Variant Chess (UK) Spring 1998
David Li's book should be of interest to all people who like anything to do with chess history.
The author's brief is to put China fair and square as the birthplace of chess. To this end he has gone through, almost without exception, all authorities that have ever published material about the origin of chess. He is scathing in his criticism of those who have advocated India as origin, exposing the seemingly threadbare and misleading evidence on which this view has been based (Murray in particular is much criticised).
The layout of the book is first class. It is well written and is compelling reading. One can hardly put it down. The book is written with much passion, and will without doubt invoke much discussion. It is an important book, and I recommend it to readers.
Chinese American Forum (Missouri) April 1998
From their appearance, Chinese and Western chesses seem similar yet different. Have you ever wondered if these two chess games are related? Which was invented first -- the Chinese or the Western chess? The Chinese Chess was first developed, the Western Chess followed. From there, the whole series of questions as to who? where? when? why? and how? arise. You can get all your answers from the newest book called "The Genealogy of Chess" by David H. Li, published in 1998. ...
The author did a superb job in explaining the historical accounts and the connection between the Chinese and Western chess games, and thereby proved beyond any doubt that chess was invented in China. He did a comprehensive study supported by 130 references in Western languages and 54 references in the Chinese language.
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