Chess is evil, says Saudi Arabia’s grand mufti | New York Post Chess is evil, says Saudi Arabia’s grand mufti Men playing chess on the seafront in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Getty Images More On: World Chess Championship pits model against Putin's puppet Chess makes people hate each other, according to the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia. “The game of chess is a waste of time and an opportunity to squander money,” said Sheikh Abdulaziz Bin Abdullah, according to Middleeasteye.net . “It causes enmity and hatred between people,” he declared. He compared the game to the pre-Islamic Arabian game of maisir – which is forbidden by the Koran – in which players shoot arrows to win camel meat. Abdullah, who is considered the most powerful Sunni religious figure in Saudi Arabia, was answering a question during his show, “With His Eminence the Mufti.” The clip gained traction Thursday, but is believed to have been first broadcast in 2014. Saudi Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Bin AbdullahGetty Images Chess has not been banned in the country because the mufti’s pronouncements, though authoritative, do not carry the force of law.

The ancient game is thought to have originated in India in the 6th century. British chess grandmaster Nigel Short told the BBC that forbidding chess in Saudi Arabia would be a “great tragedy.” “I don’t consider chess to be a threat to society. It is not something that is so depraved as to corrupt morals,” he said. “Even Ayatollah Khomeini came to the conclusion that he’d gone too far and repealed his own ban,” he said, referring to Iran’s then supreme leader. Share this: Chess History Chess History Origins of chess Many countries claim to have invented the chess game in some incipient form. The most commonly held belief is that chess originated in India, where it was called Chaturanga, which appears to have been invented in the 6th century AD. Although this is commonly believed, it is thought that Persians created a more modern version of the game after the Indians. In fact, the oldest known chess pieces have been found in excavations of ancient Persian territories. Another theory exists that chess arose from the similar game of Chinese chess, or at least a predecessor thereof, existing in China since the 2nd century BC. Joseph Needham and David Li are two of many scholars who have favored this theory.

Chess eventually spread westward to Europe and eastward as far as Japan, spawning variants as it went. One theory suggests that it migrated from India to Persia, where its terminology was translated into Persian, and its name changed to chatrang. The entrance of chess into Europe, notably, is marked by a massive improvement in the powers of the queen. The oldest known texts describing chess seem to indicate a bi-directional spread from the Persian empire. In fact, the oldest known reference points to Shah Ardashir as being a master of the game, his rule was from 224 - 241 AD. This would indicate that chess was invented some time before his rule. From Persia it entered the Islamic world, where the names of its pieces largely remained in their Persian forms in early Islamic times. Its name became shatranj, which continued in Spanish as ajedrez and in Greek as zatrikion, but in most of Europe was replaced by versions of the Persian word shah = "king".

There is a theory that this name replacement happened because, before the game of chess came to Europe, merchants coming to Europe brought ornamental chess kings as curiosities and with them their name shah, which Europeans mispronounced in various ways. * Checkmate: This is the English rendition of shah mat, which is Persian for "the king is finished". * Rook: From the Persian rukh, which means "chariot", but also means "cheek" (part of the face). The piece resembles a siege tower. It is also believed that it was named after the mythical Persian bird of great power called the roc. In India, the piece is more popularly called haathi, which means "elephant". * Bishop. From the Persian pil means "the elephant", but in Europe and the western part of the Islamic world people knew little or nothing about elephants, and the name of the chessman entered Western Europe as Latin alfinus and similar, a word with no other meaning (in Spanish, for example, it evolved to the name "alfil"). This word "alfil" is actually the Arabic for "elephant" hence the Spanish word would most certainly have been taken from the Islamic provinces of Spain.

The English name "bishop" is a rename inspired by the conventional shape of the piece. In Russia, the piece is, however, known as "elephant". In the Indian lingo however, the piece is more popularly known as oont = "camel". * Queen. Persian farzin = "vizier" became Arabic firzan, which entered western European languages as forms such as alfferza, fers, etc but was later replaced by "queen". Incidentally, the Indian equivalent of "queen", rani is used for the piece by Indians. The game spread throughout the Islamic world after the Muslim conquest of Persia. Chess eventually reached Russia via Mongolia, where it was played at the beginning of the 7th century. It was introduced into Spain by the Moors in the 10th century, and described in a famous 13th century manuscript covering chess, backgammon, and dice named the Libro de los juegos. Chess also found its way across Siberia into Alaska.

Modern chess Early on, the pieces in European chess had limited movement; bishops could only move by jumping exactly two spaces diagonally (similar to the elephant in xiangqi), the queen could move only one space diagonally, pawns could not move two spaces on their first move, and there was no castling. By the end of the 15th century, the modern rules for the basic moves had been adopted from Italy: pawns gained the option of moving two squares on their first move and the en passant capture therewith, bishops acquired their modern move, and the queen was made the most powerful piece; consequently modern chess was referred to as "Queen's Chess" or "Mad Queen Chess". The game in Europe since that time has been almost the same as is played today. The current rules were finalized in the early 19th century, except for the exact conditions for a draw. The most popular piece design, the "Staunton" set, was created by Nathaniel Cook in 1849, endorsed by Howard Staunton, a leading player of the time, and officially adopted by Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) in 1924.

Chess's international governing body is FIDE, which has presided over the world championship matches for decades. Most countries of the world have a national chess organization as well. Although chess is not an Olympic sport, it has its own Olympiad, held every two years as a team event. History of Chess SOME IMPORTANT EVENTS AND NAMES IN CHESS The game of chess is thought to have originated in what is now northern India or Afganistan sometime before 6OO AD: the oldest written references to chess date from then, but there are unverified claims that chess existed as early as 100 AD. The KING at the right is part of a set of pieces dating from about 1200 AD found in a robbers' stash on the Isle of Lewis, northeast of Scotland. See NY Times article on the Isle of Lewis chess pieces Interest in chess followed early trade routes out of India. One variation of chess (called Shogi) is now popular in Japan; another variation is played in China. Many local variations in chess rules persist even today in isolated rural areas, for example in India.

The variation familiar to Europeans and Americans traveled through Iran (Persia) to the main commercial centers of Italy and Spain by about 1000 AD. A bit later, sea-faring Vikings carried the game into Scandinavia and Iceland. By 1100-1200 AD, the game became known in central Europe, and was well-established across all of Europe by 1400 AD, with the game rules which we use today. However, Russia's dominance of chess is recent, dating from the communist revolution of 1917, after which government schools for talented chess players were established. The modern design of chess pieces, such as those offered for sale from USCF at the beginning of this semester, bears the name Staunton, who was an English master in the mid-18OO's. It is now used in all tournaments worldwide. Paul Morphy The first international chess tournament was the London Tourney of 1851, won by Adolf Anderssen of Germany, who then became known UNOFFICIALLY as the world's best chess player, though he did not receive any award or title.

Bobby Fischer, age 14 The first top-ranked American-born chess player was Paul Morphy, of Irish ancestry, who lived in the civil war era. He travelled to Europe in the 185O's, beating all challengers, including Adolf Anderssen. However, the English champion of the time (Staunton) refused to play, so Morphy never became a world chess champ. The first OFFICIAL championship chess tournament was played in 1866, also in London, with sandclocks to restrict the length of a game. This tournament was won by Steinitz, a Bohemian (Czechoslovakian) Jew, who then became the world's first OFFICIAL chess champion, holding this title until 1894. Emanuel Lasker, an American born in Germany, also Jewish, became champion by defeating Steinitz, remaining champion until 1921, at which time Jose Capablanca, a Cuban, took the title until 1927. Many people today consider Capablanca as one of the top 3 chess players who ever lived, the others being Morphy and Bobby Fischer.

Shown at the right at about age 14, when he became US champion, Fischer was the first native-born U.S. citizen to have held the title of World Chess Champ. However. Fischer irritated the US government in 1972 by playing another former world champion (Boris Spassky) in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, and his US passport was revoked. Eventually, Fischer was granted citizenship in Iceland, where he died in 2008. Anatoly Karpov, Gary Kasparov: London, 1984 Magnus Carlsen: 2010 Since 1927, many top-ranked chess players of the last 50 yearshave been citizens of the former USSR, and include: Tal, Alekhine, Petrosian, Spassky, Smyslov, Anatoli Karpov, and Gary Kasparov (last two at right). A dispute over tournament procedures between Kasparov and the international chess organization F.I.D.E. resulted effectively in TWO World co-champions: Karpov and Kasparov. American Ben Franklin was a well-known but not particularly good chess player.

Recently, however, Magnus Carlsen of Norway (at the left) has won the F.I.D.E. championship and is seen by most as the world's chess champ. Our guest lecturer (probably Prof. Drucker of Math) will discuss these items and others. The origin of Chess Los Altos, California T he classical research about the origin of Chess concentrated on investigating written and archaeological evidence resulting in opinions about Indian/Persian 1 or Chinese origin of the game. The available evidence was, however, not sufficient for a convincing theory. So the question about the origin of Chess still has to be considered open. Some speculations assumed military, mathematical, or divinification models as the basis for the game. Most scholars of Chess history do, however, agree that the relationships to these models showed after Chess already existed. Another idea, which was part of some theories, was the assumption that Chess, with all its present complexity, was invented by a single person. But this is extremely unlikely. A significant step towards the better understanding was the founding of the Initiative Group K�nigstein (IGK2) in 1991 and its seminars, in which the present Chess historians can present their research and opinions.

Its member Gerhard Josten looked for evidence in the structure of Chess. He came up with three basic unique elements:the king, the pawns, and the officers (counters, pieces). His theory is that these elements stem from different sources and are combined into present day Chess. This was supposed to be done by either Silk Road merchants, who were waiting for better weather conditions in one of the major trading places like Kashgar in today's Southwest China, or by game enthusiasts in the Kushan Empire. The Kushans had some experience with merging elements from different cultures. Josten suggests that the king and its behavior is taken from the ancient Chinese game Go, the pawns come from Indian racing games and the officers are taken from divinification or astrological methods. I have added an alternative for the astrological roots of the officer-moves with the possibility that their moves are based on the images occurring within the game of Tic-Tac-Toe. No matter which theory is valid, the importance of the Silk Road for spreading the game is undisputable. Forerunners and the Chinese Variation Board games are very ancient and can be traced back at least 4, 500 years to the first city of Ur and Egyptian paintings.

In the 19th century AD Stewart Culin created the theory that all board games had magical or religious origin. This is not evident, for instance, in the three-dimensional Tic-Tac-Toe (Mill), for which a board was engraved by Roman soldiers on the cobble streets of Old-Jerusalem. The Egyptian game Senet was clearly a religious game. It was a racing game played on a 10x3 board. There is also a version with 8 linear squares followed by 4x3, the "twenty-game". The exact rules of either are not known, but boards have been found together with half-flat sticks, the forerunners of dice. The names or meanings of the squares had to do with the stations of the way to the empire of the dead. There are numerous references to Senet in inscriptions and papyrus scrolls. The use of Senet as an Egyptian glyph gives an indication of its importance. According to the Nordic poem, The Edda, the Germanic gods spent their free time in their residence Asgard playing board games, but The Edda was not written down until the twelfth century AD.

A possible forerunner of Chess is an Indian game, known as Ashtapada, which means in Sanskrit a square board of 64 squares, 8 rows of 8 squares. It was played with dice and pieces, a race game possibly going back to the fifth century BC. Chinese records mention its introduction from India to China as early as 220 BC to 65 AD, roughly during the early Han Dynasty. The likelihood of a race-game being a forerunner of Chess is preserved in the promotion of a pawn to a piece when reaching the 8th row. Hinduism prohibits gambling. The revival of Hinduism during the Gupta Dynasty led to an enforcement of this antigambling policy in the 6th century AD. This is used as an argument by some scholars for supporting the idea of an Indian origin of Chess. It is stated that the suppression of dice forced the transformation of a race game into a strategic game. When I discussed this with some Indian historians during a visit to India, I got clarification that the gambling inhibition was local and did not apply to total India. Chinese Chess today is played on a board with 9x8 squares or 10x9 edges.

The pieces, inscribed draughtsmen, are placed on the edges and not on the squares of the 9x8 field. The use of inscribed draughtsmen instead of stand-up figures means an additional level of abstraction and would therefore speak against an origin in China. However, sources suggest that originally Chinese Chess was also played with standing figures. In the middle of the 10-row field is a "river", which was added later, meaning originally that the board was 9x9, considering the edges, or 8x8 considering the squares. The number nine has a special importance in China. Ancient Chinese regarded odd numbers as being masculine and even numbers as being feminine. Nine, the largest single-digit, odd number, was taken to mean the ultimate masculine, and was symbolic for the supreme sovereignty of the emperor. It was sometimes combined with the number five to represent imperial majesty. Tiananmen Hall is 9 bays wide and 5 bays deep. The combination 9x5 also appears on the two halves of the Chinese chessboard (after inclusion of the river).

The transfer to a 9x9 board from an 8x8 one, based on the imperial importance of the number 9 seems more likely to have happened than the other way around. Chess Pieces and Boards The oldest clearly recognizable Chess pieces have been excavated in ancient Afrasiab, today's Samarkand, in Uzbekistan. These are seven ivory pieces from 762, with some of them possibly older, meaning that they stem from the 6th to 8th century AD. It is not clear whether one of the pieces can be identified as a Queen. Otherwise, the occurrence of the 6 different pieces within a sample of seven out of the total 32 pieces is statistically surprising. The pieces today are kept in a downtown museum in Samarkand. Some other old pieces, possibly Chess pieces, are the occasionally named Chess pieces of an elephant and a zebu bull kept in Tashkent. They were excavated in Dalverzin-Tepe, an ancient citadel of the Kushan Empire now in Southern Uzbekistan, and stem from the 2nd century.

The Russian Chess history expert Linder feels that they are not Chess pieces, but belonged to a forerunner of Chess [Linder 1994]. They could mean an earlier than previously assumed existence of Chess. Second, there is a piece in the Metropolitan Museum in New York from the 6th or 7th century, bought in Baghdad around 1930, representing an elephant out of dolomite stone of 2-7/8 inch height [Gunter 1991]. An ivory piece, probably a Chess piece from the 6th century, has been excavated recently at a Byzantine palace in the ancient city of Butrint in Albania. This modifies the theory that Chess was moved to the West by the Arabs in favor of Christian/Byzantine involvement. Written Reports The oldest known Chess books or parts thereof are in Arabic, written about 850 AD. Before that, there are only incidental possible references to the existence of the game in Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, or Chinese literature, but there is no complete description of the game, nor an indication that rules had stabilized. The earliest mentions stem from around 600 AD.

Chess or Chaturanga 3 have not been mentioned in an otherwise very complete travel report by the Chinese Buddhist monk Fa Xian, who traveled through India at the beginning of the 5th century AD. The total number of Persian references to Chess from around 600 is two out of a total of five works of middle-Persian secular literature which are known to have survived from that period. Very little is known about Chess in India for about half a millennium after that. It is not clear whether the Chess mentioned by the Persian sources was a game for two or for four players, whether it was played with dice, and what moves were allowed. The conclusion by Murray [Murray 1913] and Eales [Eales 1985] is that before the 7th century, the existence of Chess in any land is not demonstrable. Eales mentions that the compiler of a 12th century Chess manuscript wrote "It is universally acknowledged that three things were produced from India:the game, the book Kalila wa Dimna (a book of literary fables) and the decimal numbers (including the Zero)." Ann C.

Gunter [Gunter 1991] reports about one of the surviving texts in Middle Persian, The Explanation of Chess and Invention of Backgammon (Wizarishn i catrang ud nihishn i new-ardashir). In a said competition between the great Sassanian ruler Khusraw I, who ruled from 531 until 579, and the Indian King Dewisharm, Dewisharm sent a Chess game to Khusraw requesting that Khusraw's wise men explain the rationale of this game. The wise man Wuzurg-Mihr explained the rationale of the game and then proceeded to a challenge of his own to the Indian ruler. This supposedly was the invention of Backgammon (called nard in nard in nard the literature), and the invention of present day dice (the numbers of which correspond to cosmological principles of the then common Persian religion, Zoroastrianism). Dice were, however, already known by the ancient Egyptians and certainly not invented as late as Khusraw I's time. It has not been possible to locate Dewisharm, and to find out which of the kingdoms that existed after the fall of the Gupta Dynasty that he ruled.

Sloan [Sloan 1985]bases his theory about Chinese Chess origin on two Chinese poems, one stemming from the 2nd century BC. Since Chess is often wrongly confused with the far older Go, this could also be the case here (or a mixup with another board game). The Sinologist Joseph Needham and Pavle Bidev, both part of the Initiative Group K�nigstein, have, based on the theory about religious roots for all board games, suggested that the historical Chess of 7th century India was directly descended from a divinatory game (or ritual)in China. Bidev suggests that Chess has its roots in the cult of the Chinese god Thai Yi. Needham has shown that there are references to an "image-game" (hsiang chhi is elephant-game or image-game) in works of the 6th century, devised by the Emperor Wu Ti (561578) from the Northern Chou-Dynasty. The emperor even gave lectures on the game to his staff.

It was, however, not Chess since according to early sources it had as its pieces the sun, the moon, the stars, and the constellations, meaning that it was in all likelihood a complex astrological ritual. Interesting in Chinese Chess is the 3x3 fortress, an exact image of Tic-Tac-Toe. Indirect Evidence There is an analogy between the Indian army and the Chess army. Chinese armies did not have elephants, or only very occasionally had a limited number in the southwestern part of the China. The earliest Chess terms appear in Sanskrit, the Persian and Arab versions are very similar. Whyld points out the fact on the IGK website ( ) that the first Chess terms mentioned appearing in Sanskrit is not convincing. He also mentions the fact that in the story of Chess moving from India to Persia it is said to come from Hind, a name which was not used for India until after the 11th century AD. Davidson [Davidson 1949] studied the "Geography of Chess".

Starting with India he finds four major radiations:A northeast radiation into China, between 800 and 1000 AD along the Silk Road;a southeast radiation into Burma and Indo-China, between 800 and 1100 AD;a westward radiation into Persia and the Arab countries, between 600 and 800 AD, reaching Spain before the 1008 battlefield will of the Count of Uregel, which directed the inheritance of his Chess-pieces;and a northward radiation into Siberia, between 1400 and 1500 AD. Gerhard Josten from the IGK bases his "merger theory" on three elements in the structure of Chess. The element of hunt games is represented by the king, the element of divination counters for the moves by the officers and the element of race games by the pawns. The imprisonment of the king occurs in a similar way in the Chinese territorial game Go, called Weiqi 4 in China, which means this element likely comes from China. Go is played on a 19x19 board by placing alternatively black and white pieces on the board.

Horizontal and vertical connections of pieces of the same color form chains. The number of empty fields neighboring any members of a chain horizontally or vertically give the degree of freedom of the chain. A chain, including one consisting of a single piece, without any degree of freedom is taken prisoner. The situation of one piece taken prisoner could be the one which was applied to a mated king in Chess. Josten believes that the officers have their origin in old divination techniques, but in difference to other authors he believes that the divination techniques apply only to the officers and not to the complete game of Chess. Based on the fact that the geometry of the Babylonian astrolabe allows all of the important types of moves of the Chess officers and the external kinship of the astrolabe to the Byzantine Chess board, Josten states that the Babylonian astrolabe is an adequate ideal for these pieces. Supporting the astronomical/astrological connection is the 19th century theory that all board games have religious roots. Chess has been from the beginning a game for intellectuals and astrologists were considered in ancient times part of the intellectual elite. In antiquity, the stars were looked at as either images of gods or subjects with which the gods chased around.

This is the justification for astrology and possibly for an early use of the game of Chess to obtain oracles. The astrolabe constitutes an analog computation device 5, consisting of various rings movable against each other. The user found the altitude of the sun or stars by means of a graduated circle on one side of the device and then turned to the other side to perform his calculations on the movable star map, a two-dimensional representation of the three-dimensional heavens. The straight line moves occur in these operations, the knight move is a combination of both. These methods are also indicated in ancient astroglyphs from Chaldaean times. As an alternative possibility to the divinification I offer, the game of Tic-Tac-Toe could be viewed as providing the roots for the moves of the counters. Tic-Tac-Toe is played by 2 players, e. g. Black and White, with a set of pieces of equal value each, on a 3x3 board. The players move alternatively with the goal to get three of the own pieces in one horizontal, vertical or diagonal row.

In the following diagram, that goal is achieved by occupying the points 1, 2, 3, or the parallels;the points 1, 4, 7, or the parallels;or the diagonals 1, 5, 9, or 3, 5, 7: 1 8 9 Tic-Tac-Toe was played at least 3000 years ago. It is also called "Three Men'ss Morris", where "morris" is a corruption of merels, the Latin word for counters [Pritchard 1994]. From a game-theoretic point of view, it is always a draw and is trivial. A more challenging extension was played extensively 6. The placing of the following piece of the same color (2 moves ahead) is either vertical, horizontal, diagonal or in diagram (1)the point 8 following the point 1, or equivalent sequences this is similar to a knight's move in Chess. Thus all move sequences of the pieces in Chess are represented. The pawns and their idea almost certainly come from India.

Most of the ancient board games seem to have been racing games played with dice or its forerunner, sticks with one flat side, which were thrown and the number being determined by the number of resulting flat sides being up or down. Ashtapada is an ancient Hindu race game played with dice on an 8x8 board, which later might have become the Chess-board. The method of play for Ashtapada has been forgotten. It seems logical that there has to be an incentive for succeeding in a race, which is given by the conversion of a pawn into an officer, when the pawn reaches the last row 7. To change a gambling game into a strategic race game requires some strategic possibilities to block or speed up the race, such as opposite pawns and the possibility to take an opposite piece by a diagonal move. A challenge for this theory is to explain the use today, and in the total history of Chess, military names for the officers with no previous names for these pieces being known. Also in the early Arab sources the king is not imprisoned but killed. As far as the area of origin is concerned, Josten points to the Central Asian Kushan Empire, a culture that had intensive contact with the Near East, India, and China.

It would have combined various elements from games from these regions in one game. The Kushans, called "the forgotten Kushans" by some scholars, ruled from about 50 BC until about 200 AD a big empire, which included a substantial part of India, and included the excavation place where the above mentioned 2nd century AD "Chess-pieces" were found. The Kushans, having become affluent by trading on the Silk Road, were privy to cultural mergers as shown by their contemporaneous tolerance of Buddhism and Zoroastrianism, as well as their gold coins displaying Greek, Roman, Iranian, Hindu and Buddhist deities. Josten's hypothesis about the Kushan origin from the days of the Kushan Empire would imply a lack of reports about Chess for about half a millennium before 600 AD, which might be explained as having been a maturing period. The two pieces from Dalverzin-Tepe could support the theory. Another thought would be that Chess emerged on the Silk Road, when merchants were idly waiting for better weather conditions for travel, and playing board games. A key place of this type was Kashgar in today's far western China, which also belonged for a time to the Kushan Empire.

Historic Views There are a number of books on Chess history, in particular the scholarly studies written by H. J. R. Murray [Murray 1913] and Richard Eales [Eales 1985]. The German book by H. F. Maßmann [Maßmann 1839] dismisses older legends about the origin of Chess, like the one that Palamedes of Euboa invented it during the 10-year siege of Troy in order to help avoid boredom among the Greek soldiers. Maßmann is of the firm opinion that Chess was invented in India and came from there via Persia and the Arabs to the West. The beginning of historical research about the origin of Chess is a 1694 publication by Thomas Hyde, De Ludis Orientalibus. Hyde states the facts implicit in older Arab sources, leading to his conclusion that Chess originated in India and then traveled by way of Persia and the Arab world to western Europe and on the Silk Road to the East. The myths and legends before Hyde are all not historical, but all of them, except those of obvious later invention, point to Persia or India as the country of origin.

Li [Li 1998] refers to a publication by Irwin, read in 1793 in Dublin [Irwin, An Account of the Game of Chess, as Played by the Chinese, Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy (Dublin 1793), pg. 53-63]. According to this paper, Chess was invented by the Chinese General Han Xin to mentally occupy his troops during a long winter reciprocal surveillance in 204-203 BC. Li describes in detail how he believes Han Xin decided on the layout and moves, which eventually led to the Chinese form of chess. Han Xin died in 196 BC. Li mentions that there are citations in Irwin's paper, but he does not give any. I agree with other authors that a paper written 2, 000 years after the fact does not constitute proof. Josten points to the history of the British colonialism in India. The majority of India was under the control of the East India Company in the first half of the 19th century. As a result of revolts in 1857 the Company was dissolved and India was placed under the direct control of the British Crown.

In 1909 Britain granted India some self-government. Josten suggests that the researchers Thomas Hyde and H. J. R. Murray, who were active during the 19th and early 20th century found willing ears with their claim of an Indian origin of Chess. This of course neglects the contributions of the early German researchers who reached similar conclusions to the British ones. Summary Unfortunately, written references to Chess or its development have not been found yet from before the two Persian records of about 600 AD. It is very unlikely that Chess, almost as it is played today, suddenly came into existence, invented by one person. The idea of it being a combination of elements from other board-games has merit. Since almost all known board games have religious backgrounds the astrological component is entirely possible, even though I prefer the version that all elements come from other games, e. g. Tic-Tac-Toe, as the basis for the counters. Kushan as the area of origin is highly possible, especially because of the 2 excavated debated pieces from the second century AD, which were found in the area of the Kushan Empire. The books are by no means closed.

In my opinion, the Chinese origin is the least likely one from the ones discussed. Josten's hypothesis is very intriguing but still needs some more work. The theory about India being the original country seems to hold together but will probably have to give in to another theory because of the lack of reports about follow-up within India during the next 500 years after 600 AD. References [Davidson 1949] Henry A.. Davidson, A Short History of Chess, New York 1949, 228 pages. [Eales 1985] Richard Eales,, CHESS -The History of a Game, New York 1985, 240 pages. [Gunter 1991] Ann C.. Gunter, Art from Wisdom:The Invention of Chess and Backgammon, in Asian Art, Winter 1991, pg. 7-21. [Li 1998] David H.. Li, Who? Where? When? Why? How? The Genealogy of Chess, Bethesda, MD 1998, 383 pages. [Linder 1994] I.. M.

Linder, The Art of Chess Pieces, Moscow, "H. G. S." publishers, 1994, 288 pages. [Mam�ann 1839] H.. F. Ma�mann, Geschichte des mittelalterlichen vorzugsweise des deutschen Schachspiels, Quedlinburg und Leipzig 1839, 222 pages. [Murray 1913] H.. J. R. Murray, A History of Chess, Oxford University Press 1913,900 pages. [Pritchard 1994] Pritchard,, David:The Family Book of Games, Time-Life Books, 1994,200 pages. [Sloan 1985] Sam Sloan, The Origin of Chess, Copyright Sloan Publishers ISBN 0-9609190-1-5, 27 pages. Notes The idea of Persia being the country of origin appears to be only a slight modification of the theory about Indian origin and is therefore not separately considered.

~nc-jostenge Indian name for Chess and/or a forerunner "the surrounding gam" The invention of the astrolabe is usually attributed to the Greek astronomer Hipparchos, at around 170 BC. This would mean a relatively late appearance of the astrolabe in Chaldaean astronomy. I saw for instance an engraving of a corresponding board in the cobblestones of Old Jerusalem. Boards of this Tic-Tac-Toe expansion can also be found in some Roman museum collections. There is no conversion in Chinese Chess.

Chess is 'haram and a waste of time,' says grand mufti of Saudi Arabia | Middle East Eye Chess is 'haram and a waste of time,' says grand mufti of Saudi Arabia Contrary to some media reports, the popular game has not been banned, but is considered impermissible by kingdom's highest Sunni authority A player concentrates during an international competition held recently in Saudi Arabia (Twitter / @Mousa_binThaily) Thursday 21 January 2016 11:15 UTC Last update: Thursday 21 January 2016 18:52 UTC Topics: Show comments The grand mufti of Saudi Arabia has declared chess “haram” in a video clip that circulated on social media on Thursday. The ancient game, popular in the Gulf kingdom and thought to have originated in India in the sixth century, is a “waste of time,” according to Abdulaziz Bin Abdullah. Abdullah is considered the most powerful Sunni religious figure in Saudi Arabia and was answering a viewer’s question during his weekly television show, With His Eminence the Mufti.

Though it was widely reported in the Arabic press on Thursday, the clip is thought to have been first broadcast in 2014. “The game of chess is a waste of time and an opportunity to squander money. It causes enmity and hatred between people,” Abdullah is heard to say in the clip, comparing it to the pre-Islamic Arabian game of maisir – which is forbidden by the Quran - in which players shoot arrows to win pieces of camel meat. Several press reports have incorrectly stated the fatwa as new and that chess was now banned in Saudi Arabia. Though the grand mufti is an authoritative figure in Saudi Arabia, his pronouncements do not carry the force of law. It is a common practice for Muslims to seek personal religious guidance from learned scholars, but their advice is not considered binding. Musa Bin Thaily, president of the law committee at the Saudi Chess Association, confirmed on Twitter on Thursday that the fatwa had been issued, but said it had yet to have any legal effect. Finally, we do TV show views to lawful acts, on the contrary, some views are meant to advise on the personal levels.

— Musa BinThaily (@Mousa_BinThaily) January 20, 2016 Reports of the edict sparked controversy on social media on Thursday, with Twitter users expressing support for and opposition to the fatwa using the Arabic hashtag The Kingdom's Mufti Declares Chess Haram. Thaily said he believed that Grand Mufti Abdullah, “being an old man in his 80s,” was unaware that players do not usually bet on the outcome of games. Members of the Saudi Chess Association have been pictured shaking hands with high-ranking dignitaries from the UAE late last year. Since sharing news of the fatwa on Twitter, Thaily has faced angry reactions both from supporters of the mufti’s view and from chess fans attacking the Saudi establishment’s approach to women’s rights. Chess was banned in Iran between 1981 and 1988 and was also proscribed by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Read more: Who Invented Chess Game? Learn Chess here! There is an interesting story about the man, who invented chess coming from Persia and this story is around 800 years old. Long time ago a king named Shihram ruled over India. He was a despot.

Around this time a wise man invented the game of chess to show the king how important everybody is, who lives in his kingdom, even the smallest among them. The king on the chess board needs his queen, his rooks, bishops, knights and the pawns to survive. This is like in real life. The king should learn this. Shihram, the king, understood this very well and he liked this game very much and he became a chess player and ordered that this game should be played by everybody in his kingdom. The king was very thankful, let the wise man come and went with him to his treasures to give him gold and silver or other valuable things. "You are allowed to choose what you want!" he said to the man who invented chess. "I will give it to you!" The wise man thought for a while and said to the king. "I don't desire any of your treasures. I have a special wish!" And then he went with the king to a chess board. "My wish is to get some wheat!

Please put one grain of wheat on to the first chess square and two on to the second and keep doubling up the wheat until the last square!" The king became angry and shouted: "I have offered you all my treasures and you want just wheat? Do you want to offend me?" "Oh no!" said the wise man. "I don't want to offend you, my king. Please respect my wish and you will see that my wish is truly great." The king called his servants and ordered to put the wheat on the chess board exactly as the wise man wished. The servants brought a lot of wheat. It soon filled many rooms but they realized that they could not fulfill the wise man's wish. They went to the king and said: "We are unable to fulfill the wise man's wish." "Why not?" asked the king angry. They answered: „All the wheat of your kingdom and all the wheat of other kingdoms is not enough to fulfill this wish." The king realized that the wise man had given him a lesson again. He learned that you should never underestimate the small things in life.

The chess board has 64 squares and if you put just one grain on the first and double up on the next and so on, you will reach an enormous amount of grain.

1 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 If you work this out you get an incredible amount of grain something like this: 18.446.744.073.709.551.615 around 18.446.744 Trillions of wheat grains.

The man, who invented chess, whoever he was, has done a great job.

Question: In what country is chess thought to have originated?
Answer: India