History of Chess

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History of Chess
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• Chess has a long and storied history. It was a
  widely different game when it was said to come
  out of India in 500 A.D. Spreading to the Middle
  East and Europe throughout the centuries, it
  underwent drastic changes to its rules and pieces
  until it became the game we know today.
• Lets learn more about chess and take a closer
  look into its history.
• The Origins of Chess
• Evolution of the Game and Pieces
• Chess Ancient Theory Rules?
• Chess Set Design
• Chess From the 19th to the 21st Century

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1. The Origins of Chess
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Chess is one of the oldest games that has
fascinated mankind. It emerged in India around
1500 years ago and was then known as chaturanga.
War was a constant reality of the ancient world,
and the game was a simulation of warfare.
Chaturanga means the four divisions, a
reference to what was then the standard
components of the Indian army, namely the
infantry (pawn), cavalry (knight), elephantry
(bishop), and the chariotry (rook). Around 600
A.D.,Chaturanga reached Persia (modern day Iran),
where it became known as shatranj. Persia was
later conquered by the Muslims, who then brought
shatranj to Europe through Spain and Italy.
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Shatranj spread widely in Europe, and by 1000
A.D. it had shed its Indo-Arabic characteristics.
A few pieces were replaced with new ones, and
some of the old ones were given new moves. It
also came to be called ajedrez in Spain,
zatrikion in Greece, scacchi in Italy, échecs in
France, schaken in Netherlands, and schach in
Germany. Sometime in the 15th century, chess took
its modern form.
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All the while, chess was spreading in the east,
too. Buddhist pilgrims and Silk Road traders
carried it to the Far East. By 750 A.D., chess
had reached China, and by the 11th century, Korea
and Japan. In China and Japan, chess has
altogether evolved into a different game where
uniform pieces are played on the intersection
lines of the board rather than within the
squares. Chines and Japanese chess are now known
as Xiangqi and Shogi respectively. Chess also
reached Russia through Mongolia, where it has
been known as shakmaty. From the standardization
of its rules and emergence of the modern game in
the 15th century, chess gained widespread
interest until it became a formal competitive
sport with the first international match between
Louis-Charles de la Bourdonnais of France and
Alexander McDonnell of Great Britain in 1834, and
the first world championship match between
Wilhelm Steinitz of Austria and Johannes
Zukertort of Poland in 1886.
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2. Evolution of the Game and Pieces
Chaturanga, the earliest predecessor of chess,
was also played on an 88 board. The Persians
adopted almost exactly the same game, although
they slightly modified the rules that made
shatranj closer to modern chess. They also gave
the pieces their corresponding names in the
Persian language. When shatranj entered Europe,
so did the pieces acquire names in the language
of regions where it laid roots. Below is a chart
for the names of the chessmen from Sanskrit to
the various European languages
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The game underwent its most revolutionary changes
in the five hundred years following its
introduction to Europe, and this period is
considered the most crucial to the transformation
of the ancient game. In shatranj, the pieces had
limited movement bishops could only move by
jumping exactly two spaces diagonally, the queen
could move only one space diagonally, pawns could
not move two spaces on their first move, and
there was no castling. By the end of the 15th
century, the modern rules for the basic moves had
been adopted from Italy pawns gained the option
of moving two squares on their first move, which
also gave way to the en passant capture bishops
acquired their modern move, and the queen was
made the most powerful piece, for which reason
modern chess was first called Queens Chess or
Mad Queen Chess. Except for the rules and
conditions for a draw, the European game from
1475 has been almost the same as that played
today.
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3. Chess Ancient Theory Rules
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• There had been enormous changes in the rule since
  the time of Chaturanga, which was played on a 8 x
  8 board. When Arabs adapted Chaturanga they made
  many variations in the game, however, they
  adapted the basic 16-piece structure. Many other
  derivatives were introduced like 1014 board game
  introduced in the 14th century also known as
  Tamerlane chess.
• The setup of Shatranj was essentially the same as
  in modern chess however, the position of the
  king or Shah was not fixed. The game was played
  by the following pieces
• Shah(King) It moves one step just like the King
  in chess.
• Wazir (Queen) moves exactly one square
  diagonally in any direction which makes it rather
  venerable.
• Pil(Bishop) moves two square diagonally in any
  direction. It can, however, jump any piece in its
  way.
• Asp(Knight) moves like the modern day knight in
  chess
• Ruk (Rook) moves like the modern day rook in
  chess
• Piadeh(Pawn) moves and captures like the pawn
  in chess
• It should be noted that castling during those
  times were not allowed in the chess. Stalemating
  the opponent king resulted in the win for the
  player delivering stalemate.

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It should be noted that castling during those
times were not allowed in the chess. Stalemating
the opponent king resulted in the win for the
player delivering stalemate.
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4. Chess Set Design
Not until the 19th century did chess sets take a
standard form, which means that from the games
emergence in India up to the modern period,
cultural considerations and individual creativity
were the most influential factors in chess-piece
design. In the days of chaturanga and shatranj,
chessmen were depicted as animals, warriors and
noblemen. Muslims, however, forbade images of
living creatures, and made chessmen of simple
clay or carved stones when they adopted
shatranj. Sets became stylized, often adorned
with precious stones, when chess spread in Europe
and Russia. By 1000 A.D., the playing boards with
their monochromatic squares in the Muslim world
became the checkered ones of the present day.
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Set design took a giant leap when an Englishman
named Nathaniel Cook patented a set of pieces in
1849, the manufacturing rights of which was then
given to Jaques of London. It was superbly
designed but, unlike most sets of the age, was
very stable and could be easily
manufactured. Elegant and not prone to be
knocked accidentally, the set won the approval
and endorsement of Howard Staunton, then
considered the strongest player in the world. It
gained wide public acceptance and came to be
known as the Staunton set, which thereafter
became the official set of formal competitions,
with small allowance given to design and
creativity.
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5. Chess From the 19th to the 21st Century
Chess has always been recognized as a game for
the intellect, and the historic moment that it
became a mental combat and a battle of national
pride between the two best players in the world
was when Louis-Charles de la Bourdonnais of
France met Alexander McDonnell of Great Britain
in London in 1834. In 1851, the first ever
international tournament was held in London with
Adolf Anderssen victorious. In 1886 the first
world championship match between Wilhelm Steinitz
of Austria and Johannes Zukertort of Poland was
held in New York. Check our article on the chess
sets used in the World Championships.
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From Steinitz up to the fourth World Champion,
Alexander Alekhine, the title of World Champion
was much the property of the champion himself,
who had the sole discretion to accept challenges
of worthy contenders. Very often, champion and
contender could not come to terms over the prize
money and other conditions of the match. In
1948, the Federation Internationale des Echecs
(FIDE) became the official governing body of
chess and directed all international chess events
activities, including the 1948 World Championship
in The Hague, Netherlands. Thereafter and up to
the present, FIDE has been organizing World
Championship matches, adopting different
contender selection processes and World
Championship match formats. Their authority and
direction has lent more credence and luster to
the title of World Champion.
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The 1990s saw the emergence of chess-playing
programs. In a short period they became very
powerful that by 1997 then World Champion Gary
Kasparov lost a six-game game match to the
program Deep Blue. Today, it is settled that
chess programs are too powerful even for the best
human grandmasters, and they are best utilized
only as analysis tools. Consequently, they have
raised chess to unprecedented levels, and
thorough computer-assisted opening preparation
and highly accurate over-the-board analysis is
now required to be fairly successful at the elite
level. In all, the 1800s up to the present has
been a colorful era in which chess exploded in
popularity, theory grew exponentially, and great
and charismatic players in Paul Morphy, Jose
Raoul Capablanca, Robert James Fischer, Gary
Kasparov, and Magnus Carlsen conquered the
imagination and left their indelible
mark. Source- https//www.chessequipments.com/h
istory-of-chess/
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