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Apolitical Rule (links.rocks)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The story I heard (now apocryphal) is the chess was invented (using live actors as pieces) to allow a prince to explain to his mother why it was necessary to kill his brother on the field of battle. A literal lesson in politics.

Sadly, I can't find the source and Wikipedia says the origins of Chess are debated by scholarly historians.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago

That sounds like the kind of fact that they'd have had on an early series of QI, only to retract it in a later series and redistribute points.

Just checked, looks like that story comes from an 11th century Persian epic poem, Shahnameh. It doesn't seem to be referenced in that article, but is discussed in this one.