Within the last thirty years we have seen the invention of an
opening as correct in theory, and as elegant in practice as any
upon the board, and of which our fathers were utterly ignorant.
The world is not likely to tire of an amusement which never
repeats itself, of a game which presents today, features as novel,
and charms as fresh as those with which it delighted, in the
morning of history, the dwellers on the banks of the Ganges and
Indus.
An Indian philosopher thus described it:
It is a representative contest, a bloodless combat, an image, not
only of actual military operations, but of that greater warfare
which every son of the earth, from the cradle to the grave, is
continually waging, the battle of life. Its virtues are as
innumerable as the sands of African Sahara. It heals the mind in
sickness, and exercises it in health. It is rest to the overworked
intellect, and relaxation to the fatigued body. It lessens the
grief of the mourner, and heightens the enjoyment of the happy.
It teaches the angry man to restrain his passions, the light-minded
to become grave, the cautious to be bold, and the venturesome to be
prudent.
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