The Courier Game

Many enlarged varieties of chess are described in H.J.R.Murray’s History of Chess, and what they have in common is a very short life. There is however a startling exception — the Courier game, which is known to have been played for about six hundred years: it should therefore be ranked alongside the handful of successful chess variants, such as Shatranj and Shogi. The game was already in existence at the beginning of the thirteenth century, for it is mentioned in a German poem dated to 1202AD. One writer of the early fourteenth century described the introduction of the couriers as an improvement of chess, and another reported in 1337 that he had seen the game being played at Constance but not elsewhere. All that we know of the method of play was given by Gustavus Selenus in his Das Schach – oder König-spiel of 1616.

The game was played on a board of 12×8 squares, and a well known painting of Courier in progress (Lucas von Leyden, Berlin, 1520AD) indicates that al was black: Murray on the other hand shows al as white with the white king standing on the left, a reflection of the modern arrangement. The opening position is shown below:

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
	a b c d e f g h i j k l

The Alfil or mediaeval bishop (A, shown here by inverted bishop symbol) leaps diagonally over one square to the square beyond and the Fers or mediaeval queen (F, inverted queen symbol) moves one square diagonally only. The Rook (R) and Knight (N) remain unchanged, but the player disposes four new pieces: two Couriers (C, shown by bishop symbol) with the modern bishop’s move, a Schleich (sneak, S, shown by inverted rook symbol) which moves one square orthogonally [now known in fairy chess as a wazir (Editor)], and a Mann (sage, M, shown by inverted king symbol) which moves like the King (K) but is non-royal. Castling is not permitted and the rules of pawn promotion are unknown: the following opening moves are obligatory: 1.a4 a5 2.l4 l5 3.f4 f5 4.Ff3 Ff6. (These F-moves being an opening privilege only.)

The popularity of Courier was probably due to an increase in fire-power: the Mann was a new ‘sufficient mating force’ worth 3-4 pawns and the Schleich though even slower than the Fers was more useful at close quarters; the value of two modern bishops is well known. These augmented forces offered many more ways of forcing checkmate in the endgame than were available to the player of Mediaeval chess. The endgame ideas below (all composed 22 iv 1992) show some of them.

(A) interested me because all the pieces are from one family of semi-pieces [see Correspondence page in this issue]: the possibility of (B) was pointed out by John Beasley.

(A) a b c d e 8 7 6 5 4

(B) h i j k l 8 7 6 5 4

(A) Black to play loses: 1...Ka8 2.Sa6 Kb7 Sa7‡ White to play wins: 1.Ae3 (or a3, e7) Ka8/i 2.Sa6 Kb7 3.Sb6† Ka8/ii 4.Kd6 Ka7 5.Kc6 Ka8 6.Kd7 Ka7 7.Ac5† Ka8 8.Sa6 Kb7 9.Sa7‡ (pure mate). /i 1...Ka7 2.Kc6 Ka8 3.Sb5 Ka7 4.Sb6 Ka8 5.Kd7 Ka7 6.Ac5† Ka8 7.Sa6 Kb7 8.Sa7‡. /ii 3...Ka7 4.Ac5† Ka8 5.Sa6 Kb7 6.Sa7‡.

(B) 1.Kk5 Kl8 (best) 2.Kk6 Kk8 3.Kl6 Kl8 4.Nk6† Kk8 5.Sj8 (or k7)‡

(C) a b c d e f g h 8 7 6 5 4

(D) f g h i j k l 8 7 6 5 4

(C) Mating the caged king. 1.Sg8 Kd8 2.Sf8 Kc8 3.Se8 Kb8 4.Sd8 Ka8 5.Fg7 Kb8 6.Ff6 Ka8 7.Fe7 Kb8 8.Sd7 Kc8 (or a8) 9.Sc7† Kb8 10.Sb7† Kc8 (or a8) 11.Sb6 Kb8 12.Kd7 Ka8 13.Fd6 Kb8 14.Fc7† Ka8 15.Sa6 Kb7 16.Sa7‡

(D) The other alfil. 1.Sg8 Ki8 2.Fg7 Kj8 3.Sh8 Kk8 4.Si8 Kl8 5.Fh6 Kk8 6.Fi7 Kl8 7.Kk6 Kk8 8.Fj6 Kl8 9.Fk7† Kk8 10.Sj8‡

The courier game later faded away, together with mediaeval chess, in competition with the modern variety and became associated particularly with the village of Ströbeck in the Hartz Mountains. Frederick William of Brandenburg donated a board and set to the village in 1651, and Frederick the Great of Prussia visited and played in 1744, but visitors in 1825 and 1831 reported that the game was extinct. Apparently there are articles on the courier game in Schachzeitung: 1847, 214; 1853, 7; 1861, 223; 1883, 330; and in BCM: 1902, 421.

(Some errors in the diagrams in the original article have been corrected.)