Murray's aim is threefold: to present as complete a record as is possible of the varieties of chess that exist or have existed in different parts of the world; to investigate the ultimate origin of these games and the circumstances of the invention of chess; and to trace the development of the modern European game from the first appearance of its ancestor, the Indian chaturanga, in the beginning of the 7th century.
By collating sources and eliminating duplicates therein he lists 553 complete Islamic shatranj chess problems and their stated solutions, plus 16 mikhāriq ("puzzles", singular mikhrāq) (which he numbers RW29 and 554 to 568).
Chess histories and commentaries are myriad, but no single volume has stood the test of time better than Murray's magnum opus.
With his knowledge of numerous languages including Latin and Arabic, and his devotion to chess world-wide, H. J. R. Murray was one of those late Victorian giants whose intimidating figure seems to have inhibited further research for the next two generations.
This was not an abridgment of the standard work he had published some years earlier but a new and original brief history of the game from its beginnings until 1866.