History of the Game Chess

Beginnings of the Game Chess

The history of the game chess begins in India with a game known as chaturanga. The game was played on an eight-inch square board. The name chaturanga means "having four limbs" in Sanskrit, and it refers to the four-level division of the ancient Indian army.

As in modern chess, the goal of chaturanga was to protect your king while removing the other player's pieces from the board. In chataranga, however, winning was accomplished by removing all pieces but the king from the board, rather than the king itself.

Other pieces on the board were known as the general or counselor, the chariot (rook in modern chess), elephant, horse (knight in modern chess) and foot soldier (pawn in modern chess).

It is believed that various versions of chaturanga spread across the world and developed into both Chinese chess (which uses pieces more like checkers) and the European version that is so popular today.

History of the Game Chess in Europe

Chess was brought to Europe in the 1200s and was modified there into the game we know of us chess. The game has been played essentially the same way in Europe since 1475.

Changes in the game over time regulated how different pieces could be moved on the board, such as the ability for the pawn to move one space or two on its first move and the modern movements of the queen and bishops. These changes were developed either in Spain or Italy.

The rules about stalemates were some of the final rules to be widely adopted, with most countries having the same rules by the early 19th century.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, Italy and Spain were the chess powerhouses, but in the 18th century chess became very popular in the coffeehouses of France. Britain also became a major center for chess, and the first modern chess competition took place in London in 1851.

The first world chess champion, Wilhelm Steinitz, took the crown in 1886; since that time there has been a world champion. From this time chess started to be regarded as a competitive sport with strategy and favorite players.

In modern times, chess has taken a backseat to other board games, but it is still very popular among people who are interested in strategy and really having to think about what your opponent is going to do next.

Chess has also been a popular game on computers, and some of the earliest computer programs were designed to play chess. The most famous match of computerized chess was played between top-ranked human Garry Kasparov and the IBM computer Deep Blue in 1997. The computer won.

Playing Chess Today

Chess is not as popular as it was in the days of the French coffeehouses, but it does still have a very strong following. The history of the game chess is still being written by each generation who learns the magical movements of the pieces and the strategies that can take a lifetime to master.

There are still in-person chess clubs in cities across the country, and even in this age of e-mail and computer chess games, people challenge each other to chess games by mail or by e-mail. A board is set up by each player and each person mails or e-mails the other person his or her move. This is, naturally, a very slow way to play chess.

Faster variations of the game, known as blitz chess or fast chess, give players less time to think between moves. Bullet chess, for instance, only allows players one minute between moves. You have to know what you're doing to think the game through this quickly, but it can be a lot of fun.

There will always be people around who love chess. This classic game has been around for hundreds and hundreds of years and shows no sign of going away anytime soon.