Chess History and ReminiscencesBird, H. E. (Henry Edward)
History
Chess History and Reminiscences
Bird, H. E. (Henry Edward)
Chess
"The King moves one square in all directions; the Pawn moves
one square straightforward, but smites an enemy through either
angle, in advance; the Elephant, O Prince of many lands, moves,
(so far as his path is clear), In the direction of the four
cardinal points, according to his own pleasure. The Horse moves
over the three squares in an oblique direction; and the Ship, O
Yudhisthira, moves two squares diagonally."
NOTE. The Elephant had the same move as our Rook has, the Horse
the same as our Knight. The ship had two clear moves diagonally
(a limited form of our Bishop). The King one square in all
directions the same as now. The Pawn one square straightforward.
There was no Queen in the Chaturanga, but a piece, with a one
square move, existed in the two handed modified Chatrang. The
Queen, of present powers is first mentioned in the game at the
end of the 15th century, when the works of the Spanish writers
Lucena and Vicenz appeared in 1495.
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About two thousand six hundred years are supposed to have
elapsed between the time of King Pandu, Prince Yudhisthira,
Vyasa, and the records of the ancient Chaturanga, to the days of
Alexander the Great, to which period the references concerning
chess and the Indian Kings contained in Eastern accounts,
Firdausi's Persian Shahnama and the Asiatic Society's M.S.
presented to them by Major Price, relate.
NOTE. The Shahnama, it is recorded, occupied thirty years in its
preparation and contains one hundred and twenty thousand verses.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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