Haipiene or great Chinese Directory under the word Sianghki,
says that this happened in the reign of Vouti, about the year of
Christ 537. Notwithstanding this statement there is an account
of Real Chess given in 1793, by Eyles Irwin, Esq., a gentleman
who had passed many years of his life in India, and contained in
a communication to the President of the Irish Society. He says
379 years after the time of Confucius (which is equal to 172 B.C.),
King Cochu, King of Kiangnan, sent an expedition into the Shensi
Country, under the command of a Mandarin, called Hansing, to
conquer it, and during the winter season, to allay the discontent
of his army at inaction, chess was invented to amuse them, with
results entirely satisfactory.

The board, or game, Irwin says, is called Chong Ki or Royal
Game. Forbes says the game is called by the Chinese "Choke
Choo Hong Ki."

The board is 64 squares with a chasm in the middle, the army
9 pieces, 2 rocket boys, and 5 pawns on each side.

It has become the fashion to this day to dish up the great poets'
lines more or less seasoned or to repeat, one or the other of the
fabulous stories, or fallacious theories so constantly put forward
in regard to the origin of chess, so it may be not amiss to state
what is known or can be gathered in regard to it, concerning the
claims of countries other than India.

Such consideration as can be found devoted to the game in Egypt
mostly relates to hypothesis and conjectures in regard to the
inscriptions on tombs and on the walls of temples and palaces;