Who invented chess

We human beings have been playing chess for more than 1400 years with different versions of it. It has attained an intellectual and cultural significance that many other activities cannot match. Chess is so deeply rooted in our lives that many individual games, such as Garry Kasparov's loss to the deep blue in 1997 or Bobby fishers' victory over Boris in 1972, have become a significant milestone in history.

From where does chess originate

The earliest form of this game, now known as chess, can be traced back to India in the early 6th century. This game's predecessors were called chaturanga (catur) was played on an 8*8 grade, and it featured pieces that are generally similar to those in modern chess.

• The exact rules for playing chaturanga are still unknown, but it looks very similar to modern chess with some key differences.
• The queen in today's chess was called counselors back then, and bishops were called elephants. Their moves were generally more limited in the chaturanga.
• We can also conclude the objective of the game has also been different from what was back then.
• In Persia by the 10th or 11th century, the earliest recorded games of chaturanga were found.
• The game of chess had passed into the Arab from Persia. At the same time, it also passes onto China, Japan, and many other countries of Southeast Asia, where this game evolved into related games such as shogi and xiangqi that are also called aa Japanese and Chinese chess respectively.
• Also, this period saw the scholarly studies on chess analyzing problems in chess, openings in chess, and many other topics that are still considered.

The arrival of chess in Europe

Chess was introduced to Europe during the late 12th or early 13th century by many different routes, including entrance into Southern Europe by the empire of byzantine and into Spain by way of North Africa. From there, chess rapidly became popular in most of the European nobility and many eager sponsors were even fond of this game in the time of medieval kings.

• Chess became deeply associated with the aristocracy and nobility, and for a time, it was considered one of the essential skills that gave to be learned by young knights.
• Similarly, young aristocrats from prehistoric China were expected to learn Go.
• At that time, chess also became associated with gambling, violence, and revelry that led some catholic churches to ban it.

Influence of Europeans on Chess

Since the chess game reached Europe, many European players have introduced many mechanical and cosmetic changes in it, such as introducing many innovations like changing the names of various pieces of game and checker chess boards. These European players have introduced the change in the name of the pieces to reflect significant medieval European figures like bishops, rooks (The rook's name may have come from the Italian language, which means "fortress"), and knights.

• During the medieval period, the game was very slow, and it usually takes hours or sometimes days to finish a single game back then.
• Europeans introduced many rules in the game due to its slowness. Rules like moving pawn for two spaces as the first move, castling rule development (that made it much easier for us to protect the king), etc., all were developed back then.
• Many players in southern Europe introduced some additional changes in the game, such as changes to bishops and changes in the queen that made both pieces more powerful and shortened a single game's duration. All these changes were introduced by the year 1500.
• Also, by the year 1500, the modern chess theory was developed as players like the Frenchman Andre Danican Philidor and the Spanish bishop Ruy Lopez de Segura, started analyzing various principles of the game regarding opening and endgame situations.

Development of chess into a competitive sport

Around the 19th century, chess had become a fixture in a modern European's life. Many European players have joined and created various chess clubs, and chess problems have become fixtures of major newspapers.

Let's have a look atsome chess tournaments and their first edition:

• International chess tournament:

The first international tournament of chess was played in the year 1951, in London, U.K. The international chess tournament also led to developing speed chess variations, modern timekeeping games, and sealed moves.

• World chess championship:

The first world chess championship was organized in the year 1886, and the London city of the U.K too hosted this world championship. The Austrianplayer who later became American, Wilhelm Steinitz, was the first undisputed world chess champion. He was also the one who first exemplified the highly romantic and aggressive style of the period, but later on, he theorized and developed the position style of playing chess. The position style of playing chess would also come in the 20th century to dominate worldwide.

Many other historical developments in chess

• The rival of Wilhelm Steinitz, Adolf Anderssen, had played a significant role in popularizing modern chess problems around the globe.
• Only after the 1880s was it codified in the rules that white will play first in every game.
• World Chess Federation or Fédération Internationale des Échecs or FIDE started working as the head organization for the chess games in the 20th century.
• Also, in the 20th century, FIDE or Fédération Internationale desstarted to standardized many international chess games and the rules of chess.
• The development of classical chess theory was also seen in the early part of the 20^th century, which radically introduced new play styles.
• The introduction of online chess games and chess computers has only been seen after the post-war period, which developed sophistication in the game until they could defeat the grandmasters by the end of the 1980s.

Important chess players during the 20th century:

• German mathematician Emanuel Lasker and reigned as the chess world champion for 27 years.
• An early chess prodigy, Paul Morphy from America.
• Mikhail Botvinnik from USSR: the world champion.

Memorable games in chess history:

• The immortal game: a game of chess between Lionel Kieseritzky and the German masters Adolf Anderssen.
• The game of the century: the chess game played between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky.
• Game 6 between IBM's Deep Blue and world champion Kasparov.

How the computer's era changes the Chess Game?

The advancement in computer chess and bot chess players that have even beaten the game's best players from history has ramifications for chess dramatically. After introducing computer chess, Players can now access the database and consult to look out for millions of games in it to identify their errors.

It has also allowed players worldwide to find out many new brilliant moves of the game called novelties. The novelties are the new moves in chess that have never been played before in any game.

In today's time, no particular style in chess dominates the game. The emerging world chess champions are famous for playing or starting their games with varieties of openings that make the opponent keep guessing.