"Stoneskin" wrote ...

I've been googling for a decent chess history site but yet to no avail.
If it is currently thought to be Indian rather than Chinese in origin
then I stand corrected.

H.J.R. Murray wrote the standard reference, "History of Chess." Read about
it at Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...in-20/002-0396
955-3127262.

One amateur reviewer wrote on Amazon.com:

"This book is a reprint of Murrays monumental work, first published in 1913.
Murray is a scientist, and his writing shows this: we have discussions about
legibility of manuscripts, theories of the spreading of chess, etc.
"What we find in all this is a thorough and precise account of how chess
came into existence, and has spread over the world. Where many books on the
history of chess are best in describing the modern history, this book is
best in telling about the roots. Also, we find hunderds of historic chess
puzzles. If you really want to know how the origins of the best game there
is are, then read this book."

But what I'm really insterested in is how and why Chess is so strongly
related to Russia nowadays.

I don't know, but chess has been firmly embedded in Russian culture for a
long time. Tolstoy once wrote to his daughter, "Every young woman should
know how to play chess."

Tim Hanke