Carrera, and the writers of the Italian school, have all contributed
to the remarkably delusive and often mythical theories propounded
in regard to it. In our own Country we have them from Chaucer,
Lydgate, Caxton, Barbiere and the Encyclopaediasts, and Pope
writing just before knowledge of the Sanskrit became imparted
among the learned, and ere the classical Sir William Jones had
began to enlighten us, thought probably he had set the matter at
rest by declaring that the invention of chess, (which we had and
could enjoy without caring to know from whence it came) and
which was an imperishable monument of the wisdom of its
unknown founder, involved a problem which never would be solved.

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PROGRESS OF CHESS

It has been a subject of regret with writers that complete games
of chess cannot be found for the earlier ages, and it has been
suggested that a few well annotated games of the great Eastern
players of one thousand years ago, and of the rival champions of
Spain, Italy and Sicily in the Sixteenth century would be of
more interest than all the problems and positions handed down
to us in existence and, it certainly would be pleasing and
instructive to be able to compare the styles Ali Suli, Adali,
Lajlaj, Abbas and Razi, the great players of the Golden Age of
Arabian Literature, and that of Ali Shatranji of Timur's Court
and Ruy Lopez, Leonardo and Paolo Boi with those of Philidor and
the leaders of the Nineteenth century.

The first half of the Nineteenth century witnessed the