Al-Adli al-Rumi (Arabic: العدلي الرومي), was an Arab player and theoretician of Shatranj, an ancient form of chess from Persia. Originally from Anatolia,^[1] he authored one of the first treatises on Shatranj in 842, called Kitab ash-shatranj^[2] ('Book of Chess').

He was recognized as the best Shatranj player in the 9th century^[3] during the reign of al-Wathiq until his loss to al-Razi, just before^[4] or early into^[5] the reign of al-Mutawakkil.

In his treatise al-Adli compiled the ideas of his predecessors on Shatranj. The book was lost but the problems he discussed survived in the works of successors.^[4] Mansūbāt were end game scenarios, where victory was obtained either by checkmate or stalemate, or by baring the opposing king.^[6]

From his work came a variant^[7] of the Dilaram problem,^[8] attributed to al-Suli^[9][10] and called Dilaram checkmate. In a manuscript from the early 15th century, a similar problem was accompanied by the story of a figure named Dilaram, who was the favourite slave of a certain chess player reduced to a desperate position in a match.^[11][12]

Bibliography

• Giffard, Nicolas; Biénabe, Alain (2009). Le Nouveau Guide des échecs. Traité complet (in French). Robert Laffont, coll. «Bouquins». p. 1710. ISBN 978-2-221-11013-3.
• Le Lionnais, François; Maget, Ernst (1967). Dictionnaire des échecs (in French). Paris: Presses universitaires de France. p. 432.
• Hooper, David; Whyld, Ken (1992). The Oxford Companion To Chess. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-866164-9.
• Murray, H. J. R. (1913). A History of Chess. Oxford University Press. p. 879. ISBN 0-19-827403-3.

References