Much has been written of the origin of chess, and many countries contend
for the honour of its inception. According to my encyclopædia, China,
India, Persia, and Egypt have each a claim, but it is probable that the
game existed, in some form or other, before history. The theory is that
the Arabs introduced it to Europe in the eighth century. Thus the
cautious encyclopædia; but Ibn Khallikan has no such hesitancy. From him
we get names and dates. Ibn Khallikan gives the credit boldly to one
Sissah, who, says he, "imagined the game for the amusement of King
Shihram." Whether Sissah built it out of a clear sky, or had foundations
on which to erect, is not stated. Anyway, the pastime was a complete
success. "It is said that, when Sissah invented the game of chess and
presented it to Shihram, the latter was struck with admiration and
filled with joy; he ordered chess-boards to be placed in the temples,
and considered that game as the best thing that could be learned,
inasmuch as it served as an introduction to the art of war, as an honour
to religion and the world, and as the foundation of all justice.
"He manifested also his gratitude and satisfaction for the favour which
Heaven had granted him in illustrating his reign by such an invention,
and he said to Sissah, 'Ask me for whatever you desire.'
"'I then demand,' replied Sissah, 'that a grain of wheat be placed in
the first square of the chess-board, two in the second, and that the
number of grains be progressively doubled till the last square is
attained: whatever this quantity may be, I ask you to bestow it on me.'
"The king, who meant to make him a present of something considerable,
exclaimed that such a recompense would be too little, and reproached
Sissah for asking for so inadequate a reward.
"Sissah declared that he desired nothing but what he had mentioned, and,
heedless of the king's remonstrances, he persisted in his demand.
"The king, at length, consented, and ordered that quantity of wheat to
be given him. When the chiefs of the government office received orders
to that effect, they calculated the amount, and answered that they did
not possess near so much wheat as was required.
"These words were reported to the king, and he, being unable to credit
them, ordered the chiefs to be brought before him. Having questioned
them on the subject, they replied that all the wheat in the world would
be insufficient to make up the quantity. He ordered them to prove what
they said, and, by a series of multiplications and reckonings, they
demonstrated to him that such was the fact.
"On this, the king said to Sissah: 'Your ingenuity in imagining such a
request is yet more admirable than your talent in inventing the game of
chess.'"
Ibn Khallikan was at pains to investigate the matter. Having, he says,
"met one of the accountants employed at Alexandria, I received from him
a demonstration which convinced me that the declaration was true. He
placed before me a sheet of paper in which he had doubled the numbers up
to the sixteenth square, and obtained thirty-two thousand seven hundred
and sixty-eight grains. 'Now,' said he, 'let us consider this quantity
to be the contents of a pint measure, and this I know by experiment to
be true'--these are the accountant's words, so let him bear the
responsibility--'then let the pint be doubled in the seventeenth square,
and so on progressively. In the twentieth square it will become a waiba
(peck), the waibas will then become an irdabb (bushel), and in the
fortieth square we shall have one hundred and seventy-four thousand
seven hundred and sixty-two irdabbs. Let us suppose this to be the
contents of a corn store, and no corn store contains more than that;
then in the fiftieth square we shall have the contents of one thousand
and twenty-four stores; suppose these to be situated in one city--and no
city can have more than that number of stores or even so many--we shall
then find that the sixty-fourth and last square gives sixteen thousand
three hundred and eighty-four cities. Now, you know that there is not in
the world a greater number of cities than that, for geometry informs us
that the circumference of the globe is eight thousand parasangs; so
that, if the end of a cord were laid on any part of the earth, and the
cord passed round it till both ends met, we should find the length of
the cord to be twenty-four thousand miles, which is equal to eight
thousand parasangs.' This demonstration is decisive and indubitable."
Of Sissah I know no more, except that he was from India and that his
game became popular. Up to the time of Ibn Khallikan, in the thirteenth
century, its best player was one As-Suli, famous as an author and a
convivialist, who died one hundred and twenty years before the Norman
Conquest. "To play like As-Suli" was indeed a proverb. Among this
proficient's friends was his pupil, the khalif Ar-Radi, who had the
greatest admiration for As-Suli's genius. One day, for instance, walking
with some boon companions through a garden filled with beautiful
flowers, Ar-Radi asked them if they ever saw a finer sight. To this they
replied, speaking as wise men speak to autocratic rulers, that nothing
on earth could surpass it.
The retort of the khalif must have given them the surprise of their
lives. "You are wrong," said he: "As-Suli's manner of playing chess is
yet a finer sight, and surpasses all you could describe!" So might we
now refer to Hobbs on his day at the Oval, on a hard wicket, against
fast bowling, with Surrey partisans standing four deep behind the seats,
or to Stevenson nursing the balls from the middle pocket to the top
left-hand pocket and then across to the right.
One more anecdote of the Persian Steinitz, and I have done. I tell it
because it rounds off this interlude with some symmetry by bringing us
back to my own consultation of the encyclopædia at the beginning of it.
As-Suli had a famous library of books in which he had jotted down the
fruits of his various reading. When asked a question on any subject,
instead of answering it he would tell his boy to bring such and such a
volume in which the matter at issue was treated. This trait led to an
epigram being written upon him by a rival scholar, Abu Said, to the
effect that "of all men As-Suli possessed most learning--in his
library." There are still men learned on the same terms, but, nowadays,
we do not have to collect the information for ourselves but go to _The
Times_ and Messrs. Chambers for it.