ANCIENT GAMES AND ORIENTAL CHESS.*
No one, we suppose, would be surprised at hearing that the familiar but artful game of draughts is the oldest game in the world ; nor would they be astonished at that dignified people, the Ancient Egyptians, inventing and amusing them- selves with it some three or four thousand years ago. We have come, of late years, to expect a great deal of the Egyptians. Yet it is a striking fact that the representation of a game should have been found in the tomb of R'ashepses, the scribe of the time of the Fifth Dynasty, and that a draught-board and the pieces have actually been recovered from the tomb of Queen Hatasu, of the Eighteenth Dynasty, at Dayr-el-Baharee, which dates from B.C. 1600. And of the two games, played on a board with squares (for there were two), in another tomb at Beni-hassan, Mr. Falkener seems to have identified one with the "Ludus Latrunculoram " of the Romans, and the other, which had the hieroglyph " seuat" over it, in R"ashepses's tomb, with the modern Egyptian game of " Seega." The Egyptian of to-day makes a rude board by scooping holes in the sand, or cutting them in the rock, and those ancient and incorrigible vandals, the Arabs, have cut " Seega " boards on the summit of the Great Pyramid. So that the "forty centuries" of Napoleon have seen what calls for more surprise than the preservation of a monument—the survival of a simple game. The fellah plays the same game that the artist depicted on the walls of the immemorial tomb to please the eye of the dead man's " double," and to remind him of one of the pleasures of the Hereafter. Then there is also " The Game of the Sacred Way," no doubt identical with the " ispd ypeeptivi" of the Greeks, and the "Ludus Duodecim Scriptornm " of the Romans. The board consisted of a central row of squares, with a shorter one on each side ; the pieces were moved along the " via sacra " by throws of dice, and could be taken up—hence the expression "zineir ris eigiievic "—and impressed into the player's service ; the object of the game being to get as many pieces, in- cluding prisoners, along and to the end of the "sacred way "- a sort of backgammon, in fact. Yet, again, was there the " Ring and the Bowl," and " Atep." The first-named was played on a board marked with a number of lessening rings, counters being moved from the outermost to the innermost spot, where they were safe, and taken off. As dice have been found, four-aided, of oblong form, we may be certain they • Games, Ancient and Oriental, and How to Nay Them. By Edward Falkener. London : Longman and Co.
were used in all these games. An imitation of a knuckle-bone in ivory has even been found, showing most strongly how customary was the use of this aid in determining the moves of a game. " Atep" was the equivalent of the modern "Mora," but the staid Egyptians probably could not get up quite as much enthusiasm about it as the Italians do. Of few Italians could we say, " Dignus, quicum in tenebris micere." The word " Mora" is more ancient than we generally suppose, for we have given here the fac-simile of an ancient gem published by M. Ch. Lenormant, in which the word is written over two figures playing at the game.
Eastern chess, in all its varieties, "pretends," says Mr. Falkener, to a like antiquity ; but now that the " Bhavishya Purana " which contains the earliest description of " Chatu- ranga," is said to be no earlier than the tenth century, we must not regard it with the same veneration as draughts. But chess is obviously of great age ; the account in the "Puma. " is probably copied from an older treatise. Firdausi, in the " Shah-Noma," speaks of it having been introduced into Persia hundreds of years before his time, by an Indian Am- bassador. At any rate, the intellect and the elaboration that have been expended upon it have aged it ; nor, indeed, is it a game that could have been evolved out of an inner conscious- ness. It cannot, of course, be placed too far back in the history of civilisation ; but it is probably the elaboration of some one of those games in the mural paintings at Beni- Inman, at Dayr-el-Babaree, and at Ak-Hor.
Indian Chess, or " Chaturanga," is played with a rajah, an elephant, a horse, and a ship, and four foot-soldiers, corre- sponding to a king, a castle, a knight, and a bishop, and four pawns; and there are four players. Each player faces his partner, and places his pieces in the order of ship, horse, elephant, and rajah, beginning at the left-hand corner, the four foot-soldiers being, of course, in front. Partners are thus on the opposite diagonals. The players move in the order of the sun. The tactics of the game, apparently from the " Bhavishya Parana," are not to attack your opponent who has just played, as would be done in double chess, but to obstruct the opponent who has to play next. The game is distinguished from double chess by marked variations. There is no queen, and the ship or bishop is " lame "—can only move two squares at a time, though be can hop over an inter- vening piece if be likes. Moreover, a player can take his partner's rajah if things are not going well, and so assume command of both armies ; and if both sides have lost a rajah, they can be restored by mutual consent. The game is thus pervaded by a military spirit, though not so stiff but what the opening moves are made by the aid of dice. In this early game the rajah could be taken, but he can always, if all the other pieces are taken, retire with the honours of war, and draw the game. The names allotted to the pieces, it is needless to say, are not fanciful ; sets, of Indian chess-men exist, and very beautiful they are, too. The rajah in his howdah, mounted on an elephant—his strongest piece, the elephant, being of somewhat smaller stature; then comes the heavy war-horse, richly caparisoned, with a rider ; and the ship, something between a gondola and a Chinese sampan ; lastly, the foot-soldiers squat with Oriental resigna- tion on their pedestals. We have a capital photograph of the pieces set for play, and a really beautiful one of an exquisitely carved Indian chess-board. Mr. Falkener, by-the-way, could hear of no Indian who played " Chaturanga." to-day.
Chinese chess must claim our admiration by the manner in which the conception of a military game has been elaborated so as to conform with the realities of warfare. The board is divided by an imaginary river, which the elephant and the king may not cross. The pieces are placed on the intersections of the lines, not on the spaces. The king, or general, with his two guards, must keep to a square of nine points in the centre of his side, with diagonal lines from corner to corner, along which the guards may move, the king moving only forward, or sideways, or backwards ; other pieces may enter this fortress and pass through it. The most characteristic piece of Chinese chess, however, is the cannon, which, though like our castle, cannot move without jumping over a piece, so that not only is its attack most formidable and unexpected, but it must be supported, else it is helpless. Thus the cannon, if opposite to the king, even if there be no intervening piece, gives latent check ; and, of course, a piece inserted in the line of fire does not better matters. " The prettiest checkmate," says Mr.
Falkener, " is with two cannons in line." Here the second cannon gives check, and the king must move, for if another piece be inserted, the first cannon gives check. Now, we may allow that if the elephant is not supposed to cross the river, no more should the cannon, for the first-named is really the more capable 'of the feat ; but the genius of the piece lies in its imitation of cannon in warfare —its range, the firing over bodies of troops, and its liability to capture. Chess is the greatest of all games, and surely nothing makes the truism plainer than the invention of a piece that shall so closely resemble its prototype in actual circumstances.
Japanese chess is too complicated for us to describe. Not only are there a great number of pieces and moves, but their value changes ; for instance, on reaching the enemy's camp, promotion ensues, and captured pieces are re-entered under various conditions. In fact, the game demands, if that were possible, more undivided attention than European chess ; and in its provisions and contingences, especially the last, is strictly military. The pieces, agreeable to the enrolling of prisoners, are all of one colour. Chess has always held con- siderable position in Japan. It flourished during the Sh6gunate, and again, after the Revolution, is being revived. A. grand tourney was held last year at Tokio, and now that the Daimios are no longer the power they were, perhaps they will amuse themselves with " Shio-G-hi," i.e., "The General's Game."
The Burmese game seems to be rather a heavy variety of chess, the peculiarity of it being that a pawn "queens " when it strikes an imaginary diagonal line drawn from the player's left-hand corner to the right-hand corner in front of him (his opponent's left-hand corner). The pieces are massed on the player's right hand, but the three privileged pawns—there are only three allowed to " queen "—can only " queen " when the queen has been taken. We should say here that no piece equivalent to our queen really exists in Eastern chess, the most powerful piece being equivalent to our rook, or castle. In the Burmese game, the privilege of translation con- fers no higher rank on a piece than that of " chekoy "—called queen in European equivalence by virtue of its being unique— a piece possessing scarcely more power than a pawn. The usual move of the piece called "queen" in all Oriental varieties of chess is one square diagonally, and it is never one of the superior pieces. Both in Burmese and in Siamese chess, the piece called by Mr. Falkener the " bishop " has a somewhat limited move —one square diagonally every way, and one straightforward, in which it may not take. Turkish chess is remarkable only for the embroidered board it is played upon, and the shape of the pieces; it is but a variant of European chess. We have yet to speak of Tamerlane's chess, or " great chess," which is played on a board of one hundred and twelve squares, and numbers twenty-eight pieces. The shape of the board is eleven by ten squares, and there is an extra square at the right-band extremity of each player's back line, where, when pressed, the shah can retreat and be safe, except, of course, from stalemate. There are three classes of pieces, those with diagonal, straight, and mixed moves, and the strongest pieces occupy the second row, the shah being in the middle, the remainder on alternate spaces behind in the back row, and eleven pawns filling up the third and front row. If the Chinese game possesses the most ingenious of pieces in the cannon, or catapult, "great chess" possesses the most powerful one, the giraffe. The move of this piece—one square straight and any number diagonal, or one diagonal and any number straight—is really enough to upset the mental balance of the average chess-player. At the beginning of a game it may, like a quick-firing gun, be considered as " jammed ;" but, as the board is thinned, its execution increases, till it may be considered a match for a castle and a bishop. With this power- ful development of chess, we may conclude varieties of chess.
The Chinese and Japanese " Game of Enclosing " is played on a " go-bang " board, on the lines, and each player tries to
form camps of counters all one colour, taking care—lest be be surrounded—to keep an " eye " open, otherwise his pieces become his adversary's when completely closed in.
The last game we venture to remind our readers of, is the Indian "Pachisi," played on a board in the form of a cross, and from which the game is taken, though not acknowledged to be so ; there are differences, it is true, but the essentials of the games are alike. " Pachisi " is still popular in India, and the former Emperors of India conducted the game in " Pachisi" courts, with slaves for pieces—not, it is to be hoped, in the grim and callous fashion that certain Indian potentates were rumoured to play living chess.
Every one interested in chess and draughts and kindred games owes Mr. Falkener a debt of gratitude for his Oriental studies of games, and especially for his courageous attempt to reconstruct such as, we may truthfully say, are covered with the Pyramids. The photographs of the Oriental chess men and boards are beautiful examples of their kind.
Previous page
