Early chess players did believe chess had it's origins in ancient Greece. Carrera's credibility, however, improves when he talks about his contemporaries.
Chess and Religion
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Nov 17, 2014
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#102
batgirl wrote:
Early chess players did believe chess had it's origins in ancient Greece. Carrera's credibility, however, improves when he talks about his contemporaries.
An interesting thing to weigh would be what his contemporaries had to say about him...especially all of the priests. Then again, he may never have revealed anything that would be telling to the priests.
sorry just to clarify, Chess might be called a discipline, just as jihad means an inner spiritual struggle, prayer is invocation, pranayama is adapting life force, each a battle against our internal blockades. Each is a form of concentration where we strive to better ourselves. I am of none of these resocieties but try to understand each of there sciences and apply them practically.
batgirl wrote:
ParadoxOfNone, Carrera was an interesting person. Although he was born in the 16th century, he stood mostly in the early 17th century. The last book mentioned, "Il Gioco degli Scacchi," was translated by Jacob H. Sarratt a century after it was first pubished. The fascinating part of this book for me was Carrera's history of chess players up to that time with whom he was familar. ---------> An Account of Chess Players and Thse Who Have Written on the Game.
I don't recall any chess references in Homer. I remember reading somewhere that once indicated that soldiers played it beneath the walls of Troy, so I was looking for it when I read the Illiad and Oddessy. Are there any classical period sources that indicate play of an early chess?
Nov 18, 2014
0
#106
I don't know of evidence of any game resembling chess exisiting before the 500s AD. There were games, precursors of Chaturanga, vaguely in the nature of chess, but nothing recognizable as chess-like.
Early chess writers often attributed the invention of chess to ancient cultures, especially to the Greeks but that belief is as mythological as Scylla and Charybdis.
batgirl wrote:
I don't know of evidence of any game resembling chess exisiting before the 500s AD. There were games, precursors of Chaturanga, vaguely in the nature of chess, but nothing recognizable as chess-like.
Early chess writers often attributed the invention of chess to ancient cultures, especially to the Greeks but that belief is as mythological as Scylla and Charybdis.
I wouldn't even put it past the Egyptians to have possibly had some sort of chess like game. Considering how antiquated their culture was, yet how advanced, especially for it's time, having all of those characters in their written language, all of those gods to choose from and the fact that their society was somewhat military minded.
ParadoxOfNone, Carrera was an interesting person. Although he was born in the 16th century, he stood mostly in the early 17th century. The last book mentioned, "Il Gioco degli Scacchi," was translated by Jacob H. Sarratt a century after it was first pubished. The fascinating part of this book for me was Carrera's history of chess players up to that time with whom he was familar. ---------> An Account of Chess Players and Thse Who Have Written on the Game.
Below is a transcription of the last part of the book
______________________________________________
AN ACCOUNT
OF
CHESS PLAYERS,
AND OF THOSE WHO HAVE WRITTEN ON THE GAME.
Palamedes, son of Nauplius, King of the Island of Eubea, now called Negroponte, inventor of the Game of Chess, used to play with Thersites, in presence of Ajax, as mentioned by Pausanias in his tenth Book; he was a man of surprizing talent, for, according to some writers, he was the inventor of measures, numbers, and weights: he was profoundly learned in astrology, and accordingly fixed the solar year and the lunar month; he was the first who divided the hours and coined money. During an eclipse of the sun, when he was with the army, he was the first to encourage the soldiers, telling them not to be frightened at that which was produced by natural causes; he invented the countersign used by soldiers in camp. The four Greek letters Θ Ξ Φ X were invented by him. He lived about 1100 years before Christ. According to Philostratus, he was stoned to death by the Greeks, at the instigation of Ulysses, but according to Daretes Frigius, in the sixth book of the Trojan war, he was killed by Paris with an arrow.
Thersites, a Grecian, played with Palamedes. He is described by Homer in the second book of the Illiad as a man of brutal habits and bad disposition.
Protesilaus and Ajax, Grecian Princes, played the game when the Grecian army was in Aulis; with them were Ajax, Palamedes, Diomedes, Meriones, Ulysses, and Nireus. Euripides gives an account of it in his tragedy of Iphigenia, but it does not appear which of the two Ajaces played with Protesilaus, we therefore suppose they were both chess players.
I find all of the above fascinating. I have read both the Odyssey and the Illiad. I also enjoy the movie "Troy". I am particularly stirred by the dates mentioned in this and the dates that are claimed for the origins of chaturanga (6th century AD)
I really appreciate that you have taken the time to share this with me...