Story emergence and development chess dates back many centuries. Archaeological excavations indicate that games in which it was necessary to move chips on a board existed around the 4th-3rd centuries. BC. According to ancient legend, the game of chess was created by a certain Brahmin. In exchange for his invention, he asked the Raja for a seemingly insignificant reward: as many millet grains as would fit on the chessboard if one grain was placed on the first square, two grains on the second, four grains on the third, etc. However, in fact, it turned out that there is no such amount of grain (1.845 × 10^19 grains, which can be stored in a storage facility with a volume of 180 km³) on the entire planet. It is unknown whether everything actually happened this way or otherwise, but, one way or another, India is considered the birthplace of chess. A story this once again emphasizes the fact that in chess the number of combinations is infinite, thanks to which this ancient most interesting game will never exhaust itself.
The oldest form of chess, the war game chaturanga, appeared in the first centuries AD. e. In India, chaturanga was a type of army that included war chariots (ratha) - rooks, elephants (hasti), cavalry (ashva) and foot soldiers (padati). The game symbolized a battle involving four branches of troops controlled by a leader. The pieces were located at the corners of a square board (ashtapada) of 64 cells; 4 people took part in the game. The movement of the figures was determined by throwing the dice. To win the game it was necessary to destroy all enemy troops. Chaturanga existed in India until the beginning of the 20th century, and its name changed over time to “chaturraja” - the game of four kings; The figures began to be painted in 4 colors - green, yellow, red and black. The successor to chaturanga was the game shatrang (chatrang), which arose in Central Asia at the end of the 5th - beginning of the 6th centuries. In this variation, the game had two “camps” of pieces and a new piece representing the king’s advisor, the farzin; Only 2 opponents began to take part in the game. The goal of the game was to checkmate the opponent's king. Thus, the “game of chance” was replaced by the “game of the mind.” In the VIII-IX centuries. Shatrang penetrated from Central Asia to the East and West, becoming known under the Arabic name Shatranj. In Shatranj (IX-XV centuries), the terminology and arrangement of Shatrang figures were preserved, but the appearance of the figures underwent changes. The fact is that religion was against the use of living creatures to represent chess pieces, so the Arabs began to use abstract figures in the form of small cylinders and cones for these purposes. This greatly simplified their creation, which, in turn, contributed to the further spread of the game among the masses. The development of the game was rather slow, since only the rook, king and knight moved according to modern rules, while the range of action of other pieces was extremely limited. For example, the queen moved only one square diagonally.
So, the use of abstract images to create chess pieces contributed to a change in the perception of chess - they were no longer perceived as a symbol of war, battle, but began to be associated with everyday ups and downs, which was reflected in the epic and treatises dedicated to the game of chess (Omar Khayyam, Saadi, Nizami), opening new page in history of chess.
Development of chess.
During the early Middle Ages (VIII-IX centuries), the Arabs, as a result of the conquest of Spain, moved shatranj to Spain. After which this game began to spread in Western Europe, where further transformation of the rules continued, which ultimately turned Shatranj into modern chess.
Chess acquired its modern appearance only by the 15th century, although due to inconsistency of changes, several more centuries in different countries there were their own, sometimes quite bizarre, peculiarities of the rules. For example, in Italy, until the 19th century, a pawn that reached the last rank could only be promoted to those pieces that had already been removed from the board, and moving the pawn to the last rank in the absence of such pieces was not prohibited. In this case, the pawn remained a pawn and turned into the first piece captured by the opponent at the moment when the opponent captured it. Castling was also allowed if there was a piece between the rook and the king and if the king passed a broken square.
History of chess is quite rich, and as they spread in Europe, chess and artistic works began to appear telling about this game. The first poem about chess, written by Ezra, appeared in 1160. In 1283, the first chess book in Europe was published - a treatise by Alphonse X the Wise. This book is of great interest when studying history of chess, as it contains a description of both new European chess and the already obsolete shatranj. Around 820, the Arabic shatranj under the Central Asian name “chess” appeared in Rus', in the Russian language acquiring the name “chess” already known to all of us, coming, it is believed, either directly from Persia through the Caucasus and the Khazar Kaganate, or from the Central Asian peoples, through Khorezm. In any case, the Russian name of the game was inherited from the Tajiks or Uzbeks; the names of the figures in Russia are also consonant or similar in meaning to Arabic or Central Asian ones. Changes in the rules, later introduced by Europeans, penetrated Rus' with some delay and gradually turned old Russian chess into modern ones. The Arab period is also associated with the emergence of the so-called descriptive notation, thanks to which it became possible to record played games.
However, the Christian Church throughout history of chess took a sharply negative position, equating them with gambling and drunkenness. But, despite church prohibitions, chess spread both in Europe and in Russia, and among the clergy the passion for the game was no less (if not more) than among other classes. And already in 1393 in Europe, the Council of Regenburg removed chess from the list of prohibited games. Note that in Russia there is no information about the official lifting of the church ban on chess, but at least since the 17th-18th centuries this ban has not actually been in effect. Ivan the Terrible played chess. Under Alexei Mikhailovich, chess was common among courtiers, and the ability to play it was common among diplomats. Documents from that time have been preserved in Europe, which say that Russian envoys were familiar with chess and played it very well. Princess Sophia was fond of chess. Under Peter I, assemblies were held with the obligatory chess games.
In the XIV-XV centuries. the traditions of oriental chess were lost in Europe, and in the 15th-16th centuries. a departure from them became obvious after a number of changes in the rules for the moves of pawns, bishops and queens. But by the 15th-16th centuries, chess rules were basically established, thanks to which the development of systematic chess theory began. In 1561, the priest Ruy Lopez - the author of the popular opening "Spanish game" - published the first complete chess textbook, which examined the now distinguished stages of the game - opening, middlegame and endgame. He was the first to describe a characteristic type of opening - a “gambit”, in which an advantage in development is achieved by sacrificing material.
A great contribution to the development of chess theory in the 18th century was made by the famous French musician Francois-André Danican Philidor, who had a huge influence on the development of history of chess. He seriously revised the views of his predecessors, primarily Italian masters, who believed that the most best style The game is an aggressive attack on the opponent's king with all available means and using pawns only as auxiliary material. Philidor developed the so-called positional style of play. He believed that a player should not rush into reckless attacks, but systematically build a strong, stable position, deliver precisely calculated attacks on the weaknesses of the enemy’s position, and, if necessary, resort to exchanges and simplifications if they lead to a profitable endgame. The correct position, according to Philidor, is, first of all, the correct placement of the pawns. According to Philidor, “Pawns are the soul of chess; Only they create attack and defense; victory or defeat entirely depends on their good or bad position.” Philidor developed tactics for advancing the pawn chain, insisted on the importance of the pawn center and analyzed the struggle for the center, and was the author of the well-known “Philidor Defense.” In many ways, his ideas formed the basis of the chess theory of the next century. Philidor's book “Analysis of the Chess Game” became a classic; it went through 42 editions in the 18th century alone and was reprinted many times later.
Modern chess.
In 1886, the first official world championship match took place in the United States. history of chess. The struggle unfolded between Steinitz and Zukertort. By winning this match, Steinitz became the first world champion. He was not only the strongest chess player, but also the creator of the school of positional play. Steinitz, as it were, decomposed the position into constituent elements, identified the most significant of them, allowing us to objectively evaluate it and outline the most appropriate, most effective plan of action. In fact, he proposed a fundamentally new approach to the game. The basics of his strategy were the gradual accumulation of small advantages, maneuvering in order to strengthen his position and weaken the enemy.
The importance of the positional school for the development and spread of chess cannot be overestimated. Instead of a game based only on a specific calculation, a purely scientific method was proposed, based on an objective assessment of the pros and cons of a position.
At the beginning of the 20th century, a new movement appeared in painting, sculpture and music - modernism. And then such a trend as “hypermodernism” or “neo-romanticism” arose in chess. Hypermodernists criticized a number of positions of the positional school. They, for example, believed that the positional school overestimated the role of the pawn center and developed the concept of a piece-pawn center, when control over the central squares is exercised not only by pawns, but also by pieces. This led to the emergence of a number of new openings: the Reti Opening for White, the Nimzowitsch Defense, the Grunfeld Defense, the New Indian and King's Indian Defenses, and the Alekhine Defense for Black.
In addition, the hypermodernists abandoned the play by black preached by supporters of the positional school to gradually extinguish white's initiative and equalize the game. They sought counter active actions, to seize the initiative, to counterplay.
The representative of the hypermodernist chess school, Nimzowitsch, also deserves credit for the development and practical application various maneuvering techniques in the middle of the game - maneuvering, prevention, limitation of mobility, blockade, etc.
The main achievement of the hypermodernists, which had the greatest influence on further history of chess– they made chess interesting again, brought back a tactical game full of sacrifices and combinations. Emphasizing the leading role of strategy, the positional school unwittingly downplayed the role of tactics. Meanwhile, Nimzowitsch repeatedly emphasized that the combination should logically follow from the strategy itself. It is also significant that in their games the hypermodernists showed the beauty of strategy, demonstrated in practice that it, like tactics, is fertilized by inspiration, fantasy and intuition. Thus, they further expanded the idea of chess as an art.
However, the chess Olympus was still dominated by representatives of the positional school, and in 1921 Cuban Jose Raul Capablanca (1888-1942) became the third world champion. For his understanding of position and technique of positional play, he was called a “chess machine” and was considered invincible. In 1927, having won the match against Capablanca, Russian Alexander Alekhine (1892-1946) became the fourth world champion. In 1935, Alekhine lost to the Dutchman Max Euwe, who became the fifth world champion, in a match held in various cities of Holland, but in 1937 he regained the title of champion, winning in a rematch.
After the end of World War II, the USSR joined the chess federation - FIDE, and Soviet chess players began to dominate the world chess arena. Of the eight chess players who were crowned world chess champions in the post-war years, seven grandmasters represented the USSR: Mikhail Botvinnik, Vasily Smyslov, Mikhail Tal, Tigran Petrosyan, Boris Spassky, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov. Soviet chess players Lyudmila Rudenko, Elizaveta Bykova, Olga Rubtsova, Nona Gaprindashvili, Maya Chiburdanidze became world champions among women.
General computerization and the Internet of the late 20th - early 21st centuries. greatly influenced the development of chess. In 1997, the computer (Deep Blue) already wins the match against the world champion. Thus, we have entered the 21st century - the century of computer chess programs.
For those who have a desire to spend their free time with benefit for their mind and mood, there is such a sport as chess. This is a special sport that does not require physical activity from a person. But in return for this activity, chess requires mental activity from the player. Chess has been played for many centuries both at the professional level and by players in amateur clubs. Let's try to get to know each other better history of chess and with the principles of the game.
What is chess?
As mentioned above, chess is a special sport. This is a board game with 2 players. The game takes place on a special chessboard with black and white markings and 64 squares same size. The cell line is marked horizontally with numbers - from 1 to 8, and vertically with letters - from a to h. The next important component of the games is a set of chess pieces. They come in white and black, and each player gets one of them. The set of chess pieces includes:
pawns – 8 pieces;
elephants – 2 pieces;
horses – 2 pcs.;
rooks – 2 pcs;
kings – 2 pcs;
queens – 2 pcs.
In the history of chess there is a special section devoted to the origin of the pieces, and most importantly, their names.
According to the established rules, the game starts with the one who has the white set of pieces. Further, all moves are made in order. The essence of the game is that one player must hit his opponent, putting him in checkmate. Checkmate – when the opponent does not have the opportunity to move, and his king piece is under the opponent’s check. The game may be terminated if the opponent is completely defeated or if there is a draw. There is a certain time limit for all moves. If the game limit is exceeded and there is no winner, a technical win or draw is credited.
Where and when did chess first appear?
The history of chess began approximately 1.5 thousand years ago. According to some scientists, the game originated in India in the 5th-6th centuries AD. It is believed that the ancestor of chess was the Indian game chaturanga. The exact nuances and rules of this game are currently unknown to anyone, but there is some information that fully confirms their relationship with modern chess: a black and white board with markings and squares, as well as 16 pieces, similar to the pawns we are used to. There were 4 players, not 2.
According to historians, at the same time, Indian chaturanga was borrowed by Arab peoples. If we talk modern language– The Arabs significantly modified the game. The first transformation concerned the name - from chaturanga it turned into shatranj. Later, when the game came to the Tajiks and Persians, they called it “chess,” which translates as “the ruler is defeated.” It dates back to 580-600 AD.
In the years 800-900, when the Arabs conquered European cities with lightning speed, chess penetrated here too. In Europe, this game took pride of place and became part of the cultural life of those people. Only in the 15th – 16th centuries did the basic rules of the game become familiar to modern man, firmly established.
Modern chess
With the development of technology, changes have also affected such an ancient game as chess. The rules remain the same, but now computers have a huge influence on the game. Nowadays, matches and tournaments under the slogan “man versus machine” have become quite popular. It would seem that the computer will not leave a person any chance to win, but this is not so. IN modern history of chess There are many examples of world tournaments where great grandmasters defeated artificial intelligence.
A real chessboard with pieces today has become more of a souvenir and gift than a playing accessory, and this is of course sad, but chess of the kind to which our consciousness is accustomed is losing its former popularity. Nowadays, amateurs and beginners prefer to compete with a computer engine rather than with a real opponent. But you can also meet on the Internet. There are also advantages: while playing with the car, you will be able to short terms improve your skills.
According to archaeological excavations, games involving the movement of chips on a board were known back in the 3rd-4th centuries. BC e. The true age of the game known in the Western world as chess, shrouded in mystery.
Al-Biruni in the book "India" tells a legend that attributes the creation of chess to a certain Brahmin mathematician around 1000 BC. When the ruler asked how to reward him for this wonderful game, the mathematician replied: “Let's put one grain on the first square of the chessboard, two on the second, four on the third, and so on. So give me the amount of grain that will turn out, if you fill all 64 cells." The ruler was delighted, believing that we were talking about 2-3 bags, but if you count 2 to the 64th power, it turns out that this number is greater than all the grain in the world.
According to another legend, chess was invented by an eastern sage, whose name was Shishakh, and he lived in Babylon. Under him, the young king of Amolny sat on the throne, who greatly oppressed the lower strata of society, especially the peasants. In the greatest despair, the peasants turned to Shishakh, who was highly respected at the royal court, and asked him for help. Basically, they persuaded him to convince the king that the peasant was also a person who benefited the state. To convince the king of this, Shishakh invented chess and taught the king how to play chess. In this way he proved to him that the peasants, i.e. pawns on the board are still the best protection for the king. The king understood in this way the main idea of the chess game and stopped oppressing the peasants, and generously rewarded his adviser.
Based on another legend, chess was invented by the wife of King Ravana of Ceylon. When everyone in his besieged capital had already lost heart and lost all courage to continue the fight, the desperate King Ravan decided to give the city to the enemy. But the king had a wife, Queen Ranalana, a heroic woman, and she invented the game of chess to prove to her husband that he should not surrender to the enemy until all means of defense were exhausted, until at least one pawn soldier remained on the board, until there is at least a faint hope of victory!
Scientific hypotheses push back the time of the creation of chess even further, to 2-3 millennia BC, based on archaeological discoveries in Egypt, Iraq, and India. However, since there is no mention in the literature of this game before 570 AD, many historians recognize this date as the birth of chess. The first mention of the game of chess was in a Persian poem of 600 AD, and in this poem the invention of chess is attributed to India.
Raja Krishna playing ancient chess chaturanga
The oldest form of chess, the war game chaturanga, appeared in the first centuries AD. e. In India, chaturanga was an army formation that included war chariots (ratha), elephants (hasti), cavalry (ashva) and foot soldiers (padati). The game symbolized a battle involving four branches of troops, led by a leader. They were located at the corners of a 64-point square board (ashtapada), and 4 people participated in the game. The movement of the figures was determined by throwing the dice. Chaturanga existed in India until the beginning of the 20th century. and over time began to be called “chaturraja” - the game of four kings; at the same time, the figures began to be painted in 4 colors - black, red, yellow and green.
In the first centuries of our era, the game was so widespread in Persia that it was considered a shame when an intelligent person did not know how to play it. The game of chess left traces in the language of the time, in symbols and metaphors, as well as in the poetry of that time.
The successor to chaturanga was the game shatrang (chatrang), which arose in Central Asia at the end of the 5th - beginning of the 6th centuries. It had two “camps” of figures and a new figure depicting the king’s advisor - farzin; two opponents played. The goal of the game is to checkmate the opponent's king. So the “game of chance” was replaced by the “game of the mind”.
The penetration of chess from India into ancient Iran (Persia) during the reign of Chosroy I Anushiravan (531-579) is described in a Persian book of 650-750. The same book in the smallest details describes chess terminology and the names and actions of various chess pieces. Since there are no written references to chess in literature before the 6th century AD prior to this book, many historians recognize this period as the birth of chess.
The game of chess is also mentioned in the poems of Firdusi, a Persian poet who lived in the 10th century AD. The poem describes the gifts presented by the envoys of the Indian Rajah to the court of the Persian sheikh Chosroy I Anushiravan. Among these gifts, according to the poem, was a game depicting the battle of two armies. After the Persian Empire was conquered by the Muslim Arabs, the game of chess began to spread throughout the civilized world.
It has been proven that in Byzantium in the 6th and 7th centuries AD, the game of chess was very popular. The Byzantine Emperor Nikophorus himself, in a letter to Caliph Harun al Rashid, makes a comparison between the queen on the board and his predecessor on the throne, Empress Irene.
In the 8th-9th centuries. Shatrant spread from Central Asia to the East and West, where it became known under the Arabic name Shatranj.
In Shatranj (9th-15th centuries), the terminology and arrangement of Shatrang figures were preserved, but the appearance of the figures changed. Due to Islam's prohibition of depicting living creatures, the Arabs used miniature abstract figures in the form of small cylinders and cones, which simplified their production and contributed to the spread of the game.
The strongest players of shatranj, along with the Arabs - Al-Adli and others, were immigrants from Central Asia - Abu Naim, al-Khadim, al-Razi, al-Supi, al-Lajlaj, Abu-Fath, etc. Among the patrons of the game were famous caliphs Harun-ar-Rashid, al-Amin, ap-Mamun, etc. The game developed slowly, since only the rook, king and knight moved according to modern rules, while the range of action of other pieces was extremely limited. For example, the queen moved only one square diagonally.
Thanks to abstract figures, the game gradually ceased to be perceived by the people as a symbol of a military battle and was increasingly associated with everyday vicissitudes, which was reflected in the epic and treatises dedicated to the game of chess (Omar Khayyam, Saadi, Nizami).
The appearance of the so-called descriptive notation is also associated with the Arab period, thanks to which it became possible to record played games.
Shatranj was brought directly to Western Europe by the Arabs during the early Middle Ages. Here chess became known in the 10th-11th centuries, after the Arabs conquered Spain and Sicily. The game had a pronounced military character, so it was very well received in the knightly countries of medieval Europe.
From Spain the game reached France, where, for example, Charlemagne was a big fan of it.
Chess in medieval France
Also from Spain and Sicily, chess gradually penetrated into Italy, England, Scandinavian and other European countries, despite the severe persecution of the church, which prohibited chess along with the game of dice and other “demonic obsessions.”
Chess was brought to Spain by the Moors, and the first mention of chess in Christendom is in the Catalan Testament of 1010 AD. Although chess was known in Europe in earlier times. According to some legends, an expensive set of chess pieces was presented as a gift to Carloman (8th-9th century) from the famous Muslim ruler Harun al-Rashid.
There is a poem describing how chess also existed in the court of the legendary King Arthur. Chess came to Germany in the 10th-11th centuries, the earliest mention in literature was made by the monk Frumun von Tegermsee, in 1030-1050. It records that Svetoslav Šurin from Croatia defeated the Venetian Dodge Peter II in a game for the right to rule the Dalmatian cities.
By the 10th-11th centuries, chess was known in Scandinavia and later in the late 11th century it reached Bohemia from Italy.
"Two ladies playing chess"
illustration from the "Book of Games" by King Alfonso X the Wise of Castile, grandson of Frederick Barbarossa
Despite the fierce opposition of the initially Muslim and then Christian churches (which equated chess with gambling with dice and considered it a “demonic obsession”), chess was banned in Europe for some time, since it was often used for gambling and it was argued that that they bear signs of paganism), nothing could stop the growing popularity of the game, which is confirmed by numerous literary evidence. The popularity of chess continues to grow and soon the whole world knows and plays this most popular game of the ancient world.
In the 14th-15th centuries. the traditions of oriental chess were lost in Europe, and in the 15th-16th centuries. a departure from them became obvious after a number of changes in the rules for the moves of pawns, bishops and queens. On the territory of Rus'
, in Bulgaria the game became known around the 10th-12th centuries.
Important archaeological finds in Novgorod indicate that chess, which was mainly spread by the Arabs, came to Russia directly from the Middle East. To this day, the names of chess pieces in Russia indicate their Persian and Arabic roots. A unique find has reached our time - a chess piece made by Novgorod craftsmen in the 14th century. The figurine was discovered near the Vladychny Chamber, the former residence of the Novgorod archbishop. The found figure is a king, it was made of strong wood, most likely juniper (see right).
When Peter I went on campaigns, he took with him not only chess, but also two permanent partners. Catherine II was also fond of chess. In 1796 Count A.S. Stroganov arranged a game of live chess for Catherine II and the Swedish king Gustav IV, who were visiting his country palace. In the meadow, where a “chessboard” was laid out with green and yellow turf, servants dressed in medieval clothes moved in accordance with the moves of the chess pargay.
Chess was widespread among the Russian intelligentsia. In the library of A. S. Pushkin, a book published in 1824 by A. D. Petrov, who was the strongest chess player in Russia for half a century, has been preserved - “The Chess Game, Put into Systematic Order” with the author’s dedicatory inscription; Pushkin was a subscriber to the first chess magazine "Palamed", which began publishing in Paris in 1836.
Despite the fact that chess was popular game, until the end of the 19th century, Russia noticeably lagged behind England, France, and Germany in terms of chess development.
The first Russian chess club opened in St. Petersburg only in 1853, and the first Russian chess magazine was published in 1859.
The situation changed at the beginning of the 20th century, when the St. Petersburg Chess Assembly, which emerged from a private circle, was founded, whose activities in popularizing chess turned out to be very fruitful.
The club was opened on January 17, 1904, and in April 1914, the All-Russian Chess Union was established in the meeting premises at 10 Liteiny Prospekt.
The club held professional and amateur tournaments, friendly matches between the teams of Moscow and St. Petersburg, simultaneous games, and published special literature. The richest chess library in the country was located within the walls of the Assembly.
Historically, it is established that chess, in its original form, was a game for four people with four sets of pieces. This game was originally called Shatranj (in Sanskrit, Shatr means "four" and anga means "squad"). In the Persian literature of the Sassanid dynasty (242-651 centuries AD), a book was found written in Pahlavi (Middle Persian language), which was called "Chess Textbook". In modern Persian the same word shatranj serves to designate modern chess. A popular historical theory is that shatranj (chess), according to Indian mysticism, represents the universe. The four sides represent the four elements - earth, air, fire and water; as well as the four seasons and four human temperaments. It is also argued that the word chess comes from the Persian "king" (check) and the term chess comes from the Persian "The king is dead." Below is the evolution of European names for chess pieces from their ancient variant names, which are still used in India, Iran, and many other parts of the world.
It should be noted that although the names of chess pieces differ slightly in different parts of the world, their shape and rules of movement are almost identical.
The Muslim Arabs have probably had the greatest influence on the game of chess than any other culture. The word "chess" originally comes from the Persian word Shah (king) and the Arabic word checkmate (died). Early Muslim contributions to the game include: blind play mentioned as early as 700 AD, early tournaments and qualifying tournaments, chess problems described in the first book on chess by Al-Adli. Al-Adli's books contain openings, the first chess problems "mansuba", and differences in Persian and Indian rules of the game are discussed. Unfortunately, this valuable book has now been lost. However, the Yugoslav library contains a valuable Arabic manuscript from the early 9th century, which contains mansubs. This manuscript was discovered in 1958. Some of these mansubs (chess problems) were based on the legend of "Mat Dilarama". According to legend, Dilaram was a chess player who played for money and lost all his property. In the last game he bet his wife, but he played recklessly and almost lost the game. However, his wife pointed out that he could checkmate his opponent if he sacrificed both of his rooks. His wife whispered this in his ear, and he won the game.
The following table lists some of the ancient Arabic names for the figures, and their meanings:
It was played on a round board, but the pieces and their movement were similar to Arab chess from the same time period.
After the penetration of chess into Europe, many books dedicated to this game appeared. Probably one of the most important and valuable of these books was written during the Middle Ages by the Spanish King Alfonso the Wise in 1283. This wonderful book contains 150 color miniatures based on the original Persian drawings. This book also includes a collection of endgames borrowed from Arabic literature. Chess has gone through the history of many cultures and has been influenced by them. The modern official rules of the game of chess are perfectly preserved and differ little from those that were used 1430 years ago.
Chess is a real mirror of culture. Countries changed, the structure of society changed, and the rules changed.
For example, the figure of the queen, the “queen,” appeared only in the Middle Ages, when the noble lady began to play an important role and began to be honored at knightly tournaments. In the game, she took on the role of the king's advisor - the vizier in the eastern version of chess. The current freedom of movement, independence, and “emancipation” of the queen were unthinkable until the end of the 15th century.
Ancient versions of the game are generally less dynamic, like ancient society. In traditional Chinese chess, the “master” is inactive, he maneuvers in a very small space - as if within the walls of an imperial palace. Indian "chaturanga" followed a strict division of figures into castes - priests, rulers, peasants, servants.
But in Japan, the military-aristocratic system since the 12th century allowed a person of noble birth, willing to put in due diligence, to achieve rapid rise. And the chess pieces were given the opportunity to raise their status. And in European chess, a pawn that reaches the opposite edge of the board is promoted to any piece - even a queen.
In modern times, they wanted to bring chess closer to the changing reality. During Nazi times in Germany, they tried to turn the “game of kings” into a “game of Fuhrers”: several leaders entered the battle, one of them had to be defeated. The game didn't catch on. Just like the Fuhrers.
A more diplomatic option was proposed by the famous Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951). In the chess game he invented, planes and submarines appeared on the board, but negotiations and alliances were allowed. Moreover, four “powers” played the game at once - one on each side of the board, as in the ancient Indian “four chess”
A 1909 engraving allegedly depicts Hitler and Lenin playing chess. It's even signed by both of them on the back.
Almost every nation has preserved many legends and fairy tales about such a subject as chess. The history of its origin is now impossible to establish in its true form. It's not even really a game. This is philosophy. Not a single scientist has found its origins, although careful research into this issue has been carried out for several centuries. It is believed that it was the ancient Indians who invented chess. The history of their appearance in Russia speaks of Persian roots: - the death of the ruler, this is how these two words are translated from Persian. Scientists argue not only about this. Even the time when the game originated cannot be more or less accurately determined. The most common opinion is that chess was born in Northern India in the first century AD. The history of its origin emerges only from legends, since this game is a prototype of wars and battles.
To the origins
Of course, chess is a bloodless war, but it consists entirely of opportunities to defeat the enemy with intelligence, cunning, and foresight. The rulers of ancient states devoted a lot of time to such useful pastime as playing chess. The history of its origin suggests that there were cases when the rulers of two warring clans resolved their disputes over the chessboard, without thereby harming a single person from their troops.
Researchers present the world with a brief history of chess, which talks about even more ancient game"Chuturanga", from which "Chaturaja" gradually formed - already with sixty-four squares on the board. The figures, however, were located differently - in the corners, and not along the front. Excavations show that it was in the first century that this game spread, and therefore it is called the time of birth of chess.
Legends
And what beautiful legends concerning chess were formed! A short story, but very instructive, about how one smart peasant sold this game to his king, an example of this. Somewhere it is told about a king, somewhere about a raj, somewhere about a khan, somewhere about wheat, and somewhere about rice, but the essence always remains the same. Apparently, the legendary peasant devoted more time to studying chess than to farming, because in return he simply asked for wheat grains according to the number of cells on the board, but in geometric progression: the first cell is a grain, the second is two, the third is four, and so on.
It seemed to the king that the peasant was not asking so much for such an excellent game. But despite the fact that there are only 64 squares on the chessboard, the king did not have so many grains in the bins; the grain of the whole world would not be enough. The king was amazed at the peasant's intelligence and gave him his entire harvest. But now he had a game of chess. The history of the origin of this intellectual fun has been lost for centuries, but a huge number of interesting legends have been preserved about their development.
Infinity
Just as it is impossible to collect grains to the sixty-fourth power, even if you empty all the barns of the world, it is also impossible to play all possible games on the chessboard, even if you have not left it for a minute since the creation of the world. The history of the creation of chess, this ancient intellectual game, despite its “venerable age,” is also constantly updated with new wonderful information. It was, is and will remain the most widespread and world-favorite board game. It has everything - sports, science, and art. And its educational significance is enormous: the history of the development of chess contains many examples of personal development with the help of this game. A person also achieves success through perseverance, gains logic of thinking, the ability to concentrate attention, plan actions, and predict the course of thought of his opponent.
It’s not for nothing that the history of chess is so interesting for children. Scientists, psychologists and teachers study personality traits through observations of children who prefer fun. Even the capabilities of the computer were tested through this game, when problems of the exhaustive type were solved - choosing the best of all possible options. It must be said that each country has its own name for chess. In Russia - with Persian roots - "chess", in France they are called "eshek", in Germany - "check", in Spain - "achedress", in England - "chess". The history of chess in the world is even more different. Let's try to take a closer look at individual countries where this game appeared earlier than others.
Indians or Arabs?
In the sixth century, chaturanga was already widely played in the northwestern provinces of India. And this is a game that is quite similar to chess, since there were fundamental differences in it. The move was made based on the result of the throw, not two, but four people played, and in each corner of the board stood: a rook, a bishop, a knight, a king and four pawns. The queen was absent, and the pieces present had much less potential in battle than the modern rook, knight and bishop. To win, it was necessary to completely destroy the opposing troops.
Then, or a century later, the Arabs began to play this game, and innovations immediately appeared in it. The book “The History of Chess” (reference book) describes that it was then that there were only two players, and each had two sets of troops. During the same period, one of the kings became a queen, but he could only move diagonally. The dice were also abolished, each player made a move strictly in order. And now to win there was no need to destroy the enemy at the root. A stalemate or swear word was enough.
The Arabs called this game shatranj, and the Persians called shatranj. It was the Tajiks who gave them their current name. The Persians were the first to mention Shatranj in their fiction(Karnamuk, 600s). In 819, the first chess tournament was held by the Caliph of Khorasan Al-Mamun. The three most powerful players of that time tested their own and their opponent's strength. And in 847, the first book about this game appeared, the author was Al-Alli. That is why researchers argue about the history of the origin of chess and about the homeland, and about the time of its origin.
In Rus' and Europe
The history of the game of chess is silent about how this game came to us. But we know when it happened. In the 820s, the Arabic shatranj with the Tajik name “chess” was described in monuments that have survived to this day. It is now difficult to establish which way they came. There were two such roads. Either through the Caucasus Mountains directly from Persia, passing through the Khazar Khaganate, or through Khorezm from Central Asia.
The name quickly turned into “chess”, and the “names” of the pieces did not undergo major changes, since they remained similar both in meaning and in consonance with Central Asian or Arabic ones. However, the modern rules of the game were added to the history of the development of chess later, only when Europeans began to play it. Changes reached Rus' with great delays, nevertheless, old Russian chess also gradually became modernized.
In the 8th and 9th centuries there were constant wars in Spain, which the Arabs tried to conquer with varying degrees of success. In addition to spears and arrows, they brought their culture here. Thus, the Spanish court became interested in shatranj, and after a short time the game conquered Portugal, Italy, and France. By the 2nd century, Europeans were playing it everywhere - in all countries, even Scandinavian ones. It was in Europe that the rules were particularly transformed, eventually turning Arab shatranj into the game that is known to everyone today by the fifteenth century.
For some time the changes were not agreed upon, and therefore for two or three centuries each country played its own games. Sometimes the rules were quite bizarre. For example, in Italy, a pawn that reached the last rank could only be promoted to a piece that had already been removed from the board. Until the appearance of the piece captured by the opponent, it remained an ordinary pawn. But even then in Italy castling existed both when there was a piece between the king and the rook, and when the square was “beaten”. Books and reference books about chess were published. Even a poem was dedicated to this game (Ezra, 1160). In 1283, a treatise on chess by Alfonso the Tenth the Wise appeared, which describes both the obsolete shatranj and the new European rules.
Books
The game is very widespread modern world, so much so that almost every second child declares: “Chess is my friends!” Almost every one of them knows the history of the origin of chess, since there are many wonderful books: fascinating ones for children, serious ones for adults.
All famous chess players have their own library of favorite works about this game. And everyone’s list is different! Much more fiction has been written about chess than about all other sports combined! There are fans who have collected more than seven thousand books on the subject of the game in their own library, and this is not all that has been published.
For example, Yasser Seirawan, a grandmaster, four-time world champion, who has written many excellent books about his favorite game, including textbooks, literally “under his pillow” keeps books by Mikhail Tal, David Bronstein, Alexander Alekhine, Paul Keres, Lev Polugaevsky. And each of these numerous works leads him, when re-reading, to “continuous admiration.” And international master and researcher of the history of chess (he also wrote books about it for children), John Donaldson loves the book by Grigory Piatigorsky and Isaac Kasden. Professor Anthony Saidy is a legend of the chess game; he managed to collect a huge chess library and write several books himself, each of which has become a reference book for all fans of this game in the world. And for some reason he reads most often Russians, but on the same topic: Nabokov ("Luzhin's Defense") and Alekhine ("My Best Games").
Chess theory
Systematic theory began to develop in the sixteenth century, when the basic rules were already generally accepted. A complete chess textbook first appeared in 1561 (Rui Lopez), where all the stages that were still distinguished were already considered - endgame, middlegame, opening. The most interesting view- gambit (developing an advantage by sacrificing a piece). Philidor's work, published in the eighteenth century, is of great importance for chess theory. In it, the author revised the views of the Italian masters, who considered the best style to be a massive attack on the king and for whom pawns were auxiliary material.
After the appearance of this book, the positional style of playing chess truly began to develop, when the attack ceases to be reckless, and a strong and stable position is built systematically. The blows are precisely calculated and aimed at the weakest positions. For Philidor, pawns became the “soul of chess”; defeat or victory depended on them. His tactics of promoting a chain of “weak figures” have survived centuries. Why, it became the basis of chess theory. Philidor's book went through forty-two editions. But still, the Persians and Arabs wrote about chess much earlier. These are the works of Omar Khayyam, Nizami, Saadi, thanks to which this game was no longer perceived as war. Many treatises were written, peoples composed epics in which they associated chess games with everyday vicissitudes.
Korea and China
Chess “went” not only to the West. Both chaturanga and early versions of shatranj penetrated into Southeast Asia, since two players participated in different provinces of the same China, and other features were visible. For example, moving pieces over a short distance, there is no castling, either. The game also changed, acquiring new features.
National "Xiangqi" is very similar to ancient chess in its rules. In neighboring Korea it was called “changgi”, and along with similar features, there were also some differences from the Chinese version. Even the figures were placed differently. Not to the middle of the cell, but to the intersection of the lines. Not a single figure could “jump” - neither a horse nor an elephant. But their troops had “guns” that could “shoot”, killing the figure they jumped over.
In Japan, the game was called "shogi", it had its own characteristics, although at its core it clearly came from "xiangqi". The board was much simpler, closer to the European one, the pieces were placed in a square rather than on a line, but there were more squares - 9x9. Pieces were able to transform, which the Chinese did not allow, and this was done ingeniously: the pawn simply turned over, and the piece sign appeared on top of it. And it’s also interesting: those “warriors” that were taken from the enemy can be placed as your own - arbitrarily, almost anywhere on the board. For the Japanese, the game was not black and white. All the pieces are the same color, and the position will determine the identity: with the sharp end towards the enemy. In Japan, this game is still much more popular than classical chess.
How did the sport begin?
Chess clubs began to appear in the sixteenth century. Not only amateurs came to them, but also almost professionals who played for money. And two centuries later, almost every country had its own national chess tournament. Books about the game are being published en masse. Then periodicals on this topic appear. First, single ones are published, then regular, but rarely published collections. And in the nineteenth century, popularity and demand forced publishers to put this business on a permanent basis. In 1836, the first purely chess magazine, Palamed, appeared in France. It was published by one of the best grandmasters of his time, Labourdonnais. In 1837, Great Britain followed the example of France, and in 1846, Germany began publishing its own chess magazine.
Since 1821, international matches have been held in Europe and tournaments since 1851. The first “chess king” - the strongest chess player in the world - appeared in London at the 1851 competition. It was Adolf Andersen. Then in 1858 this title was taken away from Andersen by Paul Morphy. And the palm was taken to the USA. However, Andersen did not resign himself and regained the crown of the first chess player already in 1859. And until 1866 he had no equal. And then Wilhelm Steinitz won, unofficially for now.
Champions
Steinitz again became the first official world champion. He defeated Johann Zukertort. It was also the first match in the history of chess where the world championship was stipulated. This is how a system emerged that still exists today in the continuity of the title. The world champion can be the one who wins the match against the current champion. Moreover, the latter may not agree to the game. And if he accepts the challenge, he independently sets the place, time and conditions of the match. Only public opinion could force the champion to play: a winner who refused to play with a strong opponent could be considered a weakling and a coward, so most often the challenge was accepted. Typically, the match agreement included the right to a rematch for the loser, and a win would restore the title to the champion.
Since the second half of the nineteenth century, time control has been used in tournaments. At first it was an hourglass that limited a chess player’s time per move. It couldn't be called comfortable. That's why the English player Thomas Wilson invented a special clock - a chess clock. Now it has become easy to control both the entire game and a certain number of moves. Time control entered chess practice quickly and firmly; it was used everywhere. At the end of the 19th century, matches were no longer played without a clock. At the same time, the concept of time pressure reigned. A little later, they began to hold “quick chess” matches - with a limit of half an hour for each player, and a little later, “blitz” appeared - from five to ten minutes.
