CHESS (Fr. echees, Ger. schachl. The origin of this, the most purely intellectual of all games of skill, has been much disputed; thus much may now be considered as cer tain, that, under the Sanscrit name of chaturanga, a game, essentially the same as mod ern C., was played in Hindustan nearly 5,000 years ago. In its gradual diffusion through the world in succeeding ages, the game has undergone many alterations and modifica tions, both in nature and in name; but marked traces of its early Asiatic origin and descent are still discerned by the learned in its nomenclature and other characteristics. From Hindustan, C. spread into Persia, and thence into Arabia. The Arabs, it would appear, in the 8th c., introduced the game into Spain and the rest of western Europe; and in England, chess-play seems to have been known prior to the Norman conquest. Into Constantinople, and probably some other cities of eastern Europe, the game may have been imported from Persia at a period earlier than its Moorish conveyance into Spain.
The original Hindu game was played on a board of sixty-four squares, as now, but by four persons, two being allied against two, as in whist. Hence the name chaturanga, from chatar, and anger, member" or "component part." The name skatranj, used by the Persians and Arabs, is a corruption of the Sanscrit. The English, French, and other European names are derived from the Persian term shah, "king." Check, the warning when the king is in danger, is but another form of shah.; in fact, " king" is sometimes used for "check," and in German schaeh is both the name of the game and the term of warning. The term rook is from the Sans, roka, Pers. rukh, meaning a ship
or chariot; pawn is said to be from peon, an attendant, or foot-soldier.
The books written upon C. " would form a tolerably large library." Of works on the antiquities of the subject, we may mention Dr. D. Forbes's History of Chess (Loud. 1860). The best modern practical works on the art of chess-play are the Chessplayer's Hand book; C. Praxis; and Chess: Theory and Practice, by Staunton; Morphy's Games at C., edited by Lowenthal; Jaenisch's Treatise on the Openings, translated by Walker; and Horwitz and Kling's Collection of End-games. The subject is also pretty fully treated in Chambers's Information for the People, "In-door Amusements." The game of C. is played upon a square board marked out into sixty-four square divisions, which are colored alternately black and white, in order the more clearly to determine and denote the respective movements of the several pieces. In the board for play, each player must always have a white corner square at his right hand. There are two sets of pieces, of opposite colors, of sixteen men each, and of various powers according to their rank. These sets of men are arrayed opposite to each other, and attack, defend, and capture, like hostile armies. The accompanying diagram will host explain the name, form, and place of each man at the commencement of the game: