What is the name of the ancient version of chess? Chess and chess pieces: the history of the origin of names. In Rus' and Europe

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 is 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 V 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 already by the XV-XVI centuries chess rules basically established, thanks to which the development of systematic chess theory began. In 1561, the priest Ruy Lopez - the author of the popular debut " spanish party“- published the first complete chess textbook, which examined the currently 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 in the 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 its component elements, highlighting the most significant of them, making it possible 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 of 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 tactical game, full of victims 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.

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The emergence of chess, like the emergence of many other things on Earth, is shrouded in mystery over many years, overgrown with myths and guesses, and, as usual, has many versions.
And for me, as the daughter of a chess player and an international chess arbiter (one of the oldest and most experienced arbiters in Russia), it was very interesting to delve into the books of my father’s library and other sources, and this is what I dug up with great pleasure.

Who invented chess

There are several legends about this. You can choose whichever one you like best. Although it is possible to believe in all of them, they are not mutually exclusive.

Legend of chess No. 1 “Woof and Talkhand”

This legend was described a thousand years ago by the Persian poet Ferdowsi in the epic “Shahnameh” (“Book of Kings”).

There lived in ancient India two twin brothers, two princes - Gav and Talkhand. And, as often happened in history, a struggle for power broke out between them. The poem says that the queen could not give preference to any of them, because... She loved both sons equally. This is, of course, clear to me. Another thing that is not clear is why, in this case, she did not divide her kingdom in half. I would divide and give half the kingdom to each son. But she did not do this, and as a result, each prince gathered an army for himself, and a battle was announced, which was supposed to determine the strongest. And it was clear that the fight would be life and death, because... in fact, no one could escape from there - the battlefield was set up on the seashore and surrounded on all sides by a deep moat with water.
The poem again says that while the battle was going on, the queen did not sleep or eat. I was worried. Therefore, she knew about this battle and watched from afar.
Talkhand died in this battle.
When the queen was informed of the death of Talkhand, she fell into despair and began to reproach Gav for killing his brother. There is somehow no logic to be followed here. Didn't she realize that one of her sons would die in this battle? The conclusion suggests itself that, apparently, the condition of the battle was not to kill the princes. Like in chess, you can defeat an army, but you cannot touch the king himself, you can only declare checkmate. If so, then there is logic.
During the showdown, it turned out that Gav did not kill Talkhand. There was not a single wound on his body. Talkhand died from heat, hunger and thirst, having lost consciousness while sitting on his elephant.
What does chess have to do with it? But here's what it has to do with it.
The queen demanded that they show her everything in detail - how the battle developed, and how it happened that Talkhand died without any wounds. Woof, in order to rehabilitate himself in the eyes of his mother, called the wisest mobeds. Mobed is a priest in Zoroastrianism. (Members of the family were Zoroastrians. In India, a small percentage of the population still professes this ancient religion.)
So, the mobs arrived - and all night, without closing their eyes, they delved into the essence of the matter: they studied what the shape of the battlefield was, where the ditches were located, how the battle took place, how the shahs and their troops moved and other details. After which they made a square board depicting the battlefield from ebony wood, and cut out figures from ivory and placed them on the board - two troops facing each other.
There were 100 squares drawn on that board (as we know, there are 64 squares on a modern chessboard - 8 horizontally and 8 vertically).
The front row is infantry, behind it is cavalry. The Shah was located in the center of his army in the second row. Next to him stood a mentor, the wisest closest assistant. Next are two elephants. Camels stood next to the elephants. Next are two horses. And at the edges are two roc warbirds. It is clear from the text that there was also a third row - infantry (see below - lines highlighted in red), i.e. if you believe this legend, in the original chess the pieces stood not in two, but in three rows.
Mentor, camels, roc bird... very interesting!
But it’s more interesting to read about this from the original source translated by Mikhail Dyakonov, a famous orientalist. Here is the text:

There are so many interesting things in this text! For example:

“Whoever crosses the field will be famous in mind, Like a mentor, next to the king.”

There is an analogue to the promotion of a pawn (when a pawn, having reached the opposite edge of the board, can transform into any piece of its color).

• Or take the image of a mentor who stands next to the king and “is wiser than all the wise.”

  “Here is the Shah in the middle of his squad, Next to him is a mentor - wiser than all the wise.”

  In modern chess, next to the king, instead of a mentor, there is a queen, i.e. simply put, queen. Isn’t it symbolic that the mentor (masculine) smoothly transformed into the queen, the king’s girlfriend (feminine). 🙂

• The field of his (her) activity also gradually transformed:

  “The mentor goes into battle near the check and only goes forward one square.”

  In modern chess, the queen, as you know, is not tied to the king and walks across the entire board without restrictions - both vertically and horizontally and diagonally.

• War elephants also expanded their field of activity. Or rather, they lengthened it.

  “Three cages of war elephants are walking, They can see the battlefields for two miles.”

  Only from this text it is not clear how they moved onto three fields: straight - or diagonally, as now.
  But really, according to logic, it seems that the bishop should not jump to the far end of the board in one move, they are not so quick, bishops. But in modern chess it’s easy to jump. 🙂

• But since then the horse has not betrayed itself, and gallops like the letter G:

  “And the horse can also go three squares, but runs to the third, avoiding the path.”

• And I personally am sorry that camels disappeared from circulation. Chess would be even better with camels!
• Well, and the roc bird, of course. She modestly gave way to the beautiful boat. But she (the Roc bird) was so huge that during the flight she covered the sun with her wings and could easily lift an elephant into the air! If she had not left the chessboard, the development of chess would probably have taken a different path...
• But they don’t write anything about castling. Apparently, it was not in the original version.

In general, move by move, Gav, with the support of the invited mobs, on this chessboard recreated the entire picture of the battle for his mother, the queen. This is how chess came into being.

And then it’s really sad (although it’s much sadder if Talkhand died). The queen mother sat over this chessboard, grief-stricken, without food or water, shedding bitter tears until her end came.

Legend No. 2 “About chess and grain”

This is perhaps the most common story about how there was a Brahmin in India, and one day he invented chess. I just took it and invented them. At leisure. In his free time from his brahminical affairs. And the Indian king liked this invention so much that he said to the Brahmin:
- Oh, great inventor of this wonderful game, wisest of the wise, ask for any reward, I will fulfill everything.
This or something like this was what the Indian king said in admiration.
Although in some versions of this story there is also an ideological background - supposedly the Brahmin invented those chess for a reason, but for a great secret purpose. That king, it turns out, managed state affairs so poorly that he brought his kingdom into decline, and he did not listen to the advice of any wise Brahmins. And in order to gently and delicately show the king that he alone is not a warrior in the field, and that without the help of other government figures (and even pawns!) he cannot do anything, it was for this great purpose that the Brahmin invented chess in his spare time.
The king understood the hint correctly, and he decided to thank the Brahmin for the lesson of worldly wisdom he had taught.
Whether there was this ideological background or not, in any case the result is obvious: “Ask for any reward, I will fulfill everything.”
And the Brahmin, don’t be a fool... Some versions of this story add that it was the same Brahmin who invented the power of numbers. Whether it was the same Brahmin or not, we don’t know, but he certainly knew the exponentiation (unlike, apparently, the king). And he easily says this:
- Oh, great king! I am a small, modest Brahmin, and I don’t need a lot of wealth. Just give me some grain and that will be enough. A little bit. Place one grain on the first square of the chessboard, two grains on the second, four grains on the third... and so on... constantly doubling.
Some strange Brahmin, the king thought, but oh well. If you don’t want a lot of grain, don’t. I'll give him whatever he asks for.
He put one grain on the first cell, 2 on the second, 4 on the third, 8 on the fourth, 16 on the fifth... etc.... First, his first barn was empty... Then the second... the third... The king was no longer happy that he got involved with this cunning Brahmin. He doesn't need any chess anymore! He had already given the Brahmin all the grain that was in his country, and he had not yet gotten close to the 64th square!..
And since then, all children in school, when studying the raising of a number to a power, are asked the same problem in mathematics - about the unfortunate king, the cunning Brahmin and the grain on the chessboard.
And by the way! Some chess historians claim that this legend dates back to around the year 1000 BC! (This is related to the question “When was chess invented?”)

Story No. 3 “Chaturanga”

Chess historians believe that the ancestor of modern chess is ancient Indian game chaturanga.
The word “chaturanga” means “an army consisting of 4 parts”: infantry, cavalry, elephants and chariots.
The chaturanga board, like modern chess, is divided into 64 squares. In each corner there are 4 pawns (infantry), 1 knight (cavalry), 1 bishop, 1 rook (chariot) and 1 king (commander). Four people play, two against two, each with an army of its own color (black, red, yellow, green).

The goal of the game is to destroy all enemy forces. But! The movement of the figures in chaturanga was determined by throwing dice.
Chaturanga is believed to have originated in India between the 2nd and 4th centuries AD. From India it spread to other countries of the East.
Over time, the number of troops in chaturanga changed, but the number of figures remained the same - instead of four troops of 8 figures each, there were two troops of 16 figures each.
Those. two armies merged into one. Each army had two commanders, one of whom turned into a queen (adviser). The rules of the game have also changed. Now it is no longer possible to kill the king (shah), but only to set traps for him. Another important change is that dice rolling has been removed from the game.
Such updated version received the name “shatrang”.
Pay attention to the photo of Chaturanga. There this game is called “Chatrang”. Even from the names it is clear that this is the same game: Chaturanga - Chatrang - Shatrang.

Legend No. 4 “The Story of Shatrang”

Another interesting legend related to the history of chess.
It says that the Indian king once sent the Shah of Iran with a caravan of Shatrang camels (as we already know, Shatrang is the original version of chess) so that he could unravel the essence of the game. Attached to the shatrang was a letter on silk, which said that if the Shah reveals the secret of this wonderful game, he will surpass all sages, and the Indian king in this case will send any tax he requests. Shah of Iran. And if there is no sage in Iran who could unravel the secret of chess, then, on the contrary, be so kind as to pay us a tax and send it to India, for our knowledge is ahead of yours. Because the king is famous for his knowledge, not for his treasures!
At the same time, the Indian ambassador gave the Shah one hint that in this game all the images of the figures and the paths of their movements were taken from the war, from the rules of battle.
The Shah asked for seven days to solve this game.

Day and night, the Shah and his sages tried to unravel the meaning of the game - where which piece should stand and how to move. But to no avail. And then one comrade volunteered, a vizier named Buzurgmihr, who said that he saw what the outcome of the party should be, i.e. what should be the outcome, but how to get to this outcome is not yet clear, but he will try to understand it.
And the Shah, with joy and relief, handed him a chessboard with pieces and sent him to think. “All hope is on you,” said the Shah. “Don’t let the country down.”
Buzurgmihr stared at the board and began to think. And he came up with it!
On the appointed day, the Shah summoned all his associates - and the Indian ambassador, of course. The vizier sat down in front of the board and began to arrange the pieces. The Indian ambassador looked at this matter with all his eyes, and his gaze became more and more saddened, because all the pieces were placed correctly.
In the first row stood the infantrymen, behind them in the center was the Shah, next to whom stood the wisest dastur, showing the most correct paths in battle. Remember the mentor from Legend No. 1? Here the dastur acts as a mentor - this is the same mobed (priest in Zoroastrianism), only more high rank(yes, these are also Zoroastrians). Well, further down the list are elephants, horses, roc birds.
Everyone froze in amazement. How did he manage to figure out the correct arrangement of the figures, since he had never seen them?..
As a reward for the fact that the vizier did not let down the state, the Shah generously presented him with precious stones and gave him a horse.
And the vizier Buzurgmihr became so carried away by intellectual games that he went to his home, locked himself there, plunged into thought - and invented backgammon.
So what did the Shah of Iran do? Right! He sent these backgammon to India. With the same caravan of camels with which chess arrived here from India, and with the words that there are many wise Brahmins in India, and let them try to reveal the meaning of the game of backgammon.
And... oh, woe to my beloved India!.. The secret new game They couldn’t open it there. And by agreement, and as a sign of admiration for human thought, the Indian Raja loaded gold, clothes, pearls and precious stones onto these camels - and sent them to Iran. This is where the fairy tale ends.

The birthplace of chess or where chess was invented

Now we know where they were invented. The birthplace of chess is India. Definitely!
From ancient India, chess gradually penetrated to the West - to the countries of the Arab Caliphate, and to the East - to Burma, China, Japan... Each nation brought into it some elements of its culture, the appearance of the pieces changed, the name of the game changed, but the basic principle remained the same and the opponent’s main figure was declared checkmate.

At the same time, chess historians unanimously decided that everything about authorship is simple and clear - this game does not have any specific author.
“There is no doubt that chess (in modern version) were not invented by one person, but are the result of collective folk art, and not just one, but many peoples” - all chess historians agree on this. At the same time, they also agree that their origin is undoubtedly Indian.

Some Chinese historians do not believe that the Indian origins of the game of chess are completely proven. They admit that both Indian and Chinese chess may have evolved from a common, as yet undiscovered, predecessor.
However, they do not deny the fact that the first mentions of this game in Chinese literature date back only to the 8th century AD. So the primacy of India is not in doubt even among Chinese historians.

When was chess invented?

Chess historians believe that it originated around the 6th century AD. The earliest documents found date back to this time. This is if we talk about those chess that have a familiar look and known rules. At the same time, there is a lot of evidence that before the advent of today's chess, there were similar board games, which were also based on battle tactics, the main figure was the Shah (commander), and he had his army as his assistants.
An example is given of a certain Persian poem written in 600 AD, which mentions Indian chess and says that it entered Persia from India.
Harold Murray, an English orientalist and outstanding chess historian, in his major work “The History of Chess” (1913) even names the exact date of the emergence of chess - 570 AD. He claims that before 570 there was no information about chess, although isolated travelers of those times described India in detail, but did not mention this game.
In 700, the first mentions of blindfold chess are already found, i.e. without looking at the board.
In the 8th century, information about qualifying tournaments already appears!
And in the 9th century - the first treatise on chess, Al-Adli.

Some interesting facts from the history of chess

In Arabic chess, for example, for a long time the queen was a minor piece and could only move one square diagonally. The bishop's movements were limited to three squares diagonally, and the bishop could jump over a piece. The rook also once moved only two squares.
Over time, the queen became the main piece on the chessboard (after the king).
The rules were gradually changed in order to speed up the pace and add spice to the game.

Where did the legendary roc bird go? For what reason did she give way to the rook? It turns out that the Arabs are to blame for everything. I rummaged through my dad's chess books and found this explanation.
Initially, in India, in chess (or rather, in shatrang), the pieces were given a shape that corresponded to their names. The elephant looked like an elephant, the rider looked like a horseman, etc. But during their large-scale Muslim conquests, among other cultural riches, the Arabs became acquainted with chess. Of course they adopted this wonderful game. According to Islamic law, depictions of living beings were prohibited. And from the roc bird there were small stumps of wings in the form of protrusions at the top of the quadrangle. This symbolic image of a fairy-tale bird served as the prototype of the modern boat.
Just in case, let me remind you that even earlier - before the roc bird - these outer squares on the chessboard were occupied by Indian chariots (rathas).
So, here is an interesting step-by-step transformation: ratha - roc bird - rook.

And here's another one interesting fact from the history of the development of chess, which I read in Jerzy Giżycki’s big thick book “With Chess Through Centuries and Countries.” True, this is no longer about India, but about Russia, but the fact seemed very interesting.
In Russia in past centuries, when playing chess, the strength of the queen was sometimes increased. They came up with the idea that the queen can move not only in straight lines, but also in an L shape, like a knight. In this case, the queen was called “every queen.” And before the start of the game, it was necessary to agree in advance how the game would be played - with an “ordinary queen” or “every kind of queen.”

Whatever one may say, chess appeared in India! Is this statement true? We will find out about this today. Let's see where chess was invented, how many versions of the history of the game exist, and which of them has been proven.

The birthplace of chess

Where was chess invented?

There are indeed many versions of this board game. How old is chess? The first legend says that chess was invented by a mathematician from India around 1000 BC. The same mathematician is known for having invented such a famous mathematical operation as exponentiation. These two events are closely related. The ruler liked the board game of chess so much that he wanted to thank the mathematician, but did not know how. Then the mathematician said that he could be thanked with grain in the amount that would allow him to fill all 64 squares of the chessboard according to the following principle... First you need to put 1 grain on the first square of the board, then on the second - 2, on the third - 4, etc. d. The ruler did not know that 2 to the 64th power of grain could not be found in the whole world, so he foolishly rejoiced, thinking about 2-3 bags of grain.

The legend, of course, is beautiful, but it has never been proven. However, this also happened with the second version that the game of chess was invented in the second or third millennium BC. This version is based only on archaeological excavations, again in India, Egypt, and Iraq.

Historians date the invention of chess to 570 AD. And India is considered the country where chess was invented. After all, the board game chess was first mentioned in a Persian poem, which says that chess was invented in India. The Persian book is proof of the theory of the invention of chess, since it indicates all the terminology of the game, the various actions of the pieces and. The book tells how chess came from India to Persia (that is, ancient Iran). In the works of the Persian poet Firdusi one can also find information about how the envoys of the Indian Rajah presented gifts to the Sheikh of Persia Chosroy I Anushiravan, and one of the gifts was the same chess. Chess spread throughout all civilized countries after Persia was conquered by the Muslim Arabs.

Chess came to Russia directly from eastern countries, as evidenced by archaeological excavations and the names of certain chess pieces that have survived to this day. And in Rus' they wrote in poems about chess as popular game. And chess in the European style was brought to us through Poland from Italy.

It turns out that whatever the legend may be true, the country where chess was invented is India.

Players have been arguing about the essence of chess, perhaps, since its inception in India about two thousand years ago. Some people think chess is gambling intellectual game. Others are for entertainment and leisure time. Someone - art, and on a par with theater or science. And still others cite an analogy with a military battle. But the most popular opinions, especially now, are two. First, chess is a sport, and a professional one at that. Secondly, they are just a hobby.

In different countries, this game has its own name: in England - chess, in Spain - achedres (el axedres), in Germany - check (Schach), in France - echecs. Russian name originates from the Persian language: “check” and “checkmate”, which means “the ruler has died”.

The history of chess goes back at least one and a half thousand years. The progenitor game, chaturanga, is believed to have appeared in India no later than the 6th century AD. As the game spread to the Arab East, then to Europe and Africa, the rules changed. In the form that the game currently has, it was formed by the 15th century; the rules were finally standardized in the 19th century, when international tournaments began to be systematically held. So invented in India in the 5th - 6th century. Chess spread almost throughout the world and became an integral part of human culture.

There are several ancient legends about the origin of chess.

The great scientist Al-Biruni talks about one of them in his book “India,” which attributes the creation of chess to a certain Brahmin (a social group in India). For his invention, he asked the rajah for an insignificant, at first glance, reward: as many wheat grains as would be on the chessboard if one grain was placed on the first cell, 2 grains on the second cell, 4 on the third, 8 on the fourth, 8 on the fifth. – 16, on the sixth – 32. etc. It turned out that there is no such amount of grain on the entire planet (it is equal to 264 - 1 ≈1.845 × 1019 grains, which is enough to fill a storage facility with a volume of 180 km³).

This is how the first legend goes:

When the Hindu Raja Sheram met her, he was delighted with her wit and the variety of positions possible in her. Having learned that it was invented by one of his subjects, the king ordered to call him to personally reward him for his successful invention.
The inventor, his name was Seth, came to the throne of the ruler. He was a modestly dressed scientist who received his livelihood from his students.
“I wish to adequately reward you, Seth, for great game“that you came up with,” said the Raja.

The sage bowed.
“I am rich enough to fulfill your wildest wish,” the rajah continued. “Name a reward that will satisfy you, and you will receive it.”
Seta was silent.
“Don’t be timid,” the Raja encouraged him. - Express your wish. I will spare nothing to fulfill it.
“Great is your kindness, lord.” But give me time to think about your answer. Tomorrow, after mature reflection, I will tell you my request.
When Seta again appeared at the steps of the throne the next day, he surprised the Raja with the unprecedented modesty of his request.
“Lord,” said Seta, “order that you give me one grain of wheat for the first square of the chessboard.”
– A simple grain of wheat? - The Raja was amazed.
- Yes, lord. Order 2 grains for the second cell, 4 for the third, 8 for the fourth, 16 for the fifth, 32 for the sixth...
“That’s enough,” the Raja interrupted him with irritation. “You will receive your grains for all 64 squares of the board, according to your desire: for each one twice as much as the previous one.” But know that your request is not worthy of my generosity. By asking such an insignificant reward, you disrespectfully disregard my mercy. Truly, as a teacher, you could set a better example of respect for the kindness of your sovereign. Go. My servants will bring you your bag of wheat.

Seta smiled, left the hall and began to wait at the palace gates.
During dinner, the Raja remembered the inventor of chess and sent to find out whether the reckless Seta had already taken away his pitiful reward.
“Lord,” was the answer, “your order is being carried out.” Court mathematicians calculate the number of grains to follow.
The Raja frowned. He was not used to his orders being carried out so slowly.
In the evening, going to bed, the Raja once again inquired how long ago Seth and his bag of wheat had left the palace fence.
“Sir,” they answered him, “your mathematicians are working tirelessly and hope to finish the calculation before dawn.”
- Why are they delaying this matter? - the Raja exclaimed angrily. “Tomorrow, before I wake up, every last grain must be given to Sethe.” I don't order twice.
In the morning, the rajah was informed that the chief of the court mathematicians was asking to listen to an important report. The Raja ordered him to be brought in.
“Before you talk about your case,” Sheram announced, “I want to hear whether Sethe has finally been given that insignificant reward that he assigned to himself.”
“For this reason I dared to appear before you at such an early hour,” answered the old man. “We conscientiously calculated the entire amount of grains that Seth wants to receive.” This number is so big...
“No matter how great it is,” interrupted the Rajah arrogantly, my granaries will not become scarce. The reward has been promised and must be given...
“It is not in your power, lord, to fulfill such desires.” In all your barns there is not such a number of grains as Seth demanded. It is not even in the granaries of the entire kingdom. There is not such a number of grains in the entire space of the Earth. And if you definitely want to give the promised reward, then order the earthly kingdoms to be turned into arable fields, order the seas and oceans to be drained, order the ice and snow covering the distant northern deserts to be melted. Let their entire space be completely sown with wheat. And order everything that is born in these fields to be given to Sethe. Then he will receive his reward. The king listened with amazement to the elder’s words.
“Tell me this monstrous number,” he said thoughtfully.
– Eighteen quintillion four hundred forty-six quadrillion seven hundred forty-four trillion seventy-three billion seven hundred nine million five hundred fifty-one thousand six hundred fifteen, O Lord!..

Such is the legend. Whether what is told here really happened is unknown, but that the reward that legend speaks of should have been expressed in exactly this number, you can verify this yourself by patient calculation.
Starting with one, you need to add the numbers: 1, 2, 4, 8, etc. Otherwise, this sum can be written like this:
1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + . . . = 20 + 21 + 22 + 23 + . . . + 263.
The last term shows how much the inventor was owed for the 64th square of the board.
Let us simplify the resulting sum based on the following considerations. Let's denote
S = 20 + 21 + 22 + 23 + . . . + 263,
Then
2S = 2 · (20 + 21 + 22 + 23 + . . . + 263) = 21 + 22 + 23 + 24 + . . . + 264
And
S = 2S – S = (21 + 22 + 23 + 24 + . . . + 264) – (20 + 21 + 22 + 23 + . . . + 263) = = 264 – 20 = 264 – 1.
Required number of grains
S = 264 – 1.
This means that the calculation comes down to just multiplying 64 twos! (And then we’ll be able to subtract one).
S = 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 · 2 · 2 · 2 · 2 · 2 · 2 · 2 · 2 · 2 · 2 · 2 · 2 · 2 · 2 · 2 · 2 ·· 2 · 2 · 2 · 2 · 2 · 2 · 2 · 2 · 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 – 1.
To make calculations easier, we divide the 64 factors into 6 groups of 10 twos each and one last group of 4 twos. The product of 10 twos, as is easy to see, is equal to 1,024, and 4 twos is 16. This means that the desired result is equal to
S = 1,024 · 1,024 · 1,024 · 1,024 · 1,024 · 1,024 · 16 – 1.
Because
1024 · 1024 = 1,048,576,
That
S = 1,048,576 1,048,576 1,048,576 16 – 1.
Let's show patience and accuracy in calculations and get: S = 18,446,744,073,709,551,615.
This amount of grain is approximately 1800 times higher than the world wheat harvest per year (in the 2008–2009 agricultural year, the harvest amounted to 686 million tons), that is, it exceeds the entire wheat harvest collected in the entire history of mankind.
In mass units: if we assume that one grain of wheat has a mass of 0.065 grams, then the total mass of wheat on the checkerboard is about 1,200 trillion tons: 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 0.065 grams = 1,199,038,364,791,120,854.975 grams = 1,199,038,364,791.120 t.
If the mass of wheat is converted into volume (1 m3 of wheat weighs about 760 kg), the result is approximately 1500 km3, which is equivalent to a barn with dimensions of 10 km x 10 km x 15 km. This is the largest volume of Mount Everest.
The Hindu king was not able to give such a reward. But he could easily, if he were good at mathematics, free himself from such a burdensome debt. To do this, it was only necessary to invite Sethe to count out all the wheat due to him, grain by grain.
In fact: if Seta, having started counting, had kept it continuously day and night, counting one grain per second, he would have counted only 86,400 grains in the first day. To count a million grains, it would take at least 10 days of tireless counting. He would count one cubic meter of wheat in about six months. And it would remain to count another 1,499,999,999,999 m3. You see that even if Seta devoted the rest of his life to counting, he would receive only an insignificant part of the reward he demanded.

A description of another legend was found in the Persian poet Ferdowsi, who wrote the epic about a thousand years ago. In one Indian kingdom lived a queen and her two twin sons Gav and Talkhand. The time had come for them to reign, but the mother could not decide who to make king, because she loved her lonely sons. Then the princes decided to arrange a battle; the winner would become the ruler. The battlefield was chosen on the seashore and surrounded by a moat with water. They created such conditions that there was nowhere to retreat. The condition of the tournament was not to kill each other, but to defeat the enemy army. A battle began, as a result of which Talkhand died. Upon learning of the death of her son, the queen fell into despair. She reproached Gav, who arrived, for killing his brother. However, he replied that he did not cause bodily harm to his brother; he died from exhaustion. The queen asked to tell in detail how the battle took place. Woof, together with people from his surroundings, decided to recreate the battlefield. To do this, they took a board, marked out the cells and placed figures on it representing the warring parties. The opposing troops were placed on opposite sides and placed them in rows: infantry, cavalry and infantry again. In the middle row in the center stood the prince, next to him was his chief assistant, then two figures of elephants, camels, horses and roc birds. Moving different figures, the prince showed his mother how the battle took place. Thus, it is clear that the ancient chessboard had 100 squares and the pieces on it stood in three lines.

The next legend says that once in India, when it was a very strong country, it was ruled by one ruler. And all the power of the army was in specially trained war elephants. With their help, he had already defeated all the armies of his opponents and for many years he did not know what to do. One day he announced that whoever can come up with something he likes will receive whatever he wants. And an insane number of wise men from all countries came to him and brought him everything very beautiful and made only of gold or jewelry. But everything that these sages brought was not to the liking of the ruler. And one day a poor Shah came to him. He came with a small board and figures, but the whole game was made of wood and as soon as the ruler saw this he became terribly angry, “What is this?” All the products that they show me are made of gold or jewelry, and here you came to me with some pieces of wood,” to which the Shah replied, “the interest of the games is not in gold, but in wisdom,” and at that moment the ruler saw that the figures looked like and his army. The ruler became interested and agreed to take a look. And when the Shah showed the ruler how to play the game with the words “Your army is majestic and invincible, but can you win here on a small board with your army and with the enemy with the same army.” When the ruler started playing, he liked this game and was sure that he would win Shah easily, but in the first game Shah defeated the ruler and the ruler tried again, but this time thinking about every move, and in the second game he won. After that, he really liked this game. And every time he attacked the enemy king, he said “check” (hey check), warning that the king was in danger, and when he won, he said “Checkmate”, which meant the king died. But as you remember, the ruler promised everything he wanted to the one who made the product that he liked and the king decided to fulfill his promise and he asked what the Shah wanted and the Shah answered at first glance a small reward “if you put one grain on the first square of the chessboard on the second two to a third four and so on, but it turned out that there was no such quantity in the entire kingdom. After all, this is 92,233,720,000,019 grains. The story is never told how the ruler settled with the Shah. But there is another legend about how this wonderful game appeared.

Once upon a time in India there was a very wise ruler. During his reign, the country prospered and he had two twin sons who differed from each other only in that they liked to wear different clothes. One liked to wear white clothes, and the other in black. Before his death, the wise ruler did not know which son to make king and divided power equally. But soon the brothers wanted there to be one ruler and everyone believed that he should become it. The brothers quarreled and a big war began in which a lot of people died. After some time, the brothers realized that the war was endless, but no one stopped the war, because the one who ends the war will lose and will not become a ruler. But still, each brother wanted to make peace and find a way to become a ruler. And one day an old man came to them and said that if they finished the war in which half of India died, then he would show them how to honestly determine the ruler. The brothers agreed and the old man took out a wooden board and black and white figures, he told the brothers the rules of the game and a multi-day “war” began in which every move was carefully thought out. And in this game the white pieces won, and after this incident the white pieces go first in chess, and a lot of people started playing chess.

The first official mention of chess is a book that describes in detail the process of penetration of chess from India to Persia. The Indians tried to appease the Persian king Khosrow I Anushiravan (who ruled Iran from 531 to 579) with their offerings. The book describes in detail absolutely everything related to chess. Particular attention is paid to terminology, as well as the capabilities of each of the figures. The next written document describing chess is a poem by the famous Persian poet Ferdowsi. In his poem, he described in detail the outlandish thing presented to the Persian king by the grateful Indian people. Such a thing is "quite entertaining game" Here is what Ferdowsi himself wrote: “Among the gifts presented to the Persian king, there was a rather interesting thing. It was a game. It reproduced the battle of two armies: black and white.”

Persian chess players

No later than the beginning of the 6th century, the first known game related to chess, chaturanga, appeared in northwestern India. It already had a completely recognizable “chess” appearance (a square game board of 8x8 cells, 16 pieces and 16 pawns, similar pieces), but it was fundamentally different from modern chess in two features: there were four players, not two (they played pairs against pairs) , and moves were made in accordance with the results of throwing dice. Each player had four pieces (chariot (rook), knight, bishop, king) and four pawns. The horse and the king moved in the same way as in chess, the chariot moved within two squares vertically and horizontally, the bishop moved first one square forward or diagonally, later it began to “jump” across one square diagonally, and, like a knight, during the move he could step over his own and enemy pieces. There was no queen at all. To win the game, it was necessary to destroy the entire enemy army.

Arab transformations

In the same 6th or perhaps 7th century, chaturanga was borrowed by the Arabs. In the Arab East, chaturanga was transformed: there were two players, each received control of two sets of chaturanga pieces, one of the kings became a queen (moved diagonally onto one field). They gave up the bones and began to walk one move at a time, strictly one at a time. Victory began to be recorded not by the destruction of all enemy pieces, but by checkmate or stalemate, as well as when the game was completed with a king and at least one piece against one king (the last two options were forced, since checkmate with weak pieces inherited from chaturanga , it was not always possible). The resulting game was called “shatranj” by the Arabs and Persians. The Buryat-Mongolian version was called "" or "hiashatar". Later, when it came to the Tajiks, shatranj received the name “chess” in Tajik (translated as “the ruler is defeated”). The first mention of Shatranj dates back to approximately 550. 600 - the first mention of shatranj in fiction - the Persian manuscript "Karnamuk". In 819, at the court of Caliph Al-Mamun in Khorasan, a tournament was held between the three strongest players of that time: Jabir Al-Kufi, Abyljafar Ansari and Zairab Qatay. In 847, the first chess book written by Al-Adli was published.

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 ups and downs, which was reflected in the epic and treatises dedicated to the game of chess (Omar Khayyam, Saadi, Nizami).

Chess in Southeast Asia

Simultaneously with the advancement of the chess game to the west, it also spread to the east. Apparently, either a variant of chaturanga for two players, or one of the earlier variants of shatranj, came to the countries of Southeast Asia, since in chess games All of this region has preserved its peculiarities - the moves of many pieces are made over short distances, and there is no castling or en passant capture typical of European chess. Influenced by the cultural characteristics of the region and those who circulated there board games the game has noticeably changed in appearance and acquired new features, becoming the basis for Chinese game Xiangqi From it, in turn, came the Korean game changi. Both games are original appearance and mechanism. First of all, this is manifested in a change in the size of the board and in the fact that the pieces are placed not on the squares of the board, but on the intersections of the lines. These games feature limited-area pieces that can only move within a portion of the board, and the traditional "jumping" pieces are now linear (neither the knight nor the bishop can jump over squares occupied by other pieces), but the new "cannon" piece "- can hit enemy pieces only by jumping over another piece when hitting.

Appeared later Japanese version- Shogi, is considered a descendant of Xiangqi, but has its own characteristics. The shogi board is simpler and more similar to the European one: pieces are placed on squares rather than on intersections, the board size is 9x9 cells. In shogi, the rules of moves changed and the transformation of pieces appeared, which did not exist in xiangqi. The transformation mechanism is original - a figure (a flat chip with an image printed on it), having reached one of the last three horizontal lines, simply turns over to the other side, where the sign of the transformed figure is depicted. And most interesting feature shogi - the opponent's pieces taken by the player can be placed by him in any place on the board (with some restrictions) instead of the next move as his own. Because of this, in a shogi set, all the pieces have the same color, and their identity is determined by placement - the player places the piece on the board with its tip facing the opponent.

Classical European chess is not particularly common in this region; Xiangqi and Shogi are much more popular to this day.

The emergence of chess in Rus'

Around 820, chess (more precisely, the Arabic shatranj under the Central Asian name "chess", in Russian turned into "chess") appeared in Rus', coming, it is believed, either directly from Persia through the Caucasus and the Khazar Khaganate, or from the Central Asian peoples, through Khorezm. The Russian name of the game is consonant with the Central Asian “chess”, the Russian names of the pieces most closely correspond to Arabic or Persian (elephant and knight are translations of the corresponding Arabic terms, queen is consonant with the Persian “farzin” or the Arabic “firzan”). The rook, according to one assumption, received this name due to the fact that the corresponding Arabic figure “rukh” depicted a mythical bird, and was similar to a stylized image of the Russian rook. A comparison of Russian chess terminology with the terminology of Transcaucasia, Mongolia and European countries shows that neither the name of the game nor the names of the pieces could be borrowed from these regions, either in meaning or in consonance.

Changes in the rules, later introduced by Europeans, penetrated Rus' with some delay, gradually turning old Russian chess into modern ones. It is believed that the European version of the chess game came to Russia in the 10th - 11th centuries, from Italy, through Poland.

Penetration into Europe

In the 8th - 9th centuries, during the conquest of Spain by the Arabs, shatranj came to Spain, then, within several decades, to Portugal, Italy and France. The game quickly won the sympathy of Europeans; by the 11th century it was already known in all countries of Europe and Scandinavia. European masters continued to transform the rules, eventually transforming shatranj into modern chess. By the 15th century, chess had, in general, acquired a modern appearance, although due to inconsistency of changes, for several more centuries different countries had their own, sometimes quite bizarre, rules. In Italy, for example, until the 19th century, a pawn that reached the last rank could only be promoted to pieces that had already been removed from the board. At the same time, moving a pawn to the last rank in the absence of such pieces was not prohibited; such a 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 there if there was a piece between the rook and the king and if the king passed a broken square.

Chess in art

As chess spread in Europe, both chess itself and works of art telling about this game began to appear. In 1160, the first chess poem appeared, written by Ibn Ezra. In 1283, the first chess book in Europe was published - a treatise by Alfonso X the Wise. This book is of significant historical interest, as it contains a description of both new European chess and the already obsolete shatranj.

Starting from the 16th century, chess books were published more and more often, and chess constantly appeared in works of fiction. In the 18th century, chess had a patron muse. It was invented by the English poet William Jones, a big fan of chess. He published a poem about the origins of chess, in which the god of war Mars fell in love with the forest nymph Caissa; the nymph did not reciprocate the fan's feelings, and in order to achieve his goal, Mars invented chess and taught Caissa to play it. In general, the motif of the chess game of ancient gods was often found in art.

Christian Church against chess

Since the advent of chess, the Christian Church has taken a sharply negative position towards it. Chess was equated with gambling and drunkenness. It is noteworthy that representatives of various directions of Christianity were united in this. In 1061, the Catholic Cardinal Damiani issued a decree banning the game of chess among the clergy. In his letter to Pope Alexander II, he called chess “an invention of the devil,” “an obscene and unacceptable game.” The founder of the Templar Order, Bernard, spoke in 1128 about the need to combat the passion for chess. The French bishop Hades Sully in 1208 forbade priests “to touch chess and have them at home.” The head of the reformist wing of the Protestant Church, Jan Hus, was also an opponent of chess. Under the influence of church rejection, the game of chess was prohibited by the Polish King Casimir II, the French Louis IX (the Saint), and the English Edward IV.

In Rus', the Orthodox Church also banned the game of chess under threat of excommunication, which was officially enshrined in the helmsman's book of 1262.

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. Thus, at the Nerevsky excavation site in Novgorod alone, archaeologists found many chess pieces in the layers of the 13th - 15th centuries, and in the 15th century layer, chess is found in almost every excavated estate. And in 2010, a chess king was found in a layer of the 14th - 15th centuries in the Novgorod Kremlin, next to the residence of the archbishop. In Europe, in 1393, the Council of Regensburg removed chess from the list of prohibited games. In Russia, there is no information about the official lifting of the church ban on chess, but at least since the 17th and 18th centuries, this ban has not actually been in effect. Ivan the Terrible played chess (according to legend, he died at the chessboard). 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, in particular, say that Russian envoys are familiar with chess and play it very well. Princess Sophia was fond of chess. Under Peter I, assemblies could not be held without chess.

Development of chess theory

By the 15th and 16th centuries, the rules of chess were largely established, thanks to which the development of systematic chess theory began. In 1561, Rui Lopez published the first complete chess textbook, which covered 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.

Philidor made a great contribution to the development of chess theory in the 18th century. He seriously revised the views of his predecessors, primarily the Italian masters, who believed that the best style of play was a massive attack on the enemy king with all available means and used pawns only as auxiliary material. Philidor developed what is now called a 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. 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.

Making chess an international sport

From the 16th century they began to appear chess clubs, where amateurs and semi-professionals gathered, often playing for a monetary bet. Over the next two centuries, the spread of chess led to the emergence of national tournaments in most European countries. Chess publications are published, at first sporadic and irregular, but over time they become increasingly popular. The first chess magazine "Palamed" began to be published in 1836 by the French chess player Louis Charles Labourdonnais. In 1837, a chess magazine appeared in Great Britain, and in 1846 in Germany.

In the 19th century, international matches (since 1821) and tournaments (since 1851) began to be held. At the first such tournament, held in London in 1851, Adolf Andersen won. It was he who became the unofficial “chess king,” that is, the one who was considered the strongest chess player in the world. Subsequently, this title was challenged by Paul Morphy (USA), who won the match in 1858 with a score of +7-2=2, but after Morphy left the chess scene in 1859, Andersen again became the first, and only in 1866 Wilhelm Steinitz won the match against Andersen with a score of +8-6 and became the new “uncrowned king”.

The first world chess champion to officially bear this title was the same Wilhelm Steinitz, defeating Johann Zukertort in the first match in history, in the agreement about which the expression “world championship match” appeared. Thus, a system of title succession was established: the new world champion was the one who won the match against the previous one, while current champion reserved the right to agree to the match or reject the opponent, and also determined the conditions and location of the match. The only mechanism capable of forcing a champion to play with a challenger was public opinion: if an admittedly strong chess player for a long time could not obtain the right to a match with the champion, this was seen as a sign of cowardice of the champion and he, saving face, was forced to accept the challenge. Typically, the match agreement provided for the champion's right to a rematch if he lost; a victory in such a match returned the championship title to the previous owner.

In the second half of the 19th century, time control began to be used in chess tournaments. At first they used conventional hourglass(the time per move was limited), which was quite inconvenient, but soon the English amateur chess player Thomas Bright Wilson (T.B. Wilson) invented special chess clock, which made it possible to conveniently implement a time limit for the entire game or for a certain number of moves. Time control quickly became part of chess practice and soon began to be used everywhere. By the end of the 19th century, official tournaments and matches without time control were practically no longer held. Simultaneously with the advent of time control, the concept of “time pressure” appeared. Thanks to the introduction of time control, special forms of chess tournaments with a greatly shortened time limit arose: “fast chess” with a limit of about 30 minutes per game for each player and “blitz” - 5 - 10 minutes. However, they became widespread much later.

Chess in the 20th century

At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, the development of chess in Europe and America was very active, chess organizations became larger, and more and more international tournaments were held. In 1924, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) was created, initially organizing the World Chess Olympiads.

Until 1948, the system of succession of the world champion title that developed in the 19th century was preserved: the challenger challenged the champion to a match, the winner of which became the new champion. Until 1921, Emanuel Lasker remained the champion (the second, after Steinitz, official world champion, who won this title in 1894), from 1921 to 1927 - Jose Raul Capablanca, from 1927 to 1946 - Alexander Alekhine (in 1935 Alekhine lost the championship match peace to Max Euwe, but in 1937 in a rematch he returned the title and held it until his death in 1946).

After the death of Alekhine in 1946, who remained undefeated, FIDE took over the organization of the world championship. The first official World Chess Championship was held in 1948, won by Soviet grandmaster Mikhail Botvinnik. FIDE introduced a system of tournaments to win the champion title: the winners of the qualifying stages advanced to zonal tournaments, the winners zonal competitions qualified for the interzonal tournament, and the winners of the best results in the latter took part in the candidate tournament, where a series of knockout games determined the winner, who was to play a match against the reigning champion. The formula for the title match changed several times. Now the winners of zonal tournaments participate in a single tournament with the best (rated) players in the world; the winner becomes world champion.

The Soviet chess school played a huge role in the history of chess, especially in the second half of the 20th century. The wide popularity of chess, active, targeted teaching of it and the identification of capable players from childhood (a chess section, a children's chess school was in every city of the USSR, there were chess clubs at educational institutions, enterprises and organizations, tournaments were constantly held, a large amount of specialized literature was published) contributed to the high level of play of Soviet chess players. Attention to chess was shown at the highest level. The result was that from the late 1940s until the collapse of the USSR, Soviet chess players virtually reigned supreme in world chess. Of the 21 chess Olympiads held from 1950 to 1990, the USSR team won 18 and became a silver medalist in another; of the 14 chess Olympiads for women during the same period, 11 were won and 2 silvers were taken. Of the 18 draws for the title of world champion among men over 40 years, only once the winner was a non-Soviet chess player (it was the American Robert Fischer), and twice more the contender for the title was not from the USSR (and the contender also represented the Soviet chess school, it was Viktor Korchnoi, who fled from the USSR to the West).

In 1993, Garry Kasparov, who was the world champion at that time, and Nigel Short, who became the winner of the qualifying round, refused to play another world championship match under the auspices of FIDE, accusing the federation leadership of unprofessionalism and corruption. Kasparov and Short formed a new organization - the PCA (Professional Chess Association), and played the match under its auspices.

There was a split in the chess movement. FIDE deprived Kasparov of the title, the title of world champion according to FIDE was played between Anatoly Karpov and Jan Timman, who at that time had the highest chess rating after Kasparov and Short. At the same time, Kasparov continued to consider himself a “real” world champion, since he defended the title in a match with a legitimate contender - Short, and part of the chess community was in solidarity with him. In 1996, the PCA ceased to exist as a result of the loss of a sponsor, after which the PCA champions began to be called “world classical chess champions.” In essence, Kasparov revived the old system of title transfer, when the champion himself accepted the challenge of the challenger and played a match with him. The next “classical” champion was Vladimir Kramnik, who won a match against Kasparov in 2000 and defended the title in a match with Peter Leko in 2004.

Until 1998, FIDE continued to play out the title of champion in the traditional manner (Anatoly Karpov remained the FIDE champion during this period), but from 1999 to 2004 the format of the championship changed dramatically: instead of a match between a challenger and a champion, the title began to be played out in a knockout tournament, in which the current champion must was involved on a general basis. As a result, the title constantly changed hands and five champions changed in six years.

In general, in the 1990s, FIDE made a number of attempts to make chess competitions more dynamic and interesting, and therefore attractive to potential sponsors. First of all, this was expressed in the transition in a number of competitions from the Swiss or round-robin system to the knockout system (in each round there is a match of three knockout games). Since the knockout system requires an unambiguous outcome of the round, additional games of rapid chess and even blitz games have appeared in the tournament regulations: if the main series of games with regular time control ends in a draw, an additional game is played with a shortened time control. Complicated time control schemes began to be used, protecting against severe time pressure, in particular, the “Fischer clock” - time control with addition after each move.

The last decade of the 20th century in chess was marked by another important event - computer chess achieved enough high level to beat a human chess player. In 1996, Garry Kasparov lost a game to a computer for the first time, and in 1997, he lost a match to the Deep Blue computer by one point. The avalanche-like growth in computer productivity and memory capacity, combined with improved algorithms, led to the emergence of publicly available programs by the beginning of the 21st century that could play at the grandmaster level in real time. The ability to connect to them pre-accumulated databases of openings and a table of small-figure endings further increases the strength of the machine’s play. The consequence of this was changes in the format of high-level competitions: tournaments began to use special measures to protect against computer hints, in addition, the practice of postponing games was completely abandoned. The time allotted for a game was also reduced: if in the middle of the 20th century the norm was 2.5 hours for 40 moves, then by the end of the century it decreased to 2 hours (in other cases - even 100 minutes) for 40 moves.

Current state

After the unification match Kramnik - Topalov in 2006, FIDE's monopoly on holding the world championship and awarding the title of world chess champion was restored. The first “unified” world champion was Vladimir Kramnik (Russia), who won this match.

Viswanathan Anand, defeated Vladimir Kramnik in the 2007 World Championship. In 2008, a rematch took place between Anand and Kramnik, Anand retained his title.

Viswanathan Anand defended the champion title in May 2010 in a match with Bulgarian challenger Veselin Topalov (score 6.5:5.5) and in May 2012 in a match with Israeli challenger Boris Gelfand (6:6 in the main match; 2.5: 1.5 in tiebreaker).
In 2013, Viswanathan Anand lost a match in Chennai and lost the title to Norwegian challenger Magnus Carlsen. In 2014, Magnus Carlsen defended the title against Viswanathan Anand in Sochi, and in 2016 in New York in a match against Sergey Karjakin. In 2018, in London, Magnus Carlsen defended his title for the third time against Fabiano Caruana.

The formula for the championship title is being adjusted by FIDE. In the last championship, the title was played out in a tournament with the participation of the champion, four winners of the candidate tournament and three personally selected players with the highest rating. However, FIDE has also retained the tradition of holding personal matches between a champion and a challenger: according to existing rules, a grandmaster with a rating of 2700 or higher has the right to challenge the champion to a match (the champion cannot refuse), subject to the provision of funding and compliance with deadlines: the match must be completed no later than six months before the start of the next world championship.

"Live Chess"

When the system of playing chess acquired a complete form, so-called “live chess” came into fashion - theatrical performances held in large open areas marked like a chessboard. The first mention of “live chess” dates back to 1408. It was then that a chess performance that surprised many took place for the first time at the court of Sultan Muhammad, who ruled Grenada.

Today, “live chess” has not lost its popularity. For example, once every 2 years in the Italian commune of Marostica a similar event takes place, in which city residents take part. And in London, based on “live chess,” the Spanish designer Jamie Hayon, as part of the Design Festival, placed huge chessmen.

Chess in an Iranian souvenir shop

Chess has long been one of the sports. But this does not stop millions of people from playing chess just for fun, finding joy in the game. Chess is the most exciting intellectual game. In the “Persian Shop” you can find exclusive Iranian chess sets with wood, bone and metal inlays and traditional Persian painting. Handmade chess is a great gift for your boss, colleague, friends or loved ones.

Benefits of the game

Experts have found that the benefits of chess for the brain are simply enormous. After all, during a game a person uses two of his hemispheres at once. Chess battles accompany the development of logical thinking, short-term and long-term memory. They teach the ability to predict events and make the right decisions.

Rules of the game

Beginning of the game
At the beginning of the game, the chessboard should be positioned so that each player has a white (or light) colored square in the lower right corner. Chess pieces are placed the same way in each game. Pawns are located on the second and seventh lines. The rooks stand in the corners, the knights next to them, then the bishops, and finally the queen, which always stands on a square of the same color as itself (white queen on white, black queen on black), and the king next to the queen.
The player with white pieces always goes first. Before this, players usually decide who gets which pieces by drawing lots. First the whites go, then the blacks, then the whites again, then the blacks again... And so on until the end of the game.

How the pieces move
All six pieces move differently. Pieces, with the exception of the knight, cannot “jump” over other pieces, and cannot move onto squares occupied by pieces of their own color. Pieces can occupy squares on which the opponent's pieces are located by capturing them. Pieces generally need to be positioned so that they threaten to capture the opponent's pieces, can defend their own pieces, or control important squares.

King
The king is the most important, but also the weakest figure. The king can only move one square in any direction - up, down, sideways, diagonally. The king cannot move to those squares on which he will be in check (that is, he can be captured).

Queen
The queen is the most powerful piece. He can move along any straight line (horizontally, vertically or diagonally) to any possible distance, but without jumping over pieces of his color. And, like all pieces, if the queen captures the opponent's piece, its movement ends.

Rook
The rook can move any distance, but only horizontally and vertically. Rooks are especially strong when they protect each other and work together!

Elephant
The Bishop can move as far as it wants, but only diagonally. Each Bishop starts on a square of its own color, and must always remain on squares of the same color. Bishops work well together, as they cover each other's weaknesses.

Horse
The knight moves differently from all other pieces. First, the knight moves two squares horizontally or vertically, and then one square perpendicular to the original direction (like the Russian letter “G”). Also, the knight is the only piece that can “jump” over other pieces and pawns.

Pawn
Pawns differ from other pieces in that they move and capture differently: they move straight forward, but they capture diagonally. Pawns only move forward one square per move, with the exception of their very first move, when they can move forward two squares. A pawn can move to a square occupied by an opponent's piece (pawn), which is located diagonally on an adjacent file, while simultaneously capturing this piece (pawn). Pawns cannot move (capture) backwards. If there is another piece or pawn right in front of a pawn, it cannot move past or capture that piece or pawn.

Transformation
The pawns have one distinctive feature- they can turn into other figures. A pawn that reaches the last rank (8th for white, 1st for black) is replaced by any (except the king) piece of the same color at the choice of the player making the move. The transformation is carried out immediately (with the same move) regardless of the presence of pieces of the same name on the board. Usually a pawn is promoted to a queen. Only pawns can be promoted to other pieces.

Taking on the pass
Another rule related to pawns is called “en passant,” French for “on the passant.” An en passant capture is a special move by a pawn in which it captures an enemy pawn that has been moved to two squares at once. But what is under attack is not the square on which the second pawn stopped, but the one that was crossed by it. The first pawn completes the capture precisely on this crossed square, as if the opponent's pawn had moved only one square. A similar situation becomes possible only in cases where the pawn is located on the fifth (for white pawns) or fourth (for black pawns) rank, and the square that the enemy pawn crosses is under attack. Capturing an enemy pawn can only be done immediately after it has been moved two squares. You can only capture on the pass with a counter move, otherwise the right to capture on the pass is lost.

Castling
Another special rule is called castling. This move allows you to do two important things at the same time: secure your king and move the rook out of the corner of the board into a more active position. Castling involves moving the king towards a rook of its own color by 2 squares and then moving the rook to the square adjacent to the king on the other side of the king. Castling is possible subject to the following conditions:
This must be the king's first move in the game;
This must be the first move of the rook to be moved in a given game;
The squares between the rook and the king are free, there are no other pieces on them;
The king must not be in check and the square it must cross or occupy must not be attacked by one or more of the opponent's pieces.
Note that at the beginning of the game in one direction the king is closer to the rook. If you castling in this direction, it is called kingside castling. Castling in the other direction, across the square on which the queen stood at the beginning of the game, is called castling on the queenside. Regardless of which direction the castling is made, the king moves two squares.

Checkmate
As stated above, the goal of the game is to checkmate the opponent's king. This happens when the king falls under check and cannot escape from it. The king can escape from check in three ways: go to a safe square (castling is prohibited!), cover with another piece, or capture a checking piece. If the king cannot avoid checkmate, then the game will end. Usually, when the king is checkmated, the king is not removed from the board, and the game is considered over.

Draw
Sometimes in a chess game there is no winner, but a draw is recorded.

There are 5 rules by which chess game ends in a draw:
Stalemate, that is, a situation in which the player who has the right to move cannot use it, since all his pieces and pawns are deprived of the opportunity to make a move according to the rules, and the king is not in check.
Players can simply agree to a draw and stop playing.
There are not enough pieces on the board to checkmate (for example, a king and a bishop against a king).
A player declares a draw if the same board position is repeated three times (not necessarily three times in a row).
Fifty consecutive moves were played without any player making a pawn move or capturing a piece or pawn.

Fischer Chess (960)
Chess960 (also called Fischer Chess) is a variant of chess in which the rules are the same as in regular chess, but where “opening theories” do not play a big role in the game. The starting position of the pieces is formed randomly, using only 2 rules: bishops stand on squares of different colors, and the king must be between the rooks. Black and white figures are arranged symmetrically. There are exactly 960 possible starting positions that follow these rules (hence the prefix “960”). The castling rule is unusual: everything is the same here (the king and rook have not moved before, they are castling not in check or through a square with check) plus all the cells between the king and the rook must be free of pieces.
Many tournaments use identical rules. These rules do not have to apply if you are playing at home or online.

Take it - go!
If a player touches a piece, he must move it. If a player touches an opponent's piece, he must capture it. A player who wants to touch a piece only to correct it on the board must first announce his intention, usually by saying “I’m correcting”...

Time control.
Most tournaments use time control for the entire game rather than for each move. Both players get an equal amount of time for the game, each player can decide how to use this time. After a player makes a move, he presses a button on the clock to start the opponent's clock. If a player runs out of time and the opponent declares it, the player who runs out of time loses. The exception is when the declaring player does not have enough pieces to checkmate - in this case the game ends in a draw.

Basic Strategies
Protect your king
Move the king to the corner of the board, as a rule, he is safer there.. Do not delay castling. As a general rule, you should castle as quickly as possible. Remember, it doesn't matter how close you are to checkmate your opponent if he checkmates you first!
Don't give away pieces aimlessly
Don't lose your pieces thoughtlessly! Each piece has a price, and you can't win the game without the pieces you need to checkmate. There is a simple scale to evaluate the relative value of each piece:
Pawn - basic unit
A knight is worth 3 pawns
A bishop is worth 3 pawns
A rook is worth 5 pawns
The queen is worth 9 pawns
The king is priceless
Why do we need to know the comparative strength of the figures? First, it determines the overall utility of the figure. That is, a rook usually brings more benefits on the board than, say, a bishop. Secondly, the value of the piece must be realized when making exchanges.

Control the center of the board
You must control the center of the board with your pieces and pawns. If you control the center, then you have more opportunities to place your pieces well on the board, and it is harder for your opponent to find good squares for his pieces. In the example above, White makes good moves to control the center, Black makes bad moves.
Use all your pieces.
Your pieces do not bring any benefit, sitting in the rear. Try to develop all your pieces so that you can use them to attack your opponent's king. Using only one or two pieces to attack will not work against a strong opponent.

Getting Better in Chess
Knowing the rules and basic strategy is just the beginning - there is so much to learn from playing chess that it wouldn't take a lifetime to learn it all! To get stronger, you need to do three things:
- Play
Just keep playing! Play as much as possible. You must learn from every game, both lost and won.
- Study
If you really want to improve your skill quickly, then buy a chess book. There are also many resources online to help you learn and improve your game.

Have fun
Don't be discouraged if you don't win all your games!. Everyone loses sometimes - even world champions. If you learn to learn from lost games, you will always be able to enjoy chess!

See on the website:
Evpatoria

One of the most ancient and exciting games- chess. It is known in every corner of the globe, so there are dozens of its variations in the world. This is not just a game, because chess has long been a sport and an art. Chess markings are used in almost all areas of life, and the game algorithm is used for scientific purposes. But where is its homeland and who invented it? There is still no clear and plausible opinion. Scientists argue, putting forward their versions.

Controversial version

Some publications confidently state that chess appeared in India sometime in the 6th century AD. e. You could read about this at the beginning of the 20th century in Harold Murray’s book “The History of Chess.” Yes, they invented the game there and at that time, but they invented it much earlier. Scientists have seriously taken up the study of this topic and have found many of the most different versions, which sometimes surprise with facts.

If we consider India as the ancestor of chess, it is worth remembering the famous legend about the Raja and the Brahmin. After numerous campaigns, victories and defeats, the ruler was tired and sad. Raja ordered his advisors and sages to come up with something fun for him, for which he allocated 3 days and nights. No one could satisfy him and interest him, except for a modest peasant who brought a board with squares and wooden figures. When the Raja learned the conditions of the game, his joy knew no bounds.

This was what they had been trying to find for so long. In return, the peasant demanded a modest reward - a few grains of wheat. But he set a condition: the quantity should increase with each cell of the board (1 cell - 1 grain, 2 cells - 2, 3 cells - 2 2, 4 cells - 2 3, ..., 64 cells - 2 64). The Raja first ridiculed the stupid Brahmin, but only then did he realize his mistake. There is no such amount of grain on the entire planet, because after calculations the final amount is 1.8 * 10 19. This board was the battlefield of modern chess, which translated from Persian means “death of the king.”

There is another option - a Korean legend. Once upon a time, 4500 years ago, the prototype of modern chess was the game that was invented by the formidable king of Mesopotamia Ravan for his beloved wife Mandodari. He had to be absent for a long time due to numerous trips, so his wife was often sad. Chess interested all the residents of the palace so much that it spread throughout the world (India, China, Korea).

It’s curious, but there is real documentary evidence of this. At the beginning of the 20th century, von Bork proved the existence of a prototype of the game. According to his information, it appeared in 1250 BC. e. in Hindustan. It was played by representatives of the local tribe, who borrowed the ancient game from Elam (present-day southwest Iran).

Now it is impossible to establish this for sure, because at that time people could unite under the word chess different games: bones, backgammon, chaupara or pachisi. All these options have one thing in common - a square or cross-shaped board. We can only guess which of them came first.

Ancient board games

So, at that time there were 2 options for boards: with a square or a cross. The sizes also differ. In Asia the following are known:

• 5 by 5;
• 7 by 7;
• 9 by 9.

The rules of the game are somewhat different from the established modern ones, because back then it was possible to play not only with two people, but also with four people. In some variants the game began from the middle of the field, in others it was necessary to move from the edge (from the fortress). The movement could be spiral or in the form of a special labyrinth. The set consisted of a field (matter on which squares are drawn) and 4 shells (seeds or sticks). But the poor and ordinary passers-by were satisfied with a piece of earth on which squares were drawn with a stick.

Ashtapada is an ancient game played on a one-color board with 64 squares. She is associated with a spider that had 8 legs, because in translation “ashtapada” means 8 squares. The first mention of it appeared in the 5th century AD. e. in the northern part of India. The ancestor of modern chess retained only the rules, but the rules and movements were lost. Until now, not a single scientist has been able to solve this mystery and provide the most plausible version of the game.

If you compare the Indian prototype of the game with the Chinese one, you can see the significant simplicity of the first version. It has fewer figures, they are voluminous, not flat like the Chinese or Koreans, and also have a smaller range of moves. If the Chinese borrowed chess from the Indians, they had to work hard to complicate the rules of the game and modify the pieces.

But there are several important inconsistencies: official relations between these countries were recorded only in 150 BC. e., and nothing was found during archaeological excavations in India, while in China different prototypes of this fun are constantly being found. There is another discrepancy - there are no rules of the game or manuscripts about chess in Sanskrit, but there are many of them in Chinese.

Famous chaturanga

This is the closest option that is similar to modern chess. It began to be played in the same northern part of India, but somewhere in the 6th century. The exact rules of the game have not survived to this day, although scientists have presented the world with several of their own versions. Main similarities:

1. a board in the shape of a square and size 8 by 8 cells;
2. the figures are similar in appearance to chess pieces;
3. a total of 32 pieces (one half of the main ones, the other - pawns);
4. the king and the knight move the same way.

The difference between these games is the number of players: in chaturanga there should have been 4 of them, and each had 4 pieces (king, bishop, rook and knight). You need to play 2 on 2. The person who threw started to walk. dice. But chaturanga did not have a queen at all.

I would like to consider this game a prototype of chess, but here too there are a number of inconsistencies. The name “chaturanga” itself means at least 2 completely different games at the same time. According to Sanskrit, it is a four-way game, and in Vedic texts the word described 4 different types of troops. But there was a chaturanga game for two. No one knows which version is older.

The problem is that several centuries ago many researchers misinterpreted the meaning of this word or simply did not want to get to the bottom of it. This confusion has occurred due to the impossibility of confirming the reliability of some sources, and it is also impossible to accurately determine the date of their writing. After the publication of their works, the British and French began to refer to these unclear facts.

This is how the hypothesis of the American anthropologist Stuart Kulin about the evolution of chess games appeared. He believed that historically the game developed according to this principle:

• racing for two (game in a circle or maze);
• racing for 4 players;
• chess for 4 players;
• chess for two.

It was only in 1913 that this version was completely destroyed by the Englishman Harold Murray in his work "The History of Chess". He proved that the Bhavishya Purana, which previous opponents considered to be the most ancient and true, mentions chess, but he is not that ancient. Apart from this source, there is not a single one that would confirm or mention the chess game.

Therefore, the first reliable work in which both chaturanga and shatranja are mentioned can be considered the treatise of 1030 “India or the Book containing an explanation of the teachings belonging to the Indians, acceptable or rejected by reason.” Its author is Al-Biruni, a Khorezm scientist. He personally visited northern India and noticed that 4 people play chess there at the same time, for which they have 2 sets of pieces. From there the name of the queen became known - check. The concept of checkmate did not exist, because the main task of the player was the complete destruction of his opponent’s pieces.

The Indians did not care about their future generation, so they did not write down the rules of the game for a long time, which now significantly complicates the work of researchers. But it is still safe to say that in 1130 there is the first mention of the classical chess game in the Manamollasa encyclopedia. This recording was made by King Someshvara III, who ruled India at that time (the center and south of the country). Chess is already double-sided, the pieces are placed according to the rules familiar to modern people, and they move almost the same way. The only thing is that there is no exact location of the queen and king on the board.

Further movement of the game around the world

Supporting the theory about the appearance of chess in India, we can say with confidence that from this country chaturanga came to Iran and Central Asia. But they called it there – chatrang. There is also documentary evidence of this in the ancient Persian chronicle “Chatrang-Namak”, which dates back to 750-850. BC e. In the middle of the 7th century, Iran was conquered by the Arabs, who again renamed chatrang to shatranj. It was under this name that the game penetrated into Europe.

It was the Arabs who transformed chaturanga. Main changes:

• 2 players;
• 2 sets of figures;
• refusal of bones;
• the order of the move;
• 1 king turned into a queen and moved diagonally;
• victory is not the destruction of all the pieces, but checkmate (stalemate).

The further movement of the game around the world gradually changed its name. The historical change of the name of chess occurred as follows:

• Arabs - shatranj;
• Persians – shatrang;
• Buryats – Shatar;
• Mongols - hiashtar;
• Tajiks - chess.

Penetration of chess to the east

China currently has its own chess system, which differs significantly from the international one. This game is called xiangqi. Instead of figures, they use wooden disks, but it is unrealistic to play them without knowing the hieroglyphs. Even after translating the pictures, experts note the discrepancy with the rules, because the magic of the game that attracts all lovers of intellectual tasks is lost.

The game also reached Korea, as there is documentary evidence dating back to the 16th century. The rules of the game are similar to modern ones, but there are similarities with Chinese xiangqi, but there are few historical records. The board is 9 by 10 squares, and in the center there is a palace, but only vertical lines are drawn. The figures are not three-dimensional, but flat with hieroglyphs. Changa has its own feature that distinguishes it from other variants of chess games - 16 ways to arrange the pieces at the beginning of the match.

Main changes:

• You can now walk a shorter distance;
• no castling;
• the figures are arranged in points;
• individual figures are endowed with a limited range of movement;
• lack of capturing a piece on the pass;
• the horse and bishop do not jump across fields occupied by figures;
• added a figure - a cannon.

Now Changa, according to experts, is a transitional stage from Chinese Xiangqi to. It is still not clear how the figures could become three-dimensional and the boards acquire squares. No one has yet solved this mystery.

Thai and Cambodian version

These varieties are almost identical, but there are still external differences between them. The Thai type is makruk, in Cambodia the game is called ouk-chatrang (it is ancient). The first documentary records about this game can be found in the 17th century, when the game was described by the French ambassador La Lubere.

The board in the game Makruk is familiar - 8 by 8, one-color. It no longer has the characteristic Indian ashtapada intersections. There are already 2 players playing, not 4. The main difference of the game is the use of shells instead of figures, although there are figures here, they are similar to each other.

Shogi originated from the game Xiangqi and may be related to Makruk, as there are similar features. This game is somewhat simpler than the previous ones and is more reminiscent of modern chess:

• board 9 by 9 cells;
• arrangement of figures in the margins;
• transformation of figures upon reaching the horizontal;
• On the next move, enemy prisoners can be placed anywhere on the board as your own piece;
• figures are one color;
• the initial arrangement and moves resemble makruk.

By bringing together all 3 games: makrug, xiangqi and shogi, it is possible to restore variants of ancient chess. They arose through exchanges between countries, since at that time Japan, the Malay Islands and India were connected by maritime trade routes.

Malaysia and Burma

Any variant could have become the ancestor of modern chess ancient game in Burma or Malaysia. In the first it is called sittuyin (war of the 4 clans), and in the second it is called main chator. In Burma, it is customary to play with red and black figures, which in appearance resemble pre-Islamic warriors.

So, the main features of Burmese chess:

1. The board is the same color with 8 by 8 squares, but with two diagonals of Sit-Ke-Myint or general lines.
2. The location of the pawns is on 3-4 ranks.
3. The red pieces are placed first, and only after that the black ones.
4. All other pieces are placed anywhere behind the pawns, except for the rook (they stand only on the first two ranks).
5. The black rook cannot stand opposite the red queen.
6. The red pieces move after the black pieces are placed.

The goal of the game is to checkmate, but stalemate was not allowed, and there was no direct check.

Malaysian chess mostly bears the names of the pieces taken from Sanskrit, except for the name pawn (derived from the Arabic “canoe”). They had one interesting feature, because the local kings of the tribes played right on the field near their houses with huge stone blocks. The duration sometimes reached a whole year.

Game characteristics:

1. Board without two colors, 8 by 8 cells.
2. Some have diagonal markings.
3. The figures are located in cells.
4. The figures are either abstract from bamboo or figurative with carvings according to the Indian tradition.
5. Mirror initial arrangement of figures.
6. A special rule for promoting a pawn to a piece.
7. There is a rule for taking a pawn on the pass, which was not the case in any game before it.

Chess in Rus'

The game came to us in 820. It was a variant of the Arabic shatranj called chess. For the sake of euphony, they began to be called by the word familiar to everyone - chess. It turns out that the path of movement begins in Persia, after which they penetrated the Caucasus and the Khazar Khaganate, and from there to us. If you look at the names of the figures, you will notice a striking similarity with Arabic and Persian names. Thus, the name of bishop and knight is Arabic, and queen comes from the Persian word farzin.

But international European terminology and variations of the game were brought from Poland, into which chess penetrated through Italy. Therefore, the beginning of chess in Rus' dates back to the 10th-11th centuries. At the same time, the yoke seeped into Europe, where it took on the form of modern chess. But still, for many years, each town and village had its own characteristics, rules and methods.

Church versus game

Previously, the church played a huge role in the life of every person, so they often dictated the rules of conduct and even games. Thus, the clergy condemned drunkenness, revelry and gambling. At that time, chess did not have strict rules, so it was difficult to prove that it was a logical game. But it also used dice, on which the course of the tournament depended.

Therefore, in 1061 they were banned among the clergy, and chess itself was considered something obscene and diabolical. But if you look closely at the most avid chess players, you will see many Catholics. In Rus', the ban was strict, because disobedience threatened with excommunication of any caught chess player. This was recorded in the Novgorod helmsman's book in 1280.

But despite such strict prohibitions, the game continued to seep into different segments of the population. Among the clergy there were also many apostates who gambled avidly. And only a hundred years later chess was allowed. In Europe this happened in 1392.

A special kind of “crazy” chess

This can only be said about the Swedish version of the game, which literally translates as “madhouse.” Outwardly, this is what it looks like if you don’t know its rules thoroughly. The pace of such chess is fast, and while thinking, players have every right to talk to each other.

To play Swedes you need to take 2 boards. You need to play in pairs, with 1 person handling the white pieces, and the second person handling the black ones. There is one feature: if a piece is taken, it is transferred to the board of a partner, who can calmly place it on any square whenever he wants. Partners are allowed to give each other hints and ask each other to pass a certain piece.

This game is interesting because of its fast pace and the presence of a partner who can always help. As a result, Swedish players have more developed logical thinking, because they think in a diagram both for themselves and for their partner, they have excellent combinational vision. But beating a computer is much easier than in classical chess.

The long journey of chess

The theory of the game of chess began to fully develop only in the 15th-16th centuries, when the rules were established and all countries played more or less the same. At that time, 3 main stages of the party were identified:

• debut (separate part - gambit);
• middlegame;
• endgame.

This is described in detail in a chess textbook by Ruy Lopez in 1561. Until the 18th century, Italian masters considered a massive attack on the king by all means and the use of a pawn as an auxiliary material as the best style of this logical game. But Philidor significantly changed this idea. He pointed out the recklessness of such attacks, because you can gradually build a strong position without losses, using exchanges and simplifications.

The main idea of ​​the game should be the correct placement of pawns, since they are an excellent defense and a way to conduct an attack. Philidor came up with a special chain of pawns that moved according to certain tactics. He even had a special pawn center. These developments became the basis for the next century.

Chess as a sport

A little later, people began to unite in chess clubs, where they played for money. The popularity of chess grew so much that the first international chess tournament was held in 1575. It was held at the court of King Philip II in Madrid. True, only 4 people took part in the game (2 Italians and a Spaniard).

After this significant event, national tournaments were held in almost all European countries, and in 1836 the world saw the first magazine about chess - Polymed. Its publisher was the Frenchman Louis Charles Labourdonnais. In 1821, international matches and tournaments began to be held regularly. At the same time, the world learned the name of the strongest chess player - Adolf Andersen. Later he was ahead of the American, after which Andersen regained his title.

In its modern form, the tournament was held much later. In the 19th century, a chess clock appeared, which was invented by the Englishman Thomas Bright Wilson. This gave impetus to the development of new shortened games called “quick” (30 minutes) and “blitz tournament” lasting 5-10 minutes.

People all over the world liked this game so much that many works of fiction were written about it. The chessboard inspired more than one painting.