History of chess

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the book by H. J. R. Murray, see A History of Chess.

Real-size resin reproductions of the 12th

century Lewis chessmen. The top row shows king,
queen, and bishop. The bottom row shows knight, rook,
and pawn.

The history of chess can be traced back nearly

1500 years, although the earliest origins are uncertain.
The earliest predecessor of the game probably
originated in India, before the 6th century AD; a minority of historians believe the game
originated in China. From India, the game spread to Persia. When the Arabs conquered Persia,
chess was taken up by the Muslim world and subsequently spread to Southern Europe. In
Europe, chess evolved into roughly its current form in the 15th century.

The "Romantic Era of Chess" was the predominant chess playing style from the late 15th
century to the 1880s. Chess games of this period emphasized more on quick, tactical maneuvers
rather than long-term strategic planning. The Romantic era of play was followed by the
Scientific, Hypermodern, and New Dynamism eras. In the second half of the 19th century,
modern chess tournament play began, and the first World Chess Championship was held in 1886.
The 20th century saw great leaps forward in chess theory and the establishment of the World
Chess Federation (FIDE). Developments in the 21st century include use of computers for
analysis, which originated in the 1970s with the first programmed chess games on the
market. Online gaming appeared in the mid-1990s.

Chess remains a highly popular pastime among the general populace. A 2012 survey
found that "chess players now make up one of the largest communities in the world: 605 million
adults play chess regularly". Chess is played at least once a year by 12% of British people, 15%
of Americans, 23% of Germans, 43% of Russians, and 70% of Indian people.

Origin

Precursors to chess originated in India during the Gupta Empire. There, its early form in
the 6th century was known as chaturaṅga, which translates as "four divisions (of the
military)": infantry, cavalry, elephantry, and chariotry. These forms are represented by the pieces
that would evolve into the modern pawn, knight, bishop, and rook, respectively. According to
chess historians Gerhard Josten and Isaak Linder, "the early beginnings" of chess can be traced
back to the Kushan Empire in Ancient Afghanistan, circa 50 BCE–200 CE.

Chess was introduced to Persia from India and became a part of the princely or courtly
education of Persian nobility. In Sassanid Persia around 600 the name became chatrang, which
subsequently evolved to shatranj, due to Arab Muslims' lack of ch and ng native sounds, and the
rules were developed further. Players started calling "Shāh!" (Persian for "King!") when
attacking the opponent's king, and "Shāh Māt!" (Persian for "the king is helpless" –
see checkmate) when the king was attacked and could not escape from attack. These
exclamations persisted in chess as it traveled to other lands.
The game was taken up by the Muslim world after the Islamic conquest of Persia, with
the pieces largely keeping their Persian names. The Moors of North Africa rendered Persian
"shatranj" as shaṭerej, which gave rise to the Spanish acedrex, axedrez and ajedrez;
in Portuguese it became xadrez, and in Greek zatrikion, but in the rest of Europe it was replaced
by versions of the Persian shāh ("king"). Thus, the game came to be called ludus
scacchorum or scacc(h)i in Latin, scacchi in Italian, escacs in Catalan, échecs in French (Old
French eschecs); schaken in Dutch, Schach in German, szachy in Polish, šahs in Latvian, skak in 
Danish, sjakk in Norwegian, schack in Swedish, šakki in Finnish, šah in South Slavic
languages, sakk in Hungarian and şah in Romanian; there are two theories about why this change
happened:
From the exclamation "check" or "checkmate" as it was pronounced in various languages.
From the first chessmen known of in Western Europe (except Iberia and Greece) being
ornamental chess kings brought in as curios by Muslim traders.
The Mongols call the game shatar, and in Ethiopia it is called senterej, both evidently derived
from shatranj.
Chess spread directly from the Middle East to Russia, where chess became known as
шахматы (shakhmaty, literally "checkmates", a plurale tantum).
The game reached Western Europe and Russia by at least three routes, the earliest being in the
9th century. By the year 1000 it had spread throughout Europe. Introduced into the Iberian
Peninsula by the Moors in the 10th century, it was described in a famous 13th-century
manuscript covering shatranj, backgammon and dice named the Libro de los juegos.
Chess spread throughout the world and many variants of the game soon began taking
shape. Buddhist pilgrims, Silk Road traders and others carried it to the Far East where it was
transformed and assimilated into a game often played on the intersection of the lines of the board
rather than within the squares. Chaturanga reached Europe through Persia, the Byzantine
empire and the expanding Arabian empire. Muslims carried chess to North Africa, Sicily,
and Iberia by the 10th century.
The game was developed extensively in Europe. By the late 15th century, it had survived
a series of prohibitions and Christian Church sanctions to almost take the shape of the modern
game. Modern history saw reliable reference works, competitive chess tournaments, and exciting
new variants. These factors added to the game's popularity, ]further bolstered by reliable timing
mechanisms (first introduced in 1861), effective rules, and charismatic players

Chess Piece
 A chess piece, or chessman, is any of the 32 movable objects deployed on
a chessboard used to play the game of chess. In a standard game of chess, each of the two players
begins a game with the following 16 pieces:

1 king
1 queen
2 rooks
2 bishops
2 knights
8 pawns

In playing chess, the players take turns moving one of their own chess pieces. The rules
of chess prescribe the types of move a player can make with each type of chess piece.
The pieces that belong to each player are distinguished by color. The lighter colored pieces are
referred to as "white", and the player that plays them, "White". The darker colored pieces are
referred to as "black", and their player, "Black"

Move of Chess Pieces

Each piece type moves in a different way.

*The rook moves any number of vacant squares forwards, backwards, left, or right in a straight
line. It also takes part, along with the king, in a special move called castling.
*The bishop moves any number of vacant squares diagonally in a straight line. Consequently, a
bishop stays on squares of the same color throughout a game. The two bishops each player starts
with move on squares of opposite colors.
*The queen moves any number of vacant squares in any direction: forwards, backwards, left,
right, or diagonally, in a straight line.
*The king moves exactly one vacant square in any direction: forwards, backwards, left, right, or
diagonally. It can also castle in conjunction with a rook.
*The knight moves on an extended diagonal from one corner of any 2×3 rectangle of squares to
the furthest opposite corner. Consequently, the knight alternates its square color each time it
moves. The knight is the only piece that jumps over any intervening piece(s) when moving
(castling being the only special instance in which pieces jump over one another).
*The pawn moves forward exactly one space, or optionally, two spaces when on its starting
square, toward the opponent's side of the board. When there is an enemy piece one square
diagonally ahead of the pawn, either left or right, then the pawn may capture that piece. A pawn
can perform a special type of capture of an enemy pawn called en passant. If the pawn reaches a
square on the back rank of the opponent, it promotes to the player's choice of a queen, rook,
bishop, or knight (Just & Burg 2003:13–16).
*Pieces other than pawns capture in the same way that they move. A capturing piece replaces the
opponent piece on its square, except for an en passant capture. Captured pieces are immediately
removed from the game. A square may hold only one piece at any given time. Except for castling
and the knight's move, no piece may jump over another piece (Just & Burg 2003:13–16).