Myron Samsin

As the cover text (verso) of this book reveals, this volume of the "Tübinger Beiträge" devotes to different theories of the origin of chess. In his contribution "Pawns and Pieces: Towards the Prehistory of Chess" co-author Myron Samsin pursues an interesting theoretical approach: the fusion of the old Greek board game Petteia/Poleis with an Indian (Chaupur-like) race game into a proto-chess which could have happened in the post-Alexandrian culture area of Asia. The plausibility of this theory is supported by the fact that in the reign of the Graeco-Bactrian kings a general fusion process of Indian and Greek cultural assets took place to a great extent.

(R.B.)