Malay Chess. 



By T. B. Elcum. 



I have seen few things so amusing as a game of chess 

 played in a Malay village, with the whole population of the 

 village standing round, and all of them who possess even the 

 most rudimentary knowledge of the moves, " assisting " their 

 champion with vociferous advice, and abusing his stupidity when 

 he makes a move which for some reason, generally entirely 

 wrong, they think inferior. The rule of " touch and move " 

 is not generally observed among Malays. The spectators fre- 

 quently will seize upon a piece which has been moved, replace 

 it and make another move, pointing out how superior their 

 method is. Very frequently the suggested improvement is 

 absolutely futile, putting a piece " en prise," or offering an 

 obvious mate to the opponent, but the suggestor is quite un- 

 abashed when this is pointed out to him, and the fire of advice 

 and remonstrance goes on until the game is over. 



The appliances for these village games are generally of a 

 very primitive character. There will be probably a rough 

 hand-made lot of pieces, perhaps all of one colour, and a hand- 

 made board. The squares of the board are never marked in 

 different colours. Probably some of the men are missing, and 

 various substitutes have to be provided ; and sometimes there 

 are no pawns, and their place has to be supplied by little 

 stones, or bits of leaf. 



Sometimes the pieces used by Malays bear more or less 

 resemblance to the shapes with which we are familiar, except 

 that the tir, the rook, is generally a flat piece like a draughts- 

 man. But more usually they are much less distinctive in 

 shape. The illustrations show a handsome set, gold and 

 brown, kindly lent to me by one of the Johore Eoyal Family. 

 It will be noticed that the board is uncoloured ; the king, 

 queen and pawns are all of the same shape, and distinguish- 

 ed by size only. 



J«ur. Straits Branch R, A. Soc, No, 49, 1907, 



