CHESS ((IF. etches, Fr. pl. (ehecs, from It. searehi. Sled. Lat. scam, from Pers. shrill, king). The origin of this, the most intellectual of all games of skill, has been much disputed; but it is safe to say that under the Sanskrit name of ehaturanga, consisting of four members, a game essentially the same as modern chess was played in Hindustan in very remote ages. :Marked 'met., of its early siatie origin may still be discerned in its nomenclature and other char acteristics. From Hindustan. chess spread into Persia, and into Arabia. The Arabs, it would appear, introdueed it into Spain in the Eighth Century: though it may have been im ported still earlier into Constantinople and prob ably some ether cities of eastern Europe. An interesting I'Vfcrence to it occurs in the Fri.n•h poem of "Iluon de Bordeaux" (c.1450), which supplied Shakespeare with some of the dramatis persona. of his .1/idsammer A ight's nrcam. This connection is especially noteworthy because of the probability that it also suggested to him the introduet ion of Ferdinand and :Miranda playing at chess in the Tempest,- although it is likely that he was acquainted with the fact that during his own lifetime Naples, the eonntry of Ferdinand, was the centre of European chess playing, and skill in the game temporarily reached a height which it never att5ined again until the middle of the Eighteenth Century, when Philidor A. panican) became famous all over :Europe.
Itenjamin Franklin was the first. American to bring the game into prominence, both as a player and a writer: but its practice was confined to a few until the early part of the Nineteenth Century. IIv 1857 there were sufficient chess clubs to justify a national congress, at which Paul Alorphy of New Orleans won the chamidon was such a phenomenal player that next :Near be was sent to Europe, and there he carried ffir all the From that time chess has had a settled place among our pastimes, and Americans, in all the phases of the game, in international contests, have held a high place.
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 chat aranga, from cha tun 'four,' and saga, 'a member' or 'component part.' The mune shut ran), used by the Persians
and Arabs, is a corruption of the Sanskrit. The English, French. and other European names art' derived from the Persian term shah. 'king.' ek, the warning when the king is in danger, is but another form of shah ; in fact, 'king' is sometimes used for 'cheek,' and in l;(.1111:111 $,rhach is both the name of the game and the term of warning. The term rook is from the Sanskrit roka, Persian rukh, meaning a ship or chariot ; pawn is said to be from peon, an at tendant or foot soldier.
The •hess-lmard is 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 placing the thirty-two pieces with which the game is played upon the board, 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 ac•mnpanying diagram will best explain the name, form, and place of each man at the commencement of the game.
The superior officers occupying the first row on each side are called pieces: the inferior men, all alike, standing on the row immediately in front of the pieces. are called patens. Their moves and powers, along with the peculiar terms used in chess, may be briefly described as follows: pawn, at his first move, may advance either one or two squares. straightforward; but after having once moved. he can only advance a single square at a time. In capturing an adverse piece, however. a pawn meows either right or left ; but the pawn never moves backward. On arriving at an eighth square, or the extreme line of the board, a pawn may be exchanged for any piece his owner chooses to call for. except a king. so that a player may have several queens on the board at once. if, on moving two squares, a pa•i pass by an ad verse pawn which has arrived at the tifth line, the advanced adverse pawn may take the other in passing in exactly the same manner as if the latter had moved hut one square.