History of Chess
HJR Murray 
Oxford University Press (Clarendon Press)
2002 (reprint of 1913 edition)
900 pp. 141 b/w figs, 18 b/w pls.
Book Number 28412
Murray's comprehensive discussion of the wide-ranging sources and of problems in the history of chess makes it unlikely that this book will ever be equalled. It is referred to as the authoritative source by every modern writer on chess history. The aim of this work is three-fold: to present as complete a record as is possible of the varieties of chess which exist or have existed in different parts of the world; to investigate the ultimate origin of these games and the circumstances of the invention of chess; and to trace the development of the modern European game from the first appearance of its ancestor, the Indian chaturanga in the beginning of the 7th century AD. The first part of the book describes the history of the Asiatic forms of chess, the Arabic and Persian literature on chess, and the theory and practice of the game of Shatranj. The second part is concerned with chess in Europe during the Middle Ages, its role in literature and in moralities, and with medieval chess problems, leading up to the beginning of modern chess and the history of the modern game through to the 19th century.