to prove its antiquity, and +it would not be easy to name any subject upon which so much +valuable labour and antiquarian research has been bestowed, with +so little harmonious or agreed result as to opinions concerning +the first source of this wonderful game. + +That chess reached Persia from India in the first half of the +Sixth century, during the reign of Chosroes, is well attested, and +concurred in by all historians from the Arabian and Persian +writers, the beautiful and accomplished Greek Princess Anna +Comnena, and the Asiatic Society's famous manuscript to Dr. Hyde +and Sir William Jones, and Sir Frederick Madden and Professor +Duncan Forbes, China, also, admits the receipt of chess from +India in the year 537, and got it about the same time as Persia. + +Whatever difference of opinion may exist as to the exact spot +from whence chess first sprung, its Asiatic origin is undoubted. +The elephant, ship, or boat in the game was illustrative of its +mode of warfare. The identity of the pieces in the ancient game +with ours of the present day affords striking confirmation of it, +whilst the most competent and esteemed authorities who have +devoted the greatest attention and research to the subject deem +the evidence of language conclusive proof that the Persian +Chatrang, which we first hear of under date of about 540 A.D., +was derived from the ancient Hindu Chaturanga, found described +in original Sanskrit records. + +It is generally assumed on very fair inferences that the +Arabians were expert chess players, and also excelled in +blindfold play. The game was known among them in the days of the +prophet, 590 to 632, who finding some engaged at chess asked +them, "What images are these which you are so intent upon?" +For they seemed to have been new to him, the game having been +very lately introduced into Arabia from Persia. Nice gradations +of skill were observed among them, and thirteen degrees of odds +are enumerated among them down to the rook. To give any odds +beyond the rook, says one of the manuscripts, can apply only to +women, children, and tyros. For instance, a man to whom even +a first-class player can afford to give the odds of a rook and a +knight has no claim to be ranked among chess players. In fact +the two rooks in chess are like the two hands in the human body, +and the two knights are, as it were, the feet. Now that man has +very little to boast of on the score of manhood and valour who +tells you that he has given a sound thrashing to another man who +had only one hand and one foot. It may be observed, however, +that proportionately to the value of all the pieces in the old game, +as compared with the present, the rook and knight would be +equivalent to queen and rook with us. + +The earliest Greek reference brought to notice is in a laconic +correspondence between the Emperor Nicephorus of Constantinople, +successor to the Princess Irene, and the famous Harun Ar +Rashid of Bagdad, the fifth of the Abbasside dynasty, in 802, which +mentions Pawn and Rook, implying that his predecessor in +paying tribute resembled rather the former for weakness than the +latter for strength; but it had probably been known among the +Greeks before the death of Justinian, in 565, as he was +contemporary with Chosroes, and these rulers were at peace and in +friendly terms of communication, allowing interpretations of their +respective records, which seem to have been of mutual interest. + +All the writers who assert that the ancient Greeks and Romans +were unacquainted with chess have overlooked the Roman edict +of 115 B.C., in which both chess and Draughts were specially +exempted from prohibition. + +Such consideration as can be found devoted to the game or +games of the Egyptians mainly relates to hypothesis and conjectures +in regard to the inscriptions recorded to have been discovered on +tombs and the temples generally, and especially on the wall of +the great palace of Medinet Abu at Egyptian Thebes, which, +according to the most approved authorities, derived from the +scrolls, relates to the time of Ramesses Meiammun the 16th, out +of the 17 monarchs of the 18th dynasty, who as is supposed, +reigned from 1559 to 1493 B.C., and constructed Medinet Abu, +and is pronounced most likely to be the monarch represented on +its walls. His title is Ramses, and he is considered to have been +the grandfather of Sesostris 1st of the 19th dynasty, whose reign is +stated as from 1473 to 1418 B.C. + +Some discussion arose in chess circles in 1872 in reference to +Mr. Disraeli's mention of chess in one of his books. Chapter 16 of +"Alroy" begins--"Two stout soldiers were playing chess in a +coffee-house," and Mr. Disraeli inserts on this the following note +(80). On the walls of the palace of Amenoph II, called Medinet +Abuh, at Egyptian Thebes, the King is represented playing chess +with the Queen. This monarch reigned long before the Trojan +war. + +A writer, who styled himself the author of Fossil Chess, in +criticising the above, refers to Sir Gardiner Wilkinson's work, +"A popular account of the ancient Egyptians, which declares the +game to resemble draughts, the pieces being uniform in pattern." +The same critic further remarks, "In the same work may be +found some account of the paintings in the tomb of Beni Hassan, +presumably the oldest in Egypt, dating back from the time of +Osirtasen I, twenty centuries before the Christian era, and eight +hundred years anterior to the reign of Rameses III, by whom the +temple of Medinet Abuh was commenced, and who is the Rameses +portrayed on its walls. An unaccountable error on Mr. Disraeli's +part in the same note assigns its erection to Amenoph II, who +lived 1414 B.C. + +The eminent and revered writer and statesman may not have +selected the supposed best authorities for his dates, but the +sapient critic indulges in a strange admixture of misconception. +However, Egyptian chronology is not fully agreed upon, even +Manetho and Herodotus differ some 120 years as to the time of +Sesostris, and Bishop Warburton, we read, was highly indignant +with a scholar, one Nicholas Man, who argued for the identity of +Osiris and Sesostris after he (the bishop) had said they were to be +distinguished. Respecting English origin, all authorities down to +the end of the Eighteenth century agreed in ascribing the first +knowledge of chess to the time of William the Conqueror, or to +that of the return of the first Crusaders. + +Perhaps, however, it reached us in the days of Charlemagne, +and may well have done so through Alcuin of York, his friend +and tutor in the reigns of Offa and of Egbert. + +Al Walid, 705-715; Harun, 786-809; the great Al Mamun, +813 to 833; and Tamerlane, 1375 to 1400, are monarchs who +honoured their chess opponents when beaten. Charlemagne, +768-814, seems also to have taken defeat good-humouredly, and +Queen Elizabeth, who liked chess, philosophised upon it. Canute, +William the Conqueror, and Henry the Eighth, like the famous +Ras, of Abyssinia, whom Salt and Buckle inform us of, preferred +to win. + +Chess, as it is now played, came down to us from the Fifteenth +century, when the queen of present powers was introduced, and +the extensions and improvements in the moves of the bishops and +the pawns and in castling effected, and which made the game +exactly what it now is. It has been so practised for four hundred +years without the slightest deviation or alteration, and with so +much continued satisfaction and advanced appreciation that any +change or modification suggested, however trifling, has been at +once discouraged and rejected, and additions proposed in the 17th +century (Carrera), 18th (Duke of Rutland), and 19th (Bird) were +regarded with no favour, and the objection that the game was +difficult enough already. + +During the present century (especially in the second half) chess +has become vastly popular. The game is innocent and intellectual, +and affords the utmost scope for art and strategy, and for its +practice we have about five hundred clubs and institutions, +compared with the one club in St. James' Street, and Slaughter's, +in St. Martin's Lane, which existed in the last century, during the +height of Philidor's career, and two of the first half dozen. Chess +clubs started found rest on Irish soil, the first so early as the +year 1819. + +------ + +PHILIDOR, + +BORN 1726, DREUX, NEAR PARIS, DIED 1795, IN LONDON. + +Philidor's ascendancy and popularity in the last century, owing +to his remarkable and perhaps unprecedented supremacy combined +with the liberality of his treatment and the chivalry and +enthusiasm of his opponents, tended to create an entirely new era in +chess and its support. An interest became aroused of a most +important character, unknown in any previous age in England, +and which, though not fully maintained after his death, and least +of all among the higher classes who ranked so largely among his +patrons, was yet destined to have a marked and lasting influence +on the future development and progress of the game, most apparent +at first in England, but later nearly equally manifested in Germany, +since in America and other countries, and not exclusively +confined to any country, class, or creed. + +Several auspicious circumstances had greatly contributed to aid +Philidor in his London career. Prominent among which were his +introduction to Lord Sandwich at the Hague. His patronage +through the same source by the Duke of Cumberland and the +never ceasing liberality of General Conway, the inestimable Count +Bruhl, the Dowager Lady Holland, and the gallant Sir Gilbert +Elliot of Gibraltar fame. + +Of the players who encountered Philidor, Sir Abraham Janssens, +who died in 1775, seems to have been the best, Mr. George Atwood, +a mathematician, one of Pitt's secretaries came next, he was of a +class which we should call third or two grades of odds below +Philidor, a high standard of excellence to which but few amateurs +attain. + +Some indication of the varied and important character of +Philidor's patronage is afforded by the names on the cover of his +edition of 1777, dedicated to the Duke of Cumberland. + +Twenty-six ladies of title grace the list, including the historic +chess names of Devonshire, Northumberland, Bedford, Marlborough, +Rutland, with upwards of 300 male names comprising heads of +the Church, men illustrious at the bar and on the bench, statesmen, +politicians, cabinet ministers, and many most distinguished in +science, both in England and in France, with a long list of our +nobility. Devonshire is the earliest name mentioned in old +Chronicles connected with English chess, Olgar or Orgar, Earl of +Devonshire is recorded to have been playing chess with his +daughter Elstreth or Elpida when King Edgar's messenger +Athelwold arrived to ascertain the truth of the reports of her +extraordinary beauty. Northumberland is mentioned two +centuries later as a house in which chess was played. Caxton's +"Booke of Chesse," Bruges 1474, said by some to be the first book +printed in London, was dedicated to the Duke of Clarence, +Rowbotham's, 1561, to the Earl of Leicester, Lucy, Countess of +Bedford accepted dedication of A. Saul's quaint work, 1597 and +and Barbiere's edition of the same, 1640. The early love poem +of Lydgate, emblematical of chess was dedicated to the admirers +of the game, and the Duke of Rutland in the last century took +sufficient interest in it to devise an extension of chess. + +NOTE. The names of the subscribers on Philidor's Analysis of +Chess, 1777, include Lord Sandwich and the Duke of Cumberland +for 10 and 50 copies respectively. + +The Duchess of Argyle, the Duchess of Bedford, the Duchess of +Buccleuch, R. H. Lady de Beauclerk, Viscountess Beauchamp, +Miss Sophia Bristow, Marchioness of Carmarthen, Marchioness of +Lothian, Duchess of Montrose, Duchess of Devonshire, Countess of +Derby, Lady Derby, Madame Dillon, La Countesse de Forbach, +Dowager Lady Hunt, Dowager Lady Holland, La Countesse de Hurst, +Miss Jennings, the Duchess of Manchester, the Countess of Ossery, +the Countess of Powis, Lady Payne, the Marchioness of Rockingham, +the Right Hon. Lady Cecil Rice, the Countess Spencer, Lady +Frances Scott, Miss Mary Sankey, Miss West, and the Countess +of Pembroke. + +Notwithstanding the enormous advance in chess, appreciation and +practice generally, we have never since been able to boast of a +list at all of this kind. There are Dukes Argyle, Athol, Ancaster, +Bedford, Bolton, Buccleuch, Cumberland, Devonshire, Leeds, +Manchester, Marlborough, Montague, Northumberland, Richmond, +Roxburgh; Marquis Carmarthen, Rockingham; Earl Ashburnham, +Besborough, Dartmouth, Egremont, Gower, Holderness, Northington, +Ossory, Powis, Spencer, Shelburne, Waldegrave; Lords, E. Bentinck, +Bateman, Barrington, Beauchamp, Breadalbane, G. Cavendish, John +Cavendish, Clifford, Denbigh, Fitzmaurice, Fitzwilliam, Falmouth, +Harrowby, Hillsborough, Irwine, Kerry, Kinnaird, March, +Mountstenart, North, Oxford, Palmerston, Polnarth, Robert Spencer, +Temple, Tyrunnell, Warwick, Willoughby de Broke, Amherst, Petre. + +Among statesmen and politicians we find such names as the Earl +of Chatham, Pitt, C. J. Fox, Lord Godolphin, Lord Sunderland, +St. John and Wedderburn. + +Prominent as players as well as supporters were General Conway, +Count Bruhl, the French Ambassador, Duke de Mirepois, the +Turkish Ambassador, Dr. Black, Sir Abram Janssens, G. Atwood, +(one of Pitts' secretaries), Mr. Jennings, Mr. Cotter, and the +Rev. Mr. Bouldeer. + +Voltaire and Roussca were friends of Philidor, so also was +David Garrick the actor; supporters in the musical world were +numerous. A combination of high appreciation for chess and +music combined is often found. + +Philidor died in 1795. Sir Abram Janssens had already departed +in 1775, as the recognized best player and one of the greatest +enthusiasts, his loss left a great void in chess, Scandigh, +Benedict, Prout and Asfra are musicians with whom we have +ourselves played chess. + +------ + + THE CARLOVINGIAN DYNASTY + +In A.D. 757 Constantine Capronymus, Emperor of the East sent to +King Pepin as a rare present the first organ ever seen in France. + + CHARLEMAGNE'S WAGER + +The romance of Guerin de Montglave turns wholly upon a game of +chess at which Charlemagne had lost his Kingdom to Guerin. + +The short dialogue which preceded this game on which so great a +stake depended, as narrated by the hero of the story to his sons +is characteristic, and has thus been modernized by the Compte de +Tressan, "I bet," said the Emperor to me "that you would not play +your expectation against me on this chess board, unless I were to +propose some very high stake." "Done, replied I, I will play then, +provided only you bet against me your Kingdom of France." "Very good, +let us see," cried Charlemagne, who fancied himself to be strong +at chess. We play forthwith, I win his Kingdom, he falls a laughing +at it, but I swear by St. Martin and all the Saints of Aquitain, that +he must needs pay me by some sort of compensation or other. The +Emperor therefore by way of equivalent surrenders to Guerin, all +right to the City of Montglave, (Lyons), then in the hands of +Saracens which is forthwith conquered by the hero, who afterwards +names Mabolette the Soldan's daughter. + +The earliest chess anecdote in France is given by Augustus, +Duke of Luneburg in his great work on chess. It is extracted +from an old Bavarian Chronicle, then in Library of Marcus Welsor, +and states that Okarius, Okar or Otkar, Prince of Bavaria had a +son of great promise, residing at the Court of King Pepin. One +day Pepin's son when playing at chess with the young Prince of +Bavaria, became so enraged at the latter for having repeatedly +beaten him that he hit him on the temple with one of his rooks so +as to kill him on the spot. This anecdote is confirmed in another +Bavarian Chronicle, and in the Guirinalia 1060. The acts of Saint +Guirin by Metellus of Tegernsee. The murder of Okar happened +during the reign of Pepin 752 to 768. + +In another romance containing the history of Les Quatre Fils Aymsn, +we read that Duke Richard of Normandy was playing at chess with +Ivonnet, son of Regnant, (Rinalde) when he was arrested by the +officers of Regnant, who said to him, "Aryse up Duke Rycharde, +for in despite of Charlemagne who loveth you so much, ye shall +be hanged now. When Duke Rycharde saw that these sergeantes had +him thus by the arms and held in his hande a lively (dame) of +ivory where at he wolde have given a mate to Yennet he withdrew +his arme and gave to one of the sergeantes such a strike with it +into the forehead that he made him tumble over and over at his +feete, and then he tooke rocke and smote another at all opon his +head that he all loost it to the brayne. + + + + +THE HABITS AND IDIOSYNCRACIES OF CHESS PLAYERS +(MYSELF) + +NOTE. Speaking as a chess player, Bird is used, for matters +common or general, the editorial us or we is adopted, but +when expressing my own individual knowledge or opinion only, +I is preferred. + +------ + +The temperaments of chess players vary, some get easily +disconcerted, disturbed and even distracted; others seem little +affected by passing events, a few, apparently not at all: some +even like a gallery and don't object to reasonable conversation; +by conversations or little interruptions which would pass unheeded +by a McDonnell or a Bird, or perhaps a Zukertortian would sadly +disconcert a Buckle or a Morphy, make Staunton angry, and drive +a Gossip to despair. + +The attitude as well as the deportment and demeanour of chess +players at the board shows many varieties: Anderssen and Captain +Mackenzie were statuesque; Staunton, not quite so tall as the +Rev. J. Owen, seeming to be soaring up aloft. Harrwitz not quite +so small as Gunsberg, seemed sinking to the ground, but the story +that he once disappeared overawed by Staunton's style and manner +of moving, and was, after a search, found under the table, is a +mere canard of Staunton's which need not be too confidently +accepted. Harrwitz disliked being called a small German by +Staunton because it savoured too strongly of the sausage element, +saying if he makes sausage meat of me I will make mincemeat +of him. + +Staunton pretended sometimes not to see Harrwitz, and would +look round the room and even under the chairs for him when he +was sitting at his elbow, which greatly annoyed Harrwitz, who, +however, sometimes got a turn, and was not slow to retaliate. In +a game one day, Staunton materially damaged his own prospects +by playing very tamely and feebly, and testily complained--"I +have lost a move." Harrwitz told the waiter to stop his work, +and search the room until he had found Staunton's lost move, and +his manner of saying it caused a degree of merriment by no +means pleasing to the English Champion. + +Staunton was considered full-blooded, and his amiable French +opponent, who used to play for 5 pounds a game no doubt thought he +expressed himself favorably and forcibly when he said he is +one very nice, charmant man, but he is a "---- fool." + +Staunton's celebrated stories about Lowenthal and Williams, +though very amusing to chess ears, I omit for obvious reasons, +though extremely funny as Staunton originally told them, and +as MacDonnell repeats them, they are probably not strictly founded +on fact, and are lacking of the respect to which the memories of +two such amiable and chivalrous chess players as Williams and +Lowenthal are entitled. + +------ + +STAKES AT CHESS + +The question of stakes or money terms upon which chess is +played is a question of the first importance in the interests of +chess, and a few notes of my experience upon the subject may +not be inappropriate. After about three months looking on +at chess play in 1844, at Raymond's Coffee House near the +City Road Gate, where Dr. Michaelson of the Morning Post, +and Mr. Finley, a farrier, were the respective giants, and a +cup of coffee the usual stake, I learned the moves at chess, and +receiving the odds of a Queen for a few games, I happened +one day to hear with astonishment that the gentleman +conceding me the odds was not as I supposed, the champion of the +world, but that better players could be found at Goodes, Ludgate +Hill, and Simpson's in the Strand. To the former I soon resorted +and found Kling, Kuiper and Muckle, the principal professionals +there; a nominal fee of sixpence being the charge per game, +and Staunton, the champion had played many games at that rate. +It was some weeks before I mustered resolution to visit Simpson's +spacious and handsome hall, but, once arrived there, I made +myself at home. Lowe, Williams and Finch were the attendant +players there, and extensively they were supported. From each +received the Queen soon improving to the odds of the Knight, and +then playing even with them. Buckle alone, who did not mind +hard work, essayed to give me Pawn and move, but for a short +time only. One shilling a game has always been the recognized +stake at Simpson's, and also at St. Georges the principal London +Chess Club, but there have been exceptions, John Cochrane and +Bird, the Rev. G. A. MacDonnell and Bird, and S. Boden and Bird +never played for anything, and these ranked among the most +popular of games, and the players were favourite opponents. In +1873, Wisker was holder of the British Chess Association +Challenge Cup, but had never seen or played with Bird, who had +been for six years out of chess. An accidental meeting by them, +and the presence and intervention of Lowenthal and Boden, led +to the Wisker and Bird four matches, the first for 5 pounds, and the +other for credit of victory only. Anderssen and Bird always +played 5/- a game, Zukertort and Bird 2/6, Steinitz and Bird's first +sixteen games were without stakes, their match of 1866-7 for 25 +pounds only. Before the year 1866, 10 pounds or 20 pounds a side +was a convenient and common stake for a match. Staunton and +Harrwitz, Staunton and Horwitz, Morphy and Anderssen, Steinitz +and Blackburne, Steinitz and Zukertort, and Falkbeer and Bird were +all within these figures. The Championship match in 1843, England and +France, between Staunton and St. Amant was for 100 pounds a side, but +the English player had to go to Paris, and the match was a long +one, and it was hoped even at that time that future matches would +be mainly for the honour of victory, and that the entire money +in the case would be a reasonable sum to liberally cover the +players' time and expenses. Morphy reluctantly played for 100 pounds +a side in 1858, but his matches with Anderssen, Harrwitz and +others were for merely nominal stakes. In 1866 a bad example +was set in the case of Steinitz and Anderssen, when 100 pounds a side +was played for, and although Steinitz and Blackburne, and +Zukertort and Blackburne were matches for 60 pounds a side the stakes +were only thus limited to the amount which could be conveniently +obtained from backers at the time. So stakes progressed until +Steinitz and Zukertort actually played for 400 pounds a side, a sum +neither party could afford to lose, even though they could tax their +chess supporters for it. Any chance of a return match which +Zukertort so much desired, became impossible, hence the +extraordinary depression of the great chess victor in two of the most +important Internationals ever held, viz., Paris in 1878, and +Criterion, London, 1883. + +There is too much reason to fear that the result of this match, +and Zukertort's sensitiveness to supposed coolness towards him +afterwards mainly contributed to cause his premature break up +and untimely end. I always advised him before the match, in +justice to himself, to stipulate for a time limit of 20 or 25 moves +an hour, and not to play for more than 100 pounds a side, the +previous extreme maximum for the greatest matches, happy for him +if he had observed this rule; as he himself admitted. Zukertort +lived in the Walworth Road just past my single eleven years lodging +--5 Heygate Street; and he voluntarily confided many matters to +me during the last twelve months of his life, which was for certain +reasons fortunate. His two beautiful daughters, the sole care of +his life, are now provided for, one nine years of age, and the other +thirteen years of age, are being educated at or near Berlin by +Zukertort's mother and his married sister. + +Returning to stakes, I have met here and there with an amateur +who has had scruples and preferred not even playing for the +shilling. + +Buckle, Lord Lyttleton, and many eminent in chess, were +strongly in favour of the customary small stake, and I have seen +dignitaries of the Church, and spotless amateurs, pocket their +shillings with as much gusto as the poor and much abused +professional. It is a kind of voucher to mark the score. + +Professor Ruskin and others who have referred to this question, +saw no objection to the time-honoured stake, and it has been the +rule at the greatest clubs, for, by fixing a custom, it was hoped +to keep the stakes within prescribed limit. It must be admitted +that the difference between one shilling and 25 pounds, 50 pounds +or 100 pounds on a game is far too large. + +Since the growth of the foreign demands for stakes, not thought +of in the days of Philidor, La Bourdonnais, McDonnell, Staunton +and Morphy, squaring between players, has been asserted, viz.-- +in 1878, 1885, and 1887, besides which it has always seemed to +me that as the stakes go up the play goes down, and it certainly +would be difficult to name a match in which so few interesting +games took place as that between Steinitz and Zukertort for 400 +pounds a side, played in the United States at New York, St. Louis +and New Orleans in 1886. + +A sedate and rather severe looking stranger challenged Bird to +a game of chess once, just when Bird had finished a long sitting +with a strong player, and was in rather a lively mood. "A stake, +I suppose," said Bird. "No, I don't like stakes," said the stranger. +"Then suppose we say a chop, or even a basin of soup, fried sole, +or box of cigars." The stranger looked awful for a moment but +dismayed by the good temper of his vis a vis, suddenly relaxed +and conformed to the usual rule, and as the love tales conclude +was happy ever afterwards. + +It is best to understand that the stake on each game is a +shilling, not to say simply we play for a shilling. Once, after an +eight hours sitting, a countryman after losing twenty games +blandly handed Mr. F. one shilling for the sitting, and could not +be induced to part with more. + +Stakes at chess must not be confounded with the favourite +"Comestible." Missing Word calls it by that name. Meat is +sometimes pronounced by some we know almost like mate. An +Irishman addressing the cook instead of the mate once on board +of a vessel, said, " Are you the mate?" and was met with the +reply, "No, I am the man what cooks the mate." It was +remarked after a game that many checks were given without any +mate being obtained. + +Another says, "The Queen in chess does all the work, yet the +King gets all the checks." + +Mr. C. B., the well-known enthusiast, but not always successful +chess player dining with a friend at Simpson's one day, the latter +recurred to the changes which had taken place there and +expressed regret that the Grand chess Divan had been +transformed into a dining room. "Faix," said Mr. C. B. as he took +up a toothpick," It's the first time in my life that I ever felt +disposed to say grace after mate in this room." + +------ + +SLOW PLAY + +Some players are very slow, hence one was called the +"Telegraph" and others by appropriate names of which I +recollect best "West Australian" and the "Flying Dutchman." +About forty years ago there were eight young and rising players +nearly approaching first class, they were S. S. Boden, the Rev. +W. Audrey, Captain Cunningham, G. W. Medley, J. Medley, +C. T. Smith, A. Simons and H. E. Bird. Three of these, +remarkable for ingenuity and sudden surprises had familiar +appellations. One was termed "The Snake," another that +"Old Serpent," I was "The enemy of the human race." A well known +looker on who used to lean over the board and talk a great deal +was called "The Coroner" because it was said he not only held +an inquest on the board, but also sat upon the body. + +One wrote-- + "I saw them sitting at a board + Like statues at a show, + And I myself was also bored + To find them move too slow." + +Paulsen once after an hour's reflection moved his King one +square only, a lady observed "that it seemed a great time for +such a little move." + +Three consultation games were played at one of the County +meetings which lasted together 48 hours, two were drawn and one +adjourned. + +Some games in matches between Staunton and Williams, and +Paulsen and Kolisch about forty years ago were unduly protracted. +Against Medley the last named (Kolisch) took two hours for three +moves and this had much to do with the initiation of the time limit +with the encumbrances of sand glasses and clocks which the +majority of players still approve of. + +------ + +DINNER AND CHESS + +At Purssell's, people used to eat chops, smoke cigars or pipes, +play chess, and talk cricket all at the same time, which seems to +contradict the assumption that it is impossible to do two things at +once. Some say they cannot play chess before dinner, others +not after dinner. Too much dinner is considered a fair excuse +for losing at chess, but no dinner at all is not a valid plea. + +According to the Rev. A. B. Skipworth, who should be an +authority on the subject, professional chess players are not +supposed to dine at all, but our great friend, the genial Mars, +dissents from this view. Staunton, Boden, Steinitz, Mars and +Skipworth himself are essentially diners, and Bird has been +accused of a tendency that way. + +The professionals so called are very few, compared with former +years, yet they find the beef for many a Chess Editor, who barely +supplies the salt. + +It is not a desirable thing in England like it was in India, +Arabia and Sweden to have the reputation of being great in +chess, nor is it supposed now, as it was in the Arabian manuscript, +the Treasure of the Sciences, and Olaus Magnus' work to imply +any particular proof of wisdom and discretion or evidence of fitness +for other things and one is not likely to secure a patron, or a +post, much less a wife by it. An example of how professional chess +players are regarded and can be treated now-a-days is afforded +by the gradual extinction of the class, and absence of the only +two young masters from their native country. The British +Chess Magazine managers are not ignorant of the significance of +the course which they have and are still taking against chess +masters. The Rev. W. Wayte and the Rev. J. Owen, both of whom +have known for forty years, were captains of the respective +teams in a proposed monster match North v. South which took place +at the Great Western Hotel, Birmingham, on the 28th of January +last, the inception of which shows how enthusiasm and ability +can be treated by those who assume the management and control +of these contests. At the very outset before any disposition or +inclination of any kind in the matter was evinced by the masters +the self-appointed inceptors took upon themselves the very +superfluous and invidious task of barring all professionals, and the +Chairman who seems to have joined it recently, is the same +chess patron who would not support my proposal for the Jubilee +Tournament of 1887 (successfully carried out with the aid of the +Times) on the ground "that it was not within the province of +any player, however eminent and enthusiastic to usurp the +functions of the executive appointed for the purpose (whether +paid executive chose to take action or not). May we ask are the +parties who agitated this monster tournament, those who were +specially appointed for any such purpose. Who first thought of +the happy idea of covering amateurs' expenses, and of excluding +just those players likely to furnish the best and most instructive +and amusing games, such in fact as the public most like to see. + +Does this abundance of contests answer one good end, does it +even divert attention from the fact that it is absorbing the funds, +if not strictly taking the place of the 1892 International Chess +Tournament which we are under engagement to our own public +and still more to foreign chess players to provide in return for +Breslau, Amsterdam and Dresden hospitality and meetings. + +To return to dinners, next to them, headaches, stomach aches, +and indigestion often explain the loss of a game, whilst an acute +attack of gout is considered rather advantageous than otherwise. + +------ + +LOOKERS ON + +I know players who have looked on at chess for years that +have never been seen to engage in a game. Occasionally the +occupiers of the earliest seats carry cigar cases, but more +frequently they do not. Some talk over the game obtrusively +which is not always convenient. + +Such a one noticing that no money ever passed when Boden +and Bird played, patronizingly said to the former, "Mr. Boden, I +am so glad to find you do not care for 'filthy lucre.'" B. replied, +"It is not to the `filthy lucre' I object, but to the `filthy +looker on.'" + +It is bad form for spectators to remove the pieces from the +board without the consent of the players, even if it be done for +the purpose of demonstrating more forcibly what move should be +made. + +One who never remained a spectator more than five minutes, +observed, all he desired was to get a birds-eye view of Bird's +position. + +------ + +EXCUSES + +Boden and Bird were favourite opponents for 25 years and +though very opposite in styles were, in the long run, singularly +even in their series. It was the practice of both to resign +at the proper moment. Bird, once it was thought, gave up too +early. "Oh, it is hopeless," said he. "I have my misgivings, +I cannot contend against such forebodings, one Boden is too much, +for me." + +One player, who rarely scored a game, was likened to a very +great musical composer--"Beethoven"--(Beat often)!! + +The excuse made for our old friend L., the hatter, that he was +not playing in his best tile hardly applied. Buckle, with his +proverbially `bad hat', usually under the table, yet invariably +played superbly. + +A man of leather found his efforts to excel, bootless. The +retired fishmonger Umpleby played but a (f) visionary game. +The tailor complained that he played more like a goose than a +bird. + +------ + +THE PIECES IN CHESS + +Jokes have been sometimes made about the pieces used in +chess. Even the calm and serene Mr. Lambe could not refrain +from being facetious in reference to the conversion of a Pawn or +private soldier into a Queen. Another remarked that the Queen +works very hard for a lazy King who alone gets all the checks. +Umpleby, the retired fishmonger in the chess story declared that +he would have been the best player in the world, but for the +Knights at chess which jumped about in the most unreasonable +and absurd manner without rhyme or reason, here there and +everywhere, and the lady who it was said was found engaged and +playing with thirty-two men remained single ever afterwards. +A rather boasting player once said, "I must win, I have a piece +--a (of) head." One answered, "You would be more likely to +win, if instead of a piece of a head, you had a whole head." + +The Rooks occupy the corner squares, and may be played along +either of the files of squares they command. + +Mr. Serjeant Drytong whose legal acumen was acknowledged +by all parties, was also distinguished for a pretty wit and great +skill in our Royal Game. + +On one occasion he appeared for the Defendant in an action +brought by four persons to recover a sum of money lost by his +client in a betting transaction. In the course of his speech the +judge (C. J. Wontone) interrupting him asked, Do I understand +you to say that the Plaintiffs were standing two and two at each +end of the street in order to intercept the Defendant when he +came out. Not exactly two and two, my lord, said the counsel, +but as on a chess board. There was a Rook at every corner, only +these, as I shall show, did not act upon the square. + +Miss Rooster, on one occasion when her dearest friend, Miss +Pullet called, was found so absorbed in studying a problem by +the great Schwerlagerbier, that her visitor could not obtain even +a sign of recognition. After various unsuccessful efforts to +attract the attention of the fair enthusiast, Miss Pullet departed, +and meeting an acquaintance immediately afterwards jocosely +remarked that she had left Miss Rooster engaged with thirty-two +men, whereby she acquired the reputation of being a dangerous +coquette. To this thoughtless jest Miss Rooster ascribed the +circumstance, that during the remainder of her life she walked +in meditation fancy free. + +------ + +COVENT GARDEN INSPIRATION + +We have already seen that the Chess Masters whom the +Fortnightly Review have in a sense made immortal are +Lowenthal, Rosenthal, Horwitz, Zukertort, Winawer and Hoffer, the +writers seem to have forgotten his Lordship and Purssell's great +philosopher who have furnished more fun than all the above put +together, and where is the typical "P.F.G." (pale faced German), +"California" and the "fidgetty W." and Hoffer's "Estimate of +the value of English Players" (1887). Surely half the wit of +these Fortnightly Review contributors could have made an article +of these alone without the addition of more serious persons such +as Steinitz, Blackburne and Bird. + +"A foreign estimate of the value of English Chess Players from +Covent Garden" was the title of a little skit which caused some +amusement five or six years ago. It commenced with Blackburne +5 pounds for a blindfold performance, Gunsberg 2 +pounds: 2 : 0 : 0 for a simultaneous performance, and ranges +downwards till it comes to two pence for the price of Pollock's +proverbial pint of porter. Bird could always be bought for a +glass of whiskey hot and a pleasing nod, and Mason could be got +rid of on an emergency for half-a-crown. Even poor Zukertort at +the B. C. towards the last stood very low. One evening, after +the ordinary dinner at this famous chess club, the whole of the +Amateur Company, with no exception, adjourned to cards and +billiards, Zukertort, Blackburne, Gunsberg and Bird remained alone +in the chess room, the last named proposed a match between +themselves, the others less enthusiastic did not fall in and +after a desultory conversation of half-an-hour or so the little +band dispersed. + +The article about "Fleas and Nits" which well nigh led to the +extinction of the Chess Monthly emanated from Covent Garden +and was aimed at Mr. Steinitz. + +Steinitz has perhaps been the subject of more jokes than any +other chess player. From the day when he first assumed the +responsibilities of chess editorship, and as some are wont to say +"kept watch over The Field Office lest it should disappear before +the morning," to the time when he unfortunately left us for +America he was nearly always a fertile theme of amusement with +the joke-loving members of the chess fraternity. We fancy we +see him now with pen behind the ear pacing up and down the +Divan rooms with horried start and whisper dread, saying, "O +have you seen my article! How many K's in occur? and is there +more than one H in editor?" He has improved since then and is +a match for Hoffer. The clocks (implements of torture I call +them) used for regulating the time consumed in chess matches +have led to several facetious stories at Steinitz's expense, some, +however, not too good natured. Still it was curious to see his +gymnastics, mental and physical, between observance of the chess +board and the time pieces on occasions when time run short and +indeed sometimes when it did not. + +A game between Steinitz and Rosenthal in the London Criterion +Tournament of 1883 furnished an example which will doubtless +be familiarly remembered by those present. With eight moves to +make in about as many minutes in his excitement he had apparently +unwillingly climbed the back of a chair and not till he had +completed the requisite number within the hour and began to breathe +freely did he seem conscious of where he was. Though anxious +for a moment or so he succeeded in getting down very cleverly +without mishap, not however escaping some signs of trepidation. + +A St. Louis writer in 1886, after one of his games with Zukertort, +described in true American fashion Steinitz's tall chair and short +legs and his frantic efforts to regain terra firma, as the writer +described it, to reach the American hemisphere. Steinitz's high +appreciation of proficiency in the game and what is due to one +who attains it was once illustrated before a great man at Vienna, +who rebuked him for humming whilst playing at chess, saying, +"Don't you know that I am the great Banker?" The reply was +characteristic of Steinitz. "And don't you know that I am the +Rothschild of chess?" + +A beautiful chess position with Steinitz beats any work of art +as Al Solis chess, in the opinion of the Caliph, one thousand years +ago far excelled the flowers in his most beautiful garden and +everything that was in it. More than this, Prime Ministers and +Lord Chancellors, Liberal and Conservative, come and go but +there is but one first Lord in chess, says Steinitz. + +Steinitz was so much gratified with the reminder of mine at +Simpson's, that three of the greatest minds ever known have had +the same initials that he will pardon the little addition joke from +Paternoster Row. The three mighty W.S.'s are Wilhelm Steinitz, +William Shakespeare and Walter Scott. He was not so well +pleased with the addition of the unnecessary missing words +William Sykes. + +Steinitz was introduced at a club once as the Champion. "Of +what?" was the reply. + +Steinitz has been known to grieve much when he has lost +at chess; at Dundee, for example, in 1866 after his defeat by +De Vere his friends became alarmed at his woe and disappearance. +Again, after his fall to Rosenthal in a game he should have won +at the Criterion in 1883, news were brought that he was on a seat +in St. James' Park quite uncontrollable. + +Steinitz is liberally disposed to others in mind and purse. The +following brevities on chess are known to have been much admired +by him, I therefore append them for his artistic eye. + +So old and enthusiastic a chess player as Bird, and one who +has travelled about so much professionally, and on chess, has +naturally been the object of many pleasantries, and bon mots, +although he escaped the Fortnightly Review writers, being +regarded, at least by one of them as a very serious person, +L'Anglais comme il faut of the Vienna Neue Frie Presse. The +despised Britisher of custom house officers (who always chalk +him away, hardly deigning to examine his luggage even). He +has figured as the sea captain of the New York Sun, the farmer +of the Rochester Press, the ladies chess professor of the Albany +Argus, and the veteran of the Montreal Press, his vicissitudes +have led him into strange places, among others to a wigwam of the +Indians at Sarnia in 1860, and a representation of one in the +Vienna Exhibition of 1873, when much to the amusement of +Professor Anderssen and Baron Kolisch he received such a cordial +reception from a lady who recognized him as an old friend and +customer at Niagara falls, the lady in question being commonly +termed a squaw (not a disrespectful word for a lady it is hoped). +Bird has been in the Nest at Amsterdam, in the Bowery at New +York, and in the accident ward at Vienna, and has witnessed +many strange things and distressing circumstances, and has +endured interviewers and Irish Home Rulers in America without +a shudder, and has perhaps been asked more questions about +chess than any man living, because he good naturedly always +answers them, and has furnished matter enough in ten minutes +for a two-column article. He has been accused of a partiality for +whisky hot, especially when served by female hands, of ordering +soles by special train at Nuremberg, though he only disposed or +them at breakfast not knowing their price or from whence they +came. Blackburne and Hoffer are responsible for the statement +that he sat up through the night at Vienna preparing statistics, +with nothing but his hat on. The allegation in the Field and +elsewhere that he instructed the French President to fetch a cab +for him on a busy fete day at the Champs de Elysees, in 1878, is +not just, that genial and courteous gentleman having volunteered +to do so under exceptional circumstances, and as all act of +sympathy, and perhaps on account of Bird's play, who though +suffering acutely from gout on that particular day won one of his +two best games of Anderssen. If Bird had a carriage and pair to +the barbers to get a shave (quite recently asserted) it was because +he could not find a conveyance with one horse in time to reach +his destination. When he made a late dinner solely off Pate +de Foie Grass at the Marquis d'Andigny's banquet at St. Germains, +Paris, in 1878, when there were any number of courses, he did so +because be liked the flavour (certainly did not find it savourless) +not comprehending the waiter's surprise or aware of its bilious +tendency till afterwards. Even a king once dined off goose livers +or something of the sort, and we have heard somewhere of a +"feast of snails." + +Even assuming glasses of Lager, 20 Schnaps, and 30 plates +of bread and cheese were consumed at the village with the +unpronounceable name 70 miles this side of Nuremberg, one intensely +hot afternoon in July, 1883, on the eve of the International +Tournament in that city when the train unpolitely went on, leaving +him behind, Bird was not the only consumer nor responsible for +the food famine, which the Field and the Illustrated Sporting +and Dramatic say prevailed afterwards for the whole of the +inhabitants of the place (fifty souls) including the old lady ill in +bed, and her attendant who deserted her for the afternoon partook +thereof. + +Neither Steinitz nor Bird are funny men; the latter most +reserved among his superiors, yet looks good humored. At the +Anglo-American Hotel, Hamilton, in 1860, he was honored by a +recognition each morning for a week from the Prince of Wales. +At the second Universities chess match, Perrott's, Milk Street, +1874, a young gentleman introduced himself to Bird, and a +pleasant chat was commenced, interrupted only by unreasonable +intrusion. This gentleman to Bird's surprise who thus honoured +him by interest in chess was H.R.H. Prince Leopold. + +Professor Ruskin, Lord Randolph Churchill and many eminent +men have supported Bird's chess efforts with much approval; in +the far past J. P. Benjamin Esq., Q.C., and Sir Charles Russell +enjoyed an occasional game. Chief Justice Cockburn, and Sir +George Jessel seem to have liked chess. The list of highly +distinguished men reported to admire the game is varied and +significant. + +Many working men have sought wrinkles from Bird; the late +Mr. Bradlaugh at intervals extending over thirty years has +ardently played occasionally chess or draught skirmishes with +much zest. He was singularly agreeable and good tempered and +a moderate player at both. Bird knew much of Ireland and the +people twenty to thirty years ago. Isaac Butt was fond of chess +but played it but indifferently. Chief Baron Pigott who also +knew it presided in the long trial Bartlett v. Lewis, Overend, +Gurney, etc., and seemed much surprised at a chess allusion. Said +Butt to me, "Come, you are not playing chess with me." +Whiteside and Sullivan two of the six Counsel on the other side, +almost simultaneously replied, "A good thing for you brother Butt, for +you would surely soon be checkmated." + +The master hand who sketched Mason for the Fortnightly +Review scarcely did full justice to his vocal ability, dancing +proclivities and Christian friends, and Blackburne's marvellous +oracles and dictums pass unnoticed. Tinsley Lee, Van Vliet, +Muller and Jasnagrodzky all have their peculiarities which shall +remain untouched, for they are young and sensitive, whilst the +most amusing since the loss of Purssell's Lordship (next to the +Philosopher who happily very much survives) is the extremely +popular Monsieur. + +------ + +CHESS PATRONS + +There have in recent years been annually about eight or ten +chess patrons who have contributed more to promote high class +chess than all the rest of her Majesty's subjects, and remarkable +as it may appear, with one exception there is not one titled, or +what would be deemed very distinguished name among them. + +250 pounds to 300 pounds a year is an ample sum for necessary first +class chess competitions, but nothing like that has been raised +under present auspices in this great Metropolis since 1883, or on +the average for many years. There are some who will buy chess +books who would not care to play at least in a public room on any +conditions; there are, on the other hand, some who drop their +shillings freely at chess without the slightest instruction or +improvement who would scorn to buy a chess book. Even "California" +who greatly desired to improve and apparently cared little about +expense, and with his double or quits propensity in play would not +deign to notice a chess book. One said that this amateur possessed +all the requisites of a loser playing very fastly, very badly and +risking very rashly. One morning about twelve before chess hours +at the Cafe International, New York, whilst writing I was accosted +by a tall and fashionable looking American whom I had seen once +or twice before playing with Mackenzie or Mason, but had never +spoken to. "I see you are busy," said he. "It is not particularly +pressing for the moment," said I, placing my work aside. He +then commenced to interview me concerning Morphy, asking my +opinion and description of him in every conceivable manner; +Staunton, Buckle, Anderssen, Steinitz and Blackburne followed +in rapid succession. All things temporal have an end and a +welcome pause came in this case. Taking up a chess book lying +by my side which happened to be a gilt copy of Chess Masterpieces, +just out, he said, "How much might that book be?" "Oh! about +a dollar," said I. He replied, "I guess that's a pretty tall book, +but times are bad and I guess I cannot invest a dollar on that ere +book." I found he was one of the non-purchasing class but had +the gambling element. "I will play you a game for a dollar if +you will give me the odds of a Rook." "I cannot give it you," +said I, "but will try the Knight for the usual quarter." He +would take nothing less than a Rook and for half-a-dollar, so I +made the attempt and he seem'd to play far too well for the odds, +kept his advantage for a time well and my prospects or the +prospects of my half-dollar were not encouraging, the game +toughened, however, and I got a passed Pawn. It was as Monsieur +would say "nothing," but it seem'd to bother him immensely. He +brought four pieces to stop that poor little Pawn when one would +have done, utterly ignoring the policy of economy of force, his +game consequently got disarranged and he lost, after about an +hour's fighting, No. 1. He proposed another, played wretchedly, +and lost No. 2; worse and worse he played always wanting to +increase his stake, but I remained true to the classics and would +not deviate from the time-honoured stake. As it was I had to draw +seven dollars which my opponent parted with most pleasantly, +asked me to have a cigar and a nerver, and said I was a wonderful +player. He felt that he had a fair look in. Had he bought the +book the bare possibility of an injudicious purchase might have +preyed upon his mind; the book however was fairly priced. In +New York the ten dollar game arose in this way, receiving Rook, +Pawn and three moves, I lost on balance ten games, 5 dollars, and +demanded double or quits which I was forced to comply with. +Passed pawns bothered him also. I was New York Sun Chess +Editor and not a chess book investor. + +Some have been known to accumulate chess libraries which +frequently get dispersed, a copy of Lolli sold for 5 pounds, +another equally good for 2/6. The difference between two-pence and +170 pounds for Caxton represents the largest profit yet recorded +on a chess book. A copy of Mr. Christie's little work on the Greek +and Roman Theory (1799) should be valuable. + +------ + +STYLE IN CHESS + +Some chess players make more lively games than others, and +more interesting to watch, and it is curious what different styles +can be discerned in the play of the greatest masters of assumed +equal ability, a proof of the great versatility of the game; +Anderssen was remarkable for ingenuity and invention, Morphy for +intuitive genius and grace, Zukertort for scientific development +and Staunton, Buckle, Steinitz and Mason for patience, care and +power of utilizing to the utmost the smallest advantages winning +by hairs breadth merely. The above represent distinctive schools +at chess. Blackburne's play shews little resemblance to that of +Bird, Tarrasch and Tchigorin are quite different in style, the +former most learned and profound the latter most enterprising. + +Lasker's play partakes somewhat of the characteristics of both, +Burn and Gunsberg have each a style of their own, and Mackenzie +was particularly grand and irresistible in his attacks, Bird is +sometimes called the best player of bad games and he often makes a +capital middle and splendid end game from an unscientific and +erratic beginning. One enthusiast observed that there were only +three parts of the game he could not play, viz., the beginning, the +middle and the end. + +The following is an illustration of four styles of play; the reader +can supply real names to satisfy his own taste and imagination. + +------ + +STYLE AT CHESS + +After a slumber of four years Bangs the fresh, the growing, the +vigorous, has risen from his lair, and shaking the dew from his +mane, has given utterance to a roar that no champion of chess can +hear without a shudder. There is no doubt that he has gained +at least a pawn in strength since 1868. Dr. Hooker too, the +lightning player, now gives where he once received a Castle. +Beach has returned to his native heath rich with the experience +of Morphy's old haunt the Cafe de la Regence. Hall has +toughened his sinews by many a desperate tug with the paladins +of New York. Mackenzie himself has felt the force of his genius +and gazed on his moves with astonishment. Between the styles of +these four great players there is a notable difference. Bangs, +like the lion, tears everything absolutely to fragments that comes +within the reach of his claws. Hooker, like the eagle, soars +screaming aloft sometimes to such a height that he loses himself +but only to return with a desperate sense which Bangs himself +can hardly withstand. Beach, more like the slow worm, insinuates +gradually into the bowels of the enemy making his presence only +felt by the effect, while Hall, on the contrary, rushes right +onward like the locomotive scattering obstacles to right and left, +and treating his antagonist with no more ceremony than if he were +a cow strayed accidentally upon the track. + +------ + +BUCKLE'S CHESS REFERENCES + +Buckle's Chess References, which are not so full as we could +wish contain the names of Gerbert (Pope Sylvester, 2) (992, 1003), +Cranmer, Wolsey, Pitt and Wilberforce, as chess players, but do +not refer in any way to Beckett, Luther, or Voltaire, names +mentioned in Linde, neither think of Alcuin, or consider the +chess probabilities of the contemporary reigns of Offer, Egbert, +Charlemagne, Harun, and Irene. + +Van der Linde assigns the 13th Century for first knowledge of +chess in England, and places it under the head of Kriegspiel, +but on what grounds, or what he conceives this Kriegspiel to be, +or how it differs from chess does not clearly appear in his book, +his space being rather devoted to sneers or dissent from the +statements and conclusions of previous writers, than at advancing +any distinct theory of his own. + +He labours much to cast doubts on Charlemagne's knowledge of +chess, and to infer that the chess men preserved and considered +to have belonged to him, reported upon by Dr. Hyde, F. Douce, +and Sir F. Madden, are of comparatively recent date. + +Einhard, the historian of Charlemagne, he says does not mention +chess, Cranmer, Wolsey, Pope, Pitt, Chatham, Fox, +Wilberforce, and other well accredited names which interest us are +absent from his list, which is surprising, considering his mass of +petty detail. + +More than two-thirds of these volumes are devoted to descriptive +catalogues of books and magazines from Jacobus de Cessolus, the +first European work devoted to chess in the 13th century, down +to the various editions of Philidor, Sarratt, Allgaier, W. Lewis, +G. Walker, the German handbooks, and Staunton's popular works. + +------ + +INTERDICTIONS OF CHESS + +Al Hakem Biamri Llah, or Abu Ali Mansur, sixth Khalif of +the dynasty of the Fatimites or Obeydites of Egypt, 996-1021, +according to some authorities interdicted chess. Mr. Harkness +in Notes to Living Chess implies that he had some put to death +for playing it. Sprenger, Gayangoz, and Forbes do not mention +or confirm this, besides, though this Khalif did not much regard +the Koran, kept dancing-women and singers, indulged in all sorts +of frivolous pastimes, and was very much addicted to drinking, +as well as cruelty and tyranny, he was not a bigot. The more +famous Al Mansur (962-1002), the celebrated General and Minister +of Hisham II, tenth Sultan of Cordova, of the dynasty of Ummeyah, +was more likely to have issued such a mandate, for we read "in +order to gain popularity with the ignorant multitude, and to court +the favour of the ulemas of Cordova, and other strict men, who +were averse to the cultivation of philosophical sciences, Al +Mansur commanded a search to be made in Al Hakem's library, when +all works treating on ethics, dialectics, metaphysics, and +astronomy, were either burnt in the squares of the city, or +thrown into the wells and cisterns of the palace. The only books +suffered to remain in the splendid library, founded by Al Hakem, +II (fourth of Cordova, 822-852, the enlightened humane and just +Rahman, II) were those on rhetoric, grammar, history, medicine, +arithmetic, and other sciences, considered lawful." + +Any scholar found indulging in any of the prescribed studies, +was immediately arraigned before a Court composed of kadhis +and ulemas, and, if convicted, his books were burnt, and himself +sent to prison. + +I can find no other notice of a ruler or Khalif likely to have +forbidden chess, but in 1254 Lewis, IX, in France, is recorded to +have interdicted the game. + +------ + +IRELAND + +The word, chess, whatever it may have signified, was +common in Ireland long before it is ever found in English +annals. The quotation from the Saxon Chronicle, of the Earl of +Devonshire and his daughter playing chess together, refers to +the reign of Edgar, about half a century before Canute played +chess; but in Ireland the numerous references and legacies of +chess-boards are of eight hundred years' earlier date. + +Several scholars in Ireland have discussed the question of +probable early knowledge of chess there. + +Fitchell, a very ancient game in that country, was uniformly +translated, chess. + +O'Flanagan, Professor of the Irish language in the University of +Dublin, writing to Twiss about the end of last century in +Reference to Dr. Hyde's quotations, thought Fitchell meant chess. + +J. C. Walker wrote:--"Chess is not now (1790) a common +game in Ireland; it is played at and understood by very few; +yet it was a favourite game among the early Irish, and the +amusement of the chiefs in their camps. + +"It is called Fill, and sometimes Fitchell, to distinguish it +from Fall, another game on the Tables, which are called +Taibhle Fill. + +"The origin of Fill in Ireland eludes the grasp of history." + +The Chess King preserved by Dr. Petrie, L.L.D., bears no small +resemblance to those found in the Isle of Lewis, now in the +British Museum, and which have been graphically reported upon +by Sir F. Madden. + +John O'Donovan, Esq., author of our best Irish Grammar, in +"Leabhar na'q Ceart, or the Book of Rights," 1847, from MS. +of 1390 to 1418, frequently refers to the game, and the +legacies of Cathaeir Mor, who reigned 118 to 148, contain, +among other remarkable bequests, thirteen of chess-boards. +Once a set of chess-men is specified--and, again, a chess-board +and white chess-men. The bequests of the said Cathaeir Mor are +also cited by O'Flaherty, who mentions to have seen the +testament in writing, and in Patrick O'Kelly's work, Dublin, +1844, "The History of Ireland, Ancient and Modern," taken from +the most authentic records, and dedicated to the Irish Brigade, +translated from the French of Abbe McGeoghegan (a work of +rather more than a century ago). + +Col. Vallancey, in his "Collectanea de Reb. Hib.," seems to +insinuate that the Irish derived it with other arts from the +East. "Phil," says he, "is the Arabic name of chess, from Phil, +the Elephant, one of the principle figures on the table." + +In the old Breton Laws we find that one tax levied by the +Monarch of Ireland in every province was to be paid in +chess-boards and complete sets of men, and that every Burgh (or +Inn-holder of the States) was obliged to furnish travellers with +salt provisions, lodging, and a chess-board, gratis. (NOTE. That +must have been very long ago.) In a description of Tamar or Tara +Hall, formerly the residence of the Monarch of Ireland--it stood +on a beautiful hill in the county of Meath during the Pagan +ages--lately discovered in the Seabright Collection, +Fidche-allaigh, or chess-players, appear amongst the officers +of the household. + +"Langst ver der Erfindung," says Linde; and again, "Wenn die +ganze geschicte von Irland ein solches Lug-gund Truggewebe +ist, wie das Fidcill Gefasel ist sie wirklich Keltisch." + +------ + +THE GERMAN CHESS THEORISTS + +Dr. A. Van der Linde's great work (Berlin, 1874), following +Weber, Berlin, 1872, Der Lasa and others, containing 1,118 +pages, 540 diagrams, 4,098 names, and 2,500 catalogue items. + +In Linde's book, no less than 500 of the 540 diagrams are on the +eight times eight square board, with the 32 pieces used in Modern +Chess (i.e., examples of the game with positions or problems +thereat as we understand it). + +It is also curious as affecting Linde's consistency, that Al +Suli and Adali, whose problems he gives at chess as we now play +it, were dead before the time he assigns for the first knowledge +of the same. His own pet authority, Masudi, 890-959, gives the +story of Al Suli's chess, to which nothing could be compared +without declaring it to be any other game (pages 58 and 59). + +------ + +ITALY + +Opposite Italienisch Linde has 1,348 to 1,358, but the story of +the rebuke of the Bishop of Florence by Cardinal Damianus, for +playing chess in a tavern when he should have been at prayers, +given by Forbes and repeated by Linde, is of earlier date +(1061), Buzecca's blindfold play at chess on the invitation of +Dante's patron, the Master of Ravenna, before a distinguished +company, is attributed to the year 1266. + +------ + +KRIEGSSPIEL + +To Sanskrit Tschaturanza (column 1) under the head of +"Kriegsspiel," A.D. 954, is affixed to Arabisch (column 10), +the same year 954 appears. (NOTE. To this date of 954 I cannot +help adding for once a query mark like those in which Linde's +book abounds (!!). + +To Persich (column 7) 1000 (!) Fransofitch 12 Jht, English 13 +Jht, Spanisch 1283, Italien 1348-1358. + +To Tschinesich, Japanisch, Siamesich, Birmesich, and Tibetisch, +under Aeltestes Datum Columns, 2 to 6 Unbekannt appears as +well as to Tschaturanga column 1, notwithstanding the date of +954 in another place. An the above are under the one head of +"Kriegsspiel." + +------ + +SCHACHSPIEL + +Under this head Italienisch is 1512, Latienisch 1525, +Franzofitch 1560, Englisch 1562, Deutsch 1606, Danisch +1752-1757, Schwedisch 1784, Ungarish 1861. + +Dr. Van der Linde has nothing about the Roman edict of 115 +B.C., or the other three points, which first caused our desire +to invite a little more attention to the subject of the probable +origin of chess, viz.: (1) Alcuin and Egbert's contemporary +records, with Pepin, Charlemagne, Harun, the Princess Irene, and +Emperor Nicephorus, the humane enlightened and glorious Al Mamum, +with his treasures of learning, Arabic, Persian, and Sanskrit +translations (2 & 3). Fortunately for the encyclopaedia writer +of 1727, and the poet Pope, their articles have escaped his +notice. We naturally try to discover what Bretspiel and +Nerdspiel was, according to Linde's own notions, and when they +ceased and chess began, both chess and Nerdspiel had been heard +of and were terms used before Al Masudi and Ibn Khallekun wrote. +Why does not Linde attempt to explain why Harun, Walid, Razi, +Al Suli, the Khalifs, and others up to the Shahnama poem, +Anna Comnena and Aben Ezra call it chess, and nothing else, +and again we ask how can he reconcile his own author, +Masudi's statement that Al Suli's chess was declared more +beautiful than all in the Caliph's garden (he died in 946), with +his own statement that chess was first known in Arabia, in 954. + +------ + +Dr. A. VAN DER LINDE + +The whole tenor of such reasoning as can be found in Linde's +stupendous work, seems to rest on subtle distinctions as to the +precise accuracy of the word chess, rather than to valid +argument to the effect that no game resembling it ever existed +before the time he fixes, yet his diagrams of the Tschaturanga +which comes Vol. 1 following page 423, is exactly in accordance +with the game as explained to us by Sir William Jones and +Professor Duncan Forbes, though Linde seems to call it by the +name of Indischer Wurfelvierschach or Indische Kriegsspiel, and +there is not a single diagram of what the German writer +conceives it to be other than the real Tschaturanga (Chaturanga). + +NOTE. From such an assumptive writer, one would like to ask +whether he had looked through the pages of Livy Polybius and +Tacitus, or explored the treasures in the Fihrist, or the +Eastern Works referred to by Lambe, Bland, and Forbes, as well +as Dr. Hyde and Sir William Jones. + +Forbes in the body of his work roughly estimates the Chaturanga +at 3000 B.C., but at page xiii of appendix, he says: "The first +period (of chess) is altogether of fabulous antiquity, that is, +of three to five thousand years old," in fact, he seems to have +been rather loose in his estimation, and not to have +sufficiently distinguished between the supposed antiquity of the +four sacred Vedas, the Epic poems, the Ramayana and the +Mahabarata, and the Puranas. Professor Weber and Dr. Van der +Linde assume a much more recent date for the Bhavishya Purana, +from which the account of the Chaturanga is mainly taken, than +that assigned to it by Sir William Jones and Professor Duncan +Forbes. + +------ + +The 4,098 name index already referred to includes Adam ten +times and even Jesus three times, used, as it appears to me, +rather for the purpose of irony, rather than valid or useful +argument. + +When Forbes gives the earliest chess position, known from +British Museum M.S.S. Linde says Adam was the first chess +player (??) to Sir F. Madden about 1,150, for the time when +Gaimur wrote quoting the incident of the Earl of Devonshire and +his daughter being found playing chess together, (Edgar's reign +958 to 975). Linde says Madden about it "Keinen Pfifferling +werth." In another place he says, "Forbes natte der Freicheut," +"Insolence, Impudence, Audaciousness, Boldness." + +It is not pleasing to English ears to be told that George Walker +is a humbug and a snob. Professor Duncan Forbes the same, and +William Lewis something worse, and to find notes of exclamation +and of queries (! !! ?), instead of argument opposed to the +statements of such writers as Dr. Hyde, Sir William Jones, the +Rev. R. Lambe, Sir Frederic Madden, and Mr. Bland. + +Linde's dealing with Forbes' statement concerning his +examination of the copies of the Shahnama in the British +Museum, puts a crowning touch on his arbitrary and insulting +style and furnishes an example of his notions of courtesy and +argument. + +Forbes in a reply to Alpha having pledged his truth and +honour that the account of the moves and pieces in the copies of +the Shahnama were precisely as he had given them, Linde after +honour has (!!) + +Forbes' statement runs as follows: + +9th November, 1855, (1860, p. 56,) Zu Antworten. "My +answer to Alpha is that the M.S.S. from which I made (not +derived) my translations describing the moves of the pieces are +precisely those I mentioned, viz., No. 18188 and No. 7724 +preserved in the British Museum. At the same time I briefly +consulted some nine or ten other M.S.S. of the Shahnama in the +British Museum as well as Macan's printed edition, yea more, I +consulted the so called copy of great antiquity alluded to by +Alpha before it came to the Museum. Well, in all of these, with, +I believe, only one exception, the account of the moves does +occur exactly (!) as I have given them, always excepting or +rather excluding a couplet about two camels (die namliche nicht +in die Bude des Tachenspielers passten es weiter unten) Und nun +geht es echt fesuitisch weiter, Alpha denies the existence (!) +(A hat in Gegentheil Hyde I, p. 63 Citirt) of the account of +the moves in every copy of the Shahnama. I, on the other hand +pledge my truth and honour (!!) Linde), that the account of the +moves does occur in every one of the manuscripts as well as in +Macan's printed edition (Vgl. App. p. x. lin. 6 unt.). The +misconception on the part of Alpha arose from a very simple (:) +circumstance. In Firdausi's account of the game the story +happens to be interrupted (:) in the middle of the insertion of +two other long stories, as we often see in the Arabian nights. + +"In matters of this sort it is only the truth that offends. + +"(Man vergleiche hierzu noch seine Schnapserklurung der +Weisheit des Buzurdschmir, p. 54.)" + +Forbes also adds p. 56. And I am quite ready to point out the +passage in all of them to any gentleman and scholar who may have +the least doubt on the matter. + +Historians of the 7th, 8th and 9th centuries who lived before +Masudi, deemed the game worthy of notice and recommendation, +Razi and Firdausi thought so too, and Hippocrates and Galen +before them refer very favourably to its advantages, describing +it as beneficial in many ailments, and we may reasonably assume +that they at least, as well as the poets and philosophers before +them, back to the fifth century B.C. deemed the game passing in +their minds, and the invention of which they were wont to +speculate on, as one of some interest, beauty and significance +and worthy of appreciation then as it has been in succeeding +ages. + +Once more, no example is given of his Kriegsspiel, Nerdspiel, +Wulfervierschach, Trictrac, or any Spiel or game implied under +the word Bretspiel, the last named being moreover a general +term for games played on a chess board, rather than a +distinctive appellation for a particular species of game or +indication of the pieces or value of forces employed in it. + +------ + +NERDSPEIL + +Masudi, born at Bagdad 870, died at Cairo in 959, is Linde's +great authority. Linde quotes or deduces from him the +following: + +"Die alten Hindus wohlten einen Konig uber sich Burahman +Dieser regierte, bis er starb, 366 (sic) Jahre, Seine Nackkommen, +heisen Brahminen Sein Sohn et Bahbud unter dessen Regierung +das Nerdspiel (Gildermeister ubersetzt duodecim scriptorum ludus) +ein bloss auf Zufall und nicht auf Scharfsinn beruhendes +Gluckspiel erfinden wurde regierte loo Jahre, Andere sagen, dass +Azdeshir ibn Balek das Nerdspiel erfund." + +Again "Ardashirer Ibn Balek, der Stammvater der letzten +persischen Dynastie, erfund das Nerdspiel, das daher nerdashir, +(also nerd Ardashirer) genanut wurde." + +The copious Index of Linde's work of 4,098 items, also refers +Nerdspiel to page 6, but the word does not appear there and the +above is all he tells us about his Nerdspiel. + +Among the 540 diagrams contained in his work of 1,118 pages, +as already observed, there is no representation of Nerdspiel. + +The writer hopes to submit an analysis of these diagrams, and +of the contents and conclusions of Linde's work in a supplemental +pamphlet of 64 pages, price one shilling, in order to notice the +manifold inconsistencies contained in it, as well as the wholesale +aspersions upon the English historians. + +Linde's Book. It includes notice of Hoyle's games, Complete +Gamesters, Magazines and trifling publications, down to A.B.C. +for a Lady and whatever we may think of the connexion of events +and lucidity of his arguments, it may be pronounced an +extraordinary monument and memorial of industry. + +------ + +CHESS IN ITALY + +Forbes thinks it probable that chess was known in Italy before +or during the ninth century, and suggests that it was probably +received there from the Saracens rather than the Greeks. The +story of Peter Damianus the Cardinal, (Ravenna) who lived 1007 +to 1072, and his reproof of the Bishop for playing chess, is +given by both of the writers, Forbes and Linde. + +NOTE. Swiss in vol. 11, page 77, on the authority of Verci, says +that the following adventure happened to a Bishop of Florence, +who, according to Ughelli (Ital Sac tem 3), was Gerard, who died +in 1061. It is told by Damianus, Bishop of Ostia and Cardinal in +his epistles, and is confirmed by Baronius and Lohner. These two +prelates were travelling together, and on a certain evening +when they arrived at their resting-place, Damianus withdrew to +the cell of a neighbouring priest, in order to spend the time in +a pious manner, but the Florentine played at chess all night +among seculars or laymen, in a large house of entertainment. +When in the morning the Cardinal was made acquainted with this, +he sharply reproved the prelate, who endeavoured to excuse +himself by saying that chess was not prohibited, like dice. +Dice, said he, are prohibited by the canon laws; chess is +tacitly permitted. To which the zealous Cardinal replied the +canons do not speak of chess, but both kinds of games are +expressed under the comprehensive name of Alea. Therefore, when +the canon prohibits the Alea, and does not expressly mention +chess, it is undoubtedly evident that both kinds of games, +expressed in one word and sentence, are thereby equally +condemned. + +The Bishop who was very good-natured stood corrected, and +submitted cheerfully to the penance imposed on him by the +Cardinal, which was: that he should thrice repeat the psalter of +David, and wash the feet of twelve poor men, likewise bestowing +certain alms on them, and treating them to a good dinner, in +order that he might thus, for the glory of God and the benefit +of the poor, employ those hands which he had made use of in +playing the game. + +It must have taken some considerable time before the game +became so common as to be played at houses of entertainment by +seculars or laymen. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, CHESS HISTORY AND REMINISCENCES *** + +This file should be named 4902.txt or 4902.zip + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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