CHESS

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For more than 1,400 years, people have played chess in some form. It has a cultural and intellectual
significance that few other activities can match, making it one of the oldest and most widely played
games in the world.

Chess is a board game that can only be played by two people at a time and requires intelligence and
strategic thinking.  It is an entirely Indian game; a fitting tribute to the geniuses of India.

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The goal of chess is to eliminate the opponent's pieces from their territory by making a strategic move
that puts the opponent's king in a position where it can't escape and be declared checkmate.

It was referred to as Chaturanga, which referred to the four branches or diversions of the ancient Indian
army:

elephants, infantry, cavalry, and those four divisions or limbs formed the proper army, flanking the king
and his chief minister or Mantri/vazir, who are known as the knight, bishop, and rook due to European
influence.

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From India to Persia, the game passed into the Arab world. It also spread to Southeast Asia, China, and
Japan, where it developed into the related games xiangqi and shogi, which are sometimes referred to as
Chinese chess and Japanese chess, respectively.

During this time, the first academic studies of chess were conducted, looking at openings, problems, and
other aspects of the game that are still debated today.

It also became controversially associated with revelry, gambling, and violence, prompting some
Catholics an attempt to outlaw it or ban chess.
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Games in the medieval era were often slow, lasting for hours or even days. Instead of long-term
planning, more emphasis is placed on quick decisions.

This resulted in a number of rules changes, such as the ability to move pawns two spaces in a single
move and the development of castling, which made it simpler to safeguard the king early on.

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Modern chess tournament play began in the second half of the 19th century, and the first official World
Chess Championship was held in 1886.

Chess helps a person develop better life strategies by strengthening their mental abilities. It
accommodates the consistent improvement of the human brain.

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It's quite interesting to note that the advent of chess computers that can defeat even the best human
players has had dramatic ramifications for the game.

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Players can now consult databases of millions of games to identify errors in their own play. This has also
allowed players to discover brilliant new moves (called “novelties”) that have never been played before.

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Today, no particular school or style of chess dominates. It's basically the use of guts and brain.
So, keep your opponents guessing.

BACKGAMMON

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See, dice are perfect, and we as a whole love a decent round of "guess a number, then check whether
you roll that number."

The ancients got bored. Luckily, boredom is the mother of invention, at least when it comes to the
creation of board games.

However, this is not a typical game. A game consolidates luck and expertise all into one. Which game are
we discussing? Backgammon.

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Backgammon is a two-player game played on tables with counters and dice. It is the most common table
game in Western countries and is a member of a large family of games that go back nearly 5,000 years
to Mesopotamia and Persia.

Backgammon, which is derived from the Irish game of the same name from the 16th century, first
appeared in England in the 17th century.

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The desire to "dice, but more fun" was shared by all civilizations. Everyone started doing it, and
backgammon may have come from one or more of these early dicey board games.

The rules of backgammon to be very easy to understand, and once you get the hang of the game, you
don't have to worry about your opponent being better than you are because that's when luck plays a
role.

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Backgammon is a game for two players, played on a board consisting of twenty-four narrow triangles
called points.

The triangles alternate in color and are grouped into four quadrants of six triangles each.

The quadrants are referred to as a player's home board and outer board, and the opponent's home
board and outer board.

The home and outer boards are separated from each other by a ridge down the center of the board
called the bar.

Each player has fifteen checkers of his own color. The initial arrangement of checkers is: two on each
player's twenty-four point, five on each player's thirteen point, three on each player's eight point, and
five on each player's six point.

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Essentially, a two-player dice game in which each player competes to remove all of their pieces from the
board first.

Two things go downhill in a society that is based on class: trends and issues.

Backgammon spread across social strata because commoners will, if they can afford it, enjoy something
that the nobles do.

Furthermore, it wasn’t until 1645 that the term was finally coined. H. J. R. Murray refers to the game as
“backgammon” in his work, A History of Board Games Other Than Chess—

clearly the literary work of a man who was so sick of hearing about chess all the time.

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Backgammon just prove that us, humans, are not so fond of knowing there is someone's skill better than
us.

More so, praying that luck may always be on our side.