Bishop (chess) - History

History

The bishop's predecessor in shatranj (medieval chess) was the alfil, meaning elephant, which could leap two squares along any diagonal, and could jump over an intervening piece. As a consequence, each alfil was restricted to eight squares, and no alfil could attack another. The modern bishop appeared first shortly after 1200 C.E. in Courier chess. A piece with this move, called a cocatriz or crocodile, is part of the Grande Acedrex in the game-book compiled in 1283 C.E. for King Alfonso X of Castile. The game is attributed to "India", then a very vague term. About half a century later Muḥammad ibn Maḥmud al-Āmulī in his Treasury of the Sciences describes an expanded form of chess with two pieces moving "like the rook but obliquely."

Derivatives of alfil survive in some European languages, such as Spanish (alfil) and Italian (alfiere); it was known as the aufin in French, or the aufin, alphin, or archer in English.

The term "bishop" first entered the English language in the 16th century, with the first known written example dating back to 1560s. In all other Germanic languages, except for Icelandic, it is called various names, all of which directly translates to English as "runner" or "messenger" (e.g. in Norwegian "Løper", in Danish "Løber", in Swedish "Löpare", in German "Läufer" and in Dutch "loper".) (In Finnish, the word is "lähetti", with the same meaning.) In Romanian, it is known as "nebun" which refers to a crazy person (similarly to the French name "Fou" which is most likely derived from "Fou du roi", a jester). In Icelandic, however, it is called "biskup", with the same meaning as in English. Interestingly, the use of the term in Icelandic predates that of the English language, as the first mentioning of "biskup" in Icelandic texts dates back to the early part of the 14th century, whilst the 12th century Lewis Chessmen portray the bishop as an unambiguously ecclesiastical figure. In The Saga of Earl Mágus, which was written in Iceland somewhere between 1300–1325, it is described how an emperor was checkmated by bishop. This has led to some speculations as to the origin of the English term "bishop".

The canonical chessmen date back to the Staunton chess set of 1849. The piece's deep groove symbolizes a bishop's (or abbot's) mitre. Some have written the groove originated from the original form of the piece, an elephant with the groove representing the elephant's tusks (see photo in the history section). The British chose to call the piece the bishop because the projections at the top resembled a mitre. This groove was interpreted differently in different countries as the game moved to Europe; in France, for example, the groove was taken to be a jester's cap, hence in France the bishop is called "fou" (the fool).

In some Slavic languages (e.g. Czech/Slovak) the bishop is called "střelec/strelec", which directly translates to English as a "shooter" meaning an archer, while in others it is still known as "elephant" (e. g. Russian slon, Turkish fil). In South Slavic languages it is usually known as "lovac", meaning "hunter", or "laufer", taken from the German name for the same piece. An alternative name for bishop in Russian is officer (Russian: офицер).