The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1913-07-29
CURIOSITIES OF CHESS.
Game Was Invented by the Greeks
During the Siege OF Troy.

TIE origin of chess is the subject OF
an extensive literature. The game was
known in exceedingly ancient times.
both in China and India. The Cyclic
paedia of the Arts and Sciences, pub
lished in 1856, quantity says OF chess:
IN China it makes a considerable part
of the education of their females, and
seems to take the place of dancing
among US. The Hindu game, chatu-
ranga, was played by four persons,
two being allied against two, as in
whist or bridge The derivation of the
word is fran chatur, four and anga,
a member The word chaturanga be-
came modified on its journey west
ward, and subsequently by progressive
changes turned to; thus giving US the
.English check leading to the import
amt and quite different word 'exche-
Quer.'
It may come as a surprise to many
earnest chess players to hear that the
ancient four-handed version of the
game is still alive and flourishing. The
Four-Handed Chess Club of London is
now it's chief home, though there are
coteries of players at the Universities
of Oxford and Cambridge, The Four
Handed Chess Club numbers upward
of 20 members, and never Tuesday
evening passes without an attendance
sufficient to make several sets. Each
set plays at board of huge size, laid
out in the form of a Maltese cross.
The board has $50 squares, and on
these squares are ranged the "a chess
men (white, black, yellow and red),
which are to be exchanged in battle.
At the tables sit quartettes Of players
partners opposite each other as in
card game and over all, under the
soft light of the overchanging glow
lamps, reigns a solemn silence among
both players and spectators, for need
less to say, the game is an exceeding
ly intricate one.
A number of distinguished mathe-
maticians have been players of four
handed chess. Stranger forms OF
chess, however, are known to the di-
lettanti, who wrote an exhaustive
treatise on Chess Eccentricities," de-
scribes chess for three persons, for six
and for eight; "round chess" (played
on circular board for two, three or
four players; and different modes OF
nlaying two-handed chess on square,
oblong and cruciform boards
All over the world there are count
less variations of the game of chess.
In a great many games, the board has
100 squares, 10 by 10. In the so=called
Prussian national game the board has
120 squares. In the Duke Of Rutland's
game, played in the eighteenth centu-
~, board was IA squares in breadth
and 10 in height. In Alfonso the
Tenth's game, played at Seville n the
thirteenth century, the board was IA
squares, IL each way. In the older
Turkish game the board had l69
squares, 13 by 13. Three-handed chess
is described by a Neapolitan author
writing in 1922. A Mr.. Cox, who traV-
eled in Russia about the end of the
eighteenth century, saw four-handed
chess universally played there then,
But four-handed chess would appear
to date still further back, if we are to
believe Les Oeuvres de Serasin (l6S5).
which States that it was invented by
Palamdes ''to prevent the Greclans
from becoming tired of themselves
during the siege of Troy."-Harper's
Weekly.