The History of Chess. H. J. R. Murray
the Batak game. Sir T. Raffles says for Java:
A piece or Pawn must remain on the board till the last; if the King is left alone it is considered as stalemate, and he wins.
The allusion is probably to the English rule of stalemate at the beginning of the 19th century, in which the King who was put into the position of stalemate was counted as having won the game. MacGleans (Sch. 1867, 227) says of Java, however, that Bare King is a drawn ending. At Selangor the rule is different again; Mr. Robinson says:
Towards the end of a game care must be exercised in not capturing all the opponent’s pieces, for if the King be left solus the game is practically drawn, as he may move just as he pleases, like a King, Queen, Bishop, Knight, Rook or Pawn! He is then termed Rāja Lela with powers to bermaharaja lela, i.e. to play the Maharaja Lela.23 …
The fact that the game is generally played for a stake naturally leads to the game at odds being often played. V. Oefele notes that the usual odds given by a strong player is to undertake to mate the opponent on one of the four central squares (d4, e4, d5, e5). This is called Tepong.
The crosswise arrangement of the Rājas, combined with the modern powers of move, has led to the prevalence of the wing attack in the actual game. Raja Brooke remarks that the ordinary method of opening the game in Borneo was to advance the QRP, the QKtP and QBP and to manœuvre the Q behind them. This is well illustrated in the nine games which v. Oefele gives from Batak play. After recording some games played by natives in his neighbourhood, he arranged a match between the best of the local players, by name Singambati, and Sibayak, whom popular opinion declared to be one of the best living Batak players. Sibayak had no difficulty in beating his opponent by 4–0. From his experience of native play, v. Oefele states that there are certain regular lines of opening play which are popular among players. The better players observe the rule that a piece once touched must be played.24 The study of the simpler endings is also attempted with some system.
I select three games from v. Oefele’s work as illustrating well the main features of Batak play. In all of them I give the move to White, and the King’s are to be placed upon d1 and e8.
MALAY CHESSMEN (SELANGOR)
From the Skeat Collection in the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Cambridge
There is no systematic study of the problem in Malay chess, but v. Oefele notes that a position is occasionally arranged on the board and a wager laid upon its solution. One such position that he had seen is the well-known European problem, White, Ke5, Re1; Black, Ke8, in which White gives mate on the third move.31
The chessmen in use on the mainland are generally clumsily carved from soft wood, with no distinction of colour, the one side being only distinguished from the other by a daub of lime or paint. Mr. Skeat tells me that the Pawns are often made afresh on each occasion of play. Ivory sets for royal use, and other sets of harder wood are not unknown. I give illustrations of some of the chessmen in the Skeat Ethnological Collection, and of some other sets as well. The more highly finished chessmen approximate in pattern to the modern Muslim pieces used in India. Since the Malays of the Peninsula are Sunnite Muhammadans of the Shafi‘ite school, the use of carved pieces, images of the actual forms represented, is forbidden by their religion.
In Sumatra, it is usual to make fresh chessmen on each occasion of playing. This only occupies about 10 minutes. A piece of bamboo or the midrib of a palm leaf is obtained and the pieces are quickly cut after a conventional pattern. The two sides are distinguished by slight variations in the shape. The pattern does not look to me to be derived from the Muslim type of the mainland. Most noteworthy is the fact that the Mantri is made the tallest of the pieces. The Kūda, with head cut aslope, may be a recollection of an early type of European Knight which is still occasionally repeated in English sets, and the Tēr with its cleft in the top recalls the old shape of the European Rook.
The country whence the Malays obtained their chess has been represented by different writers as Arabia, Persia, and India.32 The philological evidence derived from the nomenclature is only satisfied by the hypothesis of an Indian ancestry, with later modifications as a result of the knowledge of Arabic which resulted from the introduction of the Muslim religion from Southern India. It is not improbable that the Tamil and Telugu terms were also introduced with Muhammadanism.
I. A set of hard wood in the possession of Mr. Robinson.
II. From v. Oefele.
III. From Mr. Claine’s paper, BCM. 1891.
MALAY CHESSMEN.
The evidence of the practical game points to Southern Europe33, and suggests that extensive modifications have been made in rule and move as a result of the intercourse with Portuguese and Dutch since 1500. The existing variations all appear to me consistent with the view that the European practice of the middle and later half of the 16th century remodelled the native game. The differences are superimposed, not fundamental. They occur just in those points in which uncertainty exists to-day among beginners, or in circles out of touch with the literature of the modern game. At the same time the use of the unchequered board, and the whole question of Pawn-promotion, is still pure Asiatic. To the objection that the European powers of move had already taken root in India, and that there is the simpler possibility that the change came via India, the Pawn’s move seems a sufficient answer. Had the change come from Southern India, we should have found the double step restricted to particular Pawns, or hedged about with conditions: we should probably also have found restrictions placed upon the free promotion to the rank of any piece.
CHAPTER VI
CHESS IN FURTHER INDIA
Introductory remarks.—I. Burmese chess.—Name of the game.—The chessboard.—The chessmen.—Nomenclature.—Initial arrangement.—Rules.—II. Siamese chess.—Name of the game.—The chessboard.—The chessmen.—Nomenclature.—Initial arrangement.—Rules.—Specimen game.—III. Annamese chess.
Modern European observers have recorded the practice of chess in each of the three great political divisions of Further India (Indo-China). Their accounts show that each of these countries has its own peculiar variety of chess, while the Chinese game has been introduced by the numerous Chinese settlers, and is widely played in Siam and Annam.
At first sight the native Burmese and Siamese games, of which alone we have sufficiently detailed information as to the method of play, look very diverse. Closer investigation, however, results in the discovery of certain features which link the two games together. These are—(a) the fivefold move of the Elephant, which al-Bērūnī recorded as existing in India in his day, occurs in each game; (b) both games begin from a different arrangement of the chessmen from that followed elsewhere: in Burmese there is no prescribed arrangement for the pieces, but only for the Pawns; in Siamese chess a definite initial arrangement exists; (c) the rules of Pawn-promotion are unusual.
I have already shown that the Burmese and Annamese names for their forms of chess both go back ultimately to the Skr. chaturanga, and thus point to the Indian ancestry of both games. Although the Siamese name for chess is of different origin, the names of the pieces show a closer connexion between Siamese and Annamese chess than between either of these games and Burmese chess.