The History of Chess. H. J. R. Murray
was beaten by Tan Pakarma.
Broadly speaking, all forms of Malay chess are played in the same way, the differences only appearing in the refinements of the game. It will therefore be simpler to treat of the game as one, and to deal with the variations of rule or practice as they arise. Even in Java, where for some unexplained reason the otherwise universal Malay nomenclature is replaced by another, the game remains practically the same as in the other parts of the Malay world.
The game of chess has two names in Malay. The commoner name is main chātor,5 in which main is the Malay word for game, and chātor can hardly be anything but a broken-down form of the Skr. chaturanga. This name is the only one recorded for Borneo, Java, and the Batak race. It is given as the ordinary name by all my authorities except Dr. Marsden,6 who both in his History of Sumatra (ed. 1811, 273) and in his Malayan Dictionary (Part ii, Eng. and Malayan, s.v. chess) only gives the name as main gājah, i.e. the game of the elephant. This name has been recorded as used on the mainland both by Robinson and by v. Oefele, who gives it in the form permainan gājah. This form may be due to the influence of the name of another favourite game, the main rimau, or ‘game of the tiger’,7 though it is not easy to see why the Elephant should have been selected for mention, rather than the Horse or any other piece. The hypothesis that it may be due to Chinese influence—which is based upon the presence of Chinese settlers on the sea coast of the Peninsula, and all the islands, and upon the fact that one possible meaning of the Chinese name of chess, siang k‘i, is ‘the game of the Elephant’—must be rejected, because in all other cases of cultural borrowings, the Malays have adopted, and not translated, the Chinese name. Moreover, it is not easy to see why the Chinese chess, which does not appear to the casual observer to have any connexion with the Malay game, should have been able to exert an influence which was at once so strong that it led to the introduction of a new name for the game, and so weak that it left the actual method of play absolutely untouched.
Malay Chessboards. Skeat Collection, Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Cambridge.
Malay Chessboard.
(Malacca and mainland.)
Malay Chessboard.
(Sumatra.)
The Malay chessboard (lōh chātor or pāpan chātor8) is un chequered, but exhibits special markings which are characteristic of all Oriental boards. These vary so much in the few Malay boards which I have seen that it is clear that no traditional arrangement survives, and I think it probable that they have often become merely decorative. Some of the arrangements are very like those of neighbouring countries; thus one of the boards in the Skeat collection at Cambridge has a traditional Indian marking while the other resembles one of the Burmese markings. The ordinary board of the mainland is said by Mr. Robinson to have only the main diagonals marked—again a Burmese marking—and these diagonals are connected now with the rules of Pawn-promotion, and have probably suggested them. In Sumatra the board has a far more intricate appearance, since the complete network of diagonals of all the 64 small squares of the board is inserted. V. Oefele explains their presence as arising from the method of constructing the board. In order to obtain the correct proportions, he says, the Batak player first draws the outer square, then he inserts the diagonals to obtain the centre of the board and draws parallels to the sides through this point. By repeating this method he obtains accurately the quarter board and the eighth, and so obtains his 64 squares all of a size. Finally, to preserve the symmetry, he adds the missing diagonals, and the complicated figure is complete. This explanation does not seem to me to be satisfactory: while it certainly gives a convenient way of producing the final Sumatran figure, it is by no means the most natural way to draw a board of 8 by 8 squares.
The board is often made of wood, with the lines incised. This may be done upon a board of the floor of the hut, and a board for permanent use may be so secured. But it is also often scratched in the ground for an alfresco game when a movable board is not at hand.
The two nomenclatures may usefully be contrasted thus:
Of the ordinary Malay names, rāja (= king), mantri (= counsellor, minister), and gājah (= elephant) are all Sanskrit words, and we have already seen that they are or have been in regular chess use in India. Kūda (= horse), tēr (= chariot), and chemōr (= chariot) are Tamil and Telugu, languages spoken on the south-east coast of India, in the vicinity of Madras. The use of chemōr in chess in India has not yet been verified, but tēr is used as the name of the Rook in Tamil, and ghora, the original Indian form of kūda, is widely used as the name of the Knight. Chemōr (chemūr) is given as in colloquial Malay use only by Blagden (JRAS., 1898, xxx. 376). Bīdaq and the two technical terms sah and mat have been taken from the Arabic game. Marsden (op. cit.) gives the alternative terms māil (Malay, = dead) and tammat (Arabic, = finished) as also in use.
Of the Javan names, mantri is Sanskrit. So also is probably pateh (Skr. pati = lord or master). Ratu (= king), jaran (= horse), and prahu (= boat) are all Malay. From this it would seem that the Javan nomenclature preserves an older usage. On the other hand the disappearance of the Elephant and its replacement by two Counsellors is obviously the result of intercourse with the Dutch, with whom the corresponding piece has been long called by the name of Counsellor.10 It is more difficult to account for the replacement of the Chariot by the Boat. The same change has been made in the chess of the neighbouring lands of Siam and Annam, and also in the game as played in Bengal, where, however, it cannot be shown to be older than 1500. But Siam has exerted hardly any influence upon Malayan customs, and it is difficult to believe that Bengal can have had an influence sufficiently strong to affect the Javan nomenclature. I think it more likely that the change was made independently. The Chariot or Cart is of little use in a land of jungles, and it may very well have been replaced in chess by the Boat as representing the more usual means of transport.
Collectively the chessmen are called būwah chātor, i.e. the pieces (lit. fruit) of the chess.11
At the commencement of the game the chessmen are arranged as in the Indian game (diagram, p.80) with the one exception that the relative positions of the Rāja and Mantri are reversed. In the Javan game, if MacGleans (Sch., 1867, 226) is correct, the Indian arrangement is followed. The Mantri is stationed at the right-hand of the Rāja. The arrangement is consequently crosswise. The powers of move of the pieces hardly differ at all from those which existed in European chess in the middle of the 16th century. The Mantri, Gājah, Kūda, and Tēr have exactly the same moves as their respective equivalents, the Queen, Bishop. Knight, and Rook, in modern European chess. The ordinary move of the Rāja is identical with the ordinary move of the King to any adjacent square. In addition he possesses certain powers of leaping into a square two squares distant. This liberty is not uniform throughout the Malay lands. In Borneo, according to Raja Brooke of Sarawak,
The King, when checked for the first time, has the right of making the Knight’s move, or to move two squares. After this sally, he is reduced to the same powers as a European King. The first move (in which he can of course take), on being checked, alters the game considerably, as one great object then becomes to prevent the check of your own King early in the game, and to gain a check of your adversary … for it will be evident if the King be once checked, he is deprived of one great advantage which your adversary still holds. Castling is not allowed except in two moves, the first being the Castle’s move up to the King, and on the King receiving a check, he can exercise his right of jumping to the inside of the Castle.12
In Java, according to Sir T. Stamford Raffles,
The King, if he has not been checked, may move two squares the first time, either as a Knight or otherwise…. The King cannot castle after having been checked. Castling is performed by two moves; the Castle must first be brought up to the King; after which the King may pass