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.