OULl CORRESPONDENTS ON CHESS. 



641 



what he called the Triple Chess, by adding sixteen squares to three sides of 

 the original board. Three persons were thus enabled to play at the same 

 time one against the other. The nicety of this game consists in the two 

 weakest forming a coalition against the strongest, and in going over to and 

 supporting the latter when one of the former obtains a preponderating supe- 

 riority on the board. It is, in fact, a game admirably illustrative of the 

 political strategy by which the balance of power is maintained. 



In Russia the game is played by four persons ; the board resembles a cross, 

 and the knight's move is given to the queen, which renders the game much 

 more complex. 



The Emperor Tamerlane used to play upon a round board, so that the 

 position of the pieces was not only different, but their relative power was 

 sensibly altered that of the knights and bishops becoming almost null, 

 while that of the rooks was nearly centuple, from their sweeping right 

 round the board. 



Some years ago, in South America, I was shewn by an American gentle- 

 man, who had resided several years in Canton, though he was unacquainted 

 with even the moves of the pieces, a Chinese Chess-board, of half of which 

 I made the annexed drawing. 



Some time afterwards I shewed the sketch to a Portuguese friar, of the. 

 order of St. Antonio, who had resided upwards of twenty years at Macao, 

 and, as a missionary, had even penetrated into the interior of the Celestial 

 Empire. The account he gave me of the game was as follows : 



" Having resided upwards of twenty years in China, I repeatedly saw the 

 people of that empire playing at Chess ; but although I diligently applied 

 myself to learn this game, it was so complicated that I could never accom- 

 plish it : all therefore that I can do is to give a very vague and superficial 

 idea of the Chinese game of Chess. In the first place, the board is divided 

 by a river, and as the number of pieces in the rear rank is nine, they are 

 placed upon the lines and not upon the squares, as in our Portuguese game ; 

 in fact, the march of all the pieces is lineary. The king occupies the centre, 

 and moves like ours, but with this difference, that his sphere of action is 

 limited to the fortress in which he is entrenched (see dotted line in the cut) ; 

 he has a prince on each side of him, whose movements are similar, and 

 limited to the same space. The two mandarins move like our bishops ; they 

 do not, however, cross the river, but form a ' corps de reserve.' The pieces 

 styled Maa, have our knights move, while the action of the war-chariots is 



M. M. No. 90. 4 E 



