One of the most common ways for chess historians to trace when the board game chess entered a country is to look at the literature of that country. Although due to the names associated with chess sometimes being used for more then one game (for instance Xiang-qi in China and Tables in England), the only certain reference to chess is often several hundred years later than uncertain earlier references.
The earliest dates for strong references include,
Table of contents |
2 China 3 England 4 France 5 Germany 6 India 7 Italy 8 Persia 9 Spain 10 Sumatra 11 Switzerland 12 References |
a. 923 AD - at-Tabari's Kitab akhbar ar-rusul wal-muluk
(note the work is an arabic work, no early greek works are known)
c. 900 AD - Huan Kwai Lu ('Book of Marvels')
c. 1180 AD - Alexander Neckam's De Natura Rerum
(note that it is thought that Neckam may have learnt of chess in Italy, not in England)
a. 1127 AD - A song of Guilhem IX Count of Poitiers and Duke of Aquitaine.
c. 1030 AD - Ruodlieb
1148 AD - Kalhana's Rajatarangini (translated by MA Stein, 1900)
c. 600 AD - Karnamak-i-Artakhshatr-i-Papakan
c. 1009 AD - castrensian will of Ermengaud I (Count of Urgel)
c. 1620 AD - Sejarah Malayu
c. 1000 AD - Manuscript 319 at Stiftsbibliothek Einsiedeln.
Byzantium
China
England
France
Germany
India
(note this refers to the old four-handed chess sometime known as chaturagi).Italy
c. 1062 AD - Letter from Petrus Damiani (Cardinal Bishop of Ostia) to the Pope-elect Alexander II and the Archdeacon Hildebrand.Persia
(It is fairly certain chess is meant due to the word chatrang being used).Spain
Sumatra
Switzerland
References