It would be honor enough for the people of India if they had bequeathed to us nothing but chess, a game that, like the sun itself, has traversed the entire globe. Since people everywhere esteem as highly intelligent anyone who masters it or even plays it well, so much the more should we esteem the intelligence of its originator and inventor.
His name was Sahsah b. Dahir, but his real name was Ardashir b. Babik, and he was the first of the latter kings of Persia. The king for whom he invented it was called Shah Ram. Sahsah is also considered the inventor of the game of checkers, a mark of great pride to the Persians. But when Sahsah b. Dahir introduced the new game of chess to the world, all the sages of his time immediately recognized its superiority over checkers.
Sahsah showed it to Shah Ram, who was awestruck by it and overjoyed by its ingenuity. Shah Ram then said to Sahsah, "Ask whatever reward you like, and it shall be granted." Sahsah replied, "I only ask that you take one grain of wheat and place it upon the first square of my board and then continue to double it with each additional square until the last square is reached, and bestow upon me all the grain that has been accumulated."
The Shah laughed at such a paltry request, and told Sahsah that he could not give him such an insignificant reward for so momentous an invention, since he had already decided to give him much more. But Sahsah responded by saying that this was all he wanted. They continued to debate the point until the Shah realized how resolute Sahsah was in his request. He then commanded his factor to fulfill the inventor's request, but when the ministers began to calculate just how much wheat would be needed, they realized the impossibility of the request. After explaining to the king that they did not have enough wheat in the royal storehouses to grant his request, the king scoffed at his ministers and demanded an explanation. They sat down with the king and showed him their calculations, at which point the Shah realized the truth of their conclusion. So he said to Sahsah, "In your request you have revealed something even more wondrous than your invention of chess!"
Now whoever profoundly contemplates the game of chess, reflects upon the elements of its pieces and the fixed patterns of its moves, will realize that a secret of the mysteries of the Divine decree has been revealed to him through the simplest of means. The reason for this can only be that the originator of the game himself was a sage who revealed deep wisdom in the categorizing and organizing of his game.
In fact, God, the Exalted, revealed to the formulator of chess what God himself has pre-eternally performed, what is pre-existent in His knowledge, and what occurred in His first determination of the cosmos. This is why no one but its originator shared in this invention of chess, and also why all those who play the game are limited to the pre-determined limits decreed by its inventor. In spite of that dependence upon the originator, it is through their efforts alone that they win and through their negligence alone that they lose.
Indeed, both players, despite being entirely free to choose their moves, deliberate their possibilities, utilize their strategies and exert all of their personal efforts in their moves, are nonetheless limited in their possibilities by the very limitations pre-determined by the inventor himself. They cannot break the laws set, nor exempt themselves from the limited possibilities given. In this way, they are entirely pre-determined while appearing to be free, and at the same time entirely free while only appearing to be pre-determined!
The inventor caught a glimpse of a sacred secret among the mysteries of the Divine decree and realized that all human beings are accruing their actions and either gaining rewards for their right choices or being punished for their wrong ones. Furthermore, he realized that God, the Exalted, does not wrong His servants, but they themselves are the wrongdoers, and that humanity is fulfilling what has been decreed for them without being forced against their will. Indeed, had God prevented them from error they could not have erred, in the same way that the inventor of chess has intended certain things from those who play his game, yet while they are held to limitations in these things they are not stripped of their own volition.
So whoever performs well does so for his self and whoever performs poorly does so against it. Neither of the two players can escape the limits of the squares, the pieces, their numbers and prescribed movements for each one. Indeed had its inventor felt moved to allow other possibilities, they would not have been able to go against him in those possibilities either.
Ponder this well, for chess is a wise metaphor and a sage invention. It develops the rational component of our beings, increases intelligence, diverts the mind from distressing matters, reveals oft times hidden character traits as games are wont to do, and imitates very realistically military situations manifest for the players in the sweetness of victory over one's opponent and the bitterness and loss of defeat.
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