The Antiquity of Draughts.

Otago Witness, Issue 2580, 26 August 1903, Page 59

The Antiquity of Draughts.

Recently the chess editor, of the Cheltenham Examiner published a paragraph relating how a mad. Egyptian Caliph, about A.D. 1020, ordered all ch<>ss boards in his domains to be burned. The paragraph has appeared in variou3 draughts co'uvnns with the addition of tho words "and draughts boards." and other alterations, making it appear that draughts wa3 •lso included in the Caliph's edict.

Referring to these unauthorised alteration", the chess editor of the Examiner informs his readers that "he did not. mention draughts, and there is no evidence of the existence of draughts in Egypt 900 years ago or anywhere else." And. that such a claim "is b?sed on a misconception." There is no need for draughts players to appropriate anything relating to chess in support of tho antiquity of the game. It is even possible that the so-called "draughts board" of Queen Hatasu's was used, as tho ches3 editor says, for backgammon; but evidence of tho extreme antiquity of draughts is not wanting, and does not depend upon Queen Hatasu's board. Sir J. .-Gardiner Wilkinson's "Anciejit Egyptians," vol. 1, contains several illustrations of the game of draughts copied from the tombs and temples, including a, complete and unmistakable draughts board; and he also mentions the fact that King Kameses is himself portrayed upon thai walls of Thebas engaged in paying the game. G. Maspero, a noted investigator of Egyptian archteology, is also emphatic in describing tho game played by the ancient Egyptians as draughts. The pieces used in playing the game were/simi!ar in form to the pawns iStauuton pattern) used in the game of chess — hence no doubt the misconception has arisen that the game was chess. But in Canaleja's "Libro del Juego del las Datnas," a Spanish treatise on the game of draughts published in 1650, an illustration is given or the board and mea then in U3e, showing that; the pieces were similar in shape to those of the aueient Egyptians, end not at all like the discs used in playing the game -at the present time. Canaleja's treatise contains some hundreds of examples of games, r.nd a collection of problems, showing that tho game was well advanced in his day; and it is also rich in references to still esrWr wiiters, including a number of Latin authors. There are five leading varities of the game of draughts practised by different nationalities io-day, four of which have a more or less extensive literature. The Spanish is the most anciant form of the game of which we have any authentic technical information, and it is played exactly the same to-day as it was some three or four hundred years ago, so that tho evidence is all in favour of the game having been handed down ir its ancient form from t!ie earliest times to the present. — F. Dunne.