This is an 18th century Indian chess set found on page 156 of Art of Contest. Of particular interest to me is the use of human bishops rather than elephants. Yalom suggests that the elephant would have represented the most foreign piece on the original chessboard to Europeans, and that as a result they started incorporating human bishops (which coincided with the rise of power and wealth of Catholic bishops). The interesting thing this image suggests is that, along with Western “Queen’s Chess” rules, India also imported the replacement of elephants with human bishops. The rooks, on the other hand, seem to have maintained an Indian style of architecture. Perhaps this chess set was crafted for a European living in India at the time, or perhaps it is emblematic of the effects of colonialism present in India even at this early stage.