Chess History And Reminiscences
in regard to the inscriptions recorded to have been discovered on
tombs and the temples generally, and especially on the wall of
the great palace of Medinet Abu at Egyptian Thebes, which,
according to the most approved authorities, derived from the
scrolls, relates to the time of Ramesses Meiammun the 16th, out
of the 17 monarchs of the 18th dynasty, who as is supposed,
reigned from 1559 to 1493 B.C., and constructed Medinet Abu,
and is pronounced most likely to be the monarch represented on
its walls. His title is Ramses, and he is considered to have been
the grandfather of Sesostris 1st of the 19th dynasty, whose reign is
stated as from 1473 to 1418 B.C.
Some discussion arose in chess circles in 1872 in reference to
Mr. Disraeli's mention of chess in one of his books. 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 Medinet
Abuh, at Egyptian Thebes, the King is represented playing chess
with the Queen. This monarch reigned long before the Trojan
war.
A writer, who styled himself the author of Fossil Chess, in
criticising the above, refers to Sir Gardiner Wilkinson's work,
"A popular account of the ancient Egyptians, which declares the
game to resemble draughts, the pieces being uniform in pattern."
The same critic further remarks, "In the same work may be
found some account of the paintings in the tomb of Beni Hassan,
presumably the oldest in Egypt, dating back 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 Medinet 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.
The eminent and revered writer and statesman may not have
selected the supposed best authorities for his dates, but the
sapient critic indulges in a strange admixture of misconception.
However, Egyptian chronology is not fully agreed upon, even
Manetho and Herodotus differ some 120 years as to the time of
Sesostris, and Bishop Warburton, we read, was highly indignant
with a scholar, one Nicholas Man, who argued for the identity of
Osiris and Sesostris after he (the bishop) had said they were to be
distinguished. Respecting English origin, all authorities down to
the end of the Eighteenth century agreed in ascribing the first
knowledge of chess to the time of William the Conqueror, or to
that of the return of the first Crusaders.
Perhaps, however, it reached us in the days of Charlemagne,
and may well have done so through Alcuin of York, his friend
and tutor in the reigns of Offa and of Egbert.
Al Walid, 705-715; Harun, 786-809; the great Al Mamun,
813 to 833; and Tamerlane, 1375 to 1400, are monarchs who
honoured their chess opponents when beaten. Charlemagne,
768-814, seems also to have taken defeat good-humouredly, and
Queen Elizabeth, who liked chess, philosophised upon it. Canute,
William the Conqueror, and Henry the Eighth, like the famous
Ras, of Abyssinia, whom Salt and Buckle inform us of, preferred
to win.
Chess, as it is now played, came down to us from the Fifteenth
century, when the queen of present powers was introduced, and
the extensions and improvements in the moves of the bishops and
the pawns and in castling effected, and which made the game
exactly what it now is. It has been so practised for four hundred
years without the slightest deviation or alteration, and with so
much continued satisfaction and advanced appreciation that any
change or modification suggested, however trifling, has been at
once discouraged and rejected, and additions proposed in the 17th
century (Carrera), 18th (Duke of Rutland), and 19th (Bird) were
regarded with no favour, and the objection that the game was
difficult enough already.
During the present century (especially in the second half) chess
has become vastly popular. The game is innocent and intellectual,
and affords the utmost scope for art and strategy, and for its
practice we have about five hundred clubs and institutions,
compared with the one club in St. James' Street, and Slaughter's,
in St. Martin's Lane, which existed in the last century, during the
height of Philidor's career, and two of the first half dozen. Chess
clubs started found rest on Irish soil, the first so early as the
year 1819.
------
PHILIDOR,
BORN 1726, DREUX, NEAR PARIS, DIED 1795, IN LONDON.
Philidor's ascendancy and popularity in the last century, owing
to his remarkable and perhaps unprecedented supremacy combined
with the liberality of his treatment and the chivalry and
enthusiasm of his opponents, tended to create an entirely new era in
chess and its support. An interest became aroused of a most
important character, unknown in any previous age in England,
and which, though not fully maintained after his death, and least
of all among the higher classes who ranked so largely among his
patrons, was yet destined to have a marked and lasting influence
on the future development and progress of the game, most apparent
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