Biden was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the son of Joseph Robinette Biden, Sr. (1915–2002) and Catherine Eugenia "Jean" Finnegan (born 1918). He was the first of four siblings and is of Irish descent. He has two brothers, James Brian Biden and Francis W. Biden, and a sister, Valerie (Biden) Owens.
John McCain was born in 1936 at Coco Solo Naval Air Station in the Panama Canal Zone, Panama, to naval officer John S. McCain, Jr. (1911–1981) and Roberta (Wright) McCain (b. 1912). At that time, the Panama Canal was under U.S. control.
With the sole exception of two works in Middle Persian (the Karnamak and the Chatranj Namak) all of the early works (pre-1000 CE) on chess were written by Arabic authors. At this point in the origins of chess the rules were those of Shatranj.
One of the most common ways for chess historians to trace when the board game chess entered a country is to look at the literature of that country. Although due to the names associated with chess sometimes being used for more then one game (for instance Xiang-qi in China and Tables in England), the only certain reference to chess is often several hundred years later than uncertain earlier references.
