Latest / Tamerlane: The Conqueror Who Tried to Rebuild the Mongol Legacy — Fexingo History / Tamerlane's Chess Obsession: The Game of Kings
Transcript
- Lucas: We've talked a lot about Tamerlane's military genius, his cities, his astronomy, even his porcelain. But today I want to get inside his head a bit more. Because there's one game he was utterly obsessed with, and it's a game that tells us a lot about how he thought. Luna: Wait, are we talking about chess? I know he was a big player. Lucas: Exactly. And not just your average chess — Tamerlane was so into it that he invented his own version. It's called Tamerlane chess, or sometimes shatranj i kabir, the great chess. And it's a ten-by-eleven board with all sorts of new pieces. Luna: Ten by eleven? That's huge. I can barely handle the normal board. Lucas: Right. So you've got a bigger board, and the pieces are — well, they're a whole zoo. You've got camels, giraffes, war machines. And the pawns are renamed after different ranks in his army. It's like he took the battlefield and put it on a board. Lucas: But here's what's fascinating. The earliest description we have of this game comes from Ibn Arabshah, the same chronicler who wrote one of the most critical biographies of Tamerlane. Now, Ibn Arabshah wasn't exactly a fan — he called Tamerlane a scourge. But even he admits that Tamerlane was a brilliant chess player. Lucas: In fact, Ibn Arabshah tells a story about Tamerlane playing chess with his emirs, and how he would beat them while also discussing military strategy. Apparently, he used chess to test his officers, to see how they thought under pressure. So the game wasn't just a pastime — it was a tool for command. Luna: That's so clever. He's basically running a war game with his generals before the real one. Lucas: And it wasn't just with his own people. There's a recorded game where he played with the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes, and he even played with the Ottoman sultan Bayezid's son after the Battle of Ankara. He'd have these chess sessions with captives and diplomats, almost like a way to size them up. Lucas: Now, the rules of Tamerlane chess are quite intricate. For instance, the pawns move one square forward, but on their first move they can move two. And there's a rule about 'the citadel' — a special square that a king can retreat to, almost like a fortress. That's a very Timurid concept, isn't it? Luna: The citadel? Like a fortified position you can hole up in. Lucas: Precisely. And the pieces themselves — the camel moves like a knight but with a longer leap, kind of a 'one and a half' diagonal. The giraffe is even more weird, it moves like a knight but with a much longer jump. And the war machine — that's a piece that moves like a rook but can also jump over a piece, like in some variants of shatranj. Lucas: But here's the thing, Luna. This game wasn't just a curiosity. It says something about Tamerlane's approach to everything. He didn't just conquer lands — he absorbed ideas, adapted them, and made them his own. He did that with astronomy, with architecture, and he did it with chess. Lucas: So when he sits down with his emirs, they're not just playing a game. They're participating in a kind of intellectual exercise that mirrors his military doctrine. The bigger board, the new pieces, the citadel — they all reflect his belief that war is complex, that you need to think beyond the standard moves. Luna: I get that. It's like he's saying, 'The old rules are too simple for me.' Lucas: Exactly. And you know what, that's something we've seen in every episode we've done on him. Whether it's the way he incorporated gunpowder, or his use of spies, or his massive building projects — Tamerlane always went bigger and more complex. Chess is just another lens into that mind. Lucas: And while we're on the topic of the show itself, I want to mention something that keeps these deep dives going. A couple of dollars a month, if you've gotten something out of these episodes, makes a real difference. It's buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. That's what keeps us ad-free and allows us to keep digging into these corners of history. Luna: Yeah, it's a small thing that adds up. And we appreciate every bit of it. Lucas: So back to the chessboard. What's really interesting is that Tamerlane chess didn't just die out with him. It influenced chess in Persia and India for centuries. In fact, some of the pieces we know today, like the bishop and the queen, have ancestors in this variant. The camel, the giraffe — they eventually evolved into the pieces we use now. Luna: Wait, so the queen actually came from something like the war machine or the vizier? Lucas: Well, the queen's move was actually a later development, but the idea of a powerful piece that moves like a rook and a bishop combined — that's a much later thing. But the concept of having a piece that can move in multiple ways was there. And the pawns, the way they promote — that's also something that evolved from these earlier rules. Lucas: But beyond the mechanics, there's a deeper legacy. Tamerlane chess was a symbol of his court's sophistication. When visitors came to Samarkand, they were shown his chess sets, often made of ivory and gold. It was a way of saying: we are not just conquerors, we are cultured. We are the heirs of the great civilizations. Luna: It's like he's trying to build a legacy that's more than just destruction. Lucas: Exactly. And that's a theme we've seen throughout this show. For all his brutality, Tamerlane was also a patron of the arts and sciences. He brought scholars to Samarkand, he built magnificent gardens, and he played chess with the best minds of his time. It's a reminder that historical figures are never one-dimensional. Lucas: Now, one of the most intriguing things about Tamerlane's chess is the rule about the citadel. In some versions, if a king reaches the citadel square, he can't be checkmated — he's safe. That's a very defensively-minded rule. It rewards patience and retreat. And that's exactly how Tamerlane fought some of his battles — he would lure enemies into a position, then strike. Lucas: There's also a story that Tamerlane once played a game where he was in a losing position, and he used a rule to turn it around. I can't verify it, but it's the kind of legend that grew around him. It shows how his reputation for cunning extended even to the chessboard. Luna: I can imagine him sitting there, stone-faced, while his opponent thinks they've got him, and then he springs a trap. Lucas: And that's the thing — we don't have a single recorded game of Tamerlane's, which is a shame. But we have enough descriptions to get a sense of his style. He was known for being aggressive, but also patient. He would sacrifice pieces to get a positional advantage. It's like he's playing the long game, which is exactly how he approached his conquests. Lucas: So, when we think about Tamerlane, we often think of the skull pyramids, the burning cities, the sheer scale of destruction. But there's another side: the man who loved a good intellectual challenge. And chess was, for him, the perfect blend of war and intellect. Lucas: And you know, there's a lesson in that for us. Even the most ruthless figures in history were complex human beings. They had hobbies, they had passions, they had ways of thinking that went beyond the battlefield. Tamerlane's chess is a window into that complexity. Luna: It's almost like he's saying, 'I'm not just a destroyer, I'm a creator too.' Lucas: And he was. He created an empire, he created a cultural renaissance, and he created a chess variant that would outlast him by centuries. So next time you play a game of chess, remember: you're moving pieces that carry the echo of Tamerlane's own games. Lucas: And maybe that's the best way to end today's episode — with a thought about how the past is never really gone. It's in the games we play, the words we use, the buildings we admire. Tamerlane's chess is a small part of that, but it's a part that still lives.