The History of Chess. H. J. R. Murray
This is a curious attempt to overcome the slowness of the game: of all varieties of chess that I have studied, the Burmese and Siamese are the most tedious and prolonged.
Stalemate is a drawn game.
The differences between Siamese and Burmese chess have the effect of making the former game at once older and more modern in type. The existence of an initial arrangement of the men in Siamese chess, and the absence of any limitations to Pawn-promotion, belong to an older type of game than the Burmese, while the crosswise arrangement, and the larger powers of move of King and Met are more modern in type than anything in the existing Burmese game.
The following specimen of Siamese chess was supplied by Prince Dewawongse to Mr. Gould and is taken from Falkener. The white men were played by Chong Kwa and Coy consulting, the black by Nai Chang. All three were reputed to be good players.
The Siamese have paid no attention to the End-game or the chess problem.
III. ANNAM.
Our information as to Annamese chess is very slight, but sufficient to show that, like the Siamese, the Annamese play chess in two ways, one resembling Indian chess, the other identical with Chinese chess. The latter is called cò‘tu‘ong (kö tūöng), which is the Annamese form of the Chinese siang K‘i. Himly notes that the names of the chessmen—called kon kö = Chinese K‘i tzě—follow the Chinese with the exception of the horse, which is called ngüa instead of ma.19
Strangely enough, the native game has preserved a name which is derived from the Sanskrit chaturanga, though a popular etymology has done its best to disguise the word. Aymonier, in his Dictionnaire khmêr, p. 181, s.v. trang, has chhôeu trāng20 (for chadorang) chess; where chhôeu is the native word for wood, and the perversion of the word is undoubtedly due to the attempt to explain the chess as wooden something, an attempt suggested by the wooden pieces for play. Aymonier gives also léng chhôeu trang = to play chess; kedā (= board) chhôeu trang = chessboard; kāun (= son) chhôeu trang = chessman.21
Moura, in his Royaume du Cāmlodge (i. 391), says of Cambodia:
Almost all classes play chess. As is to be seen, this game is one which is spread over the whole world; it is well known in Europe, and is played in India, Tibet, Mongolia, Indo-China, Annam and China. The Cambodian board resembles ours; it is divided into 64 squares. Each player has 8 pieces, and 8 pawns. The pieces are one King (sdach), one Queen, two Knights, two Generals in the place of Castles, and lastly two Boats instead of two Bishops. The 8 other men are simply Pawns which the Khmer designate Fishes (trey, less commonly mîchha = Skr. matsya). The game consists in each player trying to prevent his opponent from giving him ‘check’, and it is played almost as in Europe.
It is unfortunate that Moura has given so brief and unsatisfying an account. The game is evidently closely akin to that of Siam. Presumably Moura has confused the pieces, and the Boat should replace the Rook, not the Bishop.
The pieces probably resemble the Siamese, for among a number of other stories22 we read in the Riddles of Thménh Chei how once Thménh Chei was bidden by his royal master to follow him into a certain forest with a horse, and not being able to find one in the flesh, he appeared with a Horse from the chessboard in his hand, a misinterpretation of the king’s command such as might have been anticipated from the famous jester of Indo-China.
CHAPTER VII
CHESS IN CHINA, COREA, AND JAPAN
The inter-relationships and ancestry of these games.—I. Chinese chess.—The name.—Early references.—The modern game.—The board.—Nomenclature.—Rules.—Openings.—End-games and problems.—Specimen games.—The games ta-ma and kyu-kung.—Derivative games.—II. Corean chess.—Board.—Nomenclature.—Rules.—Specimen game.—III. Japanese chess.—The name.—History.—Literature.—Board.—Nomenclature.—Rules.—Specimen game.—Derivative games.—Problems.
The development of chess in the far Orient—in China, Corea, and Japan—presents one of the most puzzling chapters in the history of the game. The existing forms of chess are farthest removed from the primeval Indian game, and it is difficult at first sight to believe that a common origin is possible. In Chinese and Corean chess we see the pieces moving, not on the squares, but on the lines of the chessboard. In Japanese chess, not only Pawns but also pieces obtain promotion, while a player is at liberty to place the men he has taken from his adversary again upon the board and to add them to his own army. And yet there is no uncertainty as to the immediate parentage of the Japanese chess. Japanese authorities are unanimous in ascribing their game to China, in complete accord with all that we know of the lines of development of Japanese religion, culture, and literature. The game also itself approximates somewhat to the earlier type of Chinese chess played under the T‘ang and Sung dynasties (A.D. 618–1279). We must regard Japanese chess as a modification of the older Chinese chess in one direction, the modern Chinese chess (and the Corean game, which closely resembles it) as a modification in another.
The Indian ancestry of the Chinese game is supported partly by internal evidence based upon the identity of certain essential features in the two games,1 and partly upon what is known of the indebtedness of China to India in religion, culture, and, above all, in games.
In both Chinese and early Indian chess we find that the pieces from angle to middle of the back line are named
Chariot, Horse, Elephant,2 Counsellor,
and that these pieces possess essentially similar moves.3 The Indian Raja has been replaced by a less exalted general, but there would appear to have been weighty reasons for the change.4 The identity of position and close resemblance of move are too remarkable to be explained as merely due to chance.
From very early times an important trade route has existed from Northwest India by Kashmīr, Leh, the Karakoram Pass, Yarkhand, to the basin of the Hoang Ho and the fertile plains of Northern China.5 By this route Buddhism penetrated to China, together with much else of Indian culture. It was for long the principal road from West to East. And by this route other Indian games reached China, of which tables or backgammon is one of the most interesting, because it long retained a name revealing its Indian origin. This name, t‘shu-p‘u, is a Chinese transliteration of the Indian chaupur (= Skr. chatush-padam). Chinese works mention its introduction as having taken place as early as A.D. 220–265, and the game had reached Japan before the end of the seventh century.6
At one time there was supposed to be actual historical evidence for the introduction of chess from India in the reign of Wu-Ti (A.D. 560–578).7 As will be seen below, this belief arose from a confusion between chess and another game.8
I. CHINA.
Chess appears always to have borne the name of Siang k‘i9 in China. The meaning of this name has been much discussed. K‘i is the usual term for a board-game, as in wei k‘i, the game of enclosing (the national game of China), sam k‘i, the ‘three’ game, merels. Holt (JRAS., xvii. 352 seq.) points out that the ideogram k‘i in siang k‘i differs from that in wei k‘i. In the former it is built up from the radicle muh, wood; in the latter from the radicle shih, stone.
The meaning of siang is more difficult to determine. This word has several meanings in Chinese. Originally meaning elephant, it has also the derived senses of (1) ivory, (2) celestial figure, (3) figure, or image. The Hang Fei tze (3rd c. B.C.) justifies the last meaning on the ground that it is possible to