Editing Chess in early literature

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One of the most common ways for [[chess historian]]s to trace when the [[board game]] [[chess]] entered a country is to look at the literature of that country. Although due to the names associated with chess sometimes being used for more than one game (for instance [[Xiang-qi]] in [[China]] and [[Tables (board games)|Tables]] in England), the only certain reference to chess is often several hundred years later than uncertain earlier references. The following list contains the earliest references to chess or chess-like games.

==Byzantium==

a. 923 – [[Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari|at-Tabari]]'s '''''Kitab akhbar ar-rusul wal-muluk'''''
(note the work is an Arabic work, no early Greek works are known)

==China==

79 BC – 8 BC – lifetime of Liu Xiang 劉 向, who wrote ''Shuo yuan'', a compilation of early Confucian anecdotes:  "''Do you still feel like playing xiangqi and dancing?''".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Meng Changjun Played Xiangqi and Danced with Lady Zheng |url=http://www.yutopian.com/chinesechess/stories/meng.html |access-date=2024-11-07 |website=www.yutopian.com}}</ref> The rules of the game are not described in this text, so the ambiguity regarding which game it refers to is unresolved. "[[Xiangqi]]", apart from being the name of the [[chess variant]] played in China, has also been the name of two other unrelated games, and there is no scholarly consensus about it being a precursor to [[Chaturanga]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Murray |first=H.J.R |title=A History Of Chess |publisher=Clarendon Press |year=1913 |pages=122}}</ref>

c. 900 AD – '''''Huan Kwai Lu''''' (''Book of Marvels'')
Describes the rules of xiangqi.

==England==

c. 1180 – [[Alexander Neckam]]'s  '''''De Natura Rerum'''''
(note that it is thought that Neckam may have learnt of chess in Italy, not in England)

==France==

a. 1127 – A song of [[Guilhem IX]] Count of Poitiers and Duke of Aquitaine.

==Germany==

c. 1070 – '''''[[Ruodlieb]]''''' (IV 184–188) thought to be written by a monk near [[Tegernsee]].

==India==
c. 500 AD – Subandhu's '''''[[Vasavadatta]]'''''
:''The time of the rains played its game with frogs for chessmen which yellow and green in color, as if mottled by lac, leapt up on the black field squares.''

c. 625 – [[Banabhatta]]'s '''''[[Harsha Charitha]]'''''
:''Under this monarch, only the bees quarreled to collect the dew;  the only feet cut off were those of measurements, and only from [[Ashtapada|Ashtâpada]] one could learn how to draw up a [[Chaturanga]], there were no cutting off the four limbs of condemned criminals...''

c. 1030 – [[Al-Biruni]]'s '''''India''''' describes the game of [[chaturaji]].

1148 – Kalhana's '''''Rajatarangini''''' (translated by MA Stein, 1900)
:''The King, though he had taken two kings (Lothana and Vigraharaja) was helpless and perplexed about the attack on the remaining one, just as a player of chess (who has taken two Kings and is perplexed about taking a third).''
:(Note: This refers to the game of chaturaji.)

==Italy==
c. 1061 or 1062 – Letter from [[Pietro Damiani|Petrus Damiani]] (Cardinal Bishop of Ostia) to the Pope-elect [[Pope Alexander II|Alexander II]] and the [[Pope Gregory VII|Archdeacon Hildebrand]]. This letter is dated by the reference to Alexander as "Pope-elect".

==Persia==

c. 600 – '''''Karnamak-i-Artakhshatr-i-Papakan'''''
:''Artakhshir did this, and by God's help he became doughtier and more skilled than them all in ball-play, in horsemanship, in chess, in hunting and in all other accomplishments.''
(It is fairly certain chess is meant due to the word [[shatranj]] being used).

==Russia==

13th century – '''[[Kormchaia|Kormchaya Kniga]]''', a set of church laws.

==Spain==

c. 1007 or 1008 – will of [[Ermengol I, Count of Urgell|Ermengol I]] ([[Counts of Urgell|Count of Urgell]])
:''I order you, my executors, to give . . . these my chessmen to the convent of St. Giles, for the work of the church.''<ref>{{Cite web |last=Melchor |first=Alejandro |date=2020-05-27 |title=Los testamentos del Conde Ermengol de Urgell (1008) y su cuñada, Ermessenda de Carcassone (1058) |url=http://www.historiadelajedrezespanol.es/articulos/melchor/01.htm |access-date=2023-12-08 |website=Historia del ajedrez español |language=es}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Gude |first=Antonio |date=2017-01-02 |title=Historia del ajedrez (29): Testamentos e inventarios |url=https://antoniogude.com/testamentos-e-inventarios/ |access-date=2023-12-08 |website=Curiosidades sobre ajedrez, literatura y cine |language=es}}</ref>

==Sumatra==

c. 1620 – '''''Sejarah Malayu'''''
: ''Now this Tan Bahra was a very skillful chessplayer, and one that was unequalled at the game in that age, and he played at chess with the men of Malacca.''

==Switzerland==

c. 997 – ''[[Versus de scachis]]'' in manuscript 319 at Stiftsbibliothek [[Einsiedeln abbey|Einsiedeln]]: A didactic poem written in Medieval Latin where the first reference to chess in a European text can be found, as well as the first mention of a checkerboard and a queen.<ref>Helena M. Gamer: "The Earliest Evidence of Chess in Western Literature: The Einsiedeln Verses", ''Speculum'', Vol. 29, No. 4 (1954), pp. 734–750</ref>

==See also==
* [[History of chess]]
* [[Timeline of chess]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

'''Bibliography'''
* Helena M. Gamer, "The Earliest Evidence of Chess in Western Literature: The Einsiedeln Verses", ''Speculum'', Vol. 29, No. 4. (October 1954), pp.&nbsp;734–750.
* {{cite book |last=Murray |first=H. J. R. |author-link=H. J. R. Murray |title=[[A History of Chess]] |edition=Reissued |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=1913 |isbn=0-19-827403-3}}

{{Chess}}

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