A Quick History of Chess

The Ancient Roots (600 – 900)

The origins of chess continue to baffle scholars and historians world-wide. There is a lengthy record of debate and findings that challenge some of the initial facts about where, when and who invented this board game. The most common theory says that the modern game of chess originates from Chaturanga, a very similar war-game invented in Northern part of India around 600 AD.

The first written evidence about chess in all literature is in Harschacharita by Bana, an Indian court poet, dated as written between 625 and 640 AD. Similar Chinese texts from the same period contain various references to what seems to be the game of chess. Although several myths developed on who actually invented the game at its earliest stages, the question remains a mystery. Specialists assert that it is possible that it was the work of a single mind, but it is also possible that the individual movements of the pieces coagulated from several different sources not necessarily from one single mind.

Chess evolved greatly in the Buddhist countries, especially in India. From this point onwards the game spread in the East, North and West taking sharply different characteristics. It was taken to China by Buddhists over the mountains over the Indus river or through the Khyber Pass, a key juncture point of the caravan trading routes. By 800, the Chinese developed their own game of chess, adapted to the cultural realities of their space (Chinese Chess). In the 11th century, the game reached Japan through Korea, it was again adapted to the Japanese culture and a different game emerged (Shogi).

Then, the game spread towards West. Around 625 reached Persia and was named Chatrang. After the Arabian conquest in the mid of 7th century the game was renamed Shatranj. Two hundred years of immense growth of chess inside the Islamic civilization followed. The oldest recovered game seems to be a game played between a Baghdad historian and one of his pupils as found in a 10th century manuscript.

Chess in Medieval Europe (1000-1600)

Chess entered Europe through three different paths: Moorish invasion of Spain in the 8th century, the Islamic conquest of Sicily shortly after, and through the Byzantine Empire in the Eastern Europe. The Christians Byzantines took the game in the heart of East and Central Europe, the Vikings took it in the Baltic regions. The most famous collection of chessmen was found on Isle of Lewis in 1831 and consist in 78 walrus-ivory pieces dated as approximately 800-900 years ago. The game spread throughout Europe and by the year of 1000 it was widely known.

The laws and the rules of chess evolved slowly with some variation from region to region. Two other today commonly accepted laws, castling and en-passant capture, were known in the 15th century but they became a common usage only in the 18th century. But the most important changes in the game took place in the year of 1475: the former FERS - King’s advisor (of male gender) - was replaced by a “Queen”, and the former AUFINs were replaced by “Bishops”. The change quickened the game greatly as both the Queen and the Bishop enjoyed a greater mobility over the board. In addition, the act of increasing the value pawn promotion was introduced [from now onwards the pawn could promote into a Queen]. This added a greater dynamic to the game. Furthermore, since the mobility of the Queen was much greater, it created stronger threats in the early stage of the game; any wrong step could have meant a serious peril. Consequently, those interested in the game started to study how to open the game properly.

The newly-changed game spread from Southern Europe to the rest of the continent. The earliest books on chess (written by Vicent, Lucena, Damiano, and Ruy Lopez) were all written in the Iberian Peninsula. The game registered a new growth in the 16th century when chess players were supported by wealthy (and occasionally royal) patrons in Italy. With a financial security guaranteed, the stronger players like Gioachino Greco (1600 - c.1634) invented openings, wrote secret manuals on how to attack efficiently or how to open a game in remarkable ways.

The Modern Times (1700-1800)

Starting with 1730s, chess was played in the cafés of all major cities of Europe. Chess players met in these hubs of social life but earning a living off the game proved a difficult path from its very start. An incipient market for chess books emerged, Philidor’s Analysis (1749) being one of the most important work of the period. His ideas, based on a first attempt to understand positional play, were attacked by his rivals. This way a debate emerged and the various “schools of chess” elaborated their principles.

By the 17th century, chess players throughout Europe were isolated in the cities of their activities. But, once the modern inventions were manifest (telegraphy, cable, telephone, etc), matches between various cities started to take place on a large scale than before. Such inter-connectivity aided the development and the status of the game. The leading chess centre was the famous Café de la Regence in Paris where the best players of the time used to meet. There, the important match between Louis Charles de la Bourdonnais (1795-1840) and Alexander MacDonnell (1798-1835), two leading players of the time from France and England, took place in 1834. With this occasion, for the very first time, the news about chess filled newspapers and were extensively analyzed in books.

By 1850s newspapers started to carry regular chess columns and several chess periodicals were published. The opening theory developed greatly and international matches between various individuals, considered Europe’s leading players, were organized more often than before. In 1843, the rivalry between the leading French and English players took the shape of a match between Howard Staunton (1810-1874) and Pierre-Charles Fournier St. Amant (1800-1872). Staunton won the match and the prize-money but he remained in the collective memory of chess players world-wide for deciding the standard shape of chessmen [“Staunton style”] and for organizing the first important international chess tournament in London in 1851. Although the tournament was won by Adolf Anderssen, a German school-teacher, London remained the epicentre of chess activity.

A new wave of enthusiasm for the game was registered during late 1850s. Paul Morphy, a genial young American chess player, came to Europe and defeated the continent’s most notable players in a few months. He retired briefly after his worldly applauded success, but the game benefitted from such wide-spread exposure.

By 1872, Wilhelm Steinitz (1836-1900), a Prague-born chess player, became world’s leading master and he remained one until early 1890s. He produced a series of very important writings and established the foundation of positional play.

Before World War II

In early 1900s the chess life expanded in Europe and America. Chess tournaments were organized more regularly than before and a greater number of chess masters emerged. Among the best of them were Harry N. Pillsbury, Siegbert Tarrasch, Frank J. Marshall, Aaron Nimzowitch and others. Following Steinitz’s decline, the reigns of Emanuel Lasker (1868-1941) and José R. Capablanca (1888-1942) as world champions marked this period. The technique of playing was greatly elaborated by the leading masters of the time and the 1920s registered one of the most busiest chess eras prior to World War II. The emergence of the Russian-born Alexander Alekhine (1892-1946), the fourth world champion, pushed the interest in the game to new heights.

In 1924, FIDE (Fédération International des Èchecs) was organized and the international governing of the chess activities debuted. FIDE organized the first Olympiad in 1927. Along with it, the first women’s world chess championship was organized in the same year as many women became very proficient at the game. The first woman world champion was Vera Menchik (1906-1944). Since her time, world witnessed (and continues to do so) a great number of female chess players who proved exceptional skill at chess.

After World War II

At the end of World War II (1939-1945) a new chess power emerged: Soviet Union. Its leading masters, headed by Mikhail Botvinnik (1911-1995), conquered the world title and installed a Russian hegemony: most of the top world players were Russian or belonging to the vast space of Soviet Union. Among them: Mikhail Tal, Tigran Petrosian, Vasily Smislov, Boris Spassky and many others.

This Russian dominance was briefly interrupted by the rise of the American Robert J. Fischer (b. 1943) who in the mid 1960s and early 1970s took on successfully the elite of Russian chess. In 1972 Fischer defeated Spassky to claim to the world title in a much publicized match played in Reykjavik, Iceland. The Russians reclaimed the world championship in 1975 when Fischer gave up the title in the favour of Anatoly Karpov (b. 1951). The latter proved world’s leading player for about a decade. In 1985, the challenge came from the 22-year-old Garry Kasparov (b.1963), the advocate of a very aggressive and dynamic approach to the game. After a tense struggle between what the outside world would term “K-K duel”, Kasparov emerged as the new world chess champion at the end of a marathon match against Karpov. Kasparov was the leader of a new generation of chess players with a superior style and approach to how the game should be played at high level. Elements such as deeper analysis, opening preparation, superior understanding of strategy and psychological preparation became necessary parts of the arsenal of a world class player.

The 1970s also witnessed the first explorations in the realm of chess played by computers. After timid attempts, by mid of the 1970s the first computers were able to defeat human amateurs or club-level players. Two decades later, computers such as Deep Fritz and others developed to such an extent that were able to defeat world’s best players with relative ease. With the development of laptops and chess databases since late 1980s onwards, the chess playing/analysing engines stored in laptops became a top player’s most loyal training partners and confidants. The technological advance and the advent of internet fastened greatly the rhythm with which the game of chess spread to the masses. No long the luxury pastime of an intellectual elite like in the 18th century, the game of chess started to be played by anyone, anywhere across the world.

This was very evident in 1990s and continues to aid the game today. In addition, a great number of very young and skilful Grandmasters emerged in the first ranks of the chess world breaking down the stereotype that the chess is a game for older people: very young grandmasters and international masters convinced many that even the youngest students can master the game at its highest level. No longer the privilege of the old and wise, the art of chess playing is swiftly mastered by school children who turn into masters and grandmasters at a fast pace.

Such development is currently supported by FIDE. The game is played on all continents and in all countries by a great diversity of people: rich or poor, young or old, boys or girls, regardless of ethnicity, religion or race. It is taught in specialized training centres and chess academies all over the world. But is also taught in schools where pupils embark on a fascinating journey that - given enough courage to persevere, patience, resilience and willingness to learn from one’s own mistakes – leads not only to the mastering the art of chess playing but mastering the art of discovering our own weaknesses and strengths – mastering ourselves.

To such an end there is no shortcut. Since immemorial times - when the game was played from the plains of Northern Indian kingdoms to the Buddhist mountain-villages of China, from the Persian steps across the African desert to the medieval Spanish castles, and from the dark Baltic cities to the cold Russian towns – for a prospective disciple of the game such journey always started with first learning how the chess pieces move and interact on the special board with sixty-four squares.

Photo Credits

Google Image Archive

Wikipedia.com

Suggested Further Readings:

Fred Wilson, A Picture History of Chess, (Dover Publications, 1981)

Harold J. Murray, History of Chess, (Oxford University Press, First published 1913)

Harry Golombek, A History of Chess, (Putnam, 1976)

Hooper, D. and Kenneth Whyld, The Oxford Companion to Chess, (Oxford University Press, 1995)

Patrick Wolf, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Chess, (Alpha Books, 2002, pp. 1-11)

Richard Eales, Chess: The History of a Game, (Hardinge Simpole, 2002)

William Roland Hartston, The Kings of Chess, (Harper & Row, 1985)