An Indian philosopher thus described it:
It is a representative contest, a bloodless combat, an image, not
only of actual military operations, but of that greater warfare
which every son of the earth, from the cradle to the grave, is
continually waging, the battle of life. Its virtues are as
innumerable as the sands of African Sahara. It heals the mind in
sickness, and exercises it in health. It is rest to the overworked
intellect, and relaxation to the fatigued body. It lessens the
grief of the mourner, and heightens the enjoyment of the happy.
It teaches the angry man to restrain his passions, the light-minded
to become grave, the cautious to be bold, and the venturesome to be
prudent. It affords a keen delight to youth, a sober pleasure to
manhood, and a perpetual solace to old age. It induces the poor to
forget their poverty, and the rich to be careless of their wealth.
It admonishes Kings to love and respect their people, and instructs
subjects to obey and reverence their rulers. It shows how the
humblest citizens, by the practise of virtue and the efforts of
labour, may rise to the loftiest stations, and how the haughtiest
lords, by the love of vice and the commission of errors, may fall
from their elevated estate. It is an amusement and an art, a sport
and a science. The erudite and untaught, the high and the low,
the powerful and the weak, acknowledge its charms and confirm
its enticements. We learn to like it in the years of our youth,
but as increased familiarity has developed its beauties, and
unfolded its lessons, our enthusiasm has grown stronger, and our
fondness more confirmed.
NOTE. The earliest example of praise and censure of chess strikes
us as very curious and sufficiently interesting to be presented
as illustrating two varieties of Arabian style, and as exhibiting
two sides of the question. It is from one of the early Arabian
manuscripts called the Yawakit ul Mawakit in the collection Baron
Hammer Purgstall at Vienna.
By Ibn Ul Mutazz.
CENSURE OF CHESS.
The chess player is ever absorbed in his chess and full of care,
swearing false oaths and making many vain excuses, one who careth
only for himself and angereth his Maker. 'Tis the game of him who
keepeth the fast only when he is hungry, of the official who is in
disgrace, of the drunkard till he recovereth from his drunkenness,
and in the Yatimat ul Dehr it is said, Abul Casim al Kesrawi hated
chess, and constantly abused it, saying, you never see a chess
player rich who is not a sordid miser, nor hear a squabbling that
is not on a question of the chess board.
IN PRAISE OF CHESS
O thou whose cynic sneers express the censure of our favourite chess,
Know that its skill is science self, its play distraction from
distress,
It soothes the anxious lover's care, it weans the drunkard from excess,
It counsels warriors in their art, when dangers threat and perils press,
And yields us when we need them most, companions in our loneliness.
------
The manuscript of the Asiatic Society presented to them by
Major Price, is a curious but interesting production, the author is
unknown, but he is regarded as a very quaint individual, an
opinion perhaps not unwarranted by his preface, and many a one
(he says) has experienced a relief from sorrow, and affliction in
consequence of this magic recreation, and this same fact has been
asserted by the celebrated physician, Mohammed Zakaria Razi,
in his book, entitled "The Essence of Things," "and such is
likewise the opinion of the physician Abi Bin Firdaus as I shall
notice more fully towards the end of the present work for the
composing of which I am in the hope of receiving my reward
from God, who is most high and most glorious.
"I have passed my life since the age of fifteen among all the
masters of chess living in my time, and since that period till now,
when I have arrived at middle age, I have travelled through Irak
Arab, and Irak Ajarm, and Khurasam and the regions of Mawara
al Nahr (Transoxania), and I have there met with many a master
of this art, and I have played with all of them, and through the
favour of Him who is adorable and Most High, I have come off
victorious. Likewise in playing without seeing the board I have
overcome most opponents, nor had they the power to cope with
me. I, the humble sinner now addressing you have played with
one opponent over the board and at the same time I have
carried on four different games with as many adversaries without
seeing the board, whilst I conversed freely with my friends all
along and through the Divine favour I conquered them all."
The ten advantages of chess as set forth by the anonymous
author of the Asiatic Society's M.S. form the most remarkable
specimens of chess criticism. The first discusses it as food and
exercise for the mind, the second, he says is in Religion and free
will, 3 relates to Government, 4 to war, 5 to the Heavens
and stars, 6 to the Temperaments, 7 in obtaining repose, 8
The social advantage of chess, 9 Wisdom and knowledge, 10,
In combining war with sport.
Advantage the ninth is in wisdom and knowledge, and that
wise men do play chess, and to those who object that foolish men
also play chess, and though constantly engaged in it, become no