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The aim of this work is threefold: to present as complete a record as is possible of the varieties of chess which exist or have existed in different parts of the world; to investigate the ultimate origin of these games and the circumstances of the invention of chess; and to trace the development of the modern European game from the first appearance of its ancestor, the Indian chaturanga, in the beginning of the seventh century of our era. The subject accordingly falls naturally into two parts: the history and record of the Asiatic varieties of chess, and the history of chess in Europe with its influence on European life and literature.

Many books have been written upon the history of chess, but none covers exactly the same field as this work. The English writers, Hyde (1694) and Forbes (1860), in the main confine their attention to Oriental chess; the great German writer, Von der Lasa (1897), treats almost exclusively of the European game. Van der Linde alone deals with both Oriental and European chess in approximately equal detail, but it is in three distinct works (1874–81).

In his great work, the Geschichte und Litteratur des Schachspiels (1874), v. d. Linde was able to incorporate the results of Professor A. Weber’s examination of the early references to chess in Sanskrit literature, and to show that Forbes’s History was both inaccurate and misleading. Since the publication of the Geschichte, however, there have been many additions to our knowledge of special features of chess history. The earliest of these were incorporated in v. d. Linde’s last work, the Quellenstudien (1881), but the later additions can only be found in isolated papers, such as those of Mr. H. F. W. Holt (Chinese chess), Herr A. v. Oefele (Malay chess), Professor A. A. Macdonell (early Indian chess), M. E. V. Savenkof (Siberian and Russian chess), Herr F. Strohmeyer (chess in mediaeval French literature), and Mr. W. H. Wilkinson (Chinese and Corean chess). It was with the idea of making all this information easily accessible to English readers that I formed the plan of writing the present work more than thirteen years ago.

To all these writers, and many others whose names will be found in the list of works consulted, I am greatly indebted, and in particular to Hyde, to v.d. Lasa (whose kindly encouragement to me in 1897 to proceed with work on the history of chess I recall with pleasure), and to v. d. Linde. But the greater part of the book is based upon my own work at original sources, especially at unpublished Arabic and early European manuscripts on chess. It was my good fortune, at an early stage of my work, to enlist the interest of Mr. John G. White, of Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A., the owner of the largest chess library in the world. Mr. White’s generous and unfailing courtesy in placing his library freely at the service of any student of chess has been acknowledged over and over again. To me he has given not only this, but far greater help. He has repeatedly obtained copies of manuscripts which it was important that I should see, but which were inaccessible to me, and has placed these copies unreservedly at my service. Whatever in the way of completeness I have been able to achieve is entirely due to Mr. White’s help. Without that help, the book would never have been written. I must also record my indebtedness to Mr. J. W. Rimington Wilson, of Bromhead Hall, Yorkshire, who has lent me many rare books and manuscripts from the chess library which was collected by his father, the late Mr. F. W. Rimington Wilson; to Mr. J. A. Leon, who lent me the valuable sixteenth-century problem manuscript in his possession; to Mr. Bernard Quaritch, who allowed me to examine the Fountaine MS. when it passed through his hands in 1902; and to Mr. H. Guppy, of the John Rylands Library, Manchester, who made special arrangements in 1903, by which I was enabled to consult two important Arabic manuscripts at that time in the possession of the late Mrs. Rylands.

But apart from this assistance in making the original sources available, the very width of the distribution of chess and the many languages in which the literature of the game is written, would have made my task an impossible one if I had not received the help of many scholars. Among these are my father, Sir James A. H. Murray, who has not only helped me with advice of the greatest value, but has introduced me to many scholars whom otherwise I should have scarcely ventured to approach; Dr. A. C. Haddon, F.R.S.; Professor E. J. Rapson, and Dr. W. H. D. Rouse, who have helped me with Sanskrit references; Mr. S. F. Blumhardt, who translated a small Hindustani work on chess for me; Mr. E. J. Colston, I.C.S., to whom I owe the first complete account of Burmese chess; Professor D. S. Margoliouth, to whom I have taken all my difficulties in reading my Arabic sources; Bodley’s Librarian, Mr. Falconer Madan, who has dated many manuscripts for me; my sister, Miss Murray, of the Royal Holloway College, who has helped me with Icelandic references; Mr. W. W. Skeat, who has helped me in connexion with Malay chess; Mr. I. Abrahams, whom I have consulted about Jewish allusions; Mr. B. G. Laws, who has helped me to establish the European source of the problems in modern Indian textbooks of chess; and Mr. Charles Platt, of Harrow, who has allowed me to include illustrations of Oriental chessmen from his unique collection. To all these and others I express my most grateful thanks for their help. Unhappily, my thanks can no longer reach the late Professor W. R. Morfill, who gave me most valuable assistance with Russian and Czech, and the late Mr. J. T. Platts and Lieut.-Col. Sherlock, who gave me similar help with Persian and Hindustani.

In conclusion, I should like to express my personal gratification that this book is appearing from the same University Press which, more than two hundred years ago, published the pioneer work on its subject, Thomas Hyde’s Mandragorias seu Historia Shahiludii.

H. J. R. MURRAY.

CAMBRIDGE, 1913.