THE HISTORY OF CHESS

The true origin of chess is a controversial topic and cannot

be accurately pinpointed. The first documented records of
chess have been found in the East in Islam, Persia, India, and
China. The oldest known chess books were written as early
as 850 A.D., and with references to the game found in other
documents it can be traced back to around the year 600.
Before that there is only archaeology and conjecture.

Chess was introduced into Western Europe at an unknown

date before 1000 A.D. The earliest references to the game in
Europe are dated to around 1050, but they are short and
ambiguous. Thusly, a definite route of introduction into
Europe cannot be accurately traced. After the year 1100,
chess had become a regular feature of noble life, and there
were many stories explaining its origin in the west. The
invention of chess was attributed indifferently to the court of
Charlemange, the court of King Arthur, and the siege of
Troy. The latter was extremely popular among westerners as
the date for the invention of chess.

During the middle Ages there was much experimentation with the rules of chess.
There were demands for new rules to be applied in order to speed the game up. Such
rules included allowing pawns to move two spaces on their first move, and allowing
the king and queen to jump squares in the opening turns so as to get them into play
faster. Despite many modifications to the rules of chess during the middle Ages, it
was essentially the same game at the end of the period as the one taken from Islam
500 years before.

In the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance, chess was a part of noble culture;
it was used to teach war strategy and was dubbed the "King's Game." Gentlemen are
"to be meanly seen in the play at Chests," says the overview at the beginning of The
Book of the Courtier. The author explains it further: “And what say you to the game at
chests? It is truly an honest keened of entertainment and witty…”

Chess was often used as a basis of sermons on morality. Different chess pieces
were used as metaphors for different classes of people, and human duties were
derived from the rules of the game or from visual properties of the chess pieces: “The
knight ought to be made ale armed upon an hors in such Wyse that he have an helmet
on his head and a spree in his right hand/ and covered with his shield/ a swerve and a
mace on his lift side/ Clad with an hauberk and plates to fore his beset/ legged harness
on his legged/ Spores on his heels on his hands his gauntleted/ his hors well broken
and taught and pate to Battelle and covered with his arms…”
Around the year 1500 there is evidence of a sudden reform in the rules, creating a
game almost identical to chess played today. There were three major modifications to
the rules of chess. Each pawn was allowed an extended move on its initial turn.
Another change was in the extending of the range of the bishop, which made
rethinking of strategies necessary. The final change was to the movement of the
queen. The medieval queen was an extremely weak piece, even weaker than the king.
The reformed queen, however, became the most powerful piece on the board with its
ability to move as both a rook and bishop. It can be seen that from actions in Europe
around the year 1500 that chess had become strongly engrained in western society and
has remained so ever since.

Chess can tell you a great deal about the way people lived in medieval times. If
you look at the way a chessboard is set up and study the pieces and how they are used,
you will realize that chess is a miniature history of medieval times. The six different
chess pieces on the board represent a cross section of medieval life with its many
ceremonies, grandeur and wars.
Chess was played many centuries ago in China, India and Persia, but theories vary
about its specific country of origin. Through a series of invasions, chess quickly
spread throughout all of Europe. Europeans gave chess pieces the names we know
today, to reflect the way they lived. The names represent the way in which both
ordinary people and persons of rank lived their lives.
The pawns on the chessboard represent serfs, or laborers. There are
more of them than any other piece on the board, and often they are
sacrificed to save the more valuable pieces. In medieval times, serfs were
considered no more than property of landowners, or chattel. Life was
brutally hard for serfs during this era of history. They worked hard and
died young. They were often left unprotected while wars raged around
them. They could be traded, used as a diversion, or even sacrificed to allow
landowners to escape harm.
The castle piece on a chessboard is the home, or the refuge, just as it was a
home in medieval times. In chess, each side has two castles, or rooks as they
are sometimes called.
The knight on a chessboard represents the professional soldier of
medieval times, whose job it was to protect persons of rank, and there are
two of them per each side in a game of chess. Knights in chess are more
important than pawns but less important than bishops, kings, or queens.
Their purpose in the game of chess is to protect the more important pieces,
and they can be sacrificed to save those pieces just as pawns can.
There is a bishop in the game of chess, who represents the church. The
church was a rich and mighty force in medieval times, and religion played
a large part in daily life. It is no wonder that a figure that represented the
concept of religion found its way into the game. A bishop was the title for
a priest in the Catholic Church who had risen through the ranks to a more
powerful position. In the game of chess, there are two bishops on each
side.
 The queen is the only piece on the board during a chess game that
represents a woman, and she is the most powerful piece of the game. In
chess, there is only one queen on each side. Many people do not realize
that queens in medieval times often held a powerful, yet precarious,
position. The king was often guided by her advice, and in many cases the
queen played games of intrigue at court.
Kings, however, could set their wives aside or even imprison them in
nunneries with the approval of the church (and without the queen’s approval), and
many women schemed merely to hold their place at court. The machinations of
queens working either for or against their kings are well noted in history throughout
medieval times, and the queen often held more power than the king did.
The king is the tallest piece on the board, and is as well defended on
the chessboard as in medieval life. In medieval times, the surrender of
the king would mean the loss of the kingdom to invading armies and
that could mean change for the worse. It was to everyone’s advantage,
from the lowest serf to the highest-ranking official, to keep the king
safe from harm. The king is the most important, but not the most
powerful piece in chess. If you do not protect your king, you lose the
game.
Chess Equipment : Chess Sets,
Boards, and Clocks
It's possible to play chess without any equipment at all -- call it double blindfold -- but
it makes the game a lot less taxing on the brain if you have the proper accessories. On
this page, you'll find introductory information about chess sets, pieces, boards, and
clocks, plus a few other items specific to tournament use.

Chess is right for any budget. The cost for a complete chess set runs from as little as a
few dollars for a plastic and cardboard set to many thousands of dollars for a well-
made collector set.

Chess Sets
Chess set usually means a board plus pieces.
Some players say set to mean just the pieces.
Sets can be bought as a board together with
pieces or assembled by combining a board with
separate pieces.

The important thing about a chess set is that it be

esthetically pleasing. The size and color of the
pieces should match the size and color of the
squares on the board.

Travel chess sets are for use in a car, train, or

plane. The pieces are usually magnetic or
pegged and there is a convenient place to store
the pieces as they are exchanged off the board.

Theme chess sets have the opposing armies

designed on a specific motif, usually where the
pieces are natural adversaries -- Cowboys vs.
Indians, cats vs. dogs, or traditional rivals in
some
other sport -- and are more decorative than
functional.
These sets are attractive to collectors, but are not
suitable for tournament use or for serious play.
'Sorry, can you tell me again which one is the
Knight?'
Chess Pieces
The most familiar and popular pieces follow
the Staunton pattern, first registered in 1849 by
Nathaniel Cook. Staunton pieces are required for
most tournaments. They are normally made
from wood or plastic, although other materials
can be used.

When purchasing a chess set, consider the colors

of the opposing armies, the material used, the
weight, the base size, the height of the pieces,
and whether the pieces are felted or not. Pieces
for beginners sometimes have the legal moves
printed on each piece. These are like training
wheels for a bicycle and are soon replaced by a
normal set.

The pieces need some kind of a storage

container when not in use. Plastic & cloth bags
are the most commonly used, but a nice storage
box makes a great gift. Boxes have the
advantage that they can be personalized.

Chess Boards
Although most chess positions are diagrammed
with white & dark gray squares, very few boards
use those colors or use white & black.
Inexpensive boards often come with red & black
squares, but these are hard on the eyes.

Boards are also sold built into the table. The

board should have adequate borders to place the
clock and captured pieces.

Many boards have coordinates for algebraic

notation printed on two sides of the board. These
are useful even for advanced players.

A good, inexpensive choice is a vinyl rollup

board, as shown on the left. These are the boards
of choice for tournament use.
Chess Clocks
The first clocks, used in the 19th century, were
sandglasses, which kept track of each player's
time on a different device. These were soon
superseded by two connected analog clocks.
One player's clock starts as soon as the other
player has made a move and punched the clock.

Analog clocks are equipped with a flag located

between 11:00 and 12:00 on each clock face. As
the minute hand gets close to 12:00, its tip
catches the flag, and as the clock continues to
run, the flag is pushed from a vertical to a
horizontal position.

As soon as the hand reaches 12:00, the flag falls.

If this happens at a time control and if the player
on move has not made the required number of
moves, the game is scored as a loss on time.

In recent times digital clocks have become

increasingly popular. These permit more
sophisticated time controls like additional time
whenever a move is made and the clock is
punched.

The most important quality of a chess clock is

that it be sturdy. Clocks are often punched hard
and may even be accidentally knocked to the
floor during a blitz game or time trouble
scramble. Some players are convinced that the
strength of a move is in direct proportion to the
force with which the clock is punched.

Another important quality is the loudness of the

clock's tick, if any. This should be audible, but
not intrusive.

Other
Travel bags to carry the board, pieces, clock,
and supplies are a necessity for the tournament
player. This is especially true in the USA, where
chess sets & clocks are normally not provided
for tournament play. It is less important in
Europe, where they are provided.
 Score sheets for recording the moves of a game are
another necessity for tournament play. These are
usually issued at the start of each round in a
tournament, but many players prefer to record their
games in scorebooks.

CHESS FACILITIES
Chess Centres (as opposed to Chess clubs), are established premises where chess-
related activities take place, (especially coaching for children), and which often contain a
chess shop, tournament hall, coaching areas, library, internet cafe and offices.
Modern Chess Centres are often owned and run by private enterprise. They may host a
particular chess organisation or club, or have several such organisations sharing the
premises, yet this is increasingly giving way to such centres being run as part of a chess
business. This type of centre is usually buzzing with activity and provides an atmosphere
more akin to a children's sports gym than the traditional, quiet chess club.
Examples of some well-known ModernChess Centres within the international chess
community are:

 The Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis; Saint Louis, Missouri, USA.
 The Polgar Chess Center; Queens, New York, USA.
 The Gardiner Chess Centre; Mudgeeraba, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.
 Chess Kids; Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
 The London Chess Centre, Euston, UK.
 US Chess Center, Washington D.C.
 The Atatürk Chess Centre Ankara, Turkey.
The Russian Central House of Chess (also known as the Moscow Botvinnik Central
Chess Club), is a prime example of an "old style" Chess Centre that revolves around
chess club-style activities for adults and elite junior players (i.e. mainly just tournaments),
and which regularly run at a financial loss, usually propped up through government or
philanthropic sponsorship. If a centre of the old style can somehow meet its financial
obligations, then it can be a wonderful and important environment for the serious chess
player, especially if the centre includes a museum and library. However, centres of this
type are declining in number.
At the start of the 21st century, various new, ambitious centres have opened worldwide,
especially in the USA. This is partly as a result of a rapid growth in the interest in chess
as an educational tool, and steadily increasing momentum in chess-in-schools programs.
These centres are not only being called upon to supply professional chess coaches to
schools, but are also generating a lot of business in the after-school activities market, as
many parents are reporting myriad developmental and academic benefits for children
involved in these programs.
 Club Facilities

1. Main Tournament Hall: One of the

three rooms chess is played in at the club.

2. Bookshop: Chess books, chess boards and

pieces, chess clocks and more. A catalog is
available here.

3. Instruction Board: Lectures and

junior classes are given on this large
wooden display board in the main hall of
the club.
4. Back Room: The top 6 boards in any given
tournament are found toward the back of the club in
their own room.

5. DGT Board & Webcam: Via Digital

Chess Board Technology the top
board from tournaments is broadcast
online along with a webcam image.

6. Couch & TV: Players, parents and visitors are

welcome to grab a coffee or snack and sit by the TV.
 7. Kitchen: We have a microwave, coffee,
tea, milk, hot chocolate, soft-drinks,
snacks, cutlery, plates etc

8. Blitz & Social Chess room:

9. Computer & Internet Access: The

club has a computer which members
can use to jump online.

10. Ducted air-conditioning to keep

players cool in summer and warm in
winter!