Chess in early literature

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Chess in early literature

One of the most common ways for chess historians to trace when the board game

Board game

File:Game_of_life_board.jpgA board game is a game in which counters or pieces that are placed on, removed from, or moved across a "board" . As do other form of entertainment, board games can represent nearly any subject....
chess

Chess

Chess is a recreational and competitive game played between two Player . Sometimes called Western chess or international chess to distinguish it from History of chess and other chess variants, the current form of the game emerged in Southern Europe during the second half of the 15th century after evolving from similar, much older...
entered a country is to look at the literature of that country. Although due to the names associated with chess sometimes being used for more than one game (for instance Xiang-qi in China

China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
and Tables in England

England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
), the only certain reference to chess is often several hundred years later than uncertain earlier references. The following list contains the earliest references to chess or chess-like games.

Byzantium
a.

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One of the most common ways for chess historians to trace when the board game

Board game

Chess

China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
and Tables in England

England

Byzantium

a. 923 - at-Tabari

Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari

Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari was one of the earliest, most prominent and famous Persian people historian and tafsir,who wrote exclusively in Arabic , most famous for his History of the Prophets and Kings and Tafsir al-Tabari....
's Kitab akhbar ar-rusul wal-muluk (note the work is an Arabic work, no early Greek works are known)

China

79 BC - 8 BC - lifetime of Liu Xiang ? ?, who wrote Shuo yuan, a compilation of early Confucian anecdotes: "Do you still feel like playing Xiangqi and dancing?" Xiangqi

Xiangqi

Xiangqi is a two-player China board game in the same family as Chess, chaturanga, shogi and janggi. The present-day form of Xiangqi originated in China and is therefore commonly called Chinese chess in English language....
is the name of the chess variant

Chess variant

A chess variant is a game derived from, related to or similar to chess in at least one respect. The difference from chess can include one or more of the following:...
played in China. However, it was also the name of two other games. (Sources: , and )

c. 900 AD - Huan Kwai Lu ('Book of Marvels') Describes the rules of Xiangqi.

England

c. 1180 - Alexander Neckam
Alexander Neckam

Alexander Neckam was an England scholar and teacher....
's De Natura Rerum (note that it is thought that Neckam may have learnt of chess in Italy, not in England)

France

a. 1127 - A song of Guilhem IX Count of Poitiers and Duke of Aquitaine.

Germany

c. 1070 - Ruodlieb thought to be written by a monk near Tegernsee
Tegernsee

Tegernsee is a spa town in Bavaria, Germany, which takes its name from the Tegernsee on which it stands.It lies within the Miesbach district about 50km south of Munich and within the Bavarian Alps....
.

India
c. 600 AD - Subandhu's Vasavadatta
The time of the rains played its game with frogs for chessmen which yellow and green in color, as if mottled by lac, leapt up on the black field squares.

c. 625 - Banabhatta
Banabhatta

Ba?abha??a also known as Ba?a was a Sanskrit language scholar and poet of India. He was the Asthana Kavi in the court of King Harshavardhana, who reigned in the years c....
's Harsha Charitha
Harsha Charitha

The Harshacharita , "The Deeds of ", is the biography of Indian Emperor Harsha by Banabhatta, also known as Bana, who was a Sanskrit writer of 7th century in India....
Under this king only bees quarrel in collecting dews, the only feet cut off are those in meter, only chess boards teach the positions of the Chaturanga
Chaturanga

! colspan="2" bgcolor=#ccccff | Chaturanga pieces|-| || Raja |-| || Mantri or Senapati |-| || Iratham |-| || Yaanei |-| || Kutharei |-...
.

c. 1030 - Al-Biruni
Al-Biruni

, often known as 'Alberuni', 'Al Beruni' or variants, was a Persian people polymath scholar of the 11th century.He was a Islamic science and Islamic physics, an Anthropology and Comparative sociology, an Islamic astronomy and Alchemy and chemistry in Islam, a critic of Alchemy and chemistry in Islam and Islamic astrology, an encyc...
's India describes the game of Chaturaji
Chaturaji

Chaturaji is a four player version of Chaturanga. It was first described in detail circa 1030 by Biruni in his India book. Originally, this was a game of chance: the pieces to be moved were decided by rolling two dice....
.

1148 - Kalhana's Rajatarangini (translated by MA Stein, 1900) The King, though he had taken two kings (Lothana and Vigraharaja) was helpless and perplexed about the attack on the remaining one, just as a player of chess (who has taken two Kings and is perplexed about taking a third).

Italy
c. 1061 or 1062 - Letter from Petrus Damiani (Cardinal Bishop of Ostia) to the Pope-elect Alexander II
Pope Alexander II

Alexander II , born Anselmo da Baggio, was Pope from 1061 to 1073.He was born in Milan. As bishop of Lucca he had been an energetic coadjutor with Pope Gregory VII in endeavouring to suppress simony, and to enforce the clerical celibacy....
and the Archdeacon Hildebrand
Pope Gregory VII

Pope Saint Gregory VII , born Hildebrand of Soana , was papacy from April 22, 1073, until his death. One of the great reforming popes, he is perhaps best known for the part he played in the Investiture Controversy, his dispute with Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor affirming the primacy of the papal authority and the new canon law governing...
. This letter is dated by the reference to Alexander as "Pope-elect".

Persia

c. 600 - Karnamak-i-Artakhshatr-i-Papakan Artakhshir did this, and by God's help he became doughtier and more skilled than them all in ball-play, in horsemanship, in chess, in hunting and in all other accomplishments.
(It is fairly certain chess is meant due to the word Chatrang
Shatranj

Shatranj ????????? is an old form of chess, which came from India to Persia and has been popular in Persia and the Middle East for almost 1000 years....
being used).

Russia

13th century - Kormchaya Kniga, a set of church laws.

Spain

c. 1009 - castrensian will of Ermengaud I (Count of Urgel) I order you, my executors, to give . . . these my chessmen to the convent of St. Giles, for the work of the church.

Sumatra

c. 1620 - Sejarah Malayu

Now this Tan Bahra was a very skillful chessplayer, and one that was unequalled at the game in that age, and he played at chess with the men of Malacca.

Switzerland

c. 997 - Versus de scachis

Versus de scachis

Versus de scachis is a Medieval Latin poem about chess. It is found on two manuscripts from Einsiedeln: MS Einsidlensis 365 and MS Einsidlensis 309....
in manuscript 319 at Stiftsbibliothek Einsiedeln

Einsiedeln Abbey

Einsiedeln is a Benedictine Order monastery in Einsiedeln, Switzerland, in the Canton of Schwyz, Switzerland, dedicated to Our Lady of the Hermits, that title being derived from the circumstances of its foundation, from which the name Einsiedeln is also said to have originated....
.