A GAME OF CHESS INSTEAD OF A SIEGE

______Chess has been described as the earliest war game. Although the exact origins of chess are in dispute to this day, the forming up in two ranks for battle certainly suggest that the game was at least inspired by war.

______It did more than inspire in 1078 c.e., when King Alfonso VI of Castile threatened to take the city of Seville from the Moors who occupied it. He prepared for a siege, one that would certainly involved pain and suffering for the inhabitants regardless of its failure or success.
______The city was ruled by al-Mutamid, a poet and chess patron. Knowing that Alfonso was also a player, he sent word that he would send his chess champion, Ibn-Ammar, to play a game with the King for possession of the city, and thus avoiding a siege.

______Alfonso might have been a good sport, but he wasn't as good a chess player as Ibn-Ammar. The Moorish champion won and al-Mutamid kept possession of his city.

HOW DID STALIN'S PURGES AFFECT WORLD WAR II?

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