Is Hnefatafl Evidence That Chess Was Not Invented In India?

A recent email from Dr. Rene Gralla containing information that raises interesting speculation.  Here it is, complete with links to source information:

THE NEWS: Norwegian people have now learned that chess may not be a product from India (BTW, the author of the column nonchalantly talks of "Persia" in this context) but that chess may be a pure Scandinavian brand in the first place ... since the the roots of the Chess of the Vikings, that famous "Hnefatafl", that date back to LATRUNCULI which was the ancient strategic game of the Roman soldiers and which was much older than the proto-chess Chaturanga from India.

The foregoing fact has been the leitmotiv of a column on chess that has been published by Simen Agdestein in the No. 2 (!!) of the tabloids of Norway - called VG (that means: "Verdens Gang") - on last Wednesday, December 11th, 2013.

 

The chess columnist Simen Agdestein - who is very close to the new World Champion Magnus Carlsen - reports on his first own experiences with Hnefatafl ... and then adds some information on the "8th International Ladies Chess Gala" that had been organised by the German daily "neues deutschland" at Berlin on November 28th, 2013; as part of the program of the event Norway's WIM Silje Bjerke had played an exhibition game of Hnefatafl.

 

... please inform the visitors of your webseite about the fact that Hnefatafl has now become a topic even in one of the chess columns of Norway's very popular tabloid VG! And please publish the scan of that very column on your great website - since I think that the foregoing information is very interesting for the visitors of your website. 

 

Unfortunately, the article was in PDF and if there is a way to post a PDF here at Blogger, I haven't figured it out.  So I copied part of it using the "free tools" I have on my computer -- and after comparing the first sentence letter by letter, I saw that it was a total mish-mash.  So I'm going back to the drawing board on this and will try again!

 

Stay tuned!

Added December 29, 2013 at 6:14 p.m. Milwaukee, WI time:

Here is a scan of the article! Sorry about the resolution, this is the best I could do:

 

 

Chess Invented in Bulgaria?

I didn't think it was possible but FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has made an utter ass of himself in this article.  Well, he has been an ass for a long time, but now he's growing ears and a tail too, geez!  Read the pronouncements of the Man Who Visits With Aliens:

From novinite.com
Bulgaria Possible Place of Origin of Chess
Sports | November 4, 2010, Thursday

The Bulgarian city of Plovdiv is one of the plausibly suspected places of origin of chess, according to the President of the international chess federation FIDE Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.

In an interview for the Russian Kommersant daily, Ilyumzhinov explains that during his stay in Bulgaria in October he discussed with the heads of the Bulgarian Chess Federation the possibilities for staging the first international conference on history and origins of chess, to be hosted by the city of Sofia.

The FIDE states that India is only one possible places of origin of chess.

"This is one version. But do you know that ancient chess pieces have been found in Plovdiv? And this is one of the oldest cities in Europe. There are still theories about which country is the birthplace of chess. We first talked about India, then - about Persia. Last year I was in Mongolia, and its president showed me chess pieces found found in the tomb of Genghis Khan and the excavated burial mound. Check out their approximate age - they turned out to be 3 500 years old. The oldest chess pieces in India are maximum 2000 years old ... Chess pieces have also been found in Latin America, in Peru. How did they end up there?" Ilyumzhinov asked.

He said the first ever scientific conference on the history of chess will take place in Sofia but did not specify when.

*********************************************************************

There are so many things wrong with this article - but here are some major outright WRONG items in this article:

(1) As far as I'm aware, Genghis Khan's tomb has not been found, so it could not possibly have been excavated, unless it was done so illegally.  If it has been discovered and excavated, where were the headlines?

(2) Where are photographs of whatever it is the President of Mongolia says are chess pieces recovered from Genghis Khan's tomb?  It would be nice, too, to see the scientific analyses that date these alleged chess pieces to 3500 years ago.

(3) What chess pieces were discovered in Plovdiv?  Never heard about it.  I keep my ear pretty close to the ground - where is the article?

(4) A FIDE sponsored international conference on the origins of chess would not be the first international conference on the origins of chess. There have been several international conferences of scholars, archaelogists, games historians, historians, mathematicians, and interested amateurs (such as yours truly) that have addressed the origins and history of chess - none sponsored by FIDE - thank Goddess!

(5) What chess pieces discovered in South America? Never heard about it.

(6) An announcement that a new ancient chess piece has been discovered is a big deal.  Remember the itnernational coverage the chess piece discovered at Butrint received back in 2002 (photo, right)?  Chess historians crawled out of the woodwork to condemn the archaelogists who excavated the chess piece for calling it - a chess piece!  Whatever you think the Butrint chess piece may be (oh, excuse me, I should call it the Butrint artifact), there was plenty of hoo ha raised when it was announced.  Indeed, some people came forward expressing opinions whom I thought had died years ago - such is the power of an announcement that a new ancient chess piece has been discovered!  

Mr. Ilyumzhinov - SHOW US THE CHESS PIECES!

For further information on the Butrint chess piece - er - ancient artifact, see:

The Butrint Icon in Vivisection - Part 1 at Goddesschess

The Butrint Icon in Vivisection - Part 2 at Goddesschess

Horse + Rider = Votive (So they say...)

This figure is 99 mm tall.  I had no idea what the heck that meant so I asked Wiki and got the following answer:  Units of Measure question: How many inches is 99 mm? 99 mm = 3.89763 in.

Hmmmm...a nice size for a mounted knight.  Notice the remainder of red paint.  The description did not extend to whether the entire piece might have been painted at one time, or just these red markings were put here and there - for a particular purpose?  Not addressed.  Was red chosen for a reason?  Not addressed.  What was the pigment made from?  Not addressed. 

This figure is identified as 6th-5th century horse and rider figurine from Cyprus (Tel Dor).

More information on the piece from the Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery:

Date: c. 600 BCE-475 BCE
Description: Acession number 1982A979. 
Little figures like this were left by worshippers at religious sanctuaries as offerings to the gods. Different types of figures were left at the sanctuaries of the different gods and goddesses.  Horsemen figures first became common on Cyprus during the 700s BC. Owning a horse would have been very expensive and it is probable that this kind of figure was left as an offering by nobles who wanted to emphasise how rich and important they were.

*******************************************************************

Hmmm, okay, but how would anyone know that a particular horse or horse/rider offering was actually left by a noble?  I mean, was someone there to watch (and possibly record???) what each person offered?  And if the horseman figure became so popular during the 700s BCE, could anyone have purchased one and offered it?  I mean, this dude on his horse isn't exactly an exquisite work of art.  So - was the purchase of a horse and rider figurine restricted to nobles only?  If not, say Mr. P, the dog-poop scooper-upper, ranked rather low on the totem pole of society back in the day, buys a figurine like this from a tired vendor at the end of a busy temple day at a discount price, sort of under-the-table.  Next day he scrapes the poop off his feet, takes a ritual bath, makes his offering at the temple of "X" god, and then dies of pneumonia a week later because he caught a draft in the bath, only the second time he was ever in a pool of water (the first time was in mother's womb).  Does Mr. P get into Heaven?  And if he does, is it the same Heaven that the nobles go to? 

Hmmm, I guess I don't buy the official supposition about the little horse and rider being a "nobles" thing --

Actually, it makes more sense to me that this was a game piece, offered up ritually at the conclusion of the game or a ritualized and much-shortened form of a game, perhaps to denote a "passage" to Heaven, i.e., the Land of the Gods.  I mean, we really don't know, do we, because perhaps we haven't been asking the right questions...  But we do know, for instance, that the ancient Egyptian game of Senet was a game of passage and that the pieces that managed to make it all the way to the end of the game and literally jumped off the board jumped into - yep - Heaven - became Imperishable Stars.  That concept was woven into just about all of Egypt's religious and symbolic art, from pre-dynastic right down to the 5th century CE, when the last Egyptian temples were forcibly closed by the Byzantine "christians" and the religious mystery schools were born, as the "pagans" went underground, so to speak.

There may be a reason that the shape of a "pawn" game piece hasn't changed very much over 5,000 years or so - from Sumer, to Egypt, to Staunton.

The Foundations of 8x8 and 9x9 in Hindu Temples - Ancient Gameboards

I found this at an interesting website, Frithjof Schuon (no idea what it is all about), which reminded me of some equally interesting information I discovered in "Secret Games of the Gods" by Nigel Pennick.  First, the information from the website:

luni, 8 decembrie 2008
Borobudur - Ştiinţă sacră (IV)

The Tathata-Vastu Mandala at Borobudur's Summit

In ancient India, the foundations for Hindu temples were typically based on a geometrical diagram called the vastupurusha mandala. Vastu is Sanskrit for “residence” while the Purusha is the primordial male giant whose body is divided or "sacrificed" to bring the world into existence.

When serving as the underlying schematic for Hindu temples, the vastupurusha mandala typically incorporates either 64 or 81 compartments. Architects typically employed the 81-block version of this diagram in the design of those buildings that were commissioned by members of the Hindu warrior caste, while the 64-square version was typically reserved for buildings that had been commissioned by members of the Hindu religious caste.

The 64- and 81-square Vastupurusha mandalas
of Indian temple Architecture based on the Manasara

"Radiating from the center (of the vastupurusha mandala) is its effulgence, the light of all suns that ever shone and which in repeated cycles illumine this universe. This light of all suns is carried by the Regents of 12 Suns, the Adityas.... The light is carried across this inner border and to the outer rim with its four orients in the middle of each side." The central core of both versions of the diagram is called the Place of Brahman (Brahmastana). It corresponds with the Embryo of Splendour (hiranyagarbha) that is featured in various Hindu tales of creation, where it is represented as "...the primordial germ of cosmic light.... In the center is the dark source of all light, the super luminous darkness, the central point beyond all time.... It radiates from there and its radiance proceeds through all the stations of the Regents of sun and stars, placed on the body of the Vastupurusha.... From the center beyond time, and around it, is displayed cyclical time in its sections, in its units of days, months and years and in the cycles in which the different courses of sun and moon are adjusted."

The 81-square version of the diagram is often illustrated in such a way that it appears as if some of the squares have been left vacant (see illustration above). However, the Brihat Samhita clearly affirms that the 45 deities who project themselves into the mandala collectively fill all of the available space, with certain deities either occupying two or three adjacent squares.

The nine squares of the Brahmastana are surrounded by three layers consisting of 16, 24, and 32 squares, respectively. The outermost layer of 32 squares is assigned to deities associated with the 28 asterisms or "nakshatras" of Hindu astronomy and the four Great Guardians (Lokapalas) of the cardinal directions, while the interior 16 and 24 squares are reserved for squares the placement of solar deities.

"The place of realization of the Supreme Brahman, the center of the Vastupurusa, is assigned to Brahma who is the effected Brahman; this is the subtle state of manifestation, which in ontological hierarchy is prior to manifestation. The place of Brahman corresponding to Brahmapura in the universe is the Hiranyagarbha, the Embryo of Splendor--the primordial germ of cosmic light. Similarly, from the Brahmastana proceeds the light of all times and in every direction; this makes the first belt, the inner border of 12 deities. In the outer rim of 32 entities it is marked at each place at its definite time and encompasses the extent of corporeal manifestation." (53)

Borobudur's summit has been laid out in a circular form of the 81-element vastupurusha mandala, with the main stupa occupying the center over the nine squares of the Brahmastana and the three surrounding tiers of stupas and Buddha images filling the remaining receptacles of the diagram. (54)

It is clear from a few of the island's surviving stone inscriptions that Javanese Buddhists perceived no conflict in applying Hindu architectural principles to Buddhist foundations. For example, the Stone of Kerengtengah, which dates from the Borobudur period, opens with a line that pays homage to an unnamed Buddhist hero of immeasurable might who is seated on a high mountain in the Vajrasana position, which is the meditation posture both legs are crossed and the soles of both feet face upwards just like the Buddha images are seated at Borobudur. A few stanzas later, the inscription's composer states that the daughter of the Sailendra Buddhist King Samaratungga "... installed in a temple, according to the Puranas, the image of the illustrious Sri Ghananatha (Lord of the Clouds) together with others worthy of worship," which not only suggests that the "Lord of the Clouds" is the hero seated on the high mountain, but also confirms that the images had been installed according to practices outlined in Hindu religious texts. (55)

In a large number of the island's surviving inscriptions, the priest presiding over the inauguration of the temple foundation evokes the presence of Brahma by performing a ritual that involves the cracking of an egg on top of the watu sima kulumpang--the central foundation stone that may have served the material analog of the "Golden Embryo" of the vastupurusha mandala. In Existence and Enlightenment in the Lankavatara Sutra, author Florin Sutton presents several examples of how the Buddhist term Tathagata-garbha parallels the "Golden Embryo" (Hiranyagarbha) of the Hindu scriptures, where the term "...represents the first use of the word garbha in a compound with metaphysical implications. Significantly, for the purpose of our investigation, this compound was used interchangeably with Hiranyanda (literally 'golden egg'), already conveying a sense of ambiguity, or dilemma, of, of 'the chicken and the egg' type.

"Gradually, though, such naturalistic principles regarding the origins of the world were superseded by anthropomorphic ones symbolized by (the) names of divine beings--Prajapati and Brahma, who himself was born from a golden egg--and, eventually, by the thoroughly abstract principles of Brahman and atman, prana (impersonal power) and sakti (feminine power), purusa (spirit) and prakriti (matter).... The general meaning was that of all-pervasive essence, filling the air, the earth, and heaven, accounting for the unity of the universe, its vital force and the cosmic self." (56)

However, with regard to one Buddhist use for the word "garbha" as the embryo of Buddhahood the composer of the Lankavatara Sutra has elected to use the term as the preferred synonym for the Essence-of-the-Tathagata, rejecting the word for primordial substance (prakriti) as it appears in various Hindu texts. His word preference is a clear indication that the Essence-of-the-Tathagata should be regarded as an abstract cosmic "quasi-substance" rather than a real one. It not only impregnates but also envelops the universe, with its outer, manifested aspect available in the dimensions of both time and space. In the time domain of the eternal world of becoming, it is represented by the Five Skandas, "...to which the transient human personality conspicuously belongs. Its extension in space is the Dharmadhatu, the realm of the existential elements, as the most comprehensive view of the universe, including not only this visible sense-world, but all possibly conceivable ideal worlds." (57)

In my Architectural Survey of Borobudur, I have suggested that Borobudur's architect may have embedded units of solar and lunar time into the monument's plan, a practice that would in all probability have been related to the radiation of the "light of all suns" from the vastupurusha mandala at the monument's summit. Such architectural practices may also be related to even earlier rites involving the construction of the Vedic altar of sacrifice, which calls for the laying down of bricks in accordance with various Indian time cycles.
In addition, there are technical reasons for maintaining that Borobudur's summit has been laid out in conformance with the vastupurusha-mandala traditions of Hindu temple architecture. The architect had observed several technical rules during the monument's construction pertaining to the cross-over points of the diagram's horizontal/vertical lines as well as the diagonals that are inherent in the entire monument's plan. Additional information pertaining to these rules as well as examples of the compliance of other central Javanese temples with these rules will be appended to this Web site's Architectural Survey of Borobudur in the future as time permits.

If we wish to look for the earliest Mahayana Buddhist prototype for the primeval life force and the "light of all suns" that is symbolized at Borobudur, we need look no farther than the Lankavatara Sutra, which provides us with a suitable progenitor who fully accords with the parallel identifications to be found in the Hindu scriptures. The commentator of the Bhagavata states: "As the sun illuminates his own inner sphere, as well as the exterior regions, so soul (atman), shining in the body (Viraja), irradiates all without and within." (58)

The sutra's use of the word "Vastu," either coupled with the word tathata or arya, is also intriguing.

"When an objective world is no more grasped,
there is neither disappearance nor no-being
[as all these belong to a realm of relativity],
except something absolute known as tathata-vastu,
which realm belongs to the wise." (59)

While other Buddhist texts typically use the Sanskrit word Vastu to indicate a particular object of discriminating knowledge, the composer of the Lankavatara Sutra uses this word to express the absolute reality or tathata that is the "realm where the wise have their abode."

"In the first place Vastu and Tathata are synominously used; what is Tathata, that is Vastu.... Evidently in this connection where Vastu is Tathata, it must mean the highest reality. In the second case in which Arya is affixed to Vastu, the arya must be a modifier here, that is, this reality is something to be described as arya, noble, holy or worthy. The highest reality is also called 'something that has been in existence since the very first (purvadharmasthitita) or (pauranasthiti- dharmamata).' As it is the most ancient reality, its realization means returning to one's own original abode in which everything one sees around is an old familiar object.... The Buddhas, enlightened ones, are all abiding here as gold is embedded in the mine. The ever-enduring reality is above changes." (60)

In the ultimate sense, however, the name we use to refer to the Buddha at the center of Borobudur's Tathata-Vastu mandala is irrelevant, for the Buddha of the Lankavatara Sutra says that he is known "...under many names, amounting to a hundred thousand times three asamkhyeyas, and they address me by these names not knowing that they are all other names of the Tathagata.

"Of these, Mahamati, some recognize me as the Tathagata, some as the Self-existent One, some as Leader, as Vinayaka (Ganesha), as Parinayaka (Guide), as Buddha, as Rishi, as Bull-king, as Brahma, as Vishnu, as Isvara, as Pradhana (primordial matter, unmanifested prakriti), as Kapila (a sage), as Bhutanta (End of Reality), as Arishta, as Nemina, as Soma (Moon), as the Sun (Surya), as Rama, as Vyasa (a sage), as Suka, as Indra, as Balin, as Varuna, as is known to some."

"While others recognize me as One who is never born and never passes away, as Sunyata (emptiness), as Tathata (suchness), as Satya (truth), as Reality, as Limit of Reality, as the Dharmadhatu, as Nirvana, as the Eternal, as Sameness, as Non-duality, as the Undying, as the Formless, as Causation, as the Doctrine of Buddha-Cause, as Emancipation, as the Truth of the Path, as the All-Knower, as the Victor, as the Will-made Mind.... Thus in full possession of one hundred thousand times three asamkhyeyas of appellations, neither more nor less, in this world and in other worlds, I am known to the peoples, like the moon in water which is neither in it nor out of it." (61)
Publicat de dhruva la 17:26

*****************************************************************

Did you get all that?  LOL!  Yeah, some of it is pretty deep and unless you're familiar with some of the symbolism, it may not see very comprehensible - but it does relate to boardgames, for boardgames are nothing more, or less, than the incorporation of these 'abstract principles' into a format that non-initiated peopled can relate to, even if they don't necessarily "get it" - that is, get the total picture.  Of course, very few of us actually get the total picture, no matter how smart we think we are, or how advanced in religious and/or esoteric learning in which we believe we are steeped.

That's where populists such as Nigel Pennick come in and boy or boy, he sure was panned by the critics.  One must ask - why?  If he was so full of baloney, why was he so vilified? 

This is a 9x9 grid scanned from Nigel Pennick's "Secret Games of the Gods."  Sorry the image is blurry - my scanner is old.  I think you can readily see, though, the similarity in lay-out to the 9x9 mandela that is depicted in the information from the Frithjof Schuon blog, above.

Keep in mind - the 8x8 grid is none other than our 64-square chessboard; the 9x9 variation is the boad upon which Chinese chess - Xiang qi - is played.

This is what Pennick wrote:

Sacred Space

The Hindu tradition of earth harmony from India known as Vastuvidya is probably a very pure survival of the ancient geolocational art which gave rise to both the European and Chinese traditions.  an ancient Sanskrit text on temple foundation, the Manasara Shilpu Shastra, explains the geometrical techniques for laying out the basic square which is then subdivided into the sacred grid.  Having used the rules of Vastuvidya to find an appropriate location for the temple, the practitioner erects an upright or gnomon at the center of a water surface prepared at the site.  This gnomon must be of prescribed canonical dimensions, being either 12, 18 or 24 angulas in length.  From this center, using knotted rope to maintain the correct dimensions, a circle is drawn, with a radius twice the length of the gnomon.  By observing opposing limbs of the Sun, a true east-west line can be drawn.  The two positions of the sun when it is the same height above the horizon in the morning and the afternoon are maked on the circle, and a line drawn between them.  At each end of this equinoctial axis, a peg is driven into the earth, and the rope used to form arcs centered on the two pegs.  This makes a geometrical figure known as a vesica.  A line between the crossing-points of these two arcs, the extreme ends of the vesica, is true north-south, crossing the east-west line a little ot the north of the center of the original circle.  Taking this as a center, a new circle the same diameter to the original one is drawn on the ground.  From this circle, an east-west vesica is created in the same way as the first one.  The four intersection-points of the two vesicas are joined by straight lines to form a square, the basis of the sacred grid.

Ancient philosophy asserted the unity of all existence, the greater being reflected in the lesser.  Certain geometrical forms, which are capable of seemingly limitless expansion or subdivision, are a perfect way of expressing this truth.  The human form can be envisaged as a living physical reflection of the hidden patterns of the creation.  In the Jewish faith, human beings are created in the image of God, as temples ordained by the supreme creator to enshrine the divine spark, the sentient soul which elevates human beings above the animals.  The qualities inherent in the universe are reflected in the human body, which is the microscosmic mirror of the macrocosmos.  According to this viewpoint, all things present in the universe are encapsulated in each and every human person.  The so-called Hermetic Maxim, attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, the mythical founder of alchemy, state: "That which is in the lesser world (the microcosm) reflects tat of the grater world (the macrocosm)."

The geometrical form of ground-plans, expressed as the grid, manifests itself as the Yantra, a sacred image which is explained as a gathering-point or nucleus of spiritual force.  In Tantra, these geometrical patterns act as focal points upon which devotees may fix their meditative concentration.  But Yantras are much more than aid to meditation, for they are also sacred icons of specific spiritual beings, whose actual images are not present.  to practitioners of Tantra, Yantras represent the subtle bodies of these Devatas, their underlyng eternal network of energies.  Like Chladni patterns, they are connected with sound.  When the appropriate Mantram is recited, the corresponding Yantra is activitated.  The appropriate Devata manifests in the person saying the Mantram, unifying the person with the infinite. 

The similarity between the common forms of Yantra and gameboards is striking, showing their common origin in the sacred grid.  ...  In the sacred world view, every human artefact which might be seen as an image of the world - whole kingdomes, cities, sacred enclosures, temples, shrines, and even board games - were designed according to this sacred cosmic image.


Photo: Irina Krush v. Katerina Rohonyan, 2010 U.S. Women's Chess Championship.  Intense concentration upon the chessboard - one might almost say "meditative."  The best chessplayers are the ones who can attune themselves most closely with the "vibrations" of the board - the "dance of the pieces."  The ancient Egyptians called their game pieces "ibau" - dancers, also a variation of the Egyptian hieroglyphic for "ivory", from which many game pieces were made.

Notice that on the 8x8 grid - which we use for our chessboard, the power moves of the pieces most often involve moving on a diagonal - the bishops, the Queen; the pattern described by the move of a knight is a 90 degree or right triangle, the longest line of which is a diagonal.  Even the pawn takes following a diagonal line, and the lowliest piece on the board can take out the mightiest, if it be unwary. 

Valencia - the Cradle of Modern Chess?

A special symposium by chess historians and scholars was presented in Valencia during the recently-concluded Karpov-Kasparov reunion chess match (September 21 - 25, 2009). So, while some came to enjoy the chess, others came to listen to historians from all around the globe present papers on how Valencia (may have been) or (was) the cradle of modern chess as we play it today in the West, and some no doubt came to enjoy both! Chessvibes presented an informative article on the topic ("Valencia and the Origins of Modern Chess"), quoting liberally from both ancient and modern sources, including the writings of chess historian Dr. (IM) Ricardo Calvo, who died in September, 2002. From the time we first met online in early 1999 until his untimely death in 2002, Ricardo Calvo was a faithful and provocative mentor to the Goddesschess people. He was an active member in the discussion boards from those early days and he sent us many articles he had written over the years for publication at the - then - fledgling Goddesschess website. You can find them, and articles written on chess in 15th century Spain and related subjects by Carmen Romeo, his widow, at Goddesschess Ch'Essays.

Victor Keats - Chess Historian

Mr. Don is here, yippee! He arrived right on time, no hitches or problems in the itinerary, unlike the last few times he traveled here! As per usual, we got into one of our wide-ranging discussions while walking to the supermarket in high humidity and heat (I sweated, he did not), performing yard work (with lots of rest breaks - and I sweated, he did not) and before a late supper (served continental time at 9:00 p.m. in the air-conditioned comfort of the dinette area, where he shivered and later changed into what I consider winter-wear - who wears long-sleeved fleece when it's 87 degrees F outside?), the discussion somehow led to a chess historian that Mr. Don remembered as "Keene" - but what he was telling me of his recollections didn't jive with what I know about the only Keene that has anything to do with chess, so I said no, it has to be somebody else. We went back and forth, back and forth, and then I said I think I have two books written by Him. I dashed upstairs to my library and sure enough - there were two handsomely bound volumes on the origins/early history of chess written by Dr. Victor Keats. Hours later, I am now ensconced in the library upstairs working on this blog and Mr. Don is reading Keats (that is, chess historian Victor Keats) in the kitchen! Dr. Keats has a website, please pay a visit. Dr. Keats has a lot of important things to say about the origins of chess, information that is not readily available elsewhere than in his meticulously researched and assembled books. Here is a list of Dr. Keats' books I believe are available for purchase.

The Land of Firdousi

For those of you who have been following events the past week in Iran, the land where it is quite possible the game of chess as we recognize it first became amalgamated, I've been following the blogs at The New York Times and the Guardian.co.uk. This is from The Lede at The New York Times tonight: Update 6:21 p.m. A Twitter feed that seems to be associated with the Moussavi campaign posted this message one hour ago: Mousavi & Karoubi ask supporters NOT to attend Friday prayers (which is being delivered by supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei) Update 6:09 p.m. Iran’s Press TV reports that the country’s Supreme Leader will be leading the prayers on Friday at a university in the capital: Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei will lead this week’s Friday prayers in Tehran University. “The massive turnout of the Iranian nation in the Friday prayers congregation will manifest the solidarity and unity among Iranians,” IRNA quoted Iran’s Friday prayers headquarters as saying. The Guardian reports that Iran’s chief cleric, who also heads its government, “is expected to combine a call for calm tomorrow with a warning of severe consequences if protests continue.” I don't know what is going to happen tomorrow, but I don't have a good feeling. I hope I am wrong.

Faulty Chess History - Arrggghhhh!

Hola darlings! I've had a very bad day. It was raining hard this morning when I left for the office. It was difficult enough to force myself out of a cozy warm bed at 6 a.m. while the rain was pounding on the roof. The half-mile walk to the bus stop at 7:20 a.m. resulted in me getting rather wet from the waist down from the blowing rain, and my shoes sprung leaks, so I went to work with wet socks. Oh YUCK! It stopped raining shortly after I boarded the bus. Of course. It started raining again shortly before I had to get off the bus to hike the blocks to the office. Of course. There is extra walking now since the bus has been detoured by summertime street repairs. Of course course. I was not in a very good mood when I got to the office. I had a pile of work still sitting from the day before (my first day back from nearly 3 weeks vacation), my hair looked like crap and I was hungry. I did get a very fat-filled breakfast sandwich from the cafeteria, which I scarfed down at my desk while going through my emails and prioritizing the work for the day. My hair - well, I won't even go there. I am so glad to be home tonight. The rain finally stopped and the fog has blown away. I swear my grass and plants have sprung up inches since the rain started in earnest late last night. Yes, yes, as an amateur gardener I realize the importance of regular deep watering. And so I could rationalize my discomfort and mushy socks (still mushy when I got home, eeeuuuuuwww) for the greater good of my water-starved garden. So what if the rain arrived 24 hours later than first forecast, that caused me to postpone doing serious watering with the sprinkler in the back yard on Sunday, because my herbaceous friends were looking somewhat peaked. And I felt so guilty, like I was personally murdering each and every blade of grass... Arrrgggghhhh. Anyway, I get home tonight, dispose of the stinking mushy socks, dry off, and settle down for a night of blogging since there is absolutely nothing decent on network television, and I'm too cheap to subscribe to cable or satellite. But now I'm all p.o.'d again, darlings, and it is all because of THIS MAN! I am not a member of Gamasutra, and I do not wish to become a member - I mean, come on - Gamasutra? Please - give me back my Kama Sutra! And no, that's not a World War II kamikaze game involving flying planes into battle cruisers. No offense to Mr. Dinehart, and I mean that sincerely. It's not the easiest thing in the world to go back into the mists of time trying to tease out the true origins of the game we call chess. We started out as rank amateurs and ten years later we're still amateurs - although not so rank as we used to be :)) For the vast majority of people alive today, I'd say somewhere between 99.94% and 99.99% - how chess came to be is not a compelling question. But for us at Goddesschess, it is. I'd say it has become almost an obsession (eek!) Suffice to say, after 10 years of continuous work, we believe we have accumulated sufficient evidence to say with confidence that "H.J.R. Murray got it wrong, baby!" Okay - I don't hear the trumpet fanfare I want - drat! Which only goes to show you. To most people, this ain't an important issue! But to us, it is. And so I'd like to go on the record with what we think is a more correct statement of facts about the origins of chess. Without going into too much boring detail. Before I get started, I'd like to state for the record that I thought Mr. Dinehart's blog post was great. I found it entertaining, charming, humorous and informative, all about a subject I could care less about - except for the history of chess part! Well done, Mr. Dinehart. Now, as to that: So I set out to do research, and like most things in western culture, one need look east to find their roots. I started with Chess and then dug a little deeper. It lead me to Chaturaga, a game whose rules are mostly lost, but the pieces remain. This, the first serious war-game, came before Europe was even a dream. There is evidence that points to at least three ancient games having their roots in divination, and warfare was not the primary motif or even a consideration at the beginning: in ancient Egypt, the games of Mehen (the serpent game) and Senet, and in ancient China, the game of Liubo (Image: liubo board, c. 400 BCE). In later times in ancient Egypt, Mehen ceased to be played for reasons that are unknown, although some have speculated that it was because playing a game on the back of a God (actually, a Goddess, but that's another story) was insulting. Senet and the much later game of Liubo could be played "straight" - that is - as a board game of chance - or as a game of divination. Two historians of whom I am aware have pointed to Liubo as a direct predecessor of chess: David Li and Joseph Needham. Thanks to the research of several historians and ethnographers, it is now generally accepted that the earliest board games probably had their roots in attempts to determine the future. The Sanskrit word "Chaturanga", means "four parts", or "Army", which for the ancient Indians was compromised by 4 parts. It is a game of 6th century BCE Indian origins consisting of two small armies with unique units, on an 8 x 8 board.Chaturanga predates Chess, but only in the little evidence had in artifact, not by popular record. Most likely a Persian invention, Chaturanga beats Chess in record by only a number of years. I believe most chess historians are in general agreement that chaturanga was a game invented or evolved sometime during the sixth century CE, not the 6th century BCE. Some posit an earlier date for invention or evolution of the game, but to my recollection, not as far back as the 6th century BCE (except Goddesschess). Perhaps Mr. Dinehart made a typo. The Sanskrit chaturanga literally means four ("chatur") and limbs (as in arms and legs) ("anga"). As such, it does not, per se, refer to anybody's army, Indian or otherwise. Chaturanga does, however, have a counterpart in the Pahlavi (middle Persian) word chatrang, which means the mandrake plant (it has the same meaning in modern Farsi). Sanskrit and Pahlavi, and their descendants, are all derived from an ancestral "mother tongue" - proto-Indo-European, placing the sub-continent of India firmly in the "west" linguistically. I can't locate it in my notes at the moment, but I believe the Pahlavi word for four is chatar, which is very close to the Sanskrit chatur four. Chess is an Arab invention first mentioned by the court poet Bana, in a poem he wrote between "625 and 640 CE"[3]. I haven't studied Bana's quotes, and so I'll only say this: most chess historians are in agreement that chess is NOT an invention of the Arabs, but was adopted by them as the game shatranj (from Pahlavi chatrang) after the Persians were conquered in the mid-7th century CE. Thanks to the trade routes of the ancient world Chess along with Chaturanga were both brought west to the likes of Africa, Spain, Germany, and the Ottoman Empire. The game evolved into chess and hung around for until 2400 years later when things got interesting. There is a lot of evidence of trade and cultural exchanges from the far east (China) to ancient Rome and beyond, over an extended period of time during period of time well within the historical, along the Silk Road routes. There is a great deal of evidence of direct trade and cultural exchanges between ancient Persia and ancient China dating to the first ruler of the Tang Dynasty (c. 600's CE). Who knows how long such trade might have existed for which evidence no longer exists, or has yet to be discovered? For instance, there is suggestive evidence that the trade in tin between the Middle East and mines in Cornwall existed as far back as the Bronze Age. There is even evidence of some ancient Egyptian pre-dynastic maces showing up in graves in far northwestern China, dating back to approximately 3500 BCE. What historians currently state is that the Arabs spread the game of chess they called shatranj as they conquered more and more lands, including modern-day Spain and Portugal. The Arab historians are quite honest in admitting that their game shatranj was taken from the Persian game chatrang. Murray wrote about how the game shatranj was carried into parts of India that were subsequently conquered by the Arabs and somehow morphed into a four-handed game where the pieces were moved depending on the throw of dice - also called chaturanga. Thus the confusion in trying to determine just what game was talked about in some written historical accounts. In any event, the four-handed dice-game called chaturanga was a far cry from the pure strategy game played by the Persians in the 6th century CE. It is documented that "chess" was spread by the Moslems (Arabs) during their conquests in the 7th and 8th centuries CE, and it is also documented that the game was spread by Vikings and other traders, including the "Rus" during the 8th to 11th centuries CE. Well, that's it, more or less in a nut-shell. There's much more - a veritable tapestry so rich in interconnecting threads that it is nearly inpenetrable. We at Goddesschess call it "The Weave." Like any good weavers, however, rather than being overwhelmed by the completed product, we start with a single thread and follow it as best we can to its origin. Pick a thread - any thread - and follow it to where it may lead. Please pay attention to all of those intersections with other threads along the way, and to where they may lead, too. Okay, end of harangue! I'm hungry, it's well past my supper time!

What's Going On?

Hola darlings! I've been too busy today. It all started at the office where we are inundated with individual income tax and fiduciary income tax returns that are all due on April 15. Eek! Then, in a way that is too convoluted to go into here, especially when I'm sitting here contemplating getting toothpicks to keep my eyelids up long enough to finish blogging for tonight! Anyway, I was revisiting much older personal research (some going back to 2003, double Eek!) on the elephant in the Middle East and Egypt. Through something dondelion mentioned in this week's Random Round-up at Goddesschess, I discovered a new clue and started following it back into my old research, and into new research. The result is - I'm totally confused (nothing new there) and exhausted; but it appears to promise new insights into our quest for the origins of chess -- I should more properly say into our quest for the origins of boardgames out of which chessly concepts arose. Is that utterly obtuse and opaque? LOL! I sound like a candidate for a seat on the United States Chess Federation Executive Board! Seriously (har!), I'm going to work on a little something to present here - or at Goddessches - about the history of the elephant and how it came to be used as a piece in chess. It's now article 6 (7?) in line with other articles I'm working on. Sigh. Anyway, please check out dondelion's March 29, 209 edition of Random Round-Up at Goddesschess (right hand-column, scroll down to Random Round-Up) - it's really good stuff and if you read all of the info provided at the links the results will take you along paths where you can join us in our never-ending game of "connecting the dots" in the never-ending quest for the origins of chess. I also did a quick update at Chess Femme News, a sort of random round-up of my own relating recent news of chess femmes.

Chess as Metaphor for Politics

Story from The Independent (Ireland): (Image: Knight, Nishapur (Iran), 7th century CE, The Hermitage Museum) Obama makes all the right moves in Iranian chess game By Catherine Philp Saturday March 21 2009 Could this be Obama's 'Reagan' moment? Already comparisons are being drawn to that president's exhortation to Mr Gorbachev to "tear down that wall" as he stood before the Brandenberg Gate. Ronald Reagan had a real barrier of bricks, mortar and barbed wire on which to project his vision of East-West harmony. Mr Obama's plea is more abstract and more nuanced; less of a call to revolution than food to fuel the growing doubts of the Iranian people about their proud isolation. Contrast his words with George W Bush's bluster about an 'axis of evil'. That phrase did nothing to help Mohammed Khatami, then Iranian President, to sell his moderate agenda and hesitant attempts for rapprochement with the West. Nor did it blunt Iran's nuclear ambitions, which have taken on new momentum since the election of the firebrand demagogue, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, reaching breakout point this year with the accumulation of enough low-enriched uranium to develop into a bomb. This is the reality that Mr Obama faces: the prospect of a nuclear Iran. Even on a purely tactical level, the military option offers no guarantees of success. Of the different scenarios being game-tested in Washington, only the second least palatable is containment of a nuclear-armed Iran. Mr Obama's advisers have told him, with some authority, that there is no other option than a diplomatic one. Consider this as the second move in a game of chess -- an ancient Persian pastime. Or, to Persian speakers, ta'araf, the elegant conversational process of engaging an interlocutor, absorbing their language in a lengthy process of polite deference, before getting down to business. In his inauguration speech Mr Obama offered to extend a hand of friendship to those who first unclenched their fist. Mr Ahmadinejad responded with surprising positivity -- salted by a healthy dose of Persian chauvinism -- agreeing to talks but only in "an atmosphere of mutual respect". Then yesterday, after acknowledgements of Iran's cultural heritage and warm wishes on its national holiday, Mr Obama echoes Mr Ahmadinejad's own phrase back to him, telling him America seeks "engagement that is honest and grounded in mutual respect". Iran is not North Korea: people will hear this speech. The authorities attempted a crackdown last week on satellite television, aimed at Farsi channels beamed in by dissidents abroad, but news always get through. The BBC's Persian Service is a favourite on radio. The government's first official reaction is telling, harking back to past differences such as the 1953 US-engineered coup, or the 1988 shooting down of an Iranian passenger plane. Many Iranians are tired of the past, and hungry for a different future. Current economic woes have taken their toll on Mr Ahmadinejad's popularity as Iranians realise how little his world-stage grandstanding has done to benefit them. Mr Ahmadinejad asked for mutual respect. Mr Obama has offered it. The ball is in his court. It would be hard to explain to Iranians why he should now balk. Presidential elections are coming in June and Mr Ahmadinejad faces a tough challenge from a newly united opposition. In 2005 the reformists and moderates ran against each other, splitting the anti-Ahmadinejad vote. In 2009 the drive to remove Mr Ahmadinejad is strong enough to have made them join forces. Mohammed Khatami, by far the most popular, but controversial, candidate, dropped out of the race last week, throwing his support behind Mir Hosein Mousavi -- less popular but more acceptable to the ruling clergy, who hold ultimate power in Iran. Suddenly there is a real alternative to Mr Ahmadinejad, and a real chance of him winning. Mr Ahmadinejad ignores this new overture at his own peril, and that is what Mr Obama is banking on. - Catherine Philp

**********************************************************

I found this article particularly interesting, because I believe that chess as westerners would recognize it was first played in ancient Persia - today's Iran. I'm no expert on etymology, but a study of Pahlavi (Middle Persian) words that are used to define and describe chess led me to believe that the game described in the great Persian national epic/history Shah Nameh as having been imported from Hind (a region in Pakistan/formerly considered part of northern India) was actually of Persian origin. Those ancient words for chess/about chess conveyed the sense of a face-to-face meeting; not so much a confrontation as a probing, a learing process, a testing of skills one-on-one, and had more to do with measuring the worthiness of an individual than warfare. It was a drawn-out process, with the players settling in over many days, slowly discovering each other's strengths and weaknesses on the board. Chatrang is, essentially, a game of discovery and growth, for no serious player can ever come away from a game without being changed in some small whit.

The Essenes Are Baloney! Claims Archaeologist

Nothing like Middle East archaeology to stir up a little controversy among the usually pretty laid-back realms of archaeology! The mental images of "scholars in uproar" makes me double over laughing! And that the archaeologist putting forth the new hypothesis causing all of the uproar is a female - well - PRICELESS! I can hardly wait to see how this all works out - but I'll probably be dead by then (50 to 100 years from now). Drat! I need a crash course in reincarnation... From The Times On Line (where else???) From The Times March 18, 2009 Scholars in uproar over challenge to Dead Sea Scrolls For more than 60 years scholars have believed that the Dead Sea Scrolls were the work of an ascetic Jewish sect called the Essenes, who lived in the 1st century in the mountains and recorded their religious observances on parchments. Now a new theory challenging the broadly accepted history is sending shockwaves through the archaeological community, even leading to the arrest of one prominent scrolls scholar’s son in the United States. Rachel Elior, a professor of Jewish philosophy at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, claims in a forthcoming study that not only were the 930 scrolls written by Jewish priests living in Jerusalem but that the Essenes as a sect did not exist. In her new book Memory and Oblivion, Professor Elior says that the scrolls were written by the Sadducees, a class of Jewish priests dating back to the time of King Solomon. The scrolls were found by a shepherd in a cave at Qumran, on the edge of the Dead Sea, in 1947. One of the most important archaeological finds of the century, their significance was enhanced by the discovery of an untouched version of the Hebrew Bible dating back to 300BC. Some scholars believe that the obscure sect may have had an impact on early Christianity, positing that John the Baptist or even Jesus may have spent time with them. Professor Elior argues, however, that an analysis of the scrolls shows that the authors were recording the routines and practises of the cohanim, or priests, descended from Zadok, the first high priest in Jerusalem after the conquest of the city by the Israelites hundreds of years before. She believes they were taken to Qumran some time during the 2nd century BC after the Sadducees turned their backs on the Temple of Jerusalem, which they said had been defiled by the conquest of the Seleucid Greeks, the descendants of one of the generals of Alexander the Great, in 175BC. “I believe any serious scholar truly can’t but admit that the law reflected in the scrolls is a Sadducee law,” she said, pointing out that there were no corroborating historical records, either in Jewish or early Christian literature, to indicate that a large sect of celibate men lived in the area over a long period of time. “The Essenes are only a literary invention of a Utopian society that lived a most benevolent and chaste life,” she told The Times. The confusion arose from scholars using other, later texts as their sources, she said, noting that the Jewish-Roman scholar Josephus mentioned them, but that he was writing hundreds of years later. The professor also noted that when the texts were unearthed in 1947, the area around Jerusalem was caught up in the war that created the Jewish state, and that early hurried assessment of their origin set scholars on the wrong track for decades. The theory has stirred controversy in academic circles, with established scrolls experts vehemently rejecting the new interpretation. “Almost seventy scholars accept the statement that one of the Essenes’ groups lived in Qumran, and some say we’re all morons and only they understand,” Hanan Eshel, a professor at Bar-Ilan University in Tel Aviv, told the Haaretz newspaper. The debate has even led to the arrest of the son of one proponent of the theory that the Essenes did not write the ancient scriptures. Raphael Golb, the son of Norman Golb, a professor at Chicago University, was arrested in New York this month for allegedly creating online aliases and conducting a campaign of harassment against academic opponents of his father’s theories. Father and son claimed that members of mainstream academia were trying to silence the professor. The younger Mr Golb reportedly accused his father’s critics of being anti-Semites trying to deny the link between the scrolls and established Jewish institutions. Monastic mystery — The Essenes are believed to have been a religious sect in Palestine from about the 2nd century BC to the end of the 1st century AD — The New Testament makes no mention of them, and accounts by Pliny the Elder, Philo of Alexandria and Josephus differ in significant details — Pliny, in his day, fixed their number at 4,000. They are thought to have moved to the desert in opposition to the powers in Jerusalem and lived in secluded monastic communities — It is believed that they considered themselves to be a chosen elect and that messianic figures would appear to them and usher in a new age, and that they spent their days engaged in manual work or study of Scripture — After a year’s probation, converts received emblems but were banned from common meals for two years — Those who qualified then swore piety to God, justice towards men, hatred of falsehood and faithful observance of the tenets Source: www.britannica.com ****************************************************************************** I found this first comment on the story made online at the newspaper's website point on - and it happens to coincide with the philosophy of the researchers at Goddesschess who are exploring the origins of chess and other ancient board games: a lot of accepted antiquities "standards" eg chronology are based on surprisingly flimsy evidence, often just some 19th century German theorist's opinion, who had information second or third-hand. The Egyptian chronology is a good example and David Rohl has done a great job of demolishing it. Justin Toffmann, Cologne, Germany Jan says: Just because it's accepted as "truth" today does not mean it's correct; what is accepted as "truth" today is tomorrow's discarded hypothesis. We've seen this over and over again in the world of science (both hard and "soft" sciences) and chess historians should keep this in mind.

Record Oracles Bones Discovered in China

Dem bones, dem bones... Story from China Daily Record find of oracle bones in Shaanxi By Ma Lie (China Daily)Updated: 2008-11-12 07:10 XI'AN -- Archaeologists in Shaanxi province have unearthed more than 1,100 oracle bone characters, shedding new light on the number of such inscriptions in existence. The find was made at a cluster of tombs in Qishan county that date back to the Western Zhou Dynasty (c. 11th century-771 BC). Lei Xingshan, head of the dig team, said in Xi'an yesterday: "Prior to our discovery at the Temple of Duke Zhou, less than 1,100 Chinese characters written on pieces of bone and tortoiseshell had ever been found." Members of the team have been unearthing scripts almost every day since the excavation began on Sept 1, and there are now more than 1,100 readable words, which is a new record, he said. Among the finds is the character for "king", which could help archaeologists learn more about the lives of the Zhou kings and the region in which they lived, Lei said. Also, after excavating more than 100 commoners' tombs in the area around the duke's temple, the team has built up a large collection of pottery and bronze ware that will help paint a better picture of the lives of ordinary people during the Western Zhou period, he said. "Coincidentally, we also found several items from the Yangshao period of the neolithic era (5,000-7,000 years ago); the first time such relics have been found near the Temple of Duke Zhou," he said. Zhou Chunmao, a researcher with the Shaanxi archaeology research institute, told China Daily Tuesday that the discovery of the new oracle bone scripts has great significance for the understanding of the formation of the Western Zhou dynasty and the structure of society at that time. Since the first oracle bones were found in 1898, Chinese archaeologists have unearthed more than 100,000 pieces of bone and tortoiseshell inscribed with characters. Archaeologists' interest in the area around the Temple of Duke Zhou was aroused in December 2003, after a team led by Peking University Professor Xu Tianjin found two inscriptions featuring 55 characters there. Prior to the record haul by Lei's team, 760 inscriptions dating from the Western Zhou Dynasty had been found in the area. Duke Zhou was the fourth son of the founding King Wenwang of the Western Zhou Dynasty, and regent to to his nephew King Chengwang.

***************************

Divination may be at the root of the earliest forms of "board" games. Chess historians pay scant attention to this aspect of the development of games, seeming to insist that chess is somehow "different" (hint: it's not, darlings). Theory suggests that the earliest "boards" were drawn in the earth with a stick or a finger. The shamans of the Dogon to this day continue to construct complex board-like structures by drawing in the earth in preparation for divination. Another line of thought traces the earliest development of "board" games to the development of agriculture - it is fascinating to see depictions of "fields" and the layout of entire towns along "chessboard" like grids that date back to 8000 years ago.

Rice Grain Effect - in Advertising?

Well, if it works, these guys may make some money... Folks familiar with the "ancient history" of chess have most likely heard the tale, with variations, of the wise man in an Indian raja's court who, after earning the gratitude of the raja, was offered anything he wanted, up to half the raja's kingdom. The wise man asked for a measure of grain using a chessboard as an analogy, such that one grain on the first square became 2 grains on the second square, became 4 grains on the 3rd square, became 16 grains on the 4th square, and doubling and doubling so on, until the 64th square was reached. The raja said of course you shall have this, privately thinking to himself that perhaps his wise man wasn't so wise after all, for this was surely a small reward! But it turned out, after the calculations were done, that all the grain in the world would not suffice to fulfill the amount needed. The 64th square alone would be worth 2 to the 63rd power! Add all the other grains to this amount from the other 63 squares. Oh my. According to H.J.R. Murray's "A History of Chess" (a chess historian's Bible), this person was named Sassa (or Sissa or Susa) b. Dahir, from accounts derived from various Arabic sources. That is the idea (sort of) behind this new advertising venture: Small Rice Grain Big Effect: Physicists Use Ancient Model to Sell Advertisement Chess Fields on the Internet.

"The Indian Defense" by Vishy Anand!!!

I'm beside myself tonight. The Goddess is granting me a good evening after a long, hard day. First, the news about Katherine Neville's long awaited sequel to "The Eight" and now this!!!! Am I in Heaven? Er, I don't agree with Anand's take on "The Official HIStory of Chess," based on old chess history crap from 19th century Germans and Englishmen who fancied themselves historians and ethnographers (yeah, we all know where that led us - World War I), but I give Anand a great deal of credit for even knowing about the "accepted" origins of chess line of @%&* and its early history and actually writing about it. Just don't be sucked into the @%&*, darlings. But then, that's why Goddesschess exists. We offer a counter view and some much-needed fresh air... From Time (Magazine online) in Partnership with CNN: The Indian Defense By VISWANATHAN ANAND June 19, 2008 Where did chess begin? For many who play the sport at its highest, most obsessive levels, that's not just a question of history — it's a matter of ownership, of dominion. We're so completely lost in our universe of 64 black and white squares that we like to think every move we make changes the way the world exists. So it's easy for Russians to imagine that chess began when they started to play it. In 1991, at my first international tournament, in Reggio Emilia in northern Italy, a Russian grandmaster condescendingly told me I could at best be a coffee-house player because I had not been tutored in the Soviet school of chess, which then dominated the sport. With the arrogance of youth — I was 21 — I thought to myself, "But didn't we Indians invent chess? Why shouldn't I have my own route to the top of the sport?" It would take me 17 years to find that route, and along the way I've had hundreds of conversations about the origins of chess — with players, fans, officials, taxi drivers, barbers and who knows how many people who sat next to me on a plane. I've heard the ownership of chess being claimed by Russians, Chinese, Ukrainians, Arabs, Iranians, Turks, Spaniards and Greeks. My own view is that the sport belongs to everybody who plays it, but the question of its origins is easy enough to answer: chess comes from India. Our claim is based not on dominance — although the Indian school is now producing lots of high-quality players, including (ahem) the world No. 1. Some of the oldest references to the sport are found in ancient Indian texts. In the great epic Ramayana (which, according to some sources, was orally transmitted sometime between 750 B.C. and 500 B.C.), the demon king Ravana invents chess to amuse his wife Mandodari. A brilliant mind, she promptly beats him at it. My grandmother told me that story when I first began to play the game at age 6. Chess also features in the Arthashastra (3rd century B.C.), perhaps the world's oldest political treatise. Its author, Chanakya, describes chess as a game of war strategy, known as chaturanga, played on an 8-by-8 board. Think of it as the world's first virtual war game. I believe chess traveled westward out of India, through what is now Afghanistan into Persia, where it arrived during the Sassanid Empire — an Indian king is believed to have sent a chessboard as a gift to his Persian counterpart. At the royal court in Ctesiphon, the game was known as chatrang. The Arabs learned it (they called it shatranj) when they conquered Persia in the 6th century A.D. and carried it across northern Africa. They introduced the game to Europe when the Moors crossed the Mediterranean into the Iberian peninsula. It grew immensely popular in Moorish Spain, where it was played in the street — a practice still seen in parks and other squares in cities around the world. Iberia underwent a major change after the 15th century reconquista by Catholic forces led by Queen Isabella I — and chess changed, too. On the board, the queen became the most important piece; the bishop replaced the camel and flanked the king and queen. (Modern chess is still played by rules formalized under Isabella's reign.) Around this time, the Spanish player Luis RamÍrez de Lucena wrote what may have been the first book about chess theory — the Lucena Position remains to this day the cornerstone of rook and pawn endings. Ironically, Russia may have been one of the last places in the Old World to receive chess, likely through the Volga trade route. It became popular there during the reign of Peter the Great. The late introduction didn't stop the Russians from becoming the game's superpower, though, and it wasn't until 2000 that an Indian — yours truly — finally brought the title of world chess champion back to the land of the sport's birth. I like to think that the arc of my own career has in some ways mirrored the journey of chess. I learned to play in India, then moved to Spain so I could play the European circuit, and won my first world championship in Iran. It's nice when your place in chess history has something to do with the bigger picture. Viswanathan Anand, 39, is an Indian chess grandmaster and the current world chess champion

5,000 Site Discovered in Iran

5000-year-old site discovered in southeastern Iran
Tehran Times Culture Desk
June 8, 2008

TEHRAN -- A broad site dating back to the third millennium BC was discovered during the latest excavations in Bampur region in Sistan-Baluchestan Province, southeastern Iran.

“In the Bampur valley, there is an ancient site covered with sand mounds, which is as large as the Burnt City and may belong to a civilization as great as the civilization of that the city,” Mehdi Mortazavi, an archaeologist of the University of Sistan-Baluchestan, told the Persian service of CHN on Saturday. According to Mortazavi, the site measures 1x1.5 kilometer. “I feel sure that there are a large number of sites like this here. Such sites may even exist in nearby regions like Saravan,” he stated.

Mortazavi refused to give more details about the location of the site for security reasons. “It’s better for the site to remain covered for the time being, because it will be plundered by illegal excavations if the precise location of the site is revealed,” he argued. [Psssst...it probably already has been discovered by the looters...]

Twenty sites -- mostly prehistoric -- have been discovered by the archaeologists of the University of Sistan-Baluchestan over the past few years. Covering an area of 152 hectares, the Burnt City, located 57 kilometers from the city of Zabol in Sistan-Baluchestan Province, is the largest prehistoric site of the province. It was one of the world’s largest conurbations at the dawn of the urban era and was well developed during the third millennium BC. It thus constitutes one of the country’s most important prehistoric sites. The city, which was burnt down three times, shows evidence of four stages of civilization. Since it was not rebuilt after the last conflagration, it has been named the Burnt City.
**********************************************************************************
The Burnt City (Shar-i Sokhta, various spellings) was where the wooden serpent game board was excavated in 1983 (image above). The serpent game board dates to about 2400 BCE, making it about 200 years younger (more or less) than the famous 20-squares boards excavated by Woolley at Ur.

On the Iranian side of the border, the area is called Sistan va Baluchestan; on the Pakistani side of the border the area is called Baluchistan. In older times, the larger area (encompassing lands in the border regions of Iran, Pakistan and India, all the way south to the Indian Ocean) was called Baluchistan. Several chess historians have pointed to Baluchistan as being the birth place of chess.

If God Isn't a "He," Why Call It a "He?"

From The Cornwall Standard Freeholder (Canada) The God versus Goddess argument Posted By Vakily, Abdollah February 2, 2002 Back in the early eighties, when I was an undergraduate student in Religious Studies, a popular discussion among students and professors centred around whether God was male or female. Those who followed a more traditional outlook argued that God has always presented Himself as male, particularly in Western monotheistic religions (i.e. Judaism, Christianity and Islam). Yet those whose feminist tendencies were stronger insisted that God must necessarily be female since a male God is less capable of having the tenderness and loving tendencies necessary for a caring, nurturing and forgiving deity. Since this issue periodically reappears and is discussed here and there, I would like to shed some light on Islam's teachings on the nature of God. To begin with, in the Quran the masculine pronoun is used to refer to God and thus one gets the impression that God is a male being. However, a more precise description of God is given in one of the shortest chapters of the Quran called "Sincerity": "Say God is One; God is eternally self-subsistent; He begets not, and neither is He begotten; and there is none like unto Him." (112:1-4) The word translated as "One" is "Ahad," which has a very peculiar characteristic to it. It is not the kind of "One" that could become two be adding another one to it. Rather it is the kind of "One" that is the only one, better understood as "unique". Another connotation of "Ahad" is unity. God as "Ahad" is a being that has united all contradictions and all opposing tendencies in itself. Just as in Taoism's concept of yin and yang, both female and male dimensions are present, united and in constant interaction with each other. To better understand this issue one should look at the 99 names of God presented in the Quran. Each name represents one of the characteristics of God, with Al-Rahman (the Merciful) being the pivotal one. Another characteristic of "Ahad" is that it cannot have any counterpart. If God were a male, it would necessitate the existence of a female deity, and if God were a female it would anticipate the existence of a male deity. But God, as the Creator of everything, is above the male/female polarity that He introduced into creation. This is what is meant by the fourth verse of the above-mentioned chapter, that rather than being a simple polemic against Christianity, it is a clear statement about the particular uniqueness of God. The question comes to mind as to why the Quran refers to God as "He". It should be understood that the language of the Quran is Arabic, which like French uses feminine and masculine pronouns for everything (lacking the neutral pronoun of "it"). Therefore out of necessity God is referred to by one of the pronouns already existing. Moreover, the masculine pronoun for God already existed in the Arabic language and the Quran had to use that tool to convey its message. If the Quran had been revealed in my native language (Persian or Farsi) we could have avoided this problem, since my language has no masculine or feminine pronouns and everything is referred to as "it" including God. Although the discussion of God versus Goddess will probably continue for awhile, the Islamic perspective is that God is above and beyond male and female polarity, and any use of the pronoun "He" is simply a necessity of language convention. Questions and comments can be addressed to Abdollah Vakily at dar-ul-ihsan@sympatico.ca. ************************************************************************************ It should be understood that the language of the Quran is Arabic, which like French uses feminine and masculine pronouns for everything (lacking the neutral pronoun of "it"). Okay then, why not translate the word in such as way that IT does not HAVE a gender - as in "One" or "Ahad"? I think that rendering any concept with a gender specific determinitive is, ipso facto, sexist and a throw-back to patriarchal times when the warrior male god was attempting to overthrow the female goddess. Can't we just get beyond that? Er, evidently, not yet. Language expresses THOUGHT. When the language says HE, the thought becomes HE in the minds of most (if not all) of the hearers and/or readers of that language. If we can just get beyond the HE concept of CREATOR, then we may begin to understand the true depth, awe and wonder of creation, the universe - and - just possibly - chess.

Ancient Games: Points to Ponder

A short essay from the Elliott Avedon Museum and Archive of Games website: Origins of Games - Issues to Ponder There is considerable difficulty in determining the origin of many games. This page offers some reasons why this is so. The main issue seems to be - are most games just modifications of a couple of games from the very distant past which have evolved and have been diffused throughout the world over time? Or are most games individual creative productions which were invented in different parts of the world at time periods in time. One reason that determining the origin of games is difficult is because games have been around a long time, and people didn't bother to maintain records about something as inconsequential as games. Although there are ancient tomb paintings depicting game playing, or remnants of ancient game equipment [discovered in archaeological excavations in Egypt and Mesopotamia], no one specifically maintained information about when or where a game was "invented' or from which culture it was "borrowed". Such record keeping is a product of the late middle ages and onward. In examining the origins of anything in society, one knows that a thing is either a spontaneous invention of someone, someplace - or the thing is a modified copy of the original that shows up in some other place. That's easy to see because a chair is a chair, or a can opener is a can opener, and this is also true with regard to certain intellectual concepts in mathematics or physics, for example. With games - this is not always the case. Nowadays, when one identifies something as a game as opposed to something else in society, they recognize that a game is a special device or behavior used for recreative purposes. It is taken for granted that games have been perpetuated by civilization to amuse and to entertain. Nonetheless, some people may have also consciously used games for other purposes, such as education or treatment of illness. This has probably been the case since people first began playing games, and may help to explain why in the 19th and early 20th centuries so much of scholarly study of game origins concerned their use in religious rites and practices of certain cultures. In examining anything, one may arbitrarily concentrate on the physical aspects of the thing, or how it might have been used. In the case of a chair or a can opener - its design is limited by its function. Since games may be assigned different functions in society, they may have been consciously modified. This has confused investigation in the past. (For example, in our time those 52 pieces of blank white plastic with little bumps on them are in reality a deck of Braille playing cards designed for use of sightless persons.) In a physical sense, there are two types of games - those that require special equipment and/or settings - and those that don't. Examples of the former would be roulette or tennis; while examples of the latter would be 20 questions or charades. Tracing the origins of games without physical equipment is even more difficult. At times, it is possible to trace connections among games even though they may look and seem very different. A case in point is a standard European Chess set and a Japanese Shogi set. Although they have different boards and playing pieces - one of the pieces in each set features the same unique move. In the West it's called the knight's move - one forward and one to the side, or one to the side and one forward. Or another example would be in decks of playing cards from many different cultures - all decks of cards are divided into suits and sequences. Similarities such as these have led a number of scholars to conclude that many games have a singular origin and were diffused to different cultures over time by traders, travelers, and soldiers. Because of these and certain other reasons, for the most part - theories about the origins and early geographical distribution of games are just theories which may never be verified!

Athena, Goddess of the Serpent

The identity between Athena and the snake was explicitly stated in ancient Greece. The historian Herodotus reports that in Athens "they have a great snake which guards the Acropolis and to which each month offerings of honey cake are made, and graciously received. But at the time of the Persian invasion, the snake refused to eat the offering. And when the priestess announced this, the Athenians deserted the city the more readily because the Goddess herself had deserted the acropolis."

However, Archaic Athena is not a Greek goddess, she predates them and her name does not have a Greek etymology. She is an echo of an ancient goddess, perhaps a bird goddess. In the classical Greek period, Athena was associated with an owl, "wisdom" (perhaps a remnant of her bird goddess origins). In poetry from Homer onward, Athena's most common epithet is glaukopis, which is usually translated "bright-eyed" or "with gleaming eyes." It is a combination of glaukos ("gleaming," "silvery," and later, "bluish-green" or "gray") and ops ("eye," or sometimes, "face"). Glaux, "owl," is from the same root, presumably because of its own distinctive eyes. The bird that sees in the night is closely associated with the goddess of wisdom: in archaic images, she is frequently depicted with an owl perched on her head.

Another archaic myth relates that a god named Pallas, with wings attached either to the ankles or to his back, like the archaic winged goddesses, was Athena’s father. He tried to rape her. She killed him and tore his skin off to make the Aegis of "goat skin." A question remains – just what was Athena’s Aegis? In some verisons of her myth, it is the great god Zeus’ shield that comes into Athena’s possession; in other versions of her myth, the Aegis is a cloak or cover, trimmed with serpents (later depicted as "tassles") that she throws over her shoulders and can be used as a protective covering.

The association of the Goddess Athena with the serpent remains for all to see. As stern guardian of the Acropolis, the Goddess is accompanied by the great snake which encircles her shield, thought to be Erichthonios himself - the babe born under "mysterious" circumstances, and nurtured next to the Goddess's own breast, wrapped in her great goatskin.

The red-figure vase featured at the beginning of this article is from ca. 420 BCE. It depicts the birth of the 'Earth-born One' (Erichthonios). Earth (Gaia) presents the new-born child to Athena, who represents the reborn serpent-friendly Eve after the Flood. The figure to the left of Gaia and the child is Hephaistos, the eldest son of Zeus and Hera, the deified Kain. According to one version of the myth surrounding this event, Athena obtained the sperm, or seed, of Hephaistos (Kain), and placed it into the Earth, and out of Earth sprang the rejuvenated line of Kain after the Flood. The essence of ancient Greek religion is very simple. After the Flood, which caused the line of Kain to disappear into the earth, Athena, the reborn serpent-friendly Eve, nurtures the reborn line of Kain which re-emerges from the earth into which it had disappeared. Another, darker version of the myth says Erichthonios is Athena’s own child, born after her father, the winged-God Pallas, raped her.

Notice the checkerboard decoration on Athena's garb: her helmet and cuirass are checked black and white. The helmet is feathered, harking back to Athena’s archaic origins as a bird goddess, and the owl is prominently featured, hovering above Athena’s right shoulder. Although it is a little unclear in the image, the black edging or trim on her gown (possibly meant to represent the Aegis) ends in the heads of two serpents.

Here, all wrapped up in one image: an ancient Goddess associated with the bird, the serpent, wisdom – and the checkerboard pattern. The powerful totemic magic of this prehistoric pattern was repeated over and over in ancient board games drawn into the dirt, used for divination and sacred rituals, and then erased after being used. In a very few cases, bits and pieces of these ancient game boards are still preserved today - in stone boards discovered in ancient tombs, in a few carved wooden boards miraculously preserved through thousands of years in arid climates, and depicted in tomb paintings, on pottery, and in sculpture. The true origins of chess are discovered in such images.

Chess Lessons From Ancient History

Her name is Isis, a Greek name for the ancient Egyptian Goddess, Aset (Auset), whose name literally means "throne."

Notice the shape of the "crown" upon Isis' head. It is a depiction of an Egyptian throne. It was, literally, upon the Goddess Aset that the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt sat, it was from that Goddess the Pharaohs derived their authority to rule. The Pharaoh - the "King" - sat upon the Goddess, who was the personification of the throne. Without the Goddess Isis, the King was powerless, for he lost his throne.

The depiction of Aset/Isis as a "throne" dates back to at least 3500 BCE (pre-dynastic) in Egyptian iconography. She was the mate of Osiris (Greek name), which in ancient Egyptian was variously Asar, Aser, Ausar, Wesir, or Ausare. That name "Wesir" sounds suspiciously like the much later title of "Vizier," who was the "King's" 'right-hand man,' the chess piece that later became the Bishop in western Chess.

What pieces today are placed on either side of the "King" and "Queen?" The Bishops - whose role in Medieval and Rennaisance European courts was advisor to the ruler and who, in many instances, wielded enormous power and influence despite their "godly" role as a representative of a higher power. De facto - the Vizier of old. Could Goddess Aset/Isis have been the original "King," She being the throne upon which the ruler sat - actually, the physical embodiment of the throne? And was God Asar/Wesir - Osiris - the original Vizier, who later became the "Bishop?"

Think about the tale of the relationship between Aset and Asar. Asar was killed by his jealous half-brother and cut into 14 parts, which he then scattered throughout the width and breadth of Egypt and the ancient Middle East. Isis found and reassembled 13 of the 14 pieces, but she could not find Asar's penis. And so by magic she conjured the 14th piece and thus restored Wesir/Osiris to his human form, and by magic she brought Asar back to life, but only as a God who lives in the Underworld, the King of the Dead. Asar/Wesir/Osiris was in a subsidary role, dependent upon Aset/Isis for his power, indeed, for his life.

Remember what the ancient lore teaches us. Remember the origin of "throne." We call a chess piece the "King" today, but that piece, representing the supreme throne, was originally a Goddess. Yes, to be sure, the female role of supreme throne was taken over by males in later history, but an echo of the Goddess remains down to this very day in the rules of chess; for just like the God Asar/Osiris, that piece that became the King owes His very life and existence to Aset/Isis, and as a sort of "divine" reminder, is thus severely restricted in his movements and power.

Remember.