The History of Chess. H. J. R. Murray
chessboard, and a few other objects obtained at the same time. The chessmen are of ivory, black and white, but are now in a very decayed state, and the ivory has degenerated into a condition not unlike that of lime or chalk. There are now 37 pieces or fragments of pieces. None can be identified with any approach to certainty. Since the various fragments either end in pegs or contain holes of the same size as the pegs, I imagine that they were carved in sections and pieced together; this seems more likely than the view that the men were pegged for use on a board with holes.
From Lala Kaja Babu’s work.
From Vinayaka Rajarama Tope’s work.
Some Modern Indian Chessmen.
The chessmen which Hyde possessed were coloured red and green, and these are still the usual colours at the present day; less frequently we meet with sets with red and black, or with white and black chessmen.
These conventional sets must not be confused with the curious elaborate sets carved in India for the European market, in which the English chessmen are treated on Indian lines. The characteristic feature of these curios is the development of the Bishop’s mitre, though the representation of the Rook as a Castle betrays the foreign source of inspiration. Often beautiful works of art and wonderful examples of the native skill in carving, these sets have but little importance for the history of the game: too elaborate for ordinary play, they are the result of the requirements of the European collector of curios.
MODERN INDIAN CHESSMEN
Platt Collection
The study of chess endings and problems (Urdū naqsh) would seem to have been a late development in non-Muhammadan India. It is somewhat singular that whereas the Muslim players had achieved much success in this branch of chess before the end of the 10th c., it was not until after Hindu players had come into contact with the European game that we find any trace of Hindu problems. The Indian Muslim players were familiar with the traditional Muslim material, and we possess Persian problem MSS. which were copied in India. I am not sure that we possess any problems by players of the Hindustani game which are uncoloured by European ideas. The only native problems which are composed on other lines belong to the Parsi chess. The earliest of these are contained in the already mentioned work of Tiruveṇgaḍāchārya Shastrī (1814). Of the 96 positions in his Essays on Chess, 32 are composed ‘agreeably to the European mode of Play’, and are indeed in part drawn from European works. The remaining 64 are said to be composed under the Indian rules.37 Many of these are repeated in Mangesa’s collection of 81 Pawn mates. Another Marathi work (Vinayaka) gives a still larger collection, classified under the heads: Mates with a piece, Pawn mates, Self mates, Būrj positions, Draws by perpetual check or stalemate, Mates under European rules. Most of the other native chess-books I have seen give collections of problems which have been taken from European books and newspapers.
An examination of the accessible problems shows that the Pawn mate is held in the highest esteem. Excepting that the position must be possible in that it conforms to the rules of the game in the pieces employed, and in the necessity of leaving the losing player sufficient force to avoid the ending būrj, there seem to be no canons of taste governing the composition of the native problem. The recognition of the higher standard of the modern European problem has probably arrested the development of the native art, which came into existence too late to strive successfully against its Western rival. A selection of Indian problems is given in the appendix to this chapter.
APPENDIX
A SELECTION OF PROBLEMS FROM INDIAN SOURCES
I have restricted my selection to problems that occur in the work of Tiruveṇgaḍāchārya (referred to as ‘T’), and in the two Marathi works of Vinayaka Rajarama Tope (‘V’), and Mangesa Rāmakrishna Telanga (‘M’), since all the other works that I have used have obtained some at least of their problems from European sources. I have already given some indication of the contents of these three books. Of my selection, the first four are mates with a piece, a variety that is only found treated on Indian lines in V; Nos. 5 to 14 are mates with a Pawn, the ordinary type of problem composed in India; Nos. 15 to 17 are būrj endings, and the last problem is a self mate.
The problems in V are re-numbered in each class. By ‘a’ I mean the būrj positions, by ‘b’ the mates with a piece, by ‘c’ the non-Indian positions1, by ‘d’ the Pawn-mates, and by ‘e’ the other drawn positions.
The Indian rule prohibiting the winner from taking the last piece of his opponent naturally renders possible new lines of defence. The loser has the chance of drawing by būrj by compelling the capture of his last piece. Accordingly we find that there is a strong tendency to reduce the number of pieces on the losing side, and most of the problems in M which are peculiar to that work leave Black with King and a single piece.
The solutions which follow are those that are given in the works from which the problems are taken. I have not attempted to prove them the only, or the shortest, solutions.
No. 1. Mate in Three.
No. 2. Mate in Four.
No. 3. Mate in Four.
No. 4. Mate in Six.
No. 5. Mate with Pawn in Three.
No. 6. Mate with Pawn in Four [or Black mates with Pawn in Five].
No. 7. Mate with Pawn in Five.
No. 8. Mate with Pawn in Six.
No. 9. Mate with Pawn in Six.
No. 10. Mate with Pawn in Seven.
No. 11. Mate with Pawn in Eight.
No. 12. Mate with Pawn in Nine.
No. 13. Mate with Pawn in Ten.
No. 14. Mate with Pawn in Fourteen.