Charlemagne,
768-814, seems also to have taken defeat good-humouredly, and
Queen Elizabeth, who liked chess, philosophised upon it. Canute,
William the Conqueror, and Henry the Eighth, like the famous
Ras, of Abyssinia, whom Salt and Buckle inform us of, preferred
to win.
Chess, as it is now played, came down to us from the Fifteenth
century, when the queen of present powers was introduced, and
the extensions and improvements in the moves of the bishops and
the pawns and in castling effected, and which made the game
exactly what it now is. It has been so practised for four hundred
years without the slightest deviation or alteration, and with so
much continued satisfaction and advanced appreciation that any
change or modification suggested, however trifling, has been at
once discouraged and rejected, and additions proposed in the 17th
century (Carrera), 18th (Duke of Rutland), and 19th (Bird) were
regarded with no favour, and the objection that the game was
difficult enough already.
During the present century (especially in the second half) chess
has become vastly popular. The game is innocent and intellectual,
and affords the utmost scope for art and strategy, and for its
practice we have about five hundred clubs and institutions,
compared with the one club in St.
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