Editing H. J. R. Murray (section)

==''A History of Chess''==
In 1897, Murray was encouraged by [[Tassilo von Heydebrand und der Lasa|Baron von der Lasa]] (who had just completed his book on the history of European chess) to research the history of chess. Murray gained access to the largest chess library in the world, that of [[John G. White]] of [[Cleveland, Ohio]], and also used the collection of J. W. Rimington Wilson in England.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://edmondhoyle.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-j-w-rimington-wilson-library-part-1.html|title = Edmond Hoyle, Gent.: The J. W. Rimington-Wilson Library (Part 1)|date = 7 September 2012}}</ref> The White collection contained some Arabic manuscripts, so Murray learned [[Arabic language|Arabic]], and German. The research took him 13 years, during which time he contributed articles on aspects of chess history to the ''[[British Chess Magazine]]'' and the ''Deutsches Wochenschach''. In 1913 he published ''[[A History of Chess]]'', proposing the theory that chess originated in India.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://en.chessbase.com/post/on-the-origins-of-chess-part-2-india|title = On the origins of chess (2/7)|date = 19 May 2018}}</ref> This remains the most widely accepted theory. (See [[Origins of chess]].)

Although ''A History of Chess'' was recognised as the standard reference on the subject, its scholarly approach and great length (900 pages) made it inaccessible to most chess players. Murray began a shorter work on chess history written in a more popular style; it remained unfinished at his death and was completed by B. Goulding Brown and [[Harry Golombek]] and published in 1963 as ''A Short History of Chess''.

Murray was the father of educationalist and biographer [[Elisabeth Murray|K. M. Elisabeth Murray]] and the archaeologist [[Kenneth Murray (archaeologist)|Kenneth Murray]].<ref name="Brewer" />