CHESS. 33 



certainly has no claim to the honour. The story of Chess having 

 been the invention of Palamedes is a modem error. No notice of 

 any game more complicated than Draughts occurs in any ancient 

 author ; the *' calculi " which were played with on the " tessellae," or 

 chequered board, having evidently possessed no distinction of ranks. 

 This will appear from a careful examination of the often-quoted 

 passage from a poem ascribed to Lucan, " Te si forte juvat," &c., 

 and of a similar, though less ample description in Ovid's " Amores.'' 



The Pes 80 1, or game of pebbles, ascribed to Palamades, was 

 played (as appears from the first book of the Odyssey, where it is 

 practised by Penelope's suitors) on the ground in the open air, and 

 hence was probably not a sedentary game like draughts, but more 

 resembling the schoolboy's diversion of " hop-scot." The same term 

 would subsequently be applied to other games played with pebbles. 



That the game of Chess was of Eastern origin, is rendered more 

 than probable by the fact, that, whereas in Europe it is found only in 

 its perfect state, it still exists in the East in a much ruder form, and 

 abundantly mingled with chance. Nothing can be less likely than 

 tliat the game should have sprung at once into being in its present 

 complete anay, like Minerva from the head of Jove. Many centuries 

 probably elapsed ere it reached its present most scientific fonn . And this 

 view of the case is strengthened by the name of the game (in the earliest 

 fonn to which we can trace it), and those of several of the pieces, 

 which are of Oriental, and most probably of Indian derivation; while 

 they are apparently better suited to a form of the game unknown in 

 Europe. The Persians declare that they derived the game from 

 Hindostan ; and though the Celestials put forth a rival claim, I can- 

 not consider them either as trustworthy witnesses in their own case, or 

 as equal to the Hindoos in antiquity or early civilization. A notice 

 of Chess in one of the Byzantine historians early in the 11th cen- 

 tury, leads one to believe that it was probably through Constantinople 

 that the game was introduced from the East into Europe ; and on the 

 same principle I should ascribe to the Moors its early prevalence in 

 Spain. 



More modem times have furnished many interesting occurrences 

 connected with the history of this pastime. Our own Charles the First 

 was engaged at Chess when he leamt that the Scots had resolved to 

 betray him — nor did the news prevent his finishing the game. 



