Al-Adli al-Rumi ( Arabic: العدلي الرومي), was an Arab player and theoretician of Shatranj, an ancient form of chess from Persia. Originally from Anatolia, [1] he authored one of the first treatises on Shatranj in 842, called Kitab ash-shatranj [2] ('Book of Chess').
He was recognized as the best Shatranj player in the 9th century [3] during the reign of al-Wathiq until his loss to al-Razi, just before [4] or early into [5] the reign of al-Mutawakkil.
In his treatise al-Adli compiled the ideas of his predecessors on Shatranj. The book was lost but the problems he discussed survived in the works of successors. [4] Mansūbāt were end game scenarios, where victory was obtained either by checkmate or stalemate, or by baring the opposing king. [6]
From his work came a variant [7] of the Dilaram problem, [8] attributed to al-Suli [9] [10] and called Dilaram checkmate. In a manuscript from the early 15th century, a similar problem was accompanied by the story of a figure named Dilaram, who was the favourite slave of a certain chess player reduced to a desperate position in a match. [11] [12]