The Game of Chess

1901

The game of chess differs in the various countries of the world. Thus, in the Hindoo game, four distinct armies are employed, each with their king, each corps counting among its fighters an elephant and a knight which slay but cannot be slain. The Chinese game of chess, which boasts of the title of choke-choc-kong-ki (the play of the science of war), has a river running through the center of the board, which their elephants, equivalent to our bishops, cannot cross, and there is a fort which their kings cannot pass.

Under the Sanskrit name of chaturanga a game essentially the same as modern chess was played in Hindustan nearly 5,000 years ago. From Hindustan the game is said to have been carried to Persia and thence to Arabia. The Arabs introduced it into Spain and the rest of western Europe during the eighth century, where it became the principal pastime about the year 1000.