Shatranj

In 1976, the famous grandmaster and rarity amateur David Bronstein returned home with a trophy — an unusual chess set in a box inlaid with mother of pearl. Not a single chessman can be guessed without a clue. All were made using the technique of medieval Persian chess — shatranj, as they called the game in the Arab East. As Islam forbade depiction of human figures and animals, all we can do is guess: a symbolic elongated horse muzzle on the second piece from the edge; slightly protruding elephant tusks on the next piece. The king is depicted as the royal throne, while the queen (“vizier” or “prime minister” in the East) is also a throne but a less lavish one. The edge piece is a mysterious creature — the Roc, the mighty and formidable mythic bird, in the silhouette of which the Europeans later discerned the “dovetail” of a fortress wall merlon (the rook). The heyday of shatranj in the East begins in the 10th–11th centuries, when the names of the first recognized masters make history (e.g., Al-Suli), while the celebrated poet Omar Khayyam (1048–1131) even describes life through chess: 'Tis all a Chequer-board of Nights and Days Where Destiny with Men for Pieces plays: Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays, And one by one back in the Closet lays.