ar-Razi (chess player)

ar-Razi (* around 825; † around 860) was an Arab chess master of the 9th century and belonged to the "aliat", the highest class of players.

Ar-Razi mainly devoted himself to the artificial endgames , the so-called Mansuben . But he also turned to the chess openings . The recommendations for the best moves were recorded on boards, the tabijen . They contained the beginnings of games up to about the twelfth move and were mostly given very poetic names, such as the preserved "Mujannah", "The one with wings".

The excellent theoretical knowledge of ar-Razi was certainly one of the reasons why he replaced the strongest master al-Adli until then . In the year 847 there was a competition between the two at the court of the caliph al-Mutawakkil in his presence, which ar-Razi clearly won. It was a kind of world championship, because after the victory ar-Razi was considered the strongest player in the world. He was in turn replaced by the masters Mawardi and as-Suli , who lived around 905 at the time of the caliph al-Muktafi .

literature

• David Hooper and Ken Whyld : The Oxford Companion to Chess . 2nd Edition. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1992, ISBN 0-19-866164-9 , p. 333 (English)