The history of chess can be traced back nearly 1,500 years to its earliest known predecessor, called

chaturanga Chaturanga (, , ) is an Traditional games of India, ancient Indian Strategy game, strategy board game. It is first known from India around the seventh century AD. While there is some uncertainty, the prevailing view among chess historians is t ...

, in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

; its prehistory is the subject of speculation. From India it spread to

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

, where it was modified in terms of shapes and rules and developed into

shatranj Shatranj (, ; from Middle Persian ) is an old form of chess, as played in the Sasanian Empire. Its origins lie in the South Asian game of chaturanga. Modern chess gradually developed from this game, as it was introduced to Europe by contacts in ...

. Following the Arab invasion and conquest of Persia,

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

was taken up by the

Muslim world The terms Islamic world and Muslim world commonly refer to the Islamic community, which is also known as the Ummah. This consists of all those who adhere to the religious beliefs, politics, and laws of Islam or to societies in which Islam is ...

and subsequently spread to Europe via Spain (

Al Andalus Al-Andalus () was the Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula. The name refers to the different Muslim states that controlled these territories at various times between 711 and 1492. At its greatest geographical extent, it occupied most o ...

) and Italy (

Emirate of Sicily The island of SicilyIn Arabic, the island was known as (). was under Islam, Islamic rule from the late ninth to the late eleventh centuries. It became a prosperous and influential commercial power in the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean, with ...

). The game evolved roughly into its current form by about 1500 CE. "

Romantic chess Romantic chess is a style of chess popular in the 18th century until its decline in the 1880s. This style of chess emphasizes quick, tactical maneuvers rather than long-term strategic planning. Romantic players consider winning to be secondary to w ...

" was the predominant playing style from the late 18th century to the 1880s.

Chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

games of this period emphasized quick, tactical maneuvers rather than long-term strategic planning. The Romantic era of play was followed by the Scientific, Hypermodern, and New Dynamism eras. In the second half of the 19th century, modern

chess tournament A chess tournament is a series of chess games played competitively to determine a winning individual or team. Since the first international chess tournament in London 1851 chess tournament, London, 1851, chess tournaments have become the standard ...

play began, and the first official

World Chess Championship The World Chess Championship is played to determine the world champion in chess. The current world champion is Gukesh Dommaraju, who defeated the previous champion Ding Liren in the World Chess Championship 2024, 2024 World Chess Championship. ...

was held in 1886. The 20th century saw great leaps forward in

chess theory The game of chess is commonly divided into three phases: the chess opening, opening, Chess middlegame, middlegame, and Chess endgame, endgame. There is a large body of theory regarding how the game should be played in each of these phases, especi ...

and the establishment of the

World Chess Federation The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( , ), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national chess federations and acts as the gove ...

. In 1997, an

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

supercomputer beat

Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born Garik Kimovich Weinstein on 13 April 1963) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion (1985–2000), political activist and writer. His peak FIDE chess Elo rating system, ra ...

, the then world chess champion, in the famous

Deep Blue versus Garry Kasparov Garry Kasparov, then-world chess champion, world champion in chess, played a pair of six-game matches against Deep Blue (chess computer), Deep Blue, a supercomputer by IBM. Kasparov won the first match, held in Philadelphia in 1996, by 4–2. D ...

match, ushering the game into an era of computer domination. Since then, computer analysis – which originated in the 1970s with the first programmed chess games on the market – has contributed to much of the development in chess theory and has become an important part of preparation in professional human chess. Later developments in the 21st century made the use of computer analysis far surpassing the ability of any human player accessible to the public.

Online chess Online chess is chess that is played over the Internet, allowing players to play against each other. This was first done asynchronously through PLATO and email in the 1970s. In 1992, the Internet Chess Server facilitated live online play via t ...

, which first appeared in the mid-1990s, also became popular in the 21st century.

Origin

Precursors to

originated in

. There, its early form in the 7th century CE was known as (), which translates to "four divisions (of the military)":

infantry Infantry, or infantryman are a type of soldier who specialize in ground combat, typically fighting dismounted. Historically the term was used to describe foot soldiers, i.e. those who march and fight on foot. In modern usage, the term broadl ...

cavalry Historically, cavalry (from the French word ''cavalerie'', itself derived from ''cheval'' meaning "horse") are groups of soldiers or warriors who Horses in warfare, fight mounted on horseback. Until the 20th century, cavalry were the most mob ...

, elephantry, and

chariot A chariot is a type of vehicle similar to a cart, driven by a charioteer, usually using horses to provide rapid Propulsion, motive power. The oldest known chariots have been found in burials of the Sintashta culture in modern-day Chelyabinsk O ...

ry. These forms are represented by the pieces that would evolve into the modern

pawn Pawn most often refers to: * Pawn (chess), the weakest and most numerous chess piece in the game * Pawnbroker or pawnshop, a business that provides loans by taking personal property as collateral Pawn or The Pawn may also refer to: Places * Pa ...

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

, and rook, respectively. Chess was introduced to

from India and became a part of the princely or courtly education of Persian nobility. Around 600 CE in

Sassanid Persia The Sasanian Empire (), officially Eranshahr ( , "Empire of the Iranian peoples, Iranians"), was an List of monarchs of Iran, Iranian empire that was founded and ruled by the House of Sasan from 224 to 651. Enduring for over four centuries, th ...

, the name for the game became (), which subsequently evolved to (; ) after the conquest of Persia by the

Rashidun Caliphate The Rashidun Caliphate () is a title given for the reigns of first caliphs (lit. "successors") — Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali collectively — believed to Political aspects of Islam, represent the perfect Islam and governance who led the ...

, due to the lack of native "ch" and "ng" sounds in the Arabic language.Shenk, David. ''The Immortal Game''. Doubleday, 2006. The rules were developed further during this time; players started calling "Shāh!" (Persian for "King!") when attacking the opponent's king, and "Shāh Māt!" (Persian for "the king is helpless" – see

checkmate Checkmate (often shortened to mate) is any game position in chess and other chess-like games in which a player's king is in check (threatened with ) and there is no possible escape. Checkmating the opponent wins the game. In chess, the king is ...

) when the king was attacked and could not escape from attack. These exclamations persisted in chess as it traveled to other lands. The game was taken up by the

after the early

Arab Muslims Arab Muslims () are the Arabs who adhere to Islam. They are the largest subdivision of the Arab people and the largest ethnic group among Muslims globally, followed by Bengalis and Punjabis. Likewise, they comprise the majority of the population ...

conquered the Sassanid Empire, with the pieces largely keeping their Persian names. The

Moors The term Moor is an Endonym and exonym, exonym used in European languages to designate the Muslims, Muslim populations of North Africa (the Maghreb) and the Iberian Peninsula (particularly al-Andalus) during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a s ...

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

rendered the Persian term "shatranj" as ''shaṭerej'', which gave rise to the Spanish ', ' and '; in Portuguese it became , and in Greek ''zatrikion'' (), but in the rest of Europe it was replaced by versions of the Persian ''shāh'' ("king"). Thus, the game came to be called or in

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

, in Italian, in Catalan, in French (

Old French Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th Latvian, in Danish, in Norwegian, in Swedish, in Finnish, in

Latvian language">Latvian, in Danish, in Norwegian, in Swedish, in Finnish, in South Slavic languages, in Hungarian and in Romanian; there are two theories about why this change happened: # From the exclamation "check" or "checkmate" as it was pronounced in various languages. # From the first chessmen known of in Western Europe (except Iberian Peninsula">Iberia The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, compri ...

and Greece) being ornamental chess kings brought in as curios by Muslim traders. A treatise on chess 2

The Mongols call the game ''shatar'', and in Ethiopia it is called senterej, both evidently derived from shatranj. Chess spread directly from the Middle East to Russia, where chess became known as (, literally "checkmates", a

plurale tantum A ; ) is a noun that appears only in the plural form and does not have a singular variant for referring to a single object. In a less strict usage of the term, it can also refer to nouns whose singular form is rarely used. In English, are oft ...

). The game reached Western Europe and Russia by at least three routes, the earliest being in the 9th century. By the year 1000 it had spread throughout Europe.Hooper and Whyld, 144–145 (1st ed.) Introduced into the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, comprisin ...

by the

in the 10th century, it was described in a famous 13th-century Spanish manuscript covering shatranj,

backgammon Backgammon is a two-player board game played with counters and dice on tables boards. It is the most widespread Western member of the large family of tables games, whose ancestors date back at least 1,600 years. The earliest record of backgammo ...

and

dice A die (: dice, sometimes also used as ) is a small, throwable object with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. Dice are used for generating random values, commonly as part of tabletop games, including dice games, board games, ro ...

named the ''

Libro de los juegos The (Spanish: "Book of games"), or ("Book of chess, dice and tables", in Old Spanish), is a 13th century Spanish language, Spanish treatise of chess that synthesizes the information from Arabic works on this same topic, dice and Tables games, ...

'', which is the earliest European treatise on chess as well as being the oldest document on European

tables games Tables games are a class of board game that includes backgammon and which are played on a tables board, typically with two rows of 12 vertical markings called point (tables game), points. Players roll dice to determine the movement of pieces. Tab ...

. Chess spread throughout the world and many variants of the game soon began taking shape.

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

pilgrims,

Silk Road The Silk Road was a network of Asian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over , it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the ...

traders and others carried it to the

Far East The Far East is the geographical region that encompasses the easternmost portion of the Asian continent, including North Asia, North, East Asia, East and Southeast Asia. South Asia is sometimes also included in the definition of the term. In mod ...

where it was transformed and assimilated into a game often played on the intersection of the lines of the board rather than within the squares. Chaturanga reached Europe through Persia, the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...

and the expanding Arabian Empire.

Muslims Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

carried chess to

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

, and

Iberia The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, compri ...

by the 10th century. The game was developed extensively in Europe. By the late 15th century, it had survived a series of prohibitions and

Christian Church In ecclesiology, the Christian Church is what different Christian denominations conceive of as being the true body of Christians or the original institution established by Jesus Christ. "Christian Church" has also been used in academia as a syn ...

sanctions to almost take the shape of the modern game.

Modern history The modern era or the modern period is considered the current historical period of human history. It was originally applied to the history of Europe and Western history for events that came after the Middle Ages, often from around the year 1500, ...

saw reliable reference works, competitive chess tournaments, and many new

variants Variant may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Variant'' (magazine), a former British cultural magazine * Variant cover, an issue of comic books with varying cover art * ''Variant'' (novel), a novel by Robison Wells * " The Variant", 2021 epis ...

. These factors added to the game's popularity, further bolstered by reliable timing mechanisms (first introduced in 1861), effective rules, and charismatic players.

India

The earliest precursor of modern chess is a game called

, which flourished in India by the 6th century, and is the earliest known game to have two essential features found in all later chess variations—different pieces having different powers (which was not the case with

checkers Checkers (American English), also known as draughts (; English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), is a group of Abstract strategy game, strategy board games for two players which involve forward movements of uniform game ...

and Go), and victory depending on the fate of one piece, the king of modern chess. A common theory is that India's development of the board, and chess, was likely due to India's mathematical enlightenment involving the creation of the number zero. Other game pieces (speculatively called "chess pieces") uncovered in

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

findings are considered as coming from other, distantly related board games, which may have had boards of 100 squares or more."Chess: Ancient precursors and related games" (''Encyclopædia Britannica'' 2002) Radha-Krishna chess

Chess was designed for an '' ashtāpada'' (

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

for "having eight feet", i.e. an 8×8 squared board), which may have been used earlier for a

-type race game (perhaps related to a dice-driven race game still played in south India where the track starts at the middle of a side and spirals into the center). Ashtāpada, the uncheckered 8×8 board served as the main board for playing

.Wilkins 2002: 46 Other Indian boards included the 10×10 ''Dasapada'' and the 9×9 ''Saturankam''. Traditional Indian chessboards often have X markings on some or all of squares a1 a4 a5 a8 d1 d4 d5 d8 e1 e4 e5 e8 h1 h4 h5 h8: these may have been "safe squares" where capturing was not allowed in a dice-driven backgammon-type race game played on the ashtāpada before chess was invented. The Cox–Forbes theory, proposed in the late 18th century by Hiram Cox, and later developed by Duncan Forbes, asserted that the four-handed game chaturaji was the original form of chaturanga. The theory is no longer considered tenable.Hooper 1992: 74 In

, the word ''chaturaṅga'' literally means "having four limbs (or parts)" and in

epic poetry In poetry, an epic is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants. With regard t ...

often means "army" (the four parts are elephants, chariots, horsemen, foot soldiers).Meri 2005: 148 The name came from a battle formation mentioned in the Indian epic

Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; , , ) is one of the two major Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epics of ancient India revered as Smriti texts in Hinduism, the other being the ''Ramayana, Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the events and aftermath of the Kuru ...

. The game chaturanga was a battle-simulation game that rendered Indian military strategy of the time.Kulke 2004: 9 Some people formerly played chess using a die to decide which piece to move. There was an unproven theory that chess started as this dice-chess and that the gambling and dice aspects of the game were removed because of

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

religious objections.Wilkins 2002: 48 Scholars in areas to which the game subsequently spread, for example the Arab

Abu al-Hasan 'Alī al-Mas'ūdī al-Masʿūdī (full name , ), –956, was a historian, geographer and traveler. He is sometimes referred to as the "Herodotus of the Arabs". A polymath and prolific author of over twenty works on theology, history (Islamic and universal), geo ...

, detailed the Indian use of chess as a tool for

military strategy Military strategy is a set of ideas implemented by military organizations to pursue desired Strategic goal (military), strategic goals. Derived from the Greek language, Greek word ''strategos'', the term strategy, when first used during the 18th ...

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

gambling Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of Value (economics), value ("the stakes") on a Event (probability theory), random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy (ga ...

and even its vague association with

astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...

.Wilkinson 1943 Mas'ūdī notes that

ivory Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and Tooth, teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mamm ...

in India was chiefly used for the production of chess and

pieces, and asserts that the game was introduced to Persia from India, along with the book '' Kelileh va Demneh'', during the reign of emperor Nushirwan. In some variants, a win was by checkmate, or by

stalemate Stalemate is a situation in chess where the player whose turn it is to move is not in check and has no legal move. Stalemate results in a draw. During the endgame, stalemate is a resource that can enable the player with the inferior position ...

, or by "bare king" (taking all of an opponent's pieces except the king). In some parts of India the pieces in the places of the rook, knight and bishop were renamed by words meaning (in this order) Boat, Horse, and Elephant, or Elephant, Horse, and Camel, but keeping the same moves. In early chess the moves of the pieces were: Two Arab travelers each recorded a severe Indian chess rule against

: *A stalemated player thereby at once wins. *A stalemated king can take one of the enemy pieces that would check the king if the king moves.

Iran (Persia)

File:Chessmen from Samarkhand.jpg, These seven ivory chess pieces are the oldest known, dating to about 700 CE. The ivory came from India.''Silk Roads'' (2024), pp. 151–152 They were excavated in 1977 by archaeologist Yuriy Buryakov, at Afrasiyab in

Samarkand Samarkand ( ; Uzbek language, Uzbek and Tajik language, Tajik: Самарқанд / Samarqand, ) is a city in southeastern Uzbekistan and among the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central As ...

Uzbekistan , image_flag = Flag of Uzbekistan.svg , image_coat = Emblem of Uzbekistan.svg , symbol_type = Emblem of Uzbekistan, Emblem , national_anthem = "State Anthem of Uzbekistan, State Anthem of the Republ ...

.Die Schachfiguren aus Afrasiab: Fragen an die Wissenschaft zur Deutung, Zeitstellung und Ikonographie by Manfred Eder, Antike Welt Vol. 25, No. 1 (1994) They are housed today at the Samarkand State Museum. Photographed during a loan of the pieces to the Silk Roads Exhibition at the British Museum. File:Chess Set MET DP170393.jpg,

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

ian

set, glazed fritware, 12th century, New York Metropolitan Museum of Art File:Persianmss14thCambassadorfromIndiabroughtchesstoPersianCourt.jpg,

n manuscript from the 14th century describing how an ambassador from India brought chess to the Persian court File:Shams ud-Din Tabriz 1502-1504 BNF Paris.jpg, Shams-i Tabrīzī as portrayed in a 1500 painting in a page of a copy of

Rumi Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī (), or simply Rumi (30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273), was a 13th-century poet, Hanafi '' faqih'' (jurist), Maturidi theologian (''mutakallim''), and Sufi mystic born during the Khwarazmian Empire ...

's poem dedicated to Shams File:The Chess Game.jpg, Chess game between Tha'ālibī and Bākhazarī, 1896 painting by Ludwig Deutsch File:Golestan Palace Album No. 108-7.jpg, Iranian courtiers of the

Qajar dynasty The Qajar family (; 1789–1925) was an Iranian royal family founded by Mohammad Khan (), a member of the Qoyunlu clan of the Turkoman-descended Qajar tribe. The dynasty's effective rule in Iran ended in 1925 when Iran's '' Majlis'', conven ...

playing chess in

Mazandaran Mazandaran Province (; ) is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. Its capital is the city of Sari, Iran, Sari. Located along the southern coast of the Caspian Sea and in the adjacent Central Alborz mountain range and Hyrcanian forests, it is border ...

The Karnamak-i Ardeshir-i Papakan, a Pahlavi epical treatise about the founder of the

Sassanid The Sasanian Empire (), officially Eranshahr ( , "Empire of the Iranian peoples, Iranians"), was an List of monarchs of Iran, Iranian empire that was founded and ruled by the House of Sasan from 224 to 651. Enduring for over four centuries, th ...

Persian Empire The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire, also known as the Persian Empire or First Persian Empire (; , , ), was an Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. Based in modern-day Iran, it was the larg ...

, mentions the game of chatrang as one of the accomplishments of the legendary hero,

Ardashir I Ardashir I (), also known as Ardashir the Unifier (180–242 AD), was the founder of the Sasanian Empire, the last empire of ancient Iran. He was also Ardashir V of the Kings of Persis, until he founded the new empire. After defeating the last Par ...

, founder of the Empire.Bell 1979: 57 The oldest recorded game in chess history is a 10th-century game played between a historian from

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

and a pupil.Chess: Introduction to Europe (Encyclopædia Britannica 2007) A manuscript explaining the rules of the game, called "Matikan-i-chatrang" (the book of chess) in

Middle Persian Middle Persian, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg ( Inscriptional Pahlavi script: , Manichaean script: , Avestan script: ) in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasania ...

or Pahlavi, still exists. In the 11th-century ''

Shahnameh The ''Shahnameh'' (, ), also transliterated ''Shahnama'', is a long epic poem written by the Persian literature, Persian poet Ferdowsi between and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Greater Iran. Consisting of some 50,000 distichs or couple ...

'',

Ferdowsi Abu'l-Qâsem Ferdowsi Tusi (also Firdawsi, ; 940 – 1019/1025) was a Persians, Persian poet and the author of ''Shahnameh'' ("Book of Kings"), which is one of the world's longest epic poetry, epic poems created by a single poet, and the gre ...

describes a

Raja Raja (; from , IAST ') is a noble or royal Sanskrit title historically used by some Indian subcontinent, Indian rulers and monarchs and highest-ranking nobles. The title was historically used in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. T ...

visiting from India who re-enacts the past battles on the chessboard. A translation in English, based on the manuscripts in the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

, is given below: The ''Shahnameh'' goes on to offer an apocryphal account of the origins of the game of chess in the story of Talhand and Gav, two half-brothers who vie for the throne of Hind (India). They meet in battle and Talhand dies on his elephant without a wound. Believing that Gav had killed Talhand, their mother is distraught. Gav tells his mother that Talhand did not die by the hands of him or his men, but she does not understand how this could be. So the sages of the court invent the game of chess, detailing the pieces and how they move, to show the mother of the princes how the battle unfolded and how Talhand died of fatigue when surrounded by his enemies. The poem uses the Persian term "Shāh māt" (check mate) to describe the fate of Talhand. The philosopher and theologian

Al-Ghazali Al-Ghazali ( – 19 December 1111), archaically Latinized as Algazelus, was a Shafi'i Sunni Muslim scholar and polymath. He is known as one of the most prominent and influential jurisconsults, legal theoreticians, muftis, philosophers, the ...

mentions chess in ''

The Alchemy of Happiness ''Kīmīyā-yi Sa'ādat'' ( ) is a book written by Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ghazālī, a Persian theologian, philosopher, and prolific Muslim author, often regarded as one of the greatest systematic thinkers and mystics of Isl ...

'' (c. 1100). He uses it as a specific example of a habit that may cloud a person's good disposition: The appearance of the

chess pieces A chess piece, or chessman, is a game piece that is placed on a chessboard to play the game of chess. It can be either White and Black in chess, white or black, and it can be one of six types: King (chess), king, Queen (chess), queen, Rook (ches ...

had altered greatly since the times of chaturanga, with ornate pieces and chess pieces depicting animals giving way to abstract shapes. This is because of a Muslim ban on the game's lifelike pieces, as they were said to have been too like idols. The

Islamic Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

sets of later centuries followed a pattern which assigned names and abstract shapes to the chess pieces, as

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

forbids depiction of animals and human beings in art. These pieces were usually made of simple clay and carved stone.

East Asia

China

As a strategy board game played in China, chess is believed to have been derived from the Indian chaturanga. Chaturanga was transformed into the game

xiangqi Xiangqi (; ), commonly known as Chinese chess or elephant chess, is a Strategy game, strategy board game for two players. It is the most popular board game in China. Xiangqi is in the same family of games as shogi, janggi, chess, Western ches ...

where the pieces are placed on the intersection of the lines of the board rather than within the squares.Bell 1979, V.I p. 66 The object of the Chinese variation is similar to chaturanga, i.e. to render helpless the opponent's king, known as "general" on one side and "governor" on the other. Chinese chess also borrows elements from the game of Go, which was played in China since at least the 6th century BC. Owing to the influence of Go, Chinese chess is played on the intersections of the lines on the board, rather than in the squares. The game of Xiangqi is also unique in that the middle rank represents a river, and is not divided into squares. Chinese chess pieces are usually flat and resemble those used in

, with pieces differentiated by writing their names on the flat surface. An alternative origin theory contends that chess arose from

or a predecessor thereof, existing in China since the 3rd century BC.Li 1998 David H. Li, a translator of ancient Chinese texts, hypothesizes that general Han Xin drew on the earlier game of

liubo ''Liubo'' (; Old Chinese *''kruk pˤak'' “six sticks”) was an History of China, ancient Chinese board game for two players. The rules have largely been lost, but it is believed that each player had six game pieces that were moved around the ...

to develop an early form of Chinese chess in the winter of 204–203 BC. The German chess historian Peter Banaschak, however, points out that Li's main hypothesis "is based on virtually nothing." He notes that the "Xuanguai lu", authored by the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...

minister Niu Sengru (779–847), remains the first real source on the Chinese chess variant xiangqi.

Japan

A prominent variant of chess in East Asia is the game of

shogi , also known as Japanese chess, is a Strategy game, strategy board game for two players. It is one of the most popular board games in Japan and is in the same family of games as chess, Western chess, chaturanga, xiangqi, Indian chess, and janggi. ...

, transmitted from India to China and Korea before finally reaching Japan. The three distinguishing features of shogi are: # The captured pieces may be reused by the captor and played as a part of the captor's forces. # Pawns capture as they move, one square straight ahead. # The board is 9×9, with a second gold general on the other side of the king. Drops were not originally part of shogi. In the 13th century, shogi underwent an expansion, creating the game of

dai shogi or is a board game native to Japan. It derived from Heian era shogi, and is similar to standard shogi (sometimes called Japanese chess) in its rules and game play. Dai shogi is only one of several large board shogi variants. Its name means ''larg ...

, played on a 15×15 board with many new pieces, including the independently invented rook, bishop and queen of modern Western chess, the drunk elephant that promotes to a second king, and also the even more powerful lion, which among other idiosyncrasies has the power to move or capture twice per turn. Around the 14th or 15th centuries, the popularity of dai shogi then waned in favour of the smaller chu shogi, played on a smaller 12×12 board which removed the weakest pieces from dai shogi, similarly to the development of Courier chess in the West. In the meantime, the original 9×9 shogi, now termed sho shogi, continued to be played, but was regarded as less prestigious than chu shogi and dai shogi. Chu shogi was very popular in Japan, and the rook, bishop, and drunk elephant from it were added to sho shogi, where the first two remain today. In the 15th and 16th centuries, yet more

shogi variant A shogi variant is a game related to or derived from shogi (Japanese chess). Many shogi variants have been developed over the centuries, ranging from some of the largest chess-type games ever played to some of the smallest. A few of these variant ...

s were described, on large boards and with many more pieces. The 1694 book '' Shōgi Zushiki'' details

tenjiku shogi Tenjiku shogi (天竺将棋 ''tenjiku shōgi,'' "Indian chess" or 天竺大将棋 ''tenjiku dai shōgi'' "great Indian chess") is a large-board Shogi variant, variant of shogi (Japanese chess). The game dates back to the 15th or 16th century and w ...

(16×16),

dai dai shogi Dai dai shōgi (大大将棋 'huge chess') is a large board variant of shogi (Japanese chess). The game dates back to the 15th century and is based on the earlier dai shogi. Apart from its size, the major difference is in the range of the pieces ...

(17×17),

maka dai dai shogi Maka dai dai shōgi (摩訶大大将棋 or 摩𩹄大大象戯 'ultra-huge chess') is a large board Shogi variant, variant of shogi (Japanese chess). The game dates back to the 15th century and is based on dai dai shogi and the earlier dai shogi. ...

(19×19), and tai shogi (25×25); it also mentions wa shogi (11×11), ko shogi (19×19), and taikyoku shogi (36×36). It is not thought that these games were played very much. Chu shogi declined in popularity after the addition of drops to sho shogi and the removal of the drunk elephant in the 16th century, becoming moribund around the late 20th century. These changes to sho shogi created what is essentially the modern game of shogi.

Thailand

The Thai variant of chess,

makruk Makruk (; ; ), or Thai chess (; ; ), is a Strategy game, strategy board game that is descended from the 6th-century Indian game of chaturanga or a close relative thereof, and is therefore related to chess. It is part of the family of chess varian ...

is a close living relative to chaturanga, retaining the vizier, non-checkered board, limited promotion, offset kings, and elephant-like bishop move.

Mongolia

Chess is recorded from Mongolian-inhabited areas, where the pieces are now called: * King: Noyon – Ноён –

lord Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power (social and political), power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the Peerage o ...

* Queen: Bers / Nohoi – Бэрс / Нохой – dog (to guard the livestock) * Bishop: Temē – Тэмээ –

camel A camel (from and () from Ancient Semitic: ''gāmāl'') is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. Camels have long been domesticated and, as livestock, they provid ...

* Knight: Morĭ – Морь –

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 mi ...

* Rook: Tereg – Тэрэг –

cart A cart or dray (Australia and New Zealand) is a vehicle designed for transport, using two wheels and normally pulled by draught animals such as horses, donkeys, mules and oxen, or even smaller animals such as goats or large dogs. A handcart ...

* Pawn: Hū – Хүү – boy (the piece often showed a

puppy A puppy is a Juvenile (organism), juvenile dog, generally one less than 12-18 months old. Puppies are markedly underdeveloped and dependent on their mothers at birth (displaying ''altriciality''), but healthy puppies grow quickly and begi ...

) Names recorded from the 1880s by Russian sources, quoted in Murray, among the Soyot people (who at the time spoke the Soyot

Turkic language The Turkic languages are a language family of more than 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia (Siberia), and West Asia. The Turkic langua ...

) include: ''merzé'' (dog), ''täbä'' (camel), ''ot'' (horse), ''ōl'' (child) and Mongolian names for the other pieces. This game is called

shatar Shatar ( Mongolian: ''Monggol sitar-a'', "Mongolian shatranj"; a.k.a. shatar) and hiashatar are two chess variants played in Mongolia. Game rules The rules are similar to standard chess; the differences being that: * The ''noyan'' (, ''lor ...

; a large 10×10 variant called

hiashatar Shatar ( Mongolian: ''Monggol sitar-a'', "Mongolian shatranj"; a.k.a. shatar) and hiashatar are two chess variants played in Mongolia. Game rules The rules are similar to standard chess; the differences being that: * The ''noyan'' (, ''lor ...

was also played. The change with the queen is likely due to the Arabic word ''firzān'' or Persian word ''farzīn'' (= "

vizier A vizier (; ; ) is a high-ranking political advisor or Minister (government), minister in the Near East. The Abbasids, Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called ''katib'' (secretary), who was at first merely a help ...

") being confused with Turkic or Mongolian native words (''merzé'' = "mastiff", ''bar'' or ''bars'' = "tiger", ''arslan'' = "lion"). Western chess is now the prevalent form of the game in Mongolia.

East Siberia

Chess was also recorded from the

Yakuts The Yakuts or Sakha (, ; , ) are a Turkic ethnic group native to North Siberia, primarily the Republic of Sakha in the Russian Federation. They also inhabit some districts of the Krasnoyarsk Krai. They speak Yakut, which belongs to the Si ...

, Tunguses, and Yukaghirs; but only as a children's game among the Chukchi. Chessmen have been collected from the Yakutat people in

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

, having no resemblance to European chessmen, and thus likely part of a chess tradition coming from

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

Arab world

Chess passed from Persia to the Arab world, where its name changed to Arabic

. From there it passed to Western Europe, probably via Spain. Moors from Andalusia playing chess

Over the centuries, features of European chess (e.g. the modern moves of queen and bishop, and castling) found their way via trade into Islamic areas. Murray's sources found the old moves of queen and bishop still current in Ethiopia. The game became so popular it was used in writing at that time, played by nobility and regular people. The poet al-Katib once said, "The skilled player places his pieces in such a way as to discover consequences that the ignorant man never sees... thus, he serves the Sultan's interests, by showing how to foresee disaster."

Russia

Chess has 1000 years of history in Russia. Chess was probably brought to Old Russia in the 9th century via the Volga-Caspian trade route. From the 10th century cultural connections with the

and the

Vikings Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

also influenced the history of chess in Russia. The vocabulary in Russian chess has various foreign-language elements and testifies to different influences in the evolution of chess in Russia. Chess is mentioned in folk poems as a popular game and is documented in the Old Russian '' byliny''. Numerous archeological finds of the chess game have already been found in the regions of Old Russia. From 1262 on chess was called in Russia ''shakhmaty''. Various foreign travellers commented that in the 16th century, chess was popular among all classes in Russia. Ivan IV the Terrible, who ruled Russia from 1530 to 1584, is said to have died while playing chess. In 1791 the popular chess book ''Morals of Chess'' by

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin (April 17, 1790) was an American polymath: a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher and Political philosophy, political philosopher.#britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the m ...

was translated into Russian and published in the country. Chess enjoys a very high status in Russia and was gradually introduced as a school subject in all primary schools since 2017.

Europe

Early history

Shatranj Shatranj (, ; from Middle Persian ) is an old form of chess, as played in the Sasanian Empire. Its origins lie in the South Asian game of chaturanga. Modern chess gradually developed from this game, as it was introduced to Europe by contacts in ...

made its way via the expanding

Arabian The Arabian Peninsula (, , or , , ) or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian plate. At , comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world. Geographically, the ...

empire to Europe. It also spread to the

Byzantine empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...

, where it was called . Chess appeared in

Southern Europe Southern Europe is also known as Mediterranean Europe, as its geography is marked by the Mediterranean Sea. Definitions of southern Europe include some or all of these countries and regions: Albania, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, C ...

during the end of the first millennium, often introduced to new lands by conquering armies, such as the

Norman Conquest of England The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, French people, French, Flemish people, Flemish, and Bretons, Breton troops, all led by the Du ...

.Riddler 1998 Previously little known, chess became popular in Northern Europe when figure pieces were introduced. In the 14th century,

Timur Timur, also known as Tamerlane (1320s17/18 February 1405), was a Turco-Mongol conqueror who founded the Timurid Empire in and around modern-day Afghanistan, Iran, and Central Asia, becoming the first ruler of the Timurid dynasty. An undefeat ...

played an enlarged variation of the game which is commonly referred to as Tamerlane chess. This complex game involved each pawn having a particular purpose, as well as additional pieces.Rudolph, Jess. ''The History and Variants in West Asia.''Case Western Reserve University. The sides are conventionally called White and Black. But, in earlier European chess writings, the sides were often called Red and Black because those were the commonly available colours of ink when handwriting drawing a chess game layout. In such layouts, each piece was represented by its name, often abbreviated (e.g. "ch'r" for French "chevalier" = "

"). The social value attached to the game – seen as a prestigious pastime associated with nobility and high culture – is clear from the expensive and exquisitely made chessboards of the medieval era. The popularity of chess in the Western courtly society peaked between the 12th and the 15th centuries.Gamer 1954 The game found mention in the

vernacular Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...

and

language literature throughout Europe, and many works were written on or about chess between the 12th and the 15th centuries. H. J. R. Murray divides the works into three distinct parts: the

didactic Didacticism is a philosophy that emphasises instructional and informative qualities in literature, art, and design. In art, design, architecture, and landscape, didacticism is a conceptual approach that is driven by the urgent need to explain. ...

works e.g. Alexander of Neckham's ''De scaccis'' (c. 1180); works of morality like ''Liber de moribus hominum et officiis nobilium sive super ludo scacchorum'' (Book of the customs of men and the duties of nobles or the Book of Chess), written by

Jacobus de Cessolis Jacobus de Cessolis (; c. 1250 – c. 1322) was an Italian author of the most famous morality book on chess in the Middle Ages. In the second half of the 13th century, Jacobus de Cessolis, a Dominican friar in Cessole (Asti district, Piemonte, N ...

; and the works related to various chess problems, written largely after 1205. Chess terms, like ''check'', were used by authors as a metaphor for various situations.Vale 2001: 177 Chess was soon incorporated into the knightly style of life in Europe. Peter Alfonsi, in his work ''Disciplina Clericalis,'' listed chess among the seven skills that a good

must acquire.Vale 2001: 171 Chess also became a subject of art during this period, with caskets and pendants decorated in various chess forms. Queen Margaret of England had green and red chess sets made of jasper and crystal. Kings Henry I,

Henry II Henry II may refer to: Kings * Saint Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor (972–1024), crowned King of Germany in 1002, of Italy in 1004 and Emperor in 1014 *Henry II of England (1133–89), reigned from 1154 *Henry II of Jerusalem and Cyprus (1271–1 ...

and

Richard I Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199), known as Richard the Lionheart or Richard Cœur de Lion () because of his reputation as a great military leader and warrior, was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ru ...

of England were chess patrons. King

Alfonso X Alfonso X (also known as the Wise, ; 23 November 1221 – 4 April 1284) was King of Castile, León and Galicia from 1 June 1252 until his death in 1284. During the election of 1257, a dissident faction chose him to be king of Germany on 1 Ap ...

of Castile and Tsar

Ivan IV of Russia Ivan IV Vasilyevich (; – ), commonly known as Ivan the Terrible,; ; monastic name: Jonah. was Grand Prince of Moscow and all Russia from 1533 to 1547, and the first Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia from 1547 until his death in 1584. ...

gained a similar status. Saint Peter Damian denounced the bishop of Florence in 1061 for playing chess even when aware of its evil effects on the society. The bishop of Florence defended himself by declaring that chess involved skill and was therefore "unlike other games," and similar arguments followed in the coming centuries. Two incidents in 13th-century London, in which men of

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

resorted to violence resulting in death as an outcome of playing chess, caused further sensation and alarm. The growing popularity of the game – now associated with revelry and violence – alarmed the Church. The practice of playing chess for money became so widespread during the 13th century that

Louis IX of France Louis IX (25 April 1214 – 25 August 1270), also known as Saint Louis, was King of France from 1226 until his death in 1270. He is widely recognized as the most distinguished of the Direct Capetians. Following the death of his father, Louis VI ...

issued an ordinance against gambling in 1254.Vale 2001: 172 This ordinance turned out to be unenforceable and was largely neglected by the common public, and even the courtly society, which continued to enjoy the now-prohibited chess tournaments uninterrupted. Image:KnightsTemplarPlayingChess1283.jpg,

Knights Templar The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, mainly known as the Knights Templar, was a Military order (religious society), military order of the Catholic Church, Catholic faith, and one of the most important military ord ...

playing chess, ''

'', 1283 Image:Moorish women playing chess, European woman playing lute.jpg,

Moorish The term Moor is an exonym used in European languages to designate the Muslim populations of North Africa (the Maghreb) and the Iberian Peninsula (particularly al-Andalus) during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a single, distinct or self-defi ...

women playing chess, European woman playing

lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck (music), neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lu ...

. From

's ''Libro del axedrez dados et tablas'' ("Book of chess, dices and tables"), c. 1283. Image:Meister der Manessischen Liederhandschrift 004.jpg, Otto IV of Brandenburg playing chess with a woman, 1305 to 1340 Image:Chess playing Louvre OA117.jpg, A couple playing chess, ivory mirror case c. 1300

Shapes of pieces

The pieces, which had been nonrepresentational in Islamic countries (see piece values in shatranj), changed shape in Christian cultures. Carved images of men and animals reappeared. The shape of the rook, originally a rectangular block with a V-shaped cut in the top, changed; the two top parts separated by the split tended to get long and hang over, and in some old pictures look like horses' heads. The split top of the piece now called the bishop was interpreted as a bishop's mitre or a fool's cap. By the mid-12th century, the pieces of the chess set were depicted as kings, queens, bishops, knights and men at arms.Vale 2001: 173 Chessmen made of ivory began to appear in

North-West Europe Northwestern Europe, or Northwest Europe, is a loosely defined subregion of Europe, overlapping Northern and Western Europe. The term is used in geographic, history, and military contexts. Geographic definitions Geographically, Northwestern ...

, and ornate pieces of traditional knight warriors were used as early as the mid 13th century. The initially nondescript pawn had now found association with the ''pedes'', ''pedinus,'' or the

footman A footman is a male domestic worker employed mainly to wait at table or attend a coach or carriage. Etymology Originally in the 14th century a footman denoted a soldier or any pedestrian, later it indicated a foot servant. A running footman deli ...

, which symbolized both infantry and loyal domestic service.

Names of pieces

The following table provides a glimpse of the changes in names and character of chess pieces as they crossed from India through Persia to Europe: The game, as played during the early Middle Ages, was slow, with many games lasting days. Some variations in rules began to change the shape of the game by the year 1300. A notable, but initially unpopular, change was the ability of the pawn to move two places in the first move instead of one. In Europe some of the pieces gradually received new names: * Fers: "queen", because it starts beside the king. * Aufin: "bishop", because its two points looked like a bishop's

mitre The mitre (Commonwealth English) or miter (American English; American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, see spelling differences; both pronounced ; ) is a type of headgear now known as the traditional, ceremonial headdress of ...

. Its Latin name was reinterpreted many ways.

Early changes to the rules

Attempts to make the start of the game run faster to get the opposing pieces in contact sooner included: * Pawn moving two squares in its first move. This led to the ''

en passant In chess, ''en passant'' (, "in passing") describes the capture by a Pawn (chess), pawn of an enemy pawn on the same and an adjacent that has just made an initial two-square advance. This is a special case in the rules of chess. The capturi ...

'' rule: a pawn placed so that it could have captured the enemy pawn if it had moved one square forward was allowed to capture it on the passed square. In Italy, the contrary rule (''passar battaglia'' = "to pass battle") applied: a pawn that moved two squares forward had passed the danger of attack on the intermediate square. It was sometimes not allowed to do this to cover check. * King jumping once, to make it quicker to put the king safe in a corner. (This eventually led to

castling Castling is a move in chess. It consists of moving the king (chess), king two squares toward a rook (chess), rook on the same and then moving the rook to the square that the king passed over. Castling is permitted only if neither the king ...

.) * Queen on its first move moving two squares straight or diagonally to a same-coloured square, with jump. (This rule sometimes also applied to a queen made by promoting a pawn.) * The

short assize "The short assize" (French ''court assize'' = "short sitting") is H. J. R. Murray's name for a chess variant that was played in medieval Europe. It was somewhat like sittuyin but developed independently, probably to get the armies into contact s ...

. ("assize" = "sitting") Here the pawns started on the third rank; the queens started on d3 and d6 along with the queens' pawns; the players arranged their other pieces as they wished behind their pawns at the start of the game. This idea did not endure. Other sporadic variations in the rules of chess included: * Ignoring check from a piece that was covering check, as some said that in theory (see diagram).

Introduction of new rules

The queen and bishop remained relatively weak until between 1475 AD and 1500 AD, in Spain (in the

Kingdom of Valencia The Kingdom of Valencia (; ; ), located in the eastern shore of the Iberian Peninsula, was one of the component realms of the Crown of Aragon. The Kingdom of Valencia was formally created in 1238 when the Moorish taifa of Valencia was taken in ...

), the queen's and bishop's modern moves started and spread, making chess close to its modern form. The first document showing the Queen (or Dama) moving this way is the allegorical poem

Scachs d'amor ''Scachs d'amor'' (, meaning "Chess of Love"), whose complete title is ''Hobra intitulada scachs d'amor feta per don Francí de Castellví e Narcis Vinyoles e mossén Fenollar'', is the name of a poem written by Francesc de Castellví, Bernat Fe ...

, written in Catalan in

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

in 1475. This form of chess got such names as "Queen's Chess" or "Mad Queen Chess" (Italian ''alla rabiosa'' = "with the madwoman"). This led to much more value being attached to the previously minor tactic of pawn promotion.

Checkmate Checkmate (often shortened to mate) is any game position in chess and other chess-like games in which a player's king is in check (threatened with ) and there is no possible escape. Checkmating the opponent wins the game. In chess, the king is ...

became easier and games could now be won in fewer moves. These new rules quickly spread in Spain and throughout the rest of Western Europe,Calvo, Ricardo
Valencia Spain: The Cradle of European Chess
. Retrieved 10 December 2006 with the exception of the rules about stalemate, which were finalized in the early 19th century. The modern move of the queen may have started as an extension of its older ability to once move two squares with jump, diagonally or straight. Marilyn Yalom says that the new move of the queen started in Spain: see history of the queen. In some areas (e.g. Russia), the queen could also move like a knight. A poem '' Caïssa'' published in 1527 led to the chess rook being often renamed as "castle", and the modern shape of the rook chess piece; see Vida's poem for more information. An Italian player, Gioacchino Greco, regarded as one of the first true professionals of the game, authored an analysis of a number of composed games that illustrated two differing approaches to chess. His work was influential in popularizing chess, and demonstrated many theories regarding game play and tactics.Chess: Development of Theory (Encyclopædia Britannica 2002) The first full work dealing with the various winning combinations was written by

François-André Danican Philidor François-André Danican Philidor (7 September 1726 – 31 August 1795), often referred to as André Danican Philidor during his lifetime, was a French composer and chess player. He contributed to the early development of the ''opéra comique''. ...

of France, regarded as the best chess player in the world for nearly 50 years, and published in the 18th century. He wrote and published ''L'Analyse des échecs'' (The Analysis of Chess), an influential work which appeared in more than 100 editions. Image:EnxadrismoGravuras.003.jpg, A

woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...

drawn from Caxton's chess book printed in England in 1474 Image:Lucena1497.jpg, A tactical puzzle from Lucena's 1497 book File:Clevelandart 1953.284.jpg, A gaming table with chessboard (Germany, 1735) File:Chess, walrus ivory (18th c., Russia, GIM).jpg, A Russian set made of walrus ivory, 1750s Image:André Philidor.jpg, Portrait of François-André Danican Philidor from ''L'analyse des échecs''. London, second edition, 1777 Image:JaquesCookStaunton.jpg, Original Staunton chess pieces by Nathaniel Cooke from 1849 Writings on the theory of how to play chess began to appear in the 15th century. The oldest surviving printed chess book, ''Repetición de Amores y Arte de Ajedrez'' (''Repetition of Love and the Art of Playing Chess'') by

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

churchman Luis Ramirez de Lucena was published in

Salamanca Salamanca () is a Municipality of Spain, municipality and city in Spain, capital of the Province of Salamanca, province of the same name, located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is located in the Campo Charro comarca, in the ...

in 1497. Lucena and later masters like Portuguese Pedro Damiano,

Italians Italians (, ) are a European peoples, European ethnic group native to the Italian geographical region. Italians share a common Italian culture, culture, History of Italy, history, Cultural heritage, ancestry and Italian language, language. ...

Giovanni Leonardo Di Bona Giovanni Leonardo di Bona or Giovanni Leonardo da Cutro (both given names can also be seen in the reversed order Leonardo Giovanni), known as Il Puttino () (1533–1578), was an early Italian chess master. Giovanni Leonardo was born in Cutro, ...

Giulio Cesare Polerio Giulio Cesare Polerio (c. 1555, – c. 1610; reconstruction of places and dates by Adriano Chicco) was an Italian chess theoretician and player. Name affixes used for him are ''l'Apruzzese'', Giu io Cesare ''da Lanciano'' (Salvio/Walker), and ...

and

Gioachino Greco Gioachino Greco ( – ), surnamed Cusentino and more frequently ''il Calabrese'', was an Italian chess player and writer. He recorded some of the earliest chess games known in their entirety. His games, which never indicated players, were q ...

or Spanish bishop

Ruy López de Segura Rodrigo "Ruy" López de Segura ( – c. 1580) was a Spanish chess player, author, and Catholic priest The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the holy orders of the Catho ...

developed elements of

opening Opening may refer to: Types of openings * Hole * A title sequence or opening credits * Grand opening of a business or other institution * Inauguration * Keynote * Opening sentence * Opening sequence * Opening statement, a beginning statemen ...

s and started to analyze simple endgames. In the 18th century the center of European chess life moved from the Southern European countries to France. The two most important French masters were

, a musician by profession, who discovered the importance of pawns for chess strategy, and later

Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais (1795 – December 1840) was a French chess master, possibly the strongest player in the early 19th century. Early life La Bourdonnais was born on the island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean in 1795. He w ...

who won a famous series of matches with the Irish master Alexander McDonnell in 1834. Centers of chess life in this period were

coffee house A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café (), is an establishment that serves various types of coffee, espresso, latte, Caffè americano, americano and cappuccino, among other hot beverages. Many coffeehouses in West Asia offer ''shisha'' (actually ...

s in big European cities like ''

Café de la Régence The Café de la Régence in Paris was an important European centre of chess in the 18th and 19th centuries. All important chess masters of the time played there. The Café's masters included, but are not limited to: * Paul Morphy * Françoi ...

'' in Paris. and '' Simpson's Divan'' in London. As the 19th century progressed, chess organization developed quickly. Many

chess club A chess club is a club formed for the purpose of playing the board game of chess. Chess clubs often provide for both informal and tournament games and sometimes offer league play. Traditionally clubs play over the board and face to face chess a ...

s, chess books and chess journals appeared. There were correspondence matches between cities; for example the London Chess Club played against the

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

Chess Club in 1824.

Chess problems A chess problem, also called a chess composition, is a puzzle created by the composer using chess pieces on a chessboard, which presents the solver with a particular task. For instance, a position may be given with the instruction that White i ...

became a regular part of 19th-century newspapers;

Bernhard Horwitz Bernhard Horwitz (1807 in Neustrelitz – 1885 in London) was a German and British chess master, chess writer and chess composer. Horwitz was born in Neustrelitz and went to school in Berlin, where he studied art. From 1837 to 1843, he was part ...

, Josef Kling and Samuel Loyd composed some of the most influential problems. In 1843, von der Lasa published his and Bilguer's ''

Handbuch des Schachspiels ''Handbuch des Schachspiels'' (''Handbook of Chess'', often simply called the ''Handbuch'') is a chess book, first published in 1843 by Tassilo von Heydebrand und der Lasa. It was a comprehensive reference book on the game, and one of the most i ...

'' (''Handbook of Chess''), the first comprehensive manual of chess theory.

Modern competitive chess

Luigi Mussini- Leonardo da Cutro e Ruy Lopez giocano a scacchi alla corte di Spagna

The first recorded

took place in 1575 in

El Escorial El Escorial, or the Royal Site of San Lorenzo de El Escorial (), or (), is a historical residence of the king of Spain located in the town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, up the valley ( road distance) from the town of El Escorial, Madrid, El ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. It was won by the Calabrese Leonardo di Bona. Competitive chess became visible in 1834 with the La Bourdonnais-McDonnell matches, and the 1851 London Chess tournament raised concerns about the time taken by the players to deliberate their moves. On recording time it was found that players often took hours to analyze moves, and one player took as much as two hours and 20 minutes to think over a single move at the London tournament. The following years saw the development of speed chess, five-minute chess and the most popular variant, a version allowing a bank of time to each player in which to play a previously agreed number of moves, e.g. two hours for 30 moves. In the final variant, the player who made the predetermined number of moves in the agreed time received additional time budget for his next moves. Penalties for exceeding a time limit came in form of fines and forfeiture. Since fines were easy to bear for professional players, forfeiture became the only effective penalty; this added "lost on time" to the traditional means of losing such as

and resigning."Chess: The time element and competition" (''Encyclopædia Britannica'' 2002) 1991 CPA 6284

In 1861 the first time limits, using sandglasses, were employed in a tournament match at

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

, England. The sandglasses were later replaced by pendulums. Modern clocks, consisting of two parallel timers with a small button for a player to press after completing a move, were later employed to aid the players. A tiny latch called a flag further helped settle arguments over players exceeding time limit at the turn of the 19th century. A Russian composer, Vladimir Korolkov, authored a work entitled "Excelsior" in 1958 in which the White side wins only by making six consecutive captures by a pawn."Chess: Chess composition" (''Encyclopædia Britannica'' 2002) Position analysis became particularly popular in the 19th century. Many leading players were also accomplished analysts, including

Max Euwe Machgielis "Max" Euwe (; May 20, 1901 – November 26, 1981) was a Dutch chess player, mathematician, author, and chess administrator. He was the fifth player to become World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion, a title he held from 1935 ...

Mikhail Botvinnik Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik (; ; – May 5, 1995) was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster who held five world titles in three different reigns. The sixth World Chess Champion, he also worked as an electrical engineer and computer sci ...

Vasily Smyslov Vasily Vasilyevich Smyslov (; 24 March 1921 – 27 March 2010) was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster who was the seventh World Chess Champion from 1957 to 1958. He was a Candidates Tournament, Candidate for the World Chess Championship on ...

and

Jan Timman Jan Timman (born 14 December 1951) is a Dutch chess grandmaster who was one of the world's leading chess players from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. At the peak of his career, he was considered to be the best non-Soviet player and was known a ...

. Digital clocks appeared in the 1980s. Another problem that arose in competitive chess was when adjourning a game for a meal break or overnight. The player who moved last before adjournment would be at a disadvantage, as the other player would have a long period to analyze before having to make a reply when the game was resumed. Preventing access to a chess set to work out moves during the adjournment would not stop him from analyzing the position in his head. Various strange ideas were attempted, but the eventual solution was the "

sealed move Some board games, such as chess and Go, use an adjournment mechanism to suspend the game in progress, or at least did so before the advent of computer programs that play that game better than any human. The rationale is that games often extend in ...

". The final move before adjournment is not made on the board but instead is written on a piece of paper which the referee seals in an envelope and keeps safe. When the game is continued after adjournment, the referee makes the sealed move and the players resume.

Birth of a sport (1850–1945)

The first modern chess tournament was held in London in 1851 and won, surprisingly, by German

Adolf Anderssen Karl Ernst Adolf Anderssen (6 July 1818 – 13 March 1879)"Anderssen, Adolf" in ''Encyclopædia Britannica, The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th edn., 1992, Vol. 1, p. 385. was a German chess master. ...

, who was relatively unknown at the time. Anderssen was hailed as the leading chess master, and his brilliant, energetic attacking style became typical for the time, although it was retrospectively regarded as strategically shallow. Sparkling games like Anderssen's

Immortal game The Immortal Game was a chess game played in 1851 between Adolf Anderssen and Lionel Kieseritzky during the London 1851 chess tournament, an event in which both players participated. It was itself a game, however, not played as part of the to ...

and

Evergreen Game The Evergreen Game is a famous chess game won by Adolf Anderssen against Jean Dufresne in 1852. This was probably an . At the time, there was no formal title of "World Champion", but the German mathematics professor Anderssen was widely consider ...

or Morphy's Opera game were regarded as the highest possible summit of the chess art. Wilhelm Steinitz2

Deeper insight into the nature of chess came with two younger players. American

Paul Morphy Paul Charles Morphy (June 22, 1837July 10, 1884) was an American chess player. During his brief career in the late 1850s, Morphy was acknowledged as the world's greatest chess master. A prodigy, Morphy emerged onto the chess scene in 1857 ...

, an extraordinary

chess prodigy Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves no hidden information and no elements of chance. It is played on a square board consisting of 64 squares arranged in an 8×8 grid. The players, referred to ...

, won against all important competitors, including Anderssen, during his short chess career between 1857 and 1863. Morphy's success stemmed from a combination of brilliant attacks and sound strategy; he intuitively knew how to prepare attacks.

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

-born

Wilhelm Steinitz William Steinitz (born Wilhelm Steinitz; May 14, 1836 – August 12, 1900) was a Bohemian-Austrian, and later American, chess player. From 1886 to 1894, he was the first World Chess Champion. He was also a highly influential writer and c ...

later described how to avoid weaknesses in one's own position and how to create and exploit such weaknesses in the opponent's position. In addition to his theoretical achievements, Steinitz founded an important tradition: his triumph over the leading Polish-German master

Johannes Zukertort Johannes Hermann Zukertort (; 7 September 1842 – 20 June 1888) was a Polish-born British-German chess master. He was one of the leading world players for most of the 1870s and 1880s, but lost to Wilhelm Steinitz in the World Chess Championship ...

in 1886 is regarded as the first official

. Steinitz lost his crown in 1894 to a much younger German mathematician

Emanuel Lasker Emanuel Lasker (; December 24, 1868 – January 11, 1941) was a German chess player, mathematician, and philosopher. He was the second World Chess Champion, holding the title for 27 years, from 1894 to 1921, the longest reign of any officially ...

, who maintained this title for 27 years, the longest tenure of all World Champions. Capablanca-Lasker 1925

It took a prodigy from Cuba,

José Raúl Capablanca José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera (19 November 1888 – 8 March 1942) was a Cuban chess player who was the third World Chess Championship, world chess champion from 1921 to 1927. A chess prodigy, he was widely renowned for his exceptional Chess ...

(World champion 1921–1927), who loved simple positions and endgames, to end the German-speaking dominance in chess; he was undefeated in tournament play for eight years until 1924. His successor was Russian-French

Alexander Alekhine Alexander Aleksandrovich Alekhine. He disliked when Russians sometimes pronounced the of as , , which he regarded as a Yiddish distortion of his name, and insisted that the correct Russian pronunciation was . (March 24, 1946) was a Russian ...

, a strong attacking player, who died as the World champion in 1946, having briefly lost the title to Dutch player

in 1935, regaining it two years later. Between the world wars, chess was revolutionized by the new theoretical school of so-called hypermodernists like

Aron Nimzowitsch Aron Nimzowitsch (; , ''Aron Isayevich Nimtsovich''; 7 November 1886 – 16 March 1935) was a Latvian-born Danish chess player and writer. In the late 1920s, Nimzowitsch was one of the best chess players in the world. He was the foremost f ...

and

Richard Réti Richard Réti (28 May 1889 – 6 June 1929) was an Austro-Hungarian and later Czechoslovak chess player, chess author and composer of endgame studies. He was one of the principal proponents of hypermodernism in chess. With the exception of N ...

. They advocated controlling the center of the board with distant pieces rather than with pawns, inviting opponents to occupy the center with pawns which become objects of attack. Since the end of 19th century, the number of annually held master tournaments and matches quickly grew. Some sources state that in 1914 the title of chess grandmaster was first formally conferred by Tsar

Nicholas II of Russia Nicholas II (Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov; 186817 July 1918) or Nikolai II was the last reigning Emperor of Russia, Congress Poland, King of Congress Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland from 1 November 1894 until Abdication of Nicholas II, hi ...

to Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Tarrasch and

Marshall Marshall may refer to: Places Australia *Marshall, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria ** Marshall railway station Canada * Marshall, Saskatchewan * The Marshall, a mountain in British Columbia Liberia * Marshall, Liberia Marshall Is ...

, but this is a disputed claim. The tradition of awarding such titles was continued by the World Chess Federation (

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( , ), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national chess federations and acts as the Spor ...

), founded in 1924 in Paris. In 1927,

Women's World Chess Championship The Women's World Chess Championship is a chess match played to determine the Women's World Chess Champion. It has been administered by FIDE since its inception in 1927, unlike the absolute World Chess Championship, which only came under FIDE's ...

was established; the first to hold it was

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

- English master

Vera Menchik Vera Francevna Mencikova (, ''Vera Frantsevna Menchik''; ; 16 February 1906 – 26 June 1944), was a Russian-born Czechoslovak chess player who primarily resided in England. She was the first and longest-reigning Women's World Chess Champ ...

. During World War II, many prominent chess players died or were killed, including: Isaak Appel, Zoltan Balla,

Sergey Belavenets Sergey Vsevolodovich Belavenets (; 18 July 19106 March 1942) was a Soviet chess master, theoretician, and chess journalist. Early life Belavenets was born in Smolensk to a noble family with a long history of serving in the Russian navy. He a ...

, Henryk Friedman, Achilles Frydman, Eduard Gerstenfeld, Alexander Ilyin-Genevsky, Mikhail Kogan, Jakub Kolski, Leon Kremer, Arvid Kubbel, Leonid Kubbel, Salo Landau,

Moishe Lowtzky Moishe (Mojżesz) Lowtzky (Łowcki) (1881–1940) was a Ukrainian–Polish chess master. Biography He was born into a Jewish family in Ukraine. In 1903, Lowtzky tied for 6-7th with Eugene Znosko-Borovsky in Kyiv (3rd RUS-ch). The event was won ...

, Vladimir Petrov, David Przepiorka, Ilya Rabinovich, Vsevolod Rauzer, Nikolai Riumin,

Endre Steiner Endre (Andreas) Steiner (27 June 1901 – 29 December 1944) was a Hungarian chess player, born in Budapest. Endre Steiner played for Hungary in five official and one unofficial Chess Olympiads. * In 1927, he played at first reserve board at 1st ...

, Mark Stolberg, Abram Szpiro, Karel Treybal, Alexey Troitzky, Samuil Vainshtein, Heinrich Wolf, and Lazar Zalkind.

Post-war era (1945 and later)

After the death of Alekhine, a new World Champion was sought in a tournament of elite players ruled by FIDE, who have controlled the title since then, with a sole interruption. The winner of the 1948 tournament, Russian

, ushered in an era of

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

dominance in the chess world. Until the end of the Soviet Union, there was only one non-Soviet champion, American

Bobby Fischer Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943January 17, 2008) was an American Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Chess Champi ...

(champion 1972–1975). In the previous informal system, the World Champion decided which challenger he would play for the title and the challenger was forced to seek sponsors for the match. FIDE set up a new system of qualifying tournaments and matches. The world's strongest players were seeded into "

Interzonal Interzonal chess tournaments were tournaments organized by the World Chess Federation FIDE from the 1950s to the 1990s. They were a stage in the triennial World Chess Championship cycle and were held after the Zonal tournaments, and before the Ca ...

tournaments", where they were joined by players who had qualified from "Zonal tournaments". The leading finishers in these Interzonals would go on the "Candidates" stage, which was initially a tournament, later a series of knock-out matches. The winner of the Candidates would then play the reigning champion for the title. A champion defeated in a match had a right to play a rematch a year later. This system worked on a three-year cycle. Botvinnik participated in championship matches over a period of fifteen years. He won the world championship tournament in 1948 and retained the title in tied matches in 1951 and 1954. In 1957, he lost to

, but regained the title in a rematch in 1958. In 1960, he lost the title to the

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

n prodigy

Mikhail Tal Mikhail Tal (9 November 1936 – 28 June 1992) was a Soviet and Latvian chess player and the eighth World Chess Champion. He is considered a creative genius and is widely regarded as Comparison of top chess players throughout history, one ...

, an accomplished tactician and attacking player. Botvinnik again regained the title in a rematch in 1961. Following the 1961 event, FIDE abolished the automatic right of a deposed champion to a rematch, and the next champion,

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

Tigran Petrosian Tigran Vardani Petrosian (; ; 17 June 1929 – 13 August 1984) was a Soviet-Armenian chess grandmaster and the ninth World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969. He was nicknamed "Iron Tigran" due to his almost-impenetrable defensive playing s ...

, a genius of defense and strong positional player, was able to hold the title for two cycles, 1963–1969. His successor,

Boris Spassky Boris Vasilyevich Spassky (; January 30, 1937 – February 27, 2025) was a Russian chess grandmaster who was the tenth World Chess Champion, holding the title from 1969 to 1972. Spassky played three world championship matches: he lost to Tigra ...

from Russia (1969–1972), was a player able to win in both positional and sharp tactical style. The next championship saw the first non-Soviet challenger since

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, who defeated his Candidates opponents by unheard-of margins and won the world championship match.

Kasparov–Karpov rivalry and chess computers (1975–2013)

In 1975, Fischer refused to defend his title against Soviet

Anatoly Karpov Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov (, ; born May 23, 1951) is a Russian and former Soviet Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, former World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion, ⁣and politician. He was the 12th World Chess Champion from 1975 ...

when FIDE refused to meet his demands, and Karpov obtained the title by default. Karpov defended his title twice against

Viktor Korchnoi Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi (, ; 23 March 1931 – 6 June 2016) was a Soviet (before 1976) and Swiss (after 1980) chess grandmaster (GM) and chess writer. He is considered one of the strongest players never to have become World Chess Champion. Bor ...

and dominated the 1970s and early 1980s with a string of tournament successes. Karpov's reign finally ended in 1985 at the hands of another Russian player,

. Kasparov and Karpov contested five world title matches between 1984 and 1990; Karpov never won his title back. In 1987, the computer database program

ChessBase ChessBase is a German company that develops and sells chess software, maintains a chess news site, and operates an internet chess server for online chess. Founded in 1986, it maintains and sells large-scale databases containing the moves of recor ...

was launched with the support of Garry Kasparov. Kasparov was an early adopter of computer chess databases, and soon computers played an integral role in the training and preparation of the world's top players. In 1993, Garry Kasparov and

Nigel Short Nigel David Short (born 1 June 1965) is an English Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, columnist, coach and commentator who has been the FIDE Director for Chess Development since September 2022. Short earned the title of grandmaster at the ...

cut ties with FIDE to organize their own match for the title and formed a competing

Professional Chess Association The Professional Chess Association (PCA), which existed between 1993 and 1996, was a rival organisation to FIDE, the International Chess Federation. The PCA was created in 1993 by Garry Kasparov and Nigel Short for the marketing and organization of ...

(PCA). From then until 2006, there were two simultaneous World Champions and World Championships: the PCA or Classical champion extending the Steinitzian tradition in which the current champion plays a challenger in a series of many games; the other following FIDE's new format of many players competing in a tournament to determine the champion. Kasparov lost his Classical title in 2000 to

Vladimir Kramnik Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik (; born 25 June 1975) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. He was the World Chess Champion#Split title (1993–2006), Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the 14th undisputed World Ch ...

of Russia. Earlier, in 1996, Kasparov played a pair of six-game exhibition matches against

supercomputer Deep Blue. He won the first match 4–2 but lost the rematch 3½–2½. This defeat symbolically heralded the arrival of chess engines playing at grandmaster strength. In 1999, Kasparov as the reigning world champion played a game online against the world team composed of more than 50,000 participants from more than 75 countries. The moves of the world team were decided by plurality vote, and after 62 moves played over four months Kasparov won the game.Harding, T. (2002). ''64 Great Chess Games'', Dublin: Chess Mail. . In 2006, Kramnik lost a match against

Deep Fritz Fritz is a German chess program originally developed for Chessbase by Frans Morsch based on his Quest program, ported to DOS, and then Windows by Mathias Feist. With version 13, Morsch retired, and his engine was first replaced by Gyula Horva ...

, effectively ending the era of human-computer chess competition. The

FIDE World Chess Championship 2006 The World Chess Championship 2006 was a match between Classical World Chess Champion Vladimir Kramnik and FIDE World Chess Champion Veselin Topalov. The title of World Chess Champion had been split for 13 years. This match, played between Septemb ...

reunified the titles, when Kramnik beat the FIDE World Champion

Veselin Topalov Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov (pronounced ; ; born 15 March 1975) is a Bulgarian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster and former FIDE World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion. Topalov became FIDE World Chess Champion by winning the FIDE ...

and became the undisputed World Chess Champion. In September 2007,

Viswanathan Anand Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster. Anand is a five-time World Chess Champion, a two-time World Rapid Chess Champion, a two-time Chess World Cup Champion and a World Blitz Chess Cup Champion. ...

from India became the next champion by winning a championship tournament. In October 2008, Anand retained his title, decisively winning the rematch against Kramnik.

Carlsen and the online chess boom (2013–present)

Anand retained his title until 2013, when he lost it to

Magnus Carlsen Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. Carlsen is a five-time World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion, five-time World Rapid Chess Championship, World Rapid Chess Champio ...

from Norway. Carlsen defended his title four times, reaching an all-time record FIDE rating of 2882 in May 2014. Carlsen was the first player to hold the World Classical,

Rapid Rapid(s) or RAPID may refer to: Hydrological features * Rapids, sections of a river with turbulent water flow * Rapid Creek (Iowa River tributary), Iowa, United States * Rapid Creek (South Dakota), United States, namesake of Rapid City Sport ...

, and Blitz chess championship titles simultaneously. However, he declined to defend his title in 2023, and thus relinquished it to

2022 Candidates Tournament The 2022 Candidates Tournament was an eight-player chess tournament to decide the challenger for the World Chess Championship 2023. The tournament took place at the Palacio de Santoña in Madrid, Spain, from June 16 to July 5, 2022,Ding Liren Ding Liren ( zh, c=丁立人; born 24October 1992) is a Chinese chess grandmaster who was the 17th World Chess Champion from 2023–24. He is also a three-time Chinese Chess Champion, was a member of the Chinese chess teams that won the Chess ...

, who won the title in a match against Candidates winner Ian Nepomniachtchi. Nevertheless, Carlsen remains a dominant player, retaining the world's highest rating and winning the FIDE World Cup in 2023. In recent years,

online chess Online chess is chess that is played over the Internet, allowing players to play against each other. This was first done asynchronously through PLATO and email in the 1970s. In 1992, the Internet Chess Server facilitated live online play via t ...

through the use of

internet chess server The American Internet Chess Server, commonly known as Internet Chess Server (ICS) was a telnet-based chess server which allowed users to play live chess over the internet. History In the 1970s, one could play correspondence chess in a PLAT ...

s have exploded in popularity. Internet chess servers have existed since 1992 with the creation of the

subscription service The subscription business model is a business model in which a customer must pay a recurring price at regular intervals for access to a Product (business), product or Service (business), service. The model Publication by subscription, was pioneer ...

Internet Chess Club, but today the majority of top-level players have moved to

freemium Freemium, a portmanteau of the words "free" and "premium", is a pricing strategy by which a basic product or service is provided free of charge, but money (a premium) is charged for additional features, services, or virtual (online) or physical ( ...

websites like Chess.com (founded in 2007) and, to a lesser extent, free website

Lichess Lichess (; ) is a free and open-source software, free and open-source Internet chess server run by a Nonprofit organization, non-profit organization of the same name. Users of the site can play online chess anonymously and optionally register an ...

(launched in 2010). These websites feature quick pairing systems and site-specific ratings for bullet, blitz, rapid, and/or classical time controls. They also include additional features such as puzzles, engine analysis, databases, user-created libraries, community blogs and forums, news and articles, video lessons, and more. They also host tournaments where top grandmasters compete for prizes, creating an around-the-clock chess media ecosystem. In 2020, online chess experienced a spike in popularity due to interest in the Netflix miniseries '' The Queen's Gambit'' released amidst the 2020 Covid Pandemic. In 2023, an even larger spike occurred, driven in large part by viral chess engine Mittens, a playable bot on chess.com. Chess has become an

esport Esports (), short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, played individually or as teams. ...

, with many top players such as Magnus Carlsen and American Grandmaster

Hikaru Nakamura Christopher Hikaru NakamuraInternational Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

Levy Rozman (Gothamchess) and Antonio Radić (Agadmator).

Chess engine In computer chess, a chess engine is a computer program that analyzes chess or List of chess variants, chess variant positions, and generates a move or list of moves that it regards as strongest. A chess software engine, engine is usually a Front ...

s have also radically transformed, incorporating new technologies into their move search and evaluation functions. Previously, dominant computers such as

Rybka Rybka is a computer chess engine designed by International Master Vasik Rajlich. Around 2011, Rybka was one of the top-rated engines on chess engine rating lists and won many computer chess tournaments. After Rybka won four consecutive Wor ...

(released in 2005),

Stockfish Stockfish is unsalted fish, especially cod, dried by cold air and wind on wooden racks (which are called "hjell" in Norway) on the foreshore. The drying of food is the world's oldest known preservation method, and dried fish has a storage li ...

(2008), Houdini (2010), and Komodo (2010) used a hand-crafted evaluation using variables such as space and piece mobility. In 2017, chess engine

AlphaZero AlphaZero is a computer program developed by artificial intelligence research company DeepMind to master the games of chess, shogi and Go (game), go. This algorithm uses an approach similar to AlphaGo Zero. On December 5, 2017, the DeepMind ...

won a controversial match against Stockfish using a relatively novel

neural network A neural network is a group of interconnected units called neurons that send signals to one another. Neurons can be either biological cells or signal pathways. While individual neurons are simple, many of them together in a network can perfor ...

system. Since then, all of the top engines, including Stockfish, Komodo Dragon, Leela Chess Zero (2018), and Torch (2023), have incorporated efficiently updatable neural networks (NNUEs) into their evaluation functions.

Rule changes

Stalemate Stalemate is a situation in chess where the player whose turn it is to move is not in check and has no legal move. Stalemate results in a draw. During the endgame, stalemate is a resource that can enable the player with the inferior position ...

was originally considered an inferior form of victory; at various times it has been considered a win, a draw, or even a loss for the player delivering it. Since the 18th century, it has been considered a draw. *The convention that White moves first was established in the 19th century; previously either White or Black could move first. *

Castling Castling is a move in chess. It consists of moving the king (chess), king two squares toward a rook (chess), rook on the same and then moving the rook to the square that the king passed over. Castling is permitted only if neither the king ...

rules have varied, variations persisting in Italy until the late 19th century. *Rules concerning draws by repetition and the

fifty-move rule The fifty-move rule in chess states that a player can claim a draw if no has been made and no pawn has been moved in the last fifty moves (where a "move" consists of a player completing a turn followed by the opponent completing a turn). The pur ...

have been refined and now require a formal claim.

Perpetual check In the game of chess, perpetual check is a situation in which one player can play an unending series of checks from which the defending player cannot escape. This typically arises when the player who is checking feels their position in the game i ...

is no longer included in the rules of chess. *There have been no recent changes to the moves of the pieces, but the wording of some rules has been changed for the purposes of clarity. *The

London 1883 chess tournament The London 1883 chess tournament was a strong chess tournament among most of the leading players of the day. It was won convincingly by Johannes Zukertort (22 points out of 26) ahead of Wilhelm Steinitz (with 19 points). Remarkably, Zukertort w ...

introduced

chess clocks A chess clock is a device that comprises two adjacent clocks with buttons to stop one clock while starting the other, so that the two clocks never run simultaneously. The clocks are used in games where the time is allocated between two parties. T ...

, creating a new rule for loss on time. *In line with the rule against receiving outside assistance, if a player's

mobile phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This rad ...

or other electronic device generates sound, the player is immediately forfeited. In amateur tournaments players are asked to hand their phones to the tournament director; in professional tournaments they may be required to go through a metal detector.

Notes

References

''Encyclopædia Britannica'' * * * * * * * * * WWW * Books * * Bird, Henry Edward (1893). ''Chess History and Reminiscences''. London. (Republished version by Forgotten Books). . * * * * Forbes, Duncan (1860)
''The History of Chess: From the Time of the Early Invention of the Game in India Till the Period of Its Establishment in Western and Central Europe''
London: W.H. Allen & Co. * * * * * Reprint: (1996) * * * * * * * Leibs, Andrew (2004). ''Sports and Games of the Renaissance''. Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group. * * * * Musser Golladay, Sonja
"''Los Libros de acedrex dados e tablas'': Historical, Artistic and Metaphysical Dimensions of Alfonso X's ''Book of Games''"
(PhD diss., University of Arizona, 2007) * * * * Saidy, Anthony. ''The battle of chess ideas'' (Batsford, 1972); scholarly history; ''The March of Chess Ideas: How the Century's Greatest Players Have Waged the War Over Chess Strategy'' (1994) * * * * * Journals * Anand, Viswanathan
"The Indian Defense"

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

, Thursday, Jun. 19, 2008. An article on the history of chess by the 2007-10 chess world champion. * *
PDF version
* *

External links

Origin and history of Chess, Xiangqi, Shogi and more

Initiative group Koenigstein

Alfonso X y el ajedrez – Alfonso X and Chess

Chess in the Holocaust
, on

Yad Vashem Yad Vashem (; ) is Israel's official memorial institution to the victims of Holocaust, the Holocaust known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (). It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; echoing the stories of the ...

website {{DEFAULTSORT:History Of Chess