"Shatranj Ke Khilari" (''The Chess Player''s) is a 1924
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...
short-story written by
Munshi Premchand
Dhanpat Rai Srivastava (31 July 1880 – 8 October 1936), better known by his pen name Premchand (), was an Indian writer famous for his modern Hindustani literature. Premchand was a pioneer of Hindi and Urdu social fiction. He was one of ...
(noble) Wajid Ali Shah and concludes with the British annexation of the Nawab's kingdom of
Awadh
Awadh (), known in British historical texts as Avadh or Oudh, is a region in the modern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, which was before independence known as the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. It is synonymous with the Kośāla region of ...
in 1856. The two main characters are the aristocrats Mirza Sajjad Ali and Mir Raushan Ali who are deeply immersed into playing
chess
Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...
. Their desire for the game destroys the competency of the characters, and makes them irresponsible in their duties towards their families and society. They derive immense pleasure in developing chess strategies and ignore the real life invasion by the British. Their city
Lucknow
Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and divis ...
falls to British attackers as they are busy playing a game of chess.
Film
In 1977,
Satyajit Ray
Satyajit Ray (; 2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian director, screenwriter, documentary filmmaker, author, essayist, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligrapher, and music composer. One of the greatest auteurs of ...
made a film with the same name, based on this story, also titled ''
Shatranj Ke Khilari
''Shatranj Ke Khilari'', also subtitled and later internationally released with the translated title ''The Chess Players'', is a 1977 Indian film written and directed by Satyajit Ray, based on Munshi Premchand's short story of the same name ...
'', which won the
National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi
The National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi is one of the National Film Awards presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India. It is one of several ...
References
* Pritchett, Frances W. "The Chess Players: From Premchand to Satyajit Ray" in ''Essays on Premchand'', ed. by Carlo Coppola; ''Journal of South Asian Literature''; 22,2 (Summer-Fall 1986):65-78. Available online