Chess History And Reminiscences
cultivated and practiced chess and the strongest inference, and
a far more striking one than any yet adduced, is that we got
chess during the long reign of Charlemagne, and his Greek,
Arabian and Spanish contemporaries, and this might well happen,
for Charlemagne knew both Offa and Egbert (the latter personally),
and the knowledge becomes somewhat more than a matter of
inference, for the Saxon scholar Alcuin was in England from
790 to 793, on a farewell visit after being domesticated in
Charlemagne's household as his treasured friend, adviser, and
tutor and preceptor in the sciences for more than twenty years,
and could not be otherwise than familiar with the Emperor's
practice and enthusiasm for chess, in which he may to some extent
have shared. Alcuin would certainly have communicated a game like
this, in which he knew other civilized people were taking so much
interest, to his countrymen. The connecting links of evidence
which Sir F. Madden and Professor Forbes have illustrated in
Athelstan's and Edgar's reigns, would have been greatly
strengthened and confirmed, if they had thought of Alcuin's
residence and influence at a court where chess was not only
played, but talked about and corresponded upon. Charlemagne's
presents included the wonderful chess men which he valued so
highly, and with which we are tolerably familiar through the
reports of Dr. Hyde, F. Douce, Sir F. Madden, and H. Twiss, and
the engravings in Willeman's work, and by Winckelman and Art
Journal. These chessmen (still preserved) were perhaps often seen
by Alcuin and were possibly also shewn by Charlemagne to the
youthful Egbert when in refuge at his court, and on the whole it
seems unreasonable to assume that chess was unknown in England
after Alcuin's last sojourn, and during Egbert's reign.
It may be also that on further consideration of the Roman edict
and references to their games, and the accounts relating to the
fourth century B.C., many will be indisposed to accept the dictum
that Herodotus, Plato and Aristotle meant nothing more than a game
of pebbles, when they referred to chess and propounded their
theories as to its invention.
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PERSIA
"Khusra Anushirawan" Naushirawan or Chosroes as he is
more frequently called, being the Byzantine title applied to him,
was King of Persia and reigned 48 years, from 528 to 576 as
stated by some authors, or from 531 to 579 according to others.
He is described also as Chosroes the Just. The receipt of chess
in Persia from India early in his reign, and the great appreciation
and encouragement of it, is the best attested fact in chess history,
if not really the only one as to which there is entire concurrence
in opinion among all writers.
The Persian and Arabian historians are unanimous that the
game of chess was invented in India, some time previous to the
Sixth century of our Era, and was introduced into Persia during
the reign of Kisra Naushirawan, the Chosroes of the Byzantine
historians, and the contemporary of Justinian, they differ only as
to the time of its modification, some ascribing it to about this
period, and others to that of Alexander the Great, 336 to 323 B.C.
Although several works concur in stating that chess first came
to Persia from India, through Burzuvia the physician, most
learned in languages with the materials of the book called Culila
Dimna, quite early in Chosroes' reign, some think differently and
attribute Burzuvia's mission to India and return to a late date.
It is related from the Shahnama, the great Persian poem that it
came from Kanoj, Kanauj, commonly written Canoge, by means
of a magnificent embassy from the King of Hind, accompanied by
a train of elephants with rich canopies, together with a thousand
camels heavily laden, the whole escorted by a numerous and
gallant army of Scindian cavalry. After depositing the various
and costly presents, last of all the Ambassador displayed before
the King and the astonished court, a chess board, elaborately
constructed together with the chessmen, tastefully and curiously
carved from solid pieces of ivory and ebony. Then the
Ambassador presented a letter richly illumined, written by the hand
of the Sovereign of Hind, to Naushirawan the translation of which
is given as follows:
The King of Hind's address to Chosroes with the Chess
"O, King, may you live as long as the celestial spheres continue
to revolve; I pray of you to examine this chess board, and to lay
it before such of your people as are most distinguished for learning
and wisdom. Let them carefully deliberate, one with another;
and if they can, let them discover the principles of this wonderful
game. Let them find out the uses of the various pieces, and how
each is to be moved, and in to what particular squares. Let them
discover the laws which regulate the evolutions of this mimic
army, and the rules applicable to the Pawns, and to the Elephants,
and to the Rukhs (or warriors), and to the Horses, and to the
Farzin, and to the King. If they should succeed in discovering
the principles and expounding the practice of this rare game,
assuredly they will be entitled to admission into the number of
the wise, and in such case I promise to acknowledge myself, as
hitherto, your Majesty's tributary. On the other hand, should you
and the wise men of Iran collectively fail in discovering the nature
and principles of this cunning game, it will evince a clear proof
that you are not our equals in wisdom; and consequently you will
have no right any longer to exact from us either tribute or impost.
On the contrary we shall feel ourselves justified in demanding
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