Chess

The word chess is derived from the Persian shah, king; checkmate or shahmat means "king confounded or over-come." The origin of the game of chess is undoubtedly Oriental, but its date is lost in antiquity. Terms connected with it are found in the Sanscrit, as well as other Asiatic languages. Some authorities give the credit of inventing the game to Palamedes, a Grecian hero of the Trojan war, about 1080 B. C. A game essentially the same as modern chess was played in Hindostan nearly 5000 years ago. The original Hindu game was played, as now, on a board of sixty-four squares, but by four persons, two being allied against two, as in whist. From Hindostan, chess spread into Persia and thence into Arabia; the Arabs, it would seem, introduced the game into Spain in the eighth century, and thence it spread through Western Europe. In England the game seems to have been known prior to the Norman Conquest. It is the most intellectual of all games of skill, involving the faculties of both memory and foresight to a large degree. Dr. Benjamin Franklin admired the game greatly, and wrote upon the advantages gained by it in the cultivation of the mind and character, particularly in the promotion of the habit of circumspection. With Napoleon I. it was a favorite recreation, and many men of superior intelligence have enjoyed it. The great American chess player, Paul Morphy, visited Europe in 1858 and conquered in turn all the most distinguished living players of his day. His most astonishing feat was playing, blindfold, six games at once, with as many different players, and winning them all. The names of what we call "chess-men" are: King, Queen, Bishop, Knight, Rook (or Castle) and Pawn. The term rook is from the Sanscrit roka, Persian rukh, meaning a ship or chariot; pawn is said to be from peon, an attendant or foot soldier (Latin pes). The books written upon the subject of chess alone would form a library of considerable size.