History of chess – Chess is a renowned game in not only in India but the World over.
Vishwanathan Anand, the former World Champion belongs to our country which makes us swell with pride. His position is now taken over by Magnus Carlsen and we are really happy for him too.
To elucidate you on the history of chess, Chess goes eons back and it was a predominant recreation option in the ancient India.
History of chess –
If analysed in a different light, a chess board is the repository of medieval India where the black and white squares represent the tumults of life and the pawns represent the knights who raised a resistant barrier against enemies to serve the king while the Bishop represents the Church.
The Queen stands for power and position which was coveted in the medieval times. At times, Queen is more powerful than the king, because the king is way well-guarded than her.
If the king surrendered in medieval times, it signified the loss of kingdom. In the game of Chess too, if you fail to protect your king, you lose the game. The main agenda, whatsoever, of the game is to protect the king otherwise the opponent might check-mate you.
But the game of Chess has a long-drawn story seeded in the ancient India.
Once upon a time, there was a tyrant king named Shihram in Indian history. A wise man hailing from his kingdom wanted to make him privy of the importance that each subject of his kingdom bears. After days of brainstorming, he invented Chess which symbolically represented his kingdom. The game caught the king’s fancy in an instant. Although it took him a great deal of time, he learned the game nevertheless.
Of course, he liked playing it too. He also ordered everyone in his kingdom to play this game and championships were held successively too.
Looking at Chinese history, Chess was a pivotal game in China too centuries back.
Two other names like India and Persia too figured in that milieu that brought some significant changes in the game before it spread through all over Europe. There is a book called ‘History of Chess’ by H.J.R Murray who claims that Chess was originated in the Northern hemisphere of India way before 600 AD.
It was termed as Chaturanga back then. In the oldest scriptures, one finds a mention of the game of Chess, and the scriptures belong presumably to this period.
The game travelled to Persia after these innovations where it was names as Shatranj and took over the Asian Subcontinent after the courtly education of the nobility vouched for it. In July 2002, an ivory piece with a cross on top that dated back to 465 AD was discovered in Butrint.
This is deemed as the oldest Chess piece which hails from even older times before Chess was invented.
In the ancient India, Chess pieces were called Shah (king), Wazir (counsellor), Fil (Bishop), ASP (king), Rukh (Rook), and Piyade (pawn). You may be surprised to know that the name Checkmate was derived from the term ‘Shāh Māt’.
In another belief, the game was originated in China around 200 B.C by a commander Hán Xin which represented an important battle in Chinese history. There have been new rules incorporated with the game before it resurfaced in 7 century A.D.
It then travelled to Persia and India thereafter, where the Chess board was cut down into 8 x 8 square board along with introducing the pieces we are familiar with today.
The game of Chess went through a lot of changes until 15th century, even dealt with complete prohibition by the Christian Church time and again. The game resurfaced with a competitive character and solidified rules in 1880s’.
This was the history of chess – After all this, the organization called the Fédération Internationale des Échecs roped in players from many countries to compete at the World Championship today.
The organization was founded in the year 1924.
