Chess History And Reminiscences
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,
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