Scarcely
a year passes that does not add something to our knowledge of the
history of the royal game; and among the latest additions, the able
paper by Mr Bland, published in the _Journal of the Royal Asiatic
Society_, is not the least deserving of notice. It contains many
curious particulars and remarks, interspersed in its dry and technical
narrative, sufficient to form a page or two of pleasant reading for
those--and they are not few--to whom chess is interesting.
We must premise that Mr Bland takes three but little-known Oriental
manuscripts as the groundwork of his observations; one of them, in the
Persian character, is said to be 'probably unique,' though,
unfortunately, very imperfect. It bears no date or author's name,
these being lost with the missing portions, but the treatise itself
contains internal evidence of very high antiquity. The author, whoever
he was, tells us that he had travelled much through Persia and the
adjacent countries, from the age of fifteen until the middle period of
life, during which he gained the knowledge and experience which
enabled him to write his book. Besides which, he measured his strength
with many masters of the art of chess-playing, adding on each occasion
to his reputation as a conqueror: 'and whereas,' as he relates, 'the
greater number of professors were deficient in the art of playing
without looking at the board, I myself played so against four
adversaries at once, and at the same time against another opponent in
the usual manner, and, by divine favour, won all the games.
Pages:
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63