Discovering the Origins of Chess [antikvár]

INTRODUCTIONThe origin of the modem game of chess has not been proved as yet with rehcs of the age. No one can produce a set of chess pieces -"together with users instructions" - which demonstrably belongs to the period of its invention."The history of the game of chess could be traced back to A.D. 500. According to researches, it began its conquest in India and first reached the Persians. In India it was known as a game of four - chaturanga -, namely, each of the two players who belonged together conducted independently eight chess-pieces. In Persia it has been abready changed and became popular as a game of two known as satranj. In Satranj the King was referred to as shah, word that stands at the origin of its name.In Europe the Arabs were the first who brought and spread the original Persian satranj. Before long, the game of chess became universally known in Spain by 1497 and in Italy by 1597. In Hungary it became first known in 1557 in the court of Tamás Nádasdi (1498-1562), the first Protestant palatine of Himgary. In 1557, Oliver Jerome-Hieronymus of Bergamia wishing to compete with the then best Hungarian chess player. Tamás Batthyány (1486-1566), came to Hungary and stayed in Üie court of Ferenc Nádasdy." (Révai Nagy Lexikona, vol. XVI., Budapest, 1924, pg. 493)However, the origin of chess can be traced back to an age several thousand years prior to this period.In this book, we make an attempt to discover the origin of the game of chess by analjtical methods, based on the historical documents at our disposal.The documents serving the discovering of the origins of chess are the open air monuments of Egypt', or are to be found in the Egyptian Museum of Cairo^, in the monuments of museums all over the world^, as well as in the Bible'^.As well known, the men of Israel took not only some gold pots during