The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1876-03-26
CHESS.

have been debarred by the force of circum
stances from their natural and primary ex
preston in the world of reality. In simila
manner it may be said of chess, that it is tn
mode in which the intellectual Temperament
of military strategist expresses itself wher
debarred by circumstance from the opportu
nifty of exercising itself in its primary manner
of directing the movemente of armies. 4
chess player is, if we may SO put it, one-third
of general A great general must have three
qualities in strong development - bodily
vigor, strength of nerve, and strength OF in.
tellect A great chess-pleyer need not have
bodily vigor at all; and though no man can
quite get along without nervous power,
this quality is much less needful, we should
say, tor chess-player than for q whist-player.
For it is the unforeseen strokes of chance that
try the nerves most keenly; and chance has a
large field in whist, but very small field in
chess. But intellectual strength in its highest
development can find ample room and scope
for itself within the limits Of the chess-board.
Indeed, if we except the higher mathematics,
we hardly know any form Of human effort
which equals chess as q test and measure of
pure braln-power. 1T is one of the very few
EN- ployments in which the human under
standing is exercised in q simple unadultera-
ted form, and physical and moral qualities
sink into q subordinate position. 1t is OF
course apparent from this that serious labor
is needed for q man to become great chess
player; and while the friends of chess have
argued from this that it ought to be elevated
to the rank Of science, its enemies have
argued that at any rate it must be excluded
from the sphere of amusements.
But, to our mind, neither of these esti-
mates is right Chess is intrinsically an
amusement, relaxation; it is a diversion OF
the mind from the cares and troubles of life;
it may sometimes happen, but it is an abso-
lutely unnecessary consequence, that it should
exhaust the mind which is exercised on it.
The mental toll of chess player like the
bodily toll Of cricket-plsyer, is within due
limits a source of refreshment and. not of
fatigue. The real value of chess, as of all
amusements, lies in its supplying food for
certain faculties which are capable of being
exercised at times when the other faculties
need repose. Moral tension is put off tor a
season, and the brain is improved. On the
other hand, to reckon chess among the sci
ences is to forget that every science is link
in the great chain of universal knowledge, and
is connected by thousand subtle ties with
other links of that chain. This is emphai-
cally not true of chess; its value ia sim ply in
its reflex, not in its direct results; an evident
gap sewers it from the world of reality.
full treatise on this game, entitled "Chess:
Theory and Practice" by the late MI. Howard
Staunton, we'll known in his day as the first
of English, and almost of European, players
OF such work it is almost needless to say
that it brings the student of chess up to the
latest discoveries in the theory of the game
according to the estimate of the most compe-
tent judges. 1t is also noticeable for an his
torical account of the rise and development
OF chess, characterized ~ he greater full ness
than any similar account that we mber
to have seen. Chess, according to Mr.. Staun-
ton, has been practiced for a length of time,
and over q portion Of the earth's surface,
quite without parallel in the case Of any other
game, and almost unrivaled in the case of any
human art whatever. DR.. Forbes, we are told,
"has discovered in Hindoo literature, dating
three thousand years before the Christian
epoch, the description OF game which mani
testify represents, in primitive form, the
modern game of chess"
1t has been played from time immemorial,
not only among the H ndoos, but among the
Arabs, Persians, and Chinese. "Under the
celebrated Caliphs of Bagdad our old "a.
vorite Hsroun-ai- Raschid among the rest
"the game fourished to q degree almost I'M
exampled." Among great conquerors, Timur
was an enthusiast for chess, and bestowed
conspicuous honor upon the players of it.
The chessmen of Charlemagne are still pre-
served in the abbey Of st. Denis. Much
that is interesting" remarks Mr.. Staunton,
"might be said it there were space enough in
this sketch to say it, on the present condition
of the game in Abyssinia, Syria, Arabia,
Egypt, Persia, Hindo stan, the islands Of the
Pacific, China and other parts of Asia"
1t may be supposed that within these wide
limits Of space and time some variations have
taken place in the manner of playing; these
are duly noticed by Mr.. Staunton, and prob
lens illustrative OF them are given from the
Arabic and Persian authorities; but, on the
whole, they are very slight. Let it be consi-
dered what vast differences have taken place
in the development of almost every other pur-
suit or faculty of man during much smaller
intervals-in language, music, architecture
and the phenomenon in question will appear
a curious one. Astory illustrative Of one of the
Persian problems I'm which the Bishop can
move only to the third square along the
diagonal in any direction, but can spring over
an intervening piece-a custom still pre-
served in Abyssinia) is quoted by Mr.. Staun.
ton, and is SO pretty a one that we reproduce
it here:
Two Persian princes were playing at chess,
and the one who had the white men offered his
favorite wife, Dilaram, az his stake upon the
game. The contest had near reached it's end,
when the player who had risked the lady on the
issue was threatened with checkmate next move,
urless he could find some remedy. As he hest
tated in the agony ct despair, Dilaram, who had
eagerly watched the combat from behind the
screen OF gauze which separated male from f.
male in Eastern households, cfied out, "Sacri-
flee, 0 Prince, your Rocks, and save Dilaram
forward with your Bishop and your Pawn, and
with the Knight deal DEATH" The position which
illustrates this favOrite story is still known
throughout the East as Dilaram's Mate.
The position in question is one Of much
ingenuity, though not equal in difficulty to
the generality of modern problems. 1t is
that the military affinities of chess,
on which we have commented, appear not
only in the early legends as to the invention
OF the game (Which represent it as invented to
amuse the tedium Of besieged monarch, or
Of soldiers engaged in difficult march), but
in the names OF the pieces The King and
the knight speak for themselves; the Queen
was originally the Farzin, the Kings coun-
sellor, and received her present appellation
nearly elavan hundrad vaars 400 from the