CHESS. 



173 



Chi. chariots, and foot soldiers ; and, in this sense, the word 

 ,-"'' is frequently used by epic poets in their descriptions of 

 Teal armies. The Arabic writers have likewise ascribed 

 the honour of this invention to the Indians, and have 

 delivered the following interesting and well-known tra- 

 dition concerning its origin. 



At the beginning of the 5th century of the Christian 

 era, there reigiied over the Indies a young monarch of 

 an excellent disposition ; but who being corrupted by 

 the flatteries of his courtiers, became the tyrant and op- 

 pressor of the lower orders. The brahmins and the roy- 

 als, that is to say the priests -end the nobles, in vain en- 

 deavuurrd to repress his severities ; when a learned brah- 

 min named Sista, undertook indirectly to open his eyes. 

 With this view he invented the game of chess, in which 

 the king, th >u^h the most important of all the pieces, is 

 unfit for an attack, or even for self-defence, without the 

 aid of his subjects. The tradition adds, that the scheme 

 was successful. The king became convinced of his er- 

 ror ; and, desirous of rewarding his venerable instructor, 

 requested him to name his own recompense. The de- 

 mand of the brahmin was apparently moderate. He ask- 

 ed only a single grain of corn for the first chequer of the 

 chess-board, two for the second, four for the third, eight 

 for the fourth ; and s > on in a continually doubling pro- 

 portion for the whole Ct chequers. The king readily 

 agreed to what appeared so reasonable ; but when his 

 treasurers proceeded to calculate the amount, they dis- 

 covered to their astonishment, that the whole dominions 

 of the monarch wjre insufficient to discharge the debt. 

 They found, in fact, that such a quantity of corn would 

 be equivalent to 16,381- cities, each of which should con- 

 tain 102* granaries, in each of which there should be 

 174,762 measures, containing each of them 32,768 grains. 

 Upon this the brahmin again took occasion to exhort his 

 majesty how liable he was to be deceived by those who 

 surrounded him ; and how necessary it was to take care 

 that a bad uac should not be made even of his best in- 

 tentions. 



Certain authors, however, have been more disposed to 

 ascribe the honour of the invention of chess to the Chi- 

 nese than to the Hindus. Such is the opinion of the 

 honourable Daincs Barrington, in his elaborate " His- 

 torical disquisition on the game of Chess." (Archtfol. 

 vol. ix.) S'ich also is the opinion of Mr Irwin, in the 

 paper already quoted. The young mandarin, named 

 Tingica, who shewed him the Chinese chess-board, claimed 

 this honour for his countrymen, and brought him a Chi- 

 nes MS. containing an account of the origin of the game. 

 It was an extract from the Concum, or Chinese annals, 

 and is as follows : 



" 379 years after the time of Confucius, or 1965 years 

 ago. Hung C'chu, king of Kiangnan, sent an expedition 

 intj the Shensi country, under the command of a man- 

 darin called Hansing, to conquer it. After one success- 

 ful ampaign the soldiers were put into winter quarters, 

 where finding the weather much colder than what they 

 had been accustomed to, and facing also deprived of their 

 wives and families the army, in general, became impa- 

 tient of their situation, and clamorous to return home. 

 Hans ng upon this revolved in his mind the bad conse- 

 qu-nces of complying with their wishes. The necessity 

 of sootliing his troops, 2nd reconciling them to their po- 

 sition, appeared urgent, in order to finish his operations 

 in the rnsuing year. He was a man of genius, as well as 

 a good soldier ; and having contemplated some time on 

 the subj-.-ct, he invented the game of chess, as well for an 

 amusement to his men in their vacant hours, as to inflame 

 their military ardour, the game being wholly founded on 



the principles of war. The stratagem succeeded to his 

 wish ; the soldiery were delighted with the game ; and 

 forgot, in their daily contests for victory, the inconveni- 

 ences of their post. In the spring the general took the 

 field again, and, in a few months, added the rich country 

 of Shensi to the kingdom of Kiangnan, by the defeat and 

 capture of its king Choupayuen, a famous warrior among 

 the Chinese. On this conquest Hung Cochu assumed 

 the title of emperor, and Choupayuen put an end to his 

 own life in despair." 



Du Halde, however, and the other Chinese mission- 

 aries, are not disposed to ascribe the origin of chess t* 

 China ; and say expressly, that the Chinese themselves 

 acknowledge that they received the game from the Hih- 

 dus. Mr Freret, in a memoir on the subject in the Trans- 

 actions of the Aradcmy of Belles Letters, asserts that it 

 is said in the Hai-Pien, or great Chinese dictionary, that 

 this game was introduced from India into China under 

 the reign of Vouti, about the year 537 before Christ. 

 The claim of the Hindus, therefore, to the honour of 

 this invention, seems on the whole the best supported. 



With respect to the origin of the name by which it 

 has been commonly distinguished, Sir William Jones is 

 disposed to derive it from the Sanscrit appellation of 

 c/iatnranira, or the game of the four angat, or members 

 of aji army. " By e natural corruption of the pure San- 

 scrit word," says he, " it was changed by the old Per- 

 sians into chalrang ; but the Arabs, who soon after took 

 possession of their country, had neither the initial nor fi- 

 nal letter of that word in their alphabet, and consequent- 

 ly altered it further into shairang, which found its way 

 presently into the modern Persian, and at length into the 

 dialects of India, where the true derivation of the name 

 is knowiv-only to the learned. Thus," adds he, " has a 

 very significant word in the sacred language of the 

 Brahmans, been transformed by successive changes into 

 axedrez, scacchi, cchecs, chess ; and, by a whimsical con- 

 currence of circumstances, given birth to the English 

 word check ; and even a name to the exchequer of Great 

 Britain." 



The authority of so great an etymologist must be re- 

 ceived with the highest respect ; nevertheless it appears 

 almost certain, that the name by which this game was 

 most familiarly known over the East did not import the 

 game of the Jour angat, but the game of the Icing, an 

 honour not unjustly due to the dignity of this most im- 

 portant of all the pieces. Sir William Jones himself 

 states in the same memoir, that the species of chess play* 

 ed in India with four different colours of men, which we 

 have already noticed, though also called c/taluranga, it 

 more frequently called chaturaji, or tin.- /our kings. Mr 

 Irwin informs us, that the Cninese name for chess is 

 chong k, or the royal game ; and it was known in Per- 

 sia under the appellation of sc/iatrak, meaning the game 

 of the schaclt or king, and bearing a close resemblance ta 

 the cfiaturaiiga of India. From Persia, chess was intro- 

 duced among the Ccnstantinopoiitan Greeks, and called 

 Tg<xio> ; whence the axedres and al xadrct of the Spa- 

 niards and Saracens. The same term hu.^ev dently given 

 rise to the scacconirn Indus of the Latins, the scacchi of 

 the Italians, the ec/iccs of the Fr.-nch, and, finally, the 

 chess of the English. 



This etymology, which is that of Bochart, is at least 

 more plausible than that of Leunclavius, who derives the 

 name from Uscoc.hes, famous Turkish robbers ; or of P. 

 Lermond, from the German tcache, " theft" ; or of G. 

 Tolosanus, from the Hi-brew search, " vallavit." It also 

 explains the force of the term check, which is employed 

 in the game wheu the king is in danger from any piece, 



Chess. 



