Chess is a game played between two players with ‘chessmen’, each with 16 pieces, on a squared board called chessboard. The players play this game by moving the pieces according to the conventional rules. For playing the game chess, one has to put proper attention, intelligence and sincere care. Hence it is a pure mental game and is considered as a royal game.
Chess is believed to be the oldest of all games in the world. It is said that this game was initiated some 5,000 years ago. The word ‘chess’ owes its origin to the Persian Word ‘Shah’ which means king. The final move of the game ‘checkmate’ is probably derived from two Arabic words meaning “the king is dead” and so the battle is over. The earliest known reference about chess is from the Persian Karnamak, between 590 to 628 AD. A tomb painting of Egyptian Queen Nefertiti showing her playing chess states the playing of this game in Egypt. That is why some people give the impression that chess was initiated in Persia. But it is not true.
The game chess, in fact, was discovered in India. A variety of the game known as ‘chaturanga’was played in India in the 18th century AD. Chaturanga meant a Hindu army composed of four different forces:- Elephants, Horses, Ships or Chariots, and Soldiers. It is believed that in ancient India, the kings and emperors used to play chess to appease their lust for fighting in a harmless manner. Because of this military association chess was always considered a royal game.
Chess remained confined to India for around 2000 years. Later, it spread to Persia, Arabia and other West Asian countries. By 13th century chess was very popular in Western Europe. Coming to England around 1255 AD, chess became so popular in the country that the second book on chess entitled ‘The Game and Play of Chess’ printed in English in 1477. From Europe chess was bought to north Africa and then reached in the Far East upto Japan and China where it was called ‘Chong-ki’ meaning ‘The Play of the science of War’. Chess is now the National Game of Russia, where there are more than 8 million chess players alone.
Gradually chess became popular in all the countries of the world. Today the chess pieces comprises kings, queens, rooks, knights, bishops and pawns. The two most crucial and powerful pieces on each side are the king and queen. Francois Andre Danican of France claimed the title of ‘World Champion’ from 1747 to his death 1795. The first international chess competition was held in London in 1851. But the first official world chess championships were recognized in 1886. Emanuel Lasker of Germany was the World Champion from 1894 to 1921. Vera Menchik Stevenson of Britain won most of the Women’s world championship from 1927 till her death 1944. But the greatest chess player of all time was Robert J. Fischer, popularly known as Bobby Fischer. He had an I.Q. of 187 and became the youngest ever international Grandmaster at the age of 15. Nona Gaprindashvilli of former USSR was also a great player. The list of the famous chess player of the world includes the names of Boris Spassky, Anatoli Karpov, Victor Korchnoi, Gary Kasparov, Valdimir Kramnik of Russia, Nigel Short of Britain and Viswanathan Anand of India.
The international competition of chess is held every three years now. FIDE, the world chess body, awards the life-time title ‘International Grandmaster’. The Indian chess player who are awarded with this prestigious title are- Viswanathan Anand, Dibyendu Barua, Praveen Thipsay, Krishnan Sasikiran, Abhijit Kunte, P. Harikrishna, R.B. Ramesh, Koneru Humpy , Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Sandipan Chanda.
The artificial intelligence of computers have begun to challenge the human brain in the game of chess. But former international Grandmaster Russian player Gary Kasparov proved the control of man over computer by defeating the computer in the game.