It is generally assumed on very fair inferences that the
Arabians were expert chess players, and also excelled in
blindfold play. The game was known among them in the days of the
prophet, 590 to 632, who finding some engaged at chess asked
them, "What images are these which you are so intent upon?"
For they seemed to have been new to him, the game having been
very lately introduced into Arabia from Persia. Nice gradations
of skill were observed among them, and thirteen degrees of odds
are enumerated among them down to the rook. To give any odds
beyond the rook, says one of the manuscripts, can apply only to
women, children, and tyros. For instance, a man to whom even
a first-class player can afford to give the odds of a rook and a
knight has no claim to be ranked among chess players. In fact
the two rooks in chess are like the two hands in the human body,
and the two knights are, as it were, the feet. Now that man has
very little to boast of on the score of manhood and valour who
tells you that he has given a sound thrashing to another man who
had only one hand and one foot. It may be observed, however,
that proportionately to the value of all the pieces in the old game,
as compared with the present, the rook and knight would be
equivalent to queen and rook with us.
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