8/4/2019 A Brief Look at the History of Chess

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A Brief History Of Chess

Games similar to chess have been around for at least a thousand years, but thereare also board games that could be considered chess' antecedents that go back afurther 500 years or so.

North-east India appears to have been the place of origin of a game known as 'ca

turanga', which was played on a board with squares even if they were not black and white. The name of the creator is also lost in the mists of history.

Caturanga was played by priests and the nobility in north-east India in the Sixth Century. Buddha came from Nepal a thousand years before that and it is thoughtthat the monks took caturanga on their pilgrimages to the East. China has a game of chess called xiangqi, but it is unclear which came first.

Japan has a game called shogi, which is also played on a grid or uncheckeded squares. It seems that merchants also took the game to northern Africa where the Persians took it up with passion.

The kings of Persia were known as Shahs and this became the root of the word forchess in numerous European countries.

'Shaxmati' in Russian, had reached northern Europe by 1000 AD at the latest, butthe path into the countries of Europe came from the north and the south. Vikings were playing a form of chess in Britain in the Eighth Century known as 'Taefl'or 'Hnefatafl'.

The game was known as 'shatranj' in Persian and this entered Portugal and Spainwith the Arab armies. However, by 1200 AD, the rules were being altered and by 1475, the game was approximately like the game we know and play today.

Chess became part of a knight's formal education in strategy. Books and pamphlet

s on how to play chess started to be published in the late 15th Century.

By the 18th Century, the epicentre of European chess had moved from Spain to France, but by the early 19th Century northern Europe was beginning to figure significantly in the early stages of European Chess Championships.

Chess clubs began to spring up all over Europe in the mid-19th Century. Britainand Ireland were beginning to figure prominently in the tournaments. People began purchasing books on chess and well-known chess matches were printed so that they could be analyzed by aficionados.

Newspapers were printing chess problems and correspondence games were being play

ed between the London and Edinburgh chess clubs in 1824. However, it took until1851 before the first modern 'all comers' chess championship was held. It was won by a German by the name of Adolf Anderssen. Anderssen's aggressive style became the manner of the day.

German players dominated the world chess scene until a Cuban, Capablanca, ruinedit for them by holding sway as World Grand Master between 1921 and 1927. Capablanca did not lose a game for three years.

Alekhine, a Russian French player took the title from Capablanca and held it until his demise in 1946, although he lost it for two years to the Dutchman, Euwe.

No changes to the rules of chess have been instigated for hundreds of years.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on a number of subjects, but is now concerned with the

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