ON CHESS
I - Origin and antiquity of the game
The origin of the game of Chess has been the subject of very laborious research and warm argument; and, although the results are by no means satisfactory, yet the inquiry has afforded a good deal of valuable and amusing information; a selection from which will probably be interesting to the general reader, as well as to the amateurs of this noble and scientific game.
Some historians have referred 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 Hindoos, and the Persians, also prefer their claims to be considered as the originators of chess, but the testimonies of writers, in general, prove nothing except the very remote antiquity of the game.
In examining the testimonies of various writers, on a subject so obscure, we must always make considerable allowance for that prejudice in favour of certain opinions which habit and local circumstances apart from sound reasoning have tended to confirm. Thus, a historian who has passed much of his time in India, studying the manners and customs of the native tribes, tracing out their history, translating their legends, and copying their monuments, would almost unconsciously support against any other, the claims of such a people to any remarkable invention. The same remark applies to the historian of the Chinese, of the Egyptians, of the Greeks, and other ancient nations; and, accordingly, we find that each of these nations has its advocate in English literature.
The first writer that we shall mention, is Mr. James Christie, who has written a quarto volume, entitled, An Inquiry into the Ancient Greek Game, supposed to have been invented by Palamedes, antecedent to the Siege of Troy. It is, however, generally agreed that the claims of the ancient Greeks to the invention are unfounded. Palamedes lived during the Trojan war, and was so renowned for his sagacity, that almost every early discovery was ascribed to him. The whole of the claim of Palamedes rests upon the definition of the game of pebbles,  , as played by the Greeks. This game was played with white and black pebbles, and was invented by Palamedes, as appears by a line in the first book of Homer's Odyssey.
The claim of the Romans is equally unfounded: a game, something like dice, is spoken of by their writers, which has been mistaken for chess.
Mr. Irwin, in a letter to the Earl of Charlemont, published in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, supports the claims of the Chinese, in whose Concum, or Annals, appears the following passage:
Three hundred and seventy-nine years after the time of Confucius, or 1965 years ago, Hung-cochu, king of Kiang-nan, sent an expedition into the Shen-si country, under the command of a mandarin, called Han-sing, to conquer it. After one successful campaign, the soldiers were put into winter quarters; where, finding the weather much colder than what they bad been accustomed to, and being also deprived of their wives and families, the army, in general, became impatient of their situation, and clamorous to return home. Han-sing upon this, revolved in his mind the bad consequences of complying with their wishes. The necessity of soothing his troops, and reconciling them to their position, appeared urgent, in order to finish his operations in the ensuing year. He was a man of genius, as well as a good soldier; and, having contemplated some time on the subject, he invented the game of chess, as well for an amusement to his men, in their vacant hours, as to inflame their military ardour, the game being wholly founded on the principles of war. The stratagem succeeded to his wish. The soldiery were delighted with the game; and forgot, in their daily contests for victory, the inconveniences of their post. In the spring, the general took the field again; and in a few months, added the rich country of Shen-si to the kingdom of Kiang-nan. Hung-cochu assumed the title of emperor, and Chou-payuen put an end to his life in despair.
In the Chinese game of chess, (which is called Chong-ke, or the Royal Game,) the board is divided by a river in the middle, to separate the contending parties. The powers of the king are very limited : he is intrenched in a fort, and moves only in that space in every direction.
There are also two pieces whose movements are distinct from any in the European game: viz., the Mandarin, which answers to our bishop in his station and sidelong course, but cannot, through age, cross the river: and a Rocket-boy stationed between the lines of each party, who acts with the motion of a rocket, by vaulting over a man, and taking his adversary at the other end of the board. Except that the king has two sons to support him instead of a queen, the game is like ours.
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From these considerations, Mr. Irwin infers that the game of chess, is probably of Chinese origin; that the confined situation and powers of the king, resembling those of a monarch in the earlier periods of the world, favour the supposition, and that the agency of the princes, in lieu of the queen, bespeaks forcibly the nature of the Chinese customs, which exclude females from all power. The princes, in the passage of the game through Persia, were changed into a single vizier, or minister of state, with the enlarged portion of delegated authority that exists there; instead of whom, the European nations, with their usual gallantry, adopted a queen on their board. Mr. Irwin further infers, that the river between the parties is expressive of the general face of China, where a battle could scarcely be fought without encountering an interruption of this kind, which the soldier was here taught to overcome; but that, on the introduction of the game into Persia, the board changed with the nature of the region, and the contest was decided on land.
Sir William Jones, Dr. Hyde, and others, favour the claim of the Brahmins of India, and adduce the testimony of the Persians (who acknowledge that they received the game from India in the sixth century,) as well as of certain ancient treatises on chess in the Sanscrit. The Brahmins relate, that one of their body contrived chess in the beginning of the fifth century of the Christian era to divert the melancholy of a love-sick princess; but the more popular story ˇs as follows:
At the commencement of the fifth century of the Christian era, there lived in the Indies a very powerful prince, whose kingdom was situated towards where the Ganges discharges itself into the sea. He took to himself the proud title of King of the Indies; his father had forced a great number of sovereign princes to pay tribute to him, and submit themselves under his empire. The young monarch soon forgot that the love of the subjects for their king is the only solid support of his throne: he oppressed the people by his tyranny; and the tributary princes were preparing to throw off the yoke. A Brahmin named Sissa, touched with the misfortunes of his country, and resolved to make the prince open his eyes to the fatal tendency of his conduct, invented the game of chess, wherein the king, although the most considerable of all the pieces, is both impotent either to attack or to defend himself against his enemies, without the assistance of his subjects.
The new game soon became so famous, that the king wished to learn it. The Brahmin Sissa was selected to teach it him, and under the pretext of explaining the rules of the game, and showing him the skill required to make use of the other pieces for the king's defence, soon made him perceive and relish important truths, which he had hitherto refused to hear. The king rigidly applied the Brahmin's lessons to his own circumstances, and feeling that his real strength must consist in his people's confidence and love, averted, by a timely alteration of his conduct, those misfortunes which seemed to be coming upon him.
Out of gratitude to the Brahmin, the prince left him to choose his own reward. The Brahmin requested that a number of grains of corn, equal to the number of the squares of the chess board, might be given him, one for the first, two for the second, four for the third, and so on, doubling always to the sixty-fourth. The king, astonished at the seeming modesty and reasonableness of the demand, granted it immediately; but when his officers had made a calculation, they found that the king's grant exceeded the value of all his treasures. The Brahmin availed himself of this opportunity, to show how necessary it was for kings to be upon their guard.
The game of chess has been known from the time of its invention or introduction in Hindustan, by the name of Chaturanga, or the four members of an army, viz., elephants, horses, chariots, and foot-soldiers.
Sir William Jones informs us, that by a natural corruption of the pure Sanscrit 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 soon found its way into modern Persian, and at length into the dialects of India, where the true derivation of the name is known only to the learned; and thus has a very significant word in the sacred language of the Brahmins been transformed by successive changes, into Axredrez, Scacchi, Échecs, Chess. Our learned author thinks that the simpler game, as now played in Europe and Asia, was invented by a single effort of some great genius, and not completed by gradual improvements. He informs us that no account of the game has hitherto been discovered in the classical writings of the Brahmins, though it is confidently asserted, that Sanscrit books on chess exist. He describes a very ancient Indian game of the same kind, but more complex, and, in his opinion, more modern than the simple chess of the Persians.
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Chess Archeology 
