Games of Diplomacy

A 7th-century Sanskrit biography of the Indian emperor Harshavardhana written by his court poet Banabhatta contains the first literary mention of the game of chess. In it we read that the Indian emperor sent a gift to the Sassanian King Khosrow I. The gift was a game that contained pieces that have been translated in different ways: "royal figures of sculptors" or "fighting terracotta-warriors" or even "When this king [Har·a] reigns, the fight among kings is confined to terracotta statuettes."The strong assertion is that this was a chess game. (More detail available here; just search for "chess.")The story, translated, explains that the king of India sent it to Khosrow with a challenge, or taunt:As your name is the King of Kings, all your emperorship over us connotes that your wise men should be wiser than ours. Either you send us an explanation of this game of chess or send revenue and tribute to us.Khosrow tossed the challenge to his vizier, Bozorgmehr, who had ben an advisor and…