Chess History And Reminiscences
As they suppose and guess,
That some of you but late,
Hath played so checkmate,
With Lords of High estate,
And again,
Our dayes be datyed,
To be check matyed.
Many other poets and writers of that age, drew similes and
figures of speech from the chess board, including Spencer, Cowley,
Denham, Beaumont and Fletcher, quaint Arthur Saul and John
Dryden.
Middleton's Comedy of Chesse, 1624, was acted at the Globe.
It was however a sort of religious controversy, the game being
played by a member of the Church of England, and another of
the Church of Rome, the former in the end gaining the victory.
The play being considered too political, the author was cast into
prison, from which he obtained his release by the following
petition to the King.
A harmless game, coyned only for delight,
T'was played betwixt the black house and the white,
The white house won, yet still the black doth brag,
They had the power to put me in the bag,
Use but your hand, tw'll set me free,
T'is but removing of a man, that's me.
Philidor states in his work that historians have commemorated
the following Sovereigns as chess players: Charlemagne,
Tamerlane, Sebastian, King of Portugal, Philip II King of
Spain, The Emperor Charles V, Catherine of Medecis, Queen of
France, Pope Leo X, Henry IV of France, Queen Elizabeth,
Louis XIII, James I of England (who used to call the game a
philosophical folly,) Louis XIV, William III, Charles XII, and
Frederick of Russia.
Of these, Charlemagne, who reigned 768 to 814 is the earliest
name. Tamerlane or Timur who dominated at the end of the
14th century is the next. The remainder date from the 16th
century.
To this list the renowned and esteemed Philidor might have
made some very material additions. If the first Indian account
of Kings, Kaid and Porus, in Alexander the Great's time, is to
be relied on, the Macedonian conqueror who was in friendly
alliance with Porus in 326 B.C., might have become acquainted
with chess, and Aristotle, some time his tutor, may have played
it as supposed in one of the Arabian manuscripts. Chosroes,
King of Persia, who reigned from 531 to 579, Harun Ar Rashid,
786 to 809, Al Amin, his first son, 809 to 813, the magnificent
Al Mamun, his second son, 813 to 833, Al Mutasem, the most
skilful player among the rulers, 833 to 842, and Al Wathick,
842 to 847, the five successive Caliphs of the powerful Abbasside
dynasty, during the palmy period called the Golden Age of
Arabian Literature, are identified with a very interesting period
of chess practice and progress, and are all recorded to have been
chess players. Al Walid the Sixth, of Umeyyah, 705 to 715,
who through his generals, Tarik Ibn Zeyyad and Musa Ibn
Nosseyr and their armies invaded, conquered and occupied Spain,
is the earliest ruler we read of as a chess player after its first
great friend and patron Chosroes, but it is pretty certain that
Justinian, who died in 565, and was contemporary with Chosroes,
was also an exponent and supporter of the game.
Of the one hundred and sixty monarchs who ruled the East
Africa and Spain from the days of Bekr, Omar, and the Prophet to
the downfall of Moorish ascendancy in the middle of the
Thirteenth century, we read of several who emulated the tastes
of their most famous predecessors, and the Rahmans, Mansur and
An Nassirs vied with Harun and Al Mamum in their patronage
and encouragement of all sorts of learning arts and sciences.
Of the powerful Abbasside dynasty which lasted from 749 to 1258,
there were 37 Caliphs whose chess doings and sayings alone
would, it is said fill a good-sized volume.
NOTE. In addition to the 37 of Abbas and 14 of Umeyyah 664 to 749,
there were 17 of Beni Umeyyah 755 to 1030, there were 14 Fatimites,
893 to 1169, 5 Almmoravides (exclusive of Abdullah, the founder),
the Mahdi, 1059 to 1145, 13 Almohades, 1130 to 1269, and 8 Sultans
of Almowat, 1095 to 1256. These with about 52 other rulers,
Sultans, Emperors or Kings of Cordova, Toledo, Seville, Khorassan,
Valentia and Badajoz, make up a list of about 160 rulers, who
swayed the East Africa and Mohammedan Spain for about 650 years.
The Moors after suffering great defeats in 1085 and 1139 received
a final check in the great battle of 1212, and in 1248 when
Ferdinand III of Castile took Seville their powers of aggression
had vanished.
NOTE. Abbasides is the name generally given to the Beni Abbas or
descendants of Abbas, who succeeded the Beni Umeyyah in the
Empire of the East. Owing to their descent from the uncle of the
Prophet, they had ever since the introduction of Islam been held
in great esteem by the Arabs, and had frequently aspired to the
Khalifate. In the year 132, A.D. 749-750, Abul-abbas Abdullah,
son of Mohammed, son of Ali, son of Abdullah, son of Abbas Ibn
Aldi-l-Mutalib, uncle of the Prophet Mohammed, revolted at Kujah,
and after putting to death Merwan II, the last Khalif of the house
of Umeyyah, was unanimously raised to the throne. Thirty-seven
Khalifs of the dynasty of Abbas reigned for a period of 523 lunar
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