prize13-1, Exercise 3: Testing two claims

Model answer (check the details):

Claim: "Chess is 4,000 years old." Look for the earliest evidence that is actually of chess (written references, pieces and boards that can be dated), and separate it from evidence of other board games. Sources: museum catalogues, translations of the early texts, and a survey such as H. J. R. Murray's A History of Chess (1913) for the older view, with modern articles to correct it.

Claim: "The queen has always been the strongest piece." Look for descriptions of the early piece (the counsellor or vizier, which moved one square diagonally), and for the rule changes in southern Europe in the later fifteenth century. Sources: manuscripts and early printed books on chess, and a modern history.

Care: both claims are partly true or partly false, and the evidence is stronger for some parts than others.