Historically speaking, if John McCrary’s 17th century references and Diderot’s Encyclopédie from 1755 aren’t enough to convince you, it is also worth pointing out that many scholars argue that some early forms of chess may have incorporated the use of dice. Chess betting is common in Europe, and has recently become common in the USA due to the introduction of sports bettings apps that have soared in popularity due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the years, Las Vegas has been known to offer odds on important chess matches. Even a tournament entry fee is technically a formal wager against the prize money offered.
College kids have often been known to play for beer and pizza. They are still there, last time I looked. I myself have been known to lose a few bucks to the chess hustlers of New York City. Chess is now, has always been, and will always be, a gambling game – at least in some contexts. I hate to break it to you, but someone, somewhere, is wagering money on chess right now, even as we speak. Such righteous indignation quickly becomes untenable when we look at the facts, however. On chess as a gambling game: Well, I didn’t think I was saying anything all that controversial, but I do understand that it might offend some players’ sensibilities to think that anyone ever wagered money on a game of chess. Examples included when finding a win might be possible, yet both sides act on the defensive neither party chooses to attack his adversary or when the player attempting to win is pretty sure to overreach himself, and lose. Of a Drawn game: If it not be superfluous to put it anywhere it must be added here, that whenever from the greatness of the loss on each side (the more potent pieces, and those capable of becoming so, being gone) or from any other cause, it becomes certain that neither party can give the other check-mate the game is to be discontinued as insipid and useless, the players consenting to draw their pieces to court decision in a new party.īy the early 1800s, draws were being defined mainly as simplified endgames where forcing a win was impossible, but by 1838, chess authors were recognizing that draws might be agreed several ways. The earliest clear statement directly mentioning players agreeing to a draw I found in a book titled Studies of Chess from 1805, which said: An ending in which the combatants lack the force or else the knowledge with which to give mate. Robert Lambe's History of Chess used the term drawn game in 1764, and the expression showed up again in Miscellanies by Richard Twiss in 1787. Around 1800, an unpublished manuscript titled The War of the Chessmen described Giuoco Patto as:ĭrawn game. In fact, the word draw itself, in its sporting sense, derives from the practice of drawing or withdrawing the bets made on a contest when its issue was undecided.Įxamples given are cricket matches from the 1730s being called a drawn battle when the match couldn't be finished, and again when the teams drew stakes after reaching a tie score.īy the late 1700s, chess books were using the term draw in a more modern sense. I also encountered the same theory in a different sport, discovered in the Dictionary of Cricket by Michael Rundell, which states:
The Oxford English Dictionary states that, before Saul's time, the term draw the stakes referred to sporting situations in which one withdrew either stakes or entry from a competition. Examples are a horse race being drawn by consent in 1698, and of bettors being advised to draw stakes in 1708. I was struck with the possibility that Saul's phrase draw the stakes might be the origin of the term draw in chess. To avoid abuse of such a unilateral decision, the opponent could require that the game continue, but only if he bet to win at additional stakes. In other words: in such a simplified game with no winning prospects for either side, either player might draw the stakes - that is, declare the game a no contest. Many men on both sides were lost.so that the game were indifferent, and then I say, one of the gamesters should give over the game and draw the stake. In 1614, Arthur Saul published The Famous Game of Chesse-Play, which influenced later terminology and rules.
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