(_To the Editor of the Mirror_.)
SIR,--In vol. 3, page 211, of the MIRROR, is an account of the origin of
the scientific game of chess, the invention of which, your correspondent
_F. H. Y._ has attributed to a brahmin, named Sissa. But I believe it is
entirely a matter of doubt, both as to where, and by whom it was
invented; it is evidently of very high antiquity, and if we recur to the
original names of the pieces with which it is played, we shall readily
be convinced it is of Asiatic original. The honour of inventing it, is
contended for by several nations, but principally by the Hindoos, the
Chinese, and the Persians. In support of the first, we are told, by Sir
William Jones, in the 2nd vol. of his _Asiatic Researches_, that the
game of chess has been immemorably known in Hindostan, by the name of
Chaturanga, or the four members of an army, viz. elephants, horses,
chariots, and foot soldiers. And yet, the same learned author observes,
that no account of the game has hitherto been discovered in the
classical writings of the brahmins. Mr. Daines Barrington supposed the
Chinese to be the inventers, and in this he is supported by a paper
published in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, for 1794, vol.
5, by Mr. Eyles Irwin. It states, that when Mr. Irwin was at Canton, a
young mandarin, on seeing the English chess-board, recognised its
similarity with that used for a game of their own; and brought his board
and equipage for Mr. Irwin's inspection, and soon after gave him a
manuscript extract from a book, relating the invention of the Chinese
game, called by them chong-he, or the royal game, which it attributed to
a Chinese general (about 1,965 years ago) who by its means reconciled
his soldiers to passing the winter in quarters in the country of Shensi,
the cold and inconvenience of which were likely to have occasioned a
mutiny among them. Other writers contend that chess is a game of Persian
invention, since _scah muth_ is the Persic term for check-mate; and
since the Persians were sedulous in recommending it to their young
princes, as a game calculated to instruct kings in the art of war. It
has been attributed to Palamedes, who lived during the Trojan war; but
it was a game played with pebbles, or cubes, of which he was the
inventer. Palamedes was so renowned for his sagacity, that almost every
early discovery was ascribed to him. Whether the Greeks or Romans were
acquainted with this game is doubtful. Of the three contending nations,
the claim of the Persians appears to me to be least eligible, and that
of the Chinese the most.
_Near Sheffield._