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About The Book : It has now been proved, beyond the possibility of question, by the admirable researches of Dr. Duncan Forbes, that the original authors of the Chess-board and its arcana were the Hindoos. All the best modern writers upon the subject agree in admitting this conclusion, though some may still assert for the traditional claims of other nations more validity than they justly merit. Previously to the inquiries of Dr. Forbes, writers on Chess gave us a wide choice as to the seat of its invention. The Persians, the Greeks, the Egyptians, the Chinese, the Hindoos, the Arabians, the Araucanians, the Jews, the Scythians, the Babylonians—nay, even the Irish and the Welsh, were indifferently credited with the possible contrivance of the art. In many of these cases the choice was sufficiently absurd as to the period when Chess was first played; but Chess authors had no definite idea except that the game was of very remote antiquity. Such tribes as the Scythians, the Irish, and the Welsh were in a state of rude barbarism; and existing literature shows that neither the classical nations nor those with which they were intimately associated had any acquaintance with the game.