English Chess Forum

For their revised GCSE History syllabus edexcel have produced materials with chess pieces on the illustrations. Their reason is:
Why have we chosen to have chess pieces onthe front of our new GCSE specification?
Chess has been played throughout the world for over1,500 years. It was played by many of the famous
characters in our History specification including William the Conqueror, King John, Henry VIII and
Queen Elizabeth I. We chose chess pieces to highlight the chronological and geographical range of
our new GCSE History specification. As well as being symbolic of conflict and power-relationships, they
represent a link between the past and the present.
http://qualifications.pearson.com/conte ... istory.pdf

Sadly, chess history is a neglected subject. Know that Victor Keats selected chess history for his degree, at London University, but it may have been on Jewish chess history, and in Hebrew.

"Chess has been played throughout the world for over1,500 years. It was played by many of the famous
characters in our History specification including William the Conqueror, King John, Henry VIII and
Queen Elizabeth I. We chose chess pieces to highlight the chronological and geographical range of
our new GCSE History specification. As well as being symbolic of conflict and power-relationships, they
represent a link between the past and the present."

Or to put it another way

"Chess pieces are not copyrighted so we didn't have to pay to use them"

I had (have?) the ambition of doing a History of the Laws of Chess. I have made little progress. My likely associate, Geurt Gijssen, has made none. The trouble is, it would sell few copies. Our most valuable contribution would be about the last 20 years of course.

Stewart Reuben wrote:I had (have?) the ambition of doing a History of the Laws of Chess. I have made little progress. My likely associate, Geurt Gijssen, has made none. The trouble is, it would sell few copies. Our most valuable contribution would be about the last 20 years of course.

If you and Geurt Gijssen decide to go ahead you should do it for fun with no expectation of making money. "It is better to travel than to arrive", and all that. Of course you shouldn't waste much money on it either. At least no more than you would on any other hobby. Give vanity publishing a miss.

The best route would be to have it published as a Kindle ebook by Amazon. There would be some effort in converting Word format to the necessary Kindle format and making sure it looks OK but if you can't master those skills yourself I'm sure you would be able to find somebody, maybe on this forum, who would do it for you for free / peanuts.

Having said all that I suspect that you will simply never have the time. From what you say it sounds like Geurt Gijssen has already reached that conclusion.

Jose A. Garzon has published a book on the early history of Chess Laws. The chess symbols illustrated by Neill Cooper, date only from 1849.
Only one person has tackled a history of chess diagrams, and that was Ken Whyld.
Stewart Reuben should fulfil his ambition to write a modern History of the Laws of Chess. There will always be historians to purchase his book. Make it a "Limited Edition" to increase the value of the book.

On a matter of old-fashioned detail: is there any truth in EdExcel's claim?

Well the William claim goes back to 1804 which is almost contemporaneous.

Hhmm. The link within this blog post turns up an interesting antiquarian source: typically, long on anecdotes but short on footnotes. From it we learn that chess was invented:

a) by Trojans, bored by waiting for the Greeks to attack; and/or
b) by pre-Confucian Chinese soldiers, bored while over-wintering in the mountains; and/or
c) by a bloke called Xerxes in 3635 (presumably bored)

So not Stewart Reuben then

Apparently King Canute played it. William the Conqueror was "a great player". And on and on.

But of primary source material, alas, notalot

David Robertson wrote:On a matter of old-fashioned detail: is there any truth in EdExcel's claim?

I asked.

Tricky statement on "Perfection" this afternoon. "Chess was invented before Monopoly". True or False. Hmmmmmm!