The History of Chess. H. J. R. Murray
CARVED IN CHINA FOR THE EUROPEAN GAME
From Mr, Platt’s Collection
The design of the chessboard is practically the same as that of the Chinese game; the river, however, is ignored, and the files are carried across it, making the board one of 8 × 9 squares. The board is rather wider than it is long, the width of the squares being increased to facilitate the moves on the base lines. The men are generally octagonal in shape, and differ slightly in size according to their value, the General being larger and the Counsellors and Foot-soldiers smaller than the other men. The men are inscribed with their names, the sides being distinguished by the colour of the ideogram; one side is generally red and the other green.
Corean Chessboard. After Culin.
The following table gives the names, powers, and initial places of the chessmen. It will be noted that the Generals occupy a more advanced post than in Chinese chess. There is, moreover, considerable latitude with regard to the initial places of the Elephants and Horses, the player being allowed to arrange them as he pleases on the squares b1, c1 (b10, c10), and g1, h1 (g10, h10), so long as there are Elephant and Horse on each wing.
I. PIECES CONFINED TO THE NINE-CASTLE.
II. PIECES FREE TO MOVE OVER THE WHOLE BOARD.
The diagonals of the nine-castle fill a more important place in Corean than in Chinese chess. In the latter game they merely help to visualize the extent of the nine-castle; in the former they have caused considerable changes in the movements of the pieces. It is a principle in Corean chess that every piece which is capable of playing along a line into the adjacent point can within the nine-castle play along any marked line. We accordingly find that both General and Counsellor possess the same power of move, a power that varies from point to point. Thus from d1 either can move to d2, e1, e2, since there are marked lines connecting these three points to d1; it is only from e2 that they can move in all eight directions, for that is the only point in the castle from which eight lines are actually drawn. Both Chariot and Foot-soldier possess similar powers in the nine-castle.45
As in Chinese chess, two Generals are not allowed to be upon the same file unless there are intervening pieces. Corean chess, however, extends certain privileges to the weaker side. If one player has an overpowering advantage, the weaker player is permitted to give check to his opponent by playing his General on to the file commanded by the latter’s General. By so doing the player is considered to confess his inferiority, and he is not allowed to do more than draw.46 A game is considered drawn if the mating piece is only defended by the General.47 A ‘bare’ General is not obliged to move at all. In this case the player simply turns his General over when it is his turn to play.48
The Cannon requires a screen if he is to move at all. In this he differs from the Chinese Cannon. Thus in the position—
Green: Ke1, Ra7, Ca6, Ktc7, Pc6.
Red: Kf10, Qe10, Ktc3, Be9, Pd3;
the Cannon has two screens, viz. Ra7 and Pc6. He may accordingly move forwards to any of a8, a9, or a10—from the last of these he gives check, the red Qe10 providing the necessary screen; or horizontally to any of d6, e6, f6, g6, h6, or i6; these are his only moves that are possible. One Cannon can neither use another Cannon as a screen, nor capture another Cannon; but it is permissible to cover check by a Cannon by interposing a Cannon.
All other pieces capture as they move.
The technical term for ‘check’ is tjyang, for ‘mate’ tyousa.
The game accordingly differs from Chinese chess in a good many points: in the absence of the river, in the initial position of the General, in the liberty to place the Elephant and Horse differently, in the moves of the Elephant, Cannon, and Foot-soldier, in the greater freedom of move in the nine-castle, and in the privileges accorded to the weaker player. Mr. Wilkinson notes that there appear to be no native works on the game, and no collections of problems. ‘Chess is regarded as a somewhat frivolous pastime, suitable for young persons and rustics. The educated Korean, deeply imbued as he is with Chinese sympathies, affects to prefer Patok,’ i.e. Wei-k‘i.
It is usual to concede the first move to the weaker player, which shows that the opener is considered to have some advantage. As a general rule, the game is commenced by Pb4 or Ph4, or Kt
The following example of Corean chess is taken from Culin; for the sake of uniformity the notation has been altered. The Elephants (B) are to be placed upon c1, h1, b10, g10
III. JAPAN
The Japanese game of chess is called Shō-gi (Shō-ngi). So far as the pronunciation goes this may represent either the Chinese siang-k‘i or tsiang-k‘i, but the ideogram for the latter form is used, giving the word the meaning of ‘the Generals’ game.’ In all probability this is due to folk-etymology. The Japanese chessboard is occupied by Generals of many types—Jewelled Generals, Golden Generals, Silver Generals—and the majority of the pieces obtain in the course of a game promotion to the rank of General. And to explain the name as meaning the Generals’ game would appear far more appropriate than to call it the Figure game or the Elephants’ game, when the game shows no Elephants and the men are all alike five-edged tablets, plain save for the written name each one bears. Not only is there no evidence to show that the Japanese ever used carved figures in their chess, although their skill as carvers of ivory has long been famous, but the very peculiarities of Japanese chess would preclude the possibility of any other type of piece than the simple variety of ‘draughtsmen’ now in use. For promotions from one rank to another are very frequent in the game, and—a stronger argument still for the draughtsman type of chessman—a piece may change sides often in the course of the game.
Our knowledge of the history of chess in Japan is confined to a few notices in different Japanese works56 which were translated for the Quellenstudien by Professor Hoffmann of Leyden. In the main these notices are identical, and probably go back to the San sai dzu e, Simayosi Anko’s Japanese translation and revision of the Chinese encyclopaedia San-t‘sai-t‘u-hwei, which was completed in 1712. None of these works give any information as to the date of the introduction of chess into Japan beyond the statement that the word shōgi is not to be found in the Wa-mei-seu, the dictionary of the older Japanese language, the compiler of which died about A.D. 986. It seems a reasonable inference from this that chess had not reached Japan in the 10th cent. The introduction, however, has been associated with the name of Kobodaisi, the introducer of the reformed Buddhism in the first decade of that century, but I cannot discover upon what authority.57
The ordinary route followed by Chinese culture on its road to Japan lies through Corea. We may probably assume that this was also the route followed by chess, though there is no evidence that would directly support this hypothesis. Japanese chess has no affinities with the present Corean game. Some resemblances between the Japanese and the Siamese games have been put forward as suggesting another route, but these seem too slight to bear the weight of a theory that finds no support from history. Other influences than Chinese have undoubtedly been at work, and have transformed the game from a representation of warfare to a game in which it is difficult to find a representation of anything;58 but these influences