The Origin of Chess?

ERNEST BRAMAH (1867-1942) (writing as E. Bramah Smith), gives us The Three Recorded Judgements of Prince Ying, from Kai Lung Beneath the Mulberry-Tree, 1940.

Three instances of Prince Ying's just and statesmanlike treatment of affairs within his hand are recorded by Mou Tao, a literary mendicant of that era who lived in a cask on a fortified angle of the city wall. From this elevated post Mou Tao was able to take an impartial view of all that went on below, and his disquisitions are simply ex­pressed, temperate and sincere.

The first narrative records the audience given to Quang-hi, an unlettered craftsman in hard wood, who diffidently explained that what he had stumbled on by chance might haply relieve the tedium of an occasional gong-stroke of his imperishable ruler's leisure.

“Say on,” encouraged the prince, “but what you so enticingly refer to as gong-strokes of leisure might be more accurately described as moments precariously snatched from ceaseless labour. He whom you call Supreme is unable to command what every wayside beggar freely squanders.”

“The length and breadth of your High Majesty's devotion to affairs of state is a perpetual beacon to all your subjects,” declared Quang-hi. “Nevertheless, as will presently emerge, it is this specific circum­stance that has emboldened your presumptuous slave to venture here, for the method of removing tedium to which this involvement refers is one that may be taken up and laid aside again and again resumed as circumstances favour.”

As he spoke the ingenious-minded carver in the hard was extracting from his sleeve a variety of wooden forms of different shapes and sizes and these he next proceeded to arrange on a level surface before Prince Ying, explaining as he did so the occasion of their being. The Lady Mei, according to her wont, was also seated there to lend, if encouraged, her voice to any issue. As seemliness required, her position was at some distance behind that taken by the prince yet not so far removed but that by the one leaning negligently back and the other reaching studiously forward their hands might not infrequently encounter.

“In the process of his menial toil,” continued Quang-hi, “it is inevitable that a certain amount of rejected material should fall un­heeded to the floor. Working as he does with staple of uniform shape and size, producing to a consistent rule, it naturally results that the
bulk of this, as it may be termed, waste should conform to a few recurring patterns. Until the occasion of a recent day it was the custom of this one's lesser half to store these in a sack and with them replenish the hearth from time to time in the absence of a more profitable disposal.”

Remembering the period when she herself had performed this lowly task Mei would have interposed an appropriate remark, but recalling that she was now a queen she decided that it would be superfluous.

“Chancing on that day to which reference has been made to gather up these fragments himself, the one who is now recounting the cir­cumstance, was struck for the first time by the undoubted resemblance which certain of the blocks might be said to bear to easily recognised types of our complex society. By a few considered strokes of the incising tool these identities can be assured, so that even an ordinary person of no particular capacity or knowledge would, as Your Omnis­cience may see for yourself, have no excuse for missing the allusion.”

“It is not to be denied that there are certain attributes which seem to indicate clearly marked orders of our subject people,” encourag­ingly agreed Prince Ying, touching as he spoke the several carved figures which Quang-hi had by this time spread out before him. “In this short, squat, and essentially commonplace type, we have the unpretentious, simple-witted passer-by, such as you yourself, worthy Quang-hi, might fittingly example. These martially-accoutred, dragon-­faced beings are obviously masked warriors within their fear-inspiring gear, and in the attenuated, sombrely-robed, shaven sort it would be inept not to recognise devout priests of the higher orders. Great territorial nobles could scarcely be more clearly meant than by the representation of strongly-built towers with embattled walls, but there are here two of superior height but no precise individuality of line who do not seem to conform to any particular character.”

“It is for that reason that it has been thought more discreet to leave that commanding pair unspecified by any sign or badge, representing as they do one of each sort of the rulers of our land—a supreme prince and his royal consort,” submitted Quang-hi readily. “But this, Most High, comprises only a meagre fragment of the device, for having fashioned these several effigies to typify an entire Empire in their limits, it next devolved to contrive how they might be brought into entertaining action.”

“Thus and thusl” exclaimed the prince with enhanced interest. “The creation of these likenesses, diverting as they admittedly may be, is not then the full measure of their function?” and even Mei drew imperceptibly towards the front in order to miss no detail of what might follow.

“Their scope of tedium-dispelling may be said to be only yet, so to speak, in the embryo,” maintained Quang-hi. “And since they naturally fall into two distinctive bands-those formed of ebony representing an alien race of some barbarian outland-it was inevitable to regard them as the ranks of two opposing armies.”

“So much may be readily allowed,” agreed Ying graciously; “and now, under your arranging thumb, they take up their assigned posi­tions.”

“For this imagined strife it is more convenient to allot each to an indicated square, defined by rigid boundaries but with a sufficient space between the forces to allow them to unfold their tactics. Thus in the front row, to withstand the opening shock of arms, are arranged footmen of the common stamp, each reassured by a comrade's shoulder. Behind this screen of bow-and-arrow fare of the least expensive sort lurk those in higher command-banners, martial prelates, barons possessing embattled keeps, all clustering about the persons of the king and queen whom they are sworn to protect and guard at any hazard. Thus are they to be regarded now as being drawn up for battle.”

“This, to a very remarkable degree, depicts the actual disposal of both sides at the opening of that memorable encounter resulting in the great victory named after the mountain pass known as the Wild Goat's Horn,” declared the enchanted prince, considerately indicating to the queen that she should approach still nearer to his side, so as to miss no detail of his satisfaction. “By that overwhelming stroke the rebel hosts were finally thrust back and the power of the usurping Sheerat of Must definitely broken. Had only these unresponsive forms been amenable to the words of command it would not -have been beyond the powers of one who had some negligible share in the out­come of that day to indicate the progress of the battle.”

“Even that, to a certain extent, may be deemed within their scope, Pre-eminence,” was Quang-hi's modest claim, “for to each com­batant has been allotted an agreed sphere of activity, suited to his living counterpart's powers. Thus the footmen in their slow advance can only progress a single square each march, and be the danger what it may they must ever press forward. All other ranks can come and go according to their circumstance but their movements likewise are ruled by a strict adherence to their normal usage. By this scale of their different spheres' the heavily-accoutred knight-at-arms is not per­mitted to strike an adversary beyond two squares away but to com­pensate this imposed restraint he is free to leap unexpectedly into the thickness of the fray by a sideway movement. The holy men of action, silent yet swift,_. are only limited by the confines of the field of, battle; their progress—as it were to indicate one eye being turned towards a material goal and the other fixed on the Upper Air for celestial recognition—is oblique, but in any advantageous direction. Secure in their massive towers, the hereditary nobles of the land are no less potent in_. their range, but their influence is limited to the straight the of direct onslaught, though to them alone is given the unique privilege not only of succouring their sovereign lord in his shift of direst need by interposing their bulk between him and the foe but even at the same time of drawing him away from the point of danger.”

“So far,” observed Mei pleasantly, as Quang-hi paused to illustrate this feat, “you have spoken only of  those of subordinate rank. In the case of the, two whom you have so discreetly left, 'as it were, in the rough, doubtless an even greater latitude of influence is permitted?”

``All that the rest may do lies within a queen's sphere-save, only that it was not thought. fitting for one of that degree to advance with a sideway movement “

“That is as well,” agreed the prince, though the Lady Mei did not at first seem reconciled to this curtailment, of her prowess, “for the actions `of the one towards whom all eyes are turned should not be anything but straightforward. Now as regards the omnipotence of a sovereign of divine descent—“

“It is no more than a matter of general remark that one so endowed would lie capable of anything,” was Quang-hi's outspoken admission. “Yet in this mimic scene of strife. a . certain convention 'has to. Be imposed or quite ordinary persons might in the vigour of their zeal be led into assuming a regrettable freedom. Inasmuch as a rightful sovereign is superior to the common lot of death it would manifestly be a treasonable as well as an illogical act to subject his defenceless effigy to that infliction. In order therefore to safeguard the outward person of a king, from the dangers of a pronounced valour, such as Majesty is burdened with this representative of the Supreme is restrained from thrusting himself into the hazard, of the fray by more than a single boundary.”

“Up to this point logical exactness has marked your plan and thereby raised this device for dispelling tedium far above 'any of the other monotony removers,” declared the prince. “How then can you maintain this congruity now seeing that you must either suffer one of imperishable nature to be slain or else by allowing the two opposing monarchs both to maintain their ground to reduce the outcome to an untenable dilemma?”

“Such a contingency has not been overlooked, Supreme, and the subterfuge by which the involvement is, so to speak, flattened out, has been admitted by impartial lookers-on to be apt and not devoid of cunning. When the king on either side has been driven into such an extremity as would in the case of a warrior of mortal cast be presumed to involve his end and necessitate removal from the field, it devolves upon the player who achieves this point to draw attention to the distinguished combatant's lamentable plight by a sharp but respectful movement of the combined tongue and palate. At the sound of this admonitory 'Tcheck!' it is still feasible for his Majesty to escape from the snare, but should he be unable to extricate himself, although he has not suffered the indignity of actual demise, he and his band must be deemed to have been vanquished.

“You would truly seem to have foreseen every arising doubt,” remarked Prince Ying, “and all that remains is for us to marshal our opposing hosts and make a practical test of what will follow.”

“Forgive the ill-timed interruption of one so negligible as she who speaks,” ventured the Lady Mei, “but is it conducive to a seemly regard- for authority throughout the land that in this imagined strife even an illiterate serf should be permitted to assail the Very Highest?”

“Even that eventuality has been known to take place in our justice-­loving realm,” was her lord's concise reply, and his hand uncon­sciously was raised to verify the ancient scar left b_y an iron collar. “Since the versatile Quang-hi has ingeniously sought to embrace all phases of our complex State in one decisive clash the contingency you outline cannot reasonably be excluded.”

“My Omniscient's words are, as usual, gemmed with truth,” Mei hastened to reply. “This one's contention was unworthy of discussion.”

Assembling their respective groups that truly broad-minded sovereign, Hysi Ying, Prince of Further Yin, and the low-conditioned craftsman, Quang-hi, engaged upon the first recorded game of Tcheck (or “Tchess!” as it afterwards came to be popularly styled from the menacing threat of the admonitory sound when uttered by enthusiasts with aggressive vigour), the latter person fittingly seated upon the floor while the prince naturally occupied a considerably higher station.

Drawn into the orbit of this engaging rivalry the queen viewed the field of contest from one side and then from the other, nor did she retrain from freely offering advice impartially to either player when­ever her sagacious mind detected a flaw in the method of attack or her ready eye found a weakness in the menaced line of defences.

It was not long before it emerged that the force controlled by Ying must inevitably succeed, though it is not definitely expressed whether this should be entirely ascribed to that prince's admitted superiority in whatever he undertook or possibly in part to the lowly Quang-hi's assumption of a position that restricted his range of vision. Be this how it would, before the hostile ranks were favourably deployed Ying's oncoming host had swept through a disorganised foe so that one of his front line had reached the limit of its allowed movement.

“Yet what arises now?” enquired the prince. “Inasmuch as this adventurous thrall is not permitted to turn and reinforce his fellows it would almost seem as though our arms are to be at a loss by reason of his dexterity and valour.”

“That indeed is an eventuality for which no provision has been made,” admitted the one who had devised the method of dispelling lethargy, betraying some confusion. “Hitherto no other has succeeded in bringing about what your High Majesty's inspired skill has so deftly accomplished, whereby the situation had not so far arisen. Manifestly an adequate reward for a signal feat of ability must accrue, but it is not altogether easy to suggest the equivalent.”

“Seeing that by patient resource and devotion to a cause one of low estate has reached the limit to which an ordinary person can aspire, would it not be a fitting mark of distinction thereat to proclaim a queen?” was Mei's opportune proposal.

“For what must be regarded as a mere drudge or unit in the game to attain so high a rank might almost seem beyond the bounds of what is credible,” maintained Quang-hi, he being as artless as he was unassuming.

“Nevertheless, such a transition is not unknown in the annals of our romantic Court,” declared the queen, regarding Prince Ying with a descriptive glance, and caught by the look the prince struck his capable hands together in emphatic accord as he exclaimed:

“Thus shall it be in memory of this and that occasion. The obscure pawn who triumphantly surmounts all obstacles and gains the further bounds shall attain the full privileges of queenship!”

Meanwhile the test had been proceeding to its destined end and after that the field was rearranged, the prince affably rallying Quang-h on the outcome of their first encounter and graciously enjoining him to cast obsequiousness aside and display his inner metal. Not until a full hand-count of games had been played (all to a like result) did the gratified ruler admit repletion.

“This method of tedium-dispelling that you have contrived, Quang­hi, is superior to any other device of its kind for a variety of reasons,” was his considered judgment. “Devoid of the haphazard elements of fan-tan and other games of chance it inexorably results that victory is the outcome of a superior skill, and this principle of justice naturally precludes any sediment of rancour lingering in the mind to embitter even the most self-opinionated loser. By assembling so many diverse types, all with a kindred aim, and met on a common ground, a senti­ment of mutual good-will and trust is forged, which, adequately maintained, should go far to make our flowery and phrase-strewn land a country suitable for paladins to inhabit.

“Turning to the more material side of the innovation it is obvious that with accessories of so primitive a stamp the profit on the sale of sets at even a moderate cost should be considerable, so that, in return for an Imperial decree appointing you alone the only allowed maker (together with the privilege of hanging out a yellow banner embellished with our personal sign) you will account for a score and five out of each hundred taels received, as a due to the Royal Treasury.

“As every loyal subject will be advised to make himself proficient in the new method of beguiling leisure without delay the success of your opportune contrivance may be regarded as assured. An inscriber of our spoken word will draw up the necessary document free of taelage. Meanwhile if you will inconvenience your naturally upright feet to the extent of descending to the beneath parts of this ill-con­structed palace a sufficient if not very appetising repast of rice and wine will enable you to refresh your, no doubt by this time severely taxed endurance.”