Chess yesterday and today

The first game of chess

Chess (from Persian - checkmate - the ruler is dead) is a game that originated in India. Chess originated in the first century AD
in North India. It is believed that chess was the prototype of various wars and battles, but without bloodshed, and therefore won
great interest among the rulers of ancient states.
Many scholars believe that modern chess evolved from the ancient game "Chuturanga", which featured figures such as
Hasti, Ratha, Ashva, Padati, and Raja. Later this game became known as "Chaturraja" (the game of four kings), in which the pieces
were already located on a 64-square board, but in different corners. Since the 64-square board appeared exactly at this time, it is
customary to date the emergence of chess from that moment.
There is one very ancient legend that tells about a clever peasant. One day, he came to the king and told about a new game.
The ruler liked the game (current chess) very much, but in return the peasant asked to fulfill one condition, and then he would
have told in more detail about his game. The king agreed.
The conditions were as follows: put a grain on each square of the chessboard, taking into account that each time the number
of grains increased in a square. That is, for the first cell - 1 grain, for the second cell - 2 grains, for the third cell - 4 grains, and so on.
The king laughed and said that he would easily fulfill this condition.
Then he ordered to open the royal barn, and called the servants. Everyone began to calculate, but realized that it was simply
impossible to fulfill this condition. There is no such amount of grain on the whole planet !!! The king did not fulfill his condition,
but the peasant was not upset, and explained everything thoroughly about the game of chess. As a reward, the king gave out all
the grain reserves from the barns and gave it to the peasant, who divided it equally into his entire village. It is with this legend that
the history of chess begins.
 Rules of the game

At first glance, the game may seem simple, but in fact it can be studied for a
lifetime.
The pieces are located on a chessboard, which is divided equally into 64
squares of black and white colors. The starting position of the chess pieces is as
follows.
Horizontally the board is marked with Latin letters from a to h, vertically
with numbers from 1 to 8. These numbers and letters are used to record a chess
game.
Before the start of the game, “black” and “white” have the same number of
pieces. These shapes are arranged symmetrically as shown in the figure.
The set of pieces (both white and black) includes the following:
Let's see how some of the figures move:
King ( E1 ) is the most important figure in a chess game, but at the same
time the most vulnerable. If the king is checkmated (that is, the king has no
opportunity to move, and he is in check), then the chess game ends.

The horse moves as the letter “L". That is how it works, at the beginning it
moves two fields forward vertically, and then one field sideways horizontally, or it
moves one field vertically, and two sideways horizontally, which is also the letter
“L". A distinctive feature of the knight is that it can "jump" over other pieces.
 Chess today

Wilhelm Steinitz became the first official world chess champion in 1886. Since 1948, the International Chess Federation
(FIDE) has been organizing world championship matches.
In 1993, as a result of disagreements with FIDE, Garry Kasparov organized the Professional Chess Association (PCA). In
response, FIDE stripped him of the title of champion, playing the chess crown between other contenders. As a result of these
events, two champions appeared in the world: Garry Kasparov, according to the PCA version, and Anatoly Karpov, who won the
match under the auspices of FIDE.
In 2006, a unification match took place between the FIDE champion Veselin Topalov and the "classical chess" champion
Vladimir Kramnik, as a result of which the absolute world champion was determined - he became Kramnik.
The current world champion since 2013 is Magnus Carlsen.