One of the most ancient and fascinating games is 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 different versions, which are sometimes surprising 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 combine different games under the word chess: dice, 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 one more 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 the dice started to move. 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 impossible 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

The ancestor of modern chess could have been any version of the 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 spread to 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 pieces. 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 (a 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 in 1575 the first international chess tournament was held. 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.

According to archaeological excavations, games involving the movement of chips on a board were known back in the 3rd-4th centuries. BC e. The true age of the game known in the Western world as chess, shrouded in mystery.

Al-Biruni in the book "India" tells a legend that attributes the creation of chess to a certain Brahmin mathematician around 1000 BC. When the ruler asked how to reward him for this wonderful game, the mathematician replied: “Let's put one grain on the first square of the chessboard, two on the second, four on the third, and so on. So give me the amount of grain that will turn out, if you fill all 64 cells." The ruler was delighted, believing that we were talking about 2-3 bags, but if you count 2 to the 64th power, it turns out that this number is greater than all the grain in the world.

According to another legend, chess was invented by an eastern sage, whose name was Shishakh, and he lived in Babylon. Under him, the young king of Amolny sat on the throne, who greatly oppressed the lower strata of society, especially the peasants. In the greatest despair, the peasants turned to Shishakh, who was highly respected at the royal court, and asked him for help. Basically, they persuaded him to convince the king that the peasant was also a person who benefited the state. To convince the king of this, Shishakh invented chess and taught the king how to play chess. In this way he proved to him that the peasants, i.e. pawns on the board are still the best protection for the king. The king understood in this way the main idea of ​​the chess game and stopped oppressing the peasants, and generously rewarded his adviser.

Based on another legend, chess was invented by the wife of King Ravana of Ceylon. When everyone in his besieged capital had already lost heart and lost all courage to continue the fight, the desperate King Ravan decided to give the city to the enemy. But the king had a wife, Queen Ranalana, a heroic woman, and she invented the game of chess to prove to her husband that he should not surrender to the enemy until all means of defense were exhausted, until at least one pawn soldier remained on the board, until there is at least a faint hope of victory!

Scientific hypotheses push back the time of the creation of chess even further, to 2-3 millennia BC, based on archaeological discoveries in Egypt, Iraq, and India. However, since there is no mention in the literature of this game before 570 AD, many historians recognize this date as the birth of chess. The first mention of the game of chess was in a Persian poem of 600 AD, and in this poem the invention of chess is attributed to India.

Raja Krishna playing ancient chess chaturanga

The oldest form of chess, the war game chaturanga, appeared in the first centuries AD. e. In India, chaturanga was an army formation that included war chariots (ratha), elephants (hasti), cavalry (ashva) and foot soldiers (padati). The game symbolized a battle involving four branches of troops, led by a leader. They were located at the corners of a 64-point square board (ashtapada), and 4 people participated in the game. The movement of the figures was determined by throwing dice. Chaturanga existed in India until the beginning of the 20th century. and over time began to be called “chaturraja” - the game of four kings; at the same time, the figures began to be painted in 4 colors - black, red, yellow and green.

In the first centuries of our era, the game was so widespread in Persia that it was considered a shame when an intelligent person did not know how to play it. The game of chess left traces in the language of the time, in symbols and metaphors, as well as in the poetry of that time.

The successor to chaturanga was the game shatrang (chatrang), which arose in Central Asia at the end of the 5th - beginning of the 6th centuries. It had two “camps” of figures and a new figure depicting the king’s advisor - farzin; two opponents played. The goal of the game is to checkmate the opponent's king. So the “game of chance” was replaced by the “game of the mind”.

The penetration of chess from India into ancient Iran (Persia) during the reign of Chosroy I Anushiravan (531-579) is described in a Persian book of 650-750. The same book describes chess terminology and the names and actions of various chess pieces in great detail. Since there are no written references to chess in literature before the 6th century AD prior to this book, many historians recognize this period as the birth of chess.

The game of chess is also mentioned in the poems of Firdusi, a Persian poet who lived in the 10th century AD. The poem describes the gifts presented by the envoys of the Indian Rajah to the court of the Persian sheikh Chosroy I Anushiravan. Among these gifts, according to the poem, was a game depicting the battle of two armies. After the Persian Empire was conquered by the Muslim Arabs, the game of chess began to spread throughout the civilized world.

It has been proven that in Byzantium in the 6th and 7th centuries AD, the game of chess was very popular. The Byzantine Emperor Nikophorus himself, in a letter to Caliph Harun al Rashid, makes a comparison between the queen on the board and his predecessor on the throne, Empress Irene.

In the 8th-9th centuries. Shatrant spread from Central Asia to the East and West, where it became known under the Arabic name Shatranj.

In Shatranj (9th-15th centuries), the terminology and arrangement of Shatrang figures were preserved, but the appearance of the figures changed. Due to Islam's prohibition of depicting living creatures, the Arabs used miniature abstract figures in the form of small cylinders and cones, which simplified their production and contributed to the spread of the game.

The strongest players of shatranj, along with the Arabs - Al-Adli and others, were immigrants from Central Asia - Abu Naim, al-Khadim, al-Razi, al-Supi, al-Lajlaj, Abu-Fath, etc. Among the patrons of the game were famous caliphs Harun-ar-Rashid, al-Amin, ap-Mamun, etc. The game developed slowly, since only the rook, king and knight moved according to modern rules, while the range of action of other pieces was extremely limited. For example, the queen moved only one square diagonally.

Thanks to abstract figures, the game gradually ceased to be perceived by the people as a symbol of a military battle and was increasingly associated with everyday vicissitudes, which was reflected in the epic and treatises dedicated to the game of chess (Omar Khayyam, Saadi, Nizami).

The appearance of the so-called descriptive notation is also associated with the Arab period, thanks to which it became possible to record played games.

Shatranj was brought directly to Western Europe by the Arabs during the early Middle Ages. Here chess became known in the 10th-11th centuries, after the Arabs conquered Spain and Sicily. The game had a pronounced military character, so it was very well received in the knightly countries of medieval Europe.

From Spain the game reached France, where, for example, Charlemagne was a big fan of it.

Chess in medieval France

Also from Spain and Sicily, chess gradually penetrated into Italy, England, Scandinavian and other European countries, despite the severe persecution of the church, which prohibited chess along with the game of dice and other “demonic obsessions.”

Chess was brought to Spain by the Moors, and the first mention of chess in Christendom is in the Catalan Testament of 1010 AD. Although chess was known in Europe in earlier times. According to some legends, an expensive set of chess pieces was presented as a gift to Carloman (8th-9th century) from the famous Muslim ruler Harun al-Rashid.

There is a poem describing how chess also existed in the court of the legendary King Arthur. Chess came to Germany in the 10th-11th centuries, the earliest mention in literature was made by the monk Frumun von Tegermsee, in 1030-1050. It records that Svetoslav Šurin from Croatia defeated the Venetian Dodge Peter II in a game for the right to rule the Dalmatian cities.

By the 10th-11th centuries, chess was known in Scandinavia and later in the late 11th century it reached Bohemia from Italy.
"Two ladies playing chess"

illustration from the "Book of Games" by King Alfonso X the Wise of Castile, grandson of Frederick Barbarossa

Despite the fierce opposition of the initially Muslim and then Christian churches (which equated chess with gambling with dice and considered it a “demonic obsession”), chess was banned in Europe for some time, since it was often used for gambling and it was argued that that they bear signs of paganism), nothing could stop the growing popularity of the game, which is confirmed by numerous literary evidence. The popularity of chess continues to grow and soon the whole world knows and plays this most popular game of the ancient world.

In the 14th-15th centuries. the traditions of oriental chess were lost in Europe, and in the 15th-16th centuries. a departure from them became obvious after a number of changes in the rules for the moves of pawns, bishops and queens. On the territory of Rus'

, in Bulgaria the game became known around the 10th-12th centuries.

Important archaeological finds in Novgorod indicate that chess, which was mainly spread by the Arabs, came to Russia directly from the Middle East. To this day, the names of chess pieces in Russia indicate their Persian and Arabic roots.

When Peter I went on campaigns, he took with him not only chess, but also two permanent partners. Catherine II was also fond of chess. In 1796 Count A.S. Stroganov arranged a game of live chess for Catherine II and the Swedish king Gustav IV, who were visiting his country palace. In the meadow, where a “chessboard” was laid out with green and yellow turf, servants dressed in medieval clothes moved in accordance with the moves of the chess pargay.

Chess was widespread among the Russian intelligentsia. In the library of A. S. Pushkin, a book published in 1824 by A. D. Petrov, who was the strongest chess player in Russia for half a century, has been preserved - “The Chess Game, Put into Systematic Order” with the author’s dedicatory inscription; Pushkin was a subscriber to the first chess magazine "Palamed", which began publishing in Paris in 1836.

Despite the fact that chess was a popular game, until the end of the 19th century, Russia noticeably lagged behind England, France, and Germany in terms of chess development.

The first Russian chess club opened in St. Petersburg only in 1853, and the first Russian chess magazine was published in 1859.

The situation changed at the beginning of the 20th century, when the St. Petersburg Chess Assembly, which emerged from a private circle, was founded, whose activities in popularizing chess turned out to be very fruitful.

The club was opened on January 17, 1904, and in April 1914, the All-Russian Chess Union was established in the meeting premises at 10 Liteiny Prospekt.

The club held professional and amateur tournaments, friendly matches between the teams of Moscow and St. Petersburg, simultaneous games, and published special literature. The richest chess library in the country was located within the walls of the Assembly.

Historically, it is established that chess, in its original form, was a game for four people with four sets of pieces. This game was originally called Shatranj (in Sanskrit, Shatr means "four" and anga means "squad"). In the Persian literature of the Sassanid dynasty (242-651 centuries AD), a book was found written in Pahlavi (Middle Persian language), which was called "Chess Textbook". In modern Persian the same word shatranj serves to designate modern chess. A popular historical theory is that shatranj (chess), according to Indian mysticism, represents the universe. The four sides represent the four elements - earth, air, fire and water; as well as the four seasons and four human temperaments. It is also argued that the word chess comes from the Persian "king" (check) and the term chess comes from the Persian "The king is dead." Below is the evolution of European names for chess pieces from their ancient variant names, which are still used in India, Iran, and many other parts of the world.

It should be noted that although the names of chess pieces differ slightly in different parts of the world, their shape and rules of movement are almost identical.

The Muslim Arabs have probably had the greatest influence on the game of chess than any other culture. The word "chess" originally comes from the Persian word Shah (king) and the Arabic word checkmate (died). Early Muslim contributions to the game include: blind play mentioned as early as 700 AD, early tournaments and qualifying tournaments, chess problems described in the first book on chess by Al-Adli. Al-Adli's books contain openings, the first chess problems of "mansuba", and differences in Persian and Indian rules of the game are discussed. Unfortunately, this valuable book has now been lost. However, the Yugoslav library contains a valuable Arabic manuscript from the early 9th century, which contains mansubs. This manuscript was discovered in 1958. Some of these mansubs (chess problems) were based on the legend of "Mat Dilarama". According to legend, Dilaram was a chess player who played for money and lost all his property. In the last game he bet his wife, but he played recklessly and almost lost the game. However, his wife pointed out that he could checkmate his opponent if he sacrificed both of his rooks. His wife whispered this in his ear, and he won the game.

The following table lists some of the ancient Arabic names for the figures, and their meanings:

It was played on a round board, but the pieces and their movement were similar to Arab chess from the same time period.

After the penetration of chess into Europe, many books dedicated to this game appeared. Probably one of the most important and valuable of these books was written during the Middle Ages by the Spanish King Alfonso the Wise in 1283. This wonderful book contains 150 color miniatures based on the original Persian drawings. This book also includes a collection of endgames borrowed from Arabic literature. Chess has gone through the history of many cultures and has been influenced by them. The modern official rules of the game of chess are perfectly preserved and differ little from those that were used 1430 years ago.

Chess is a real mirror of culture. Countries changed, the structure of society changed, and the rules changed.

For example, the figure of the queen, the “queen,” appeared only in the Middle Ages, when the noble lady began to play an important role and began to be honored at knightly tournaments. In the game, she took on the role of the king's advisor - the vizier in the eastern version of chess. The current freedom of movement, independence, and “emancipation” of the queen were unthinkable until the end of the 15th century.

Ancient versions of the game are generally less dynamic, like ancient society. In traditional Chinese chess, the “master” is inactive, he maneuvers in a very small space - as if within the walls of an imperial palace. Indian "chaturanga" followed a strict division of figures into castes - priests, rulers, peasants, servants.

But in Japan, the military-aristocratic system since the 12th century allowed a person of noble birth, willing to put in due diligence, to achieve a rapid rise. And the chess pieces were given the opportunity to raise their status. And in European chess, a pawn that reaches the opposite edge of the board is promoted to any piece - even a queen.

In modern times, they wanted to bring chess closer to the changing reality. During Nazi times in Germany, they tried to turn the “game of kings” into a “game of Fuhrers”: several leaders entered the battle, one of them had to be defeated. The game didn't catch on. Just like the Fuhrers.

A more diplomatic option was proposed by the famous Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951). In the chess game he invented, planes and submarines appeared on the board, but negotiations and alliances were allowed. Moreover, four “powers” ​​played the game at once - one on each side of the board, as in the ancient Indian “four chess”

The 1909 engraving supposedly depicts Hitler and Lenin playing chess. It's even signed by both of them on the back.

Story emergence and development chess dates back many centuries. Archaeological excavations indicate that games in which it was necessary to move chips on a board existed around the 4th-3rd centuries. BC. According to ancient legend, the game of chess was created by a certain Brahmin. In exchange for his invention, he asked the Raja for a seemingly insignificant reward: as many millet grains as would fit on the chessboard if one grain was placed on the first square, two grains on the second, four grains on the third, etc. However, in fact, it turned out that there is no such amount of grain (1.845 × 10^19 grains, which can be stored in a storage facility with a volume of 180 km³) on the entire planet. It is unknown whether everything actually happened this way or otherwise, but, one way or another, India is considered the birthplace of chess. A story this once again emphasizes the fact that in chess the number of combinations is infinite, thanks to which this ancient, most interesting game will never exhaust itself.

The oldest form of chess, the war game chaturanga, appeared in the first centuries AD. e. In India, chaturanga was a type of army that included war chariots (ratha) - rooks, elephants (hasti), cavalry (ashva) and foot soldiers (padati). The game symbolized a battle involving four branches of troops controlled by a leader. The pieces were located at the corners of a square board (ashtapada) of 64 cells; 4 people took part in the game. The movement of the figures was determined by throwing dice. To win the game it was necessary to destroy all enemy troops. Chaturanga existed in India until the beginning of the 20th century, and its name changed over time to “chaturraja” - the game of four kings; the figures began to be painted in 4 colors - green, yellow, red and black. The successor to chaturanga was the game shatrang (chatrang), which arose in Central Asia at the end of the 5th - beginning of the 6th centuries. In this variation, the game had two “camps” of pieces and a new piece representing the king’s advisor, the farzin; Only 2 opponents began to take part in the game. The goal of the game was to checkmate the opponent's king. Thus, the “game of chance” was replaced by the “game of the mind.” In the VIII-IX centuries. Shatrang penetrated from Central Asia to the East and West, becoming known under the Arabic name Shatranj. In Shatranj (IX-XV centuries), the terminology and arrangement of Shatrang figures were preserved, but the appearance of the figures underwent changes. The fact is that religion was against the use of living creatures to represent chess pieces, so the Arabs began to use abstract figures in the form of small cylinders and cones for these purposes. This greatly simplified their creation, which, in turn, contributed to the further spread of the game among the masses. The development of the game was rather slow, since only the rook, king and knight moved according to modern rules, while the range of action of other pieces was extremely limited. For example, the queen moved only one square diagonally.

So, the use of abstract images to create chess pieces contributed to a change in the perception of chess - they were no longer perceived as a symbol of war, battle, but began to be associated with everyday ups and downs, which was reflected in the epic and treatises dedicated to the game of chess (Omar Khayyam, Saadi, Nizami), opening new page in history of chess.

Development of chess.

During the early Middle Ages (VIII-IX centuries), the Arabs, as a result of the conquest of Spain, moved shatranj to Spain. After which this game began to spread in Western Europe, where further transformation of the rules continued, which ultimately turned Shatranj into modern chess.

Chess acquired its modern appearance only by the 15th century, although due to inconsistency of changes, for several more centuries different countries had their own, sometimes quite bizarre, rules. For example, in Italy, until the 19th century, a pawn that reached the last rank could only be promoted to those pieces that had already been removed from the board, and moving the pawn to the last rank in the absence of such pieces was not prohibited. In this case, the pawn remained a pawn and turned into the first piece captured by the opponent at the moment when the opponent captured it. Castling was also allowed if there was a piece between the rook and the king and if the king passed a broken square.

History of chess is quite rich, and as they spread in Europe, chess and artistic works began to appear telling about this game. The first poem about chess, written by Ezra, appeared in 1160. In 1283, the first chess book in Europe was published - a treatise by Alphonse X the Wise. This book is of great interest when studying history of chess, as it contains a description of both new European chess and the already obsolete shatranj. Around 820, the Arabic shatranj under the Central Asian name “chess” appeared in Rus', in the Russian language acquiring the name “chess” already known to all of us, coming, it is believed, either directly from Persia through the Caucasus and the Khazar Kaganate, or from the Central Asian peoples, through Khorezm. In any case, the Russian name of the game was inherited from the Tajiks or Uzbeks; the names of the figures in Russia are also consonant or similar in meaning to Arabic or Central Asian ones. Changes in the rules, later introduced by Europeans, penetrated Rus' with some delay and gradually turned old Russian chess into modern ones. The Arab period is also associated with the emergence of the so-called descriptive notation, thanks to which it became possible to record played games.

However, the Christian Church throughout history of chess took a sharply negative position, equating them with gambling and drunkenness. But, despite church prohibitions, chess spread both in Europe and in Russia, and among the clergy the passion for the game was no less (if not more) than among other classes. And already in 1393 in Europe, the Council of Regenburg removed chess from the list of prohibited games. Note that in Russia there is no information about the official lifting of the church ban on chess, but at least since the 17th-18th centuries this ban has not actually been in effect. Ivan the Terrible played chess. Under Alexei Mikhailovich, chess was common among courtiers, and the ability to play it was common among diplomats. Documents from that time have been preserved in Europe, which say that Russian envoys were familiar with chess and played it very well. Princess Sophia was fond of chess. Under Peter I, assemblies were held with the obligatory chess games.

In the XIV-XV centuries. the traditions of oriental chess were lost in Europe, and in the 15th-16th centuries. a departure from them became obvious after a number of changes in the rules for the moves of pawns, bishops and queens. But by the 15th-16th centuries, chess rules were basically established, thanks to which the development of systematic chess theory began. In 1561, the priest Ruy Lopez - the author of the popular opening "Spanish game" - published the first complete chess textbook, which examined the now distinguished stages of the game - opening, middlegame and endgame. He was the first to describe a characteristic type of opening - a “gambit”, in which an advantage in development is achieved by sacrificing material.

A great contribution to the development of chess theory in the 18th century was made by the famous French musician Francois-André Danican Philidor, who had a huge influence on the development of history of chess. He seriously revised the views of his predecessors, primarily the Italian masters, who believed that the best style of play was an aggressive attack on the enemy king with all available means and used 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 a tactical game full of sacrifices and combinations. Emphasizing the leading role of strategy, the positional school unwittingly downplayed the role of tactics. Meanwhile, Nimzowitsch repeatedly emphasized that the combination should logically follow from the strategy itself. It is also significant that in their games the hypermodernists showed the beauty of strategy, demonstrated in practice that it, like tactics, is fertilized by inspiration, fantasy and intuition. Thus, they further expanded the idea of ​​chess as an art.

However, the chess Olympus was still dominated by representatives of the positional school, and in 1921 Cuban Jose Raul Capablanca (1888-1942) became the third world champion. For his understanding of position and technique of positional play, he was called a “chess machine” and was considered invincible. In 1927, having won the match against Capablanca, Russian Alexander Alekhine (1892-1946) became the fourth world champion. In 1935, Alekhine lost to the Dutchman Max Euwe, who became the fifth world champion, in a match held in various cities of Holland, but in 1937 he regained the title of champion, winning in a rematch.

After the end of World War II, the USSR joined the chess federation - FIDE, and Soviet chess players began to dominate the world chess arena. Of the eight chess players who were crowned world chess champions in the post-war years, seven grandmasters represented the USSR: Mikhail Botvinnik, Vasily Smyslov, Mikhail Tal, Tigran Petrosyan, Boris Spassky, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov. Soviet chess players Lyudmila Rudenko, Elizaveta Bykova, Olga Rubtsova, Nona Gaprindashvili, Maya Chiburdanidze became world champions among women.

General computerization and the Internet of the late 20th - early 21st centuries. greatly influenced the development of chess. In 1997, the computer (Deep Blue) already wins the match against the world champion. Thus, we have entered the 21st century - the century of computer chess programs.

Chess is an intellectual board game that is enjoyed by millions of people around the world, and tens of thousands of them take part in tournaments. In our country, chess is a folk game that gained its popularity back in Soviet times.

Chess originated in India early AD. called chaturanga. As the Indian proverb says, “The game of chess is a lake in which a mosquito can swim but an elephant can drown.”

The main difference between chaturinga and modern chess was that the movement of the pieces was determined by throwing dice. At that time in India, chess was a war game in which four people took part, two on each side. The pieces were located in the corners of a 64-cell board.

The moves with rooks, kings, pawns and knights were no different from modern ones, there were no queens yet, and bishops moved differently - only a third of the field diagonally and could jump over pieces, like a knight.

Over time, the game changed and was replaced by a two-sided game, where players determined the move without the participation of dice. It was this type of chess that was already described by modern classics in the 5th and 6th centuries.

In the X – XII centuries. – chess was brought to Europe, as well as to Russia. And already in the 15-16 centuries. New rules were introduced, which differed from the modern form only in that a pawn could start in the game a little differently. The final version of the game was formed in the 18th century and since then, the game has not changed its appearance.

The first “uncrowned king” was the French composer and chess player Dominique Philidor. Dominic was the greatest and most unbeatable player in the second half of the 18th century. In the first half of the 19th century, another Frenchman, Louis Labourdonnais, tried on the Crown.

In the second half of the 19th century, everyone was crushed by a new chess genius, another “uncrowned king”, the American Paul Morphy - the only chess player in history who won all the competitions in which he took part. Due to a serious illness, Morphy had to give up his chess career.

As for Russian chess masters, the first was Alexander Petrov. He was the strongest chess player in the early 19th century. And only in the 70s a new chess star appeared - Mikhail Chigorin. Mikhail can be safely attributed to the modern history of chess, since he has already played in two official matches for the title of World Champion.

Chess tournaments, as in other sports, are held according to the round-robin or Olympic system, but there are also some specific systems. For example, in team competitions there is the Scheveningen system (all members of one team play with all members of the other), and in team or individual competitions there is a Swiss system, in which after each round the participants who have scored the same number of points play among themselves.

The first international tournament took place in 1851. And already in 1886, the first world chess champion was determined. It was Wilhelm Steinitz.

Currently, various high-ranking tournaments are held, including international ones. For example, the World Cup, the European Championship, as well as the Chess Olympiads.

Both men and women can take part in such competitions, and world championships are also held among students and among youth (juniors) - in recent years in different age categories: under 18 years old, under 16, under 14, under 12, under 10 and up to 8. Chess veterans (men over 60, women over 55) compete for the title of world champion among seniors. World championships and various computer tournaments have been held for about 40 years.

Now there are several forms of chess:

— Correspondence chess (by correspondence)

— Live chess

— Computer chess

— Fischer chess

— Blind chess (without looking at the board)

— Other types of chess

I would like to end the brief history of chess with an interesting fact: The ancient saying “Our life is like a chess game” was found in literature back in the Renaissance: in Boccaccio’s “Decameron” or in Cervantes’ “Don Quixote”.

No other sport, except chess, was dedicated to works by such literary giants as Vladimir Nabokov - “Luzhin's Defense” and Stefan Zweig - “Chess Novella”. It was Nabokov who wrote the words that raise chess to almost unattainable heights: “We have chess with you. Shakespeare and Pushkin. We've had enough."

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 a 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.