The Intellectual Legacy of a Gorganite Aristocrat Al-Suli was not merely the preeminent chess master of his age; he was a “nadim” (court companion) to Abbasid Caliphs, a palace historian, and a sharp-witted poet. Born in Gorgan around 870 AD, his lineage traces back to the fortified Fortress of Sul in the Dehistan steppes, where his grandfather, the Turkic prince Sul-tekin, once ruled. This noble heritage is commemorated today with a statue at the Independence Monument in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.
Holding the rank of “Aliya”—the highest attainable title in chess—Al-Suli transformed the game into a structured scientific architecture. In his seminal work Kitab al-Shatranj, he was the first to systematically document opening formations (tabiyas) and endgame strategies (mansubas). The theoretical framework he established remained the definitive benchmark for mastery and the primary source of reference for centuries, enduring until the emergence of modern chess rules.
Suli’s Diamond: The Millennium-Long Peak of Strategy
The “Unsolvable” Everest of Historical Chess Composed in the 10th century by the Gorganite master Abu Bakr bin Yahya al-Suli, the “Diamond” is the most legendary and discussed riddle in the history of chess. Despite its absolute outward simplicity—an endgame featuring only a King and a Ferz (the historical predecessor to the Queen) for each side—this composition remained the “unsolvable” Everest of the chess world for a full thousand years. This brilliant creation by Al-Suli is a supreme art of maneuver that pushes the very boundaries of historical chess.
The Secret within the Süleymaniye Manuscript The most vital record of this enigma is found in the copy of Kitab Ash-Shatranj preserved in the Süleymaniye Library in Istanbul. While the pages of this specific manuscript are intact, it is evident that certain positions and moves were incorrectly or incompletely transcribed from the original source. Yet, even with these historical scribal errors, the partial solution provided in the text aligns perfectly with the deep analytical work conducted by Grandmaster Yuri Averbakh in the 20th century. Al-Suli immortalized the exclusivity of his mastery with this defiant claim:
“None shall solve it, save those whom I have instructed.”
The Triumph of Algorithms: shatranj.ai The “Diamond,” which left human minds in awe for a millennium, has now been fully illuminated by the power of the digital age. Within the scope of the shatranj.ai project, using dynamic programming methods and modern algorithms with enabled “hash” (transposition table) features, every variation of this ingenious composition has been mathematically resolved. This journey, stretching from the lines of the Süleymaniye manuscripts to modern code, is the ultimate verification of Al-Suli’s timeless strategic genius—proving that what was once reserved for the master’s chosen pupils can now be understood through the language of pure logic.
