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THE TEN ADVANTAGES OF CHESS ACCORDING TO THE PERSIAN
PHILOSOPHER, ARE THUS GIVEN IN TRANSLATION.
The "first advantage" of which the commencement is wanting
in the M.S., turns chiefly on the benefits of food and exercise
for the mind in which chess is marked out as an active agent,
intended by its inventor to conduce to intellectual energy in
pursuit of knowledge, for as the human body is nourished by
eating which is its food, and from which it obtains life and
strength, and without which the body dies, so the mind of man is
nourished by learning which is the food of the soul, and without
which he would incur spiritual death; that is ignorance, and it is
current that a wise man's sleep is better than a fool's devotion.
The glory of man then is knowledge, and chess is the nourishment
of the mind, the solace of the spirit, the polisher of intelligence,
the bright sun of understanding, and has been preferred by the
philosopher its inventor, to all other means by which we arrive
at wisdom.
The Second Advantage is in Religion, illustrating the Muhammedan
doctrines of predestination (Sabr and Cadar) by the free
will of man in playing chess, moving when he will, or where he
will, and which piece he thinks best, but restricted in some
degree by compulsion, as he may not play against certain laws,
nor give to one piece the move of another, whereas, on the
contrary, Nerd (Eastern Backgammon) is mere free will, while in
Dice again all is compulsion.
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