Historical information about chess. The history of chess - who invented and how chess arose. Christian church against chess

The emergence of chess, like the emergence of many other things on Earth, is shrouded in mystery over the years, overgrown with myths and conjectures, and, as usual, has many versions.
And for me, as the daughter of a chess player and an international chess arbiter (one of the oldest and most experienced arbiters in Russia), it was very interesting to delve into the books of my father's library and other sources, and this is what I dug up with great pleasure.

Who Invented Chess

There are several legends about this. You can choose whichever you like best. Although you can believe in all at once, they are not mutually exclusive.

Chess Legend #1 “Gav and Talhand”

This legend was described a thousand years ago by the Persian poet Firdousi in the epic Shahnameh (Book of Kings).

There lived in ancient India two twin brothers, two princes - Gav and Talhand. And, as often happened in history, a struggle for power flared up between them. The poem says that the queen could not give preference to any of them, because. She loved both sons equally. This is clear to me, of course. Another thing is not clear - why, in this case, she did not divide her kingdom in half. I would divide and give each son half the kingdom. But she did not do this, and as a result, each prince gathered an army for himself, and a battle was declared, which was supposed to determine the strongest. And it was clear that the battle would not be for life, but for death, because. in fact, no one could escape from there - the battlefield was set up on the seashore and surrounded on all sides by a deep moat with water.
The poem again says that while the battle was going on, the queen did not sleep, did not eat. Worried. So, she knew about this fight and watched from afar.
Talhand died in this battle.
When the queen was informed of the death of Talhand, she fell into despair and began to reproach Gav that he had killed his brother. Somehow there is no logic here. Did she not realize that one of her sons would die in this battle? The conclusion suggests itself that, apparently, the condition of the battle was not to kill the princes. As in chess - to defeat the army, but you can’t touch the king himself, you can only declare checkmate. If so, then there is logic.
During the disassembly, it turned out that Gav did not kill Talhand. There were no wounds on his body. Talhand died of heat, hunger and thirst, losing consciousness while sitting on his elephant.
What is it about chess? And here's what.
The queen demanded to be shown everything in detail - how the battle developed, and how it happened that Talhand died without wounds. Woof, in order to rehabilitate himself in the eyes of his mother, called together the wisest mobeds. Mobed is a priest in Zoroastrianism. (Members of the family were Zoroastrians. In India, a small percentage of the population still professes this ancient religion.)
So, the mobeds arrived - and all night, without closing their eyes, they delved into the essence of the matter: they studied what shape the battlefield was, where the ditches were located, how the battle went, how the shahs and their troops moved, and other details. Then from ebony they made a square board depicting a battlefield, and from ivory they cut out and placed figures on the board - two troops facing each other.
On that board, 100 squares were drawn (as we know, there are 64 squares on a modern chessboard - 8 horizontally and 8 vertically).
The front row is the infantry, behind it is the cavalry. The shah was located in the center of his army in the second row. Next to him stood a mentor, the wisest closest assistant. Next are two elephants. Camels stood next to the elephants. Next are two horses. And along the edges - two fighting birds Rukh. It is clear from the text that there was also a third row - infantry (see below - lines highlighted in red), i.e. according to this legend, in the original chess, the pieces were not in two, but in three rows.
Mentor, camels, roc bird… very interesting!
But it is more interesting to read about this source in the translation of Mikhail Dyakonov, a well-known orientalist. Here is the text:

There are so many interesting things in this text! For example:

“Whoever passes through the field will be glorious in mind, Like a mentor, next to the king.”

An analogue of the promotion of a pawn is traced (when a pawn, having reached the opposite edge of the board, can turn into any piece of its color).

• Or take the image of a mentor who stands next to the king and "all the wise wise."

  “Here is the shah in the middle of his retinue, With him next to the mentor - all the wise wise.”

  In modern chess, next to the king, instead of a mentor, there is a queen, i.e. Simply put, queen. Isn't it symbolic that the mentor (male) smoothly transformed into the queen, the king's girlfriend (female). 🙂

• The field of his (her) activity also smoothly transformed:

  “The mentor goes into battle near the check And only goes forward one cell.”

  In modern chess, the queen, as you know, is not tied to the king and walks all over the board without restrictions - both vertically-horizontally and diagonally.

• War elephants also expanded their field of activity. Or rather, lengthened it.

  "Three cages are fighting elephants, They can see battlefields for two miles."

  Only from this text it is not clear how they moved to three fields: straight - or diagonally, as now.
  But really, according to the logic, it seems that the elephant should not jump to the far end of the board in one move, they are not so quick, the elephants. But in modern chess he easily jumps. 🙂

• But the horse has not betrayed itself since a long time ago, and it jumps with the letter G:

  “And the horse can also go three cells, But it runs to the third, deviating from the path.”

• And I personally feel sorry that camels have disappeared from circulation. With camels, chess would be even cooler!
• Well, the Roc, of course. Modestly gave way to the beautiful boat. But she (the Rukh bird) was so huge that during the flight she covered the sun with her wings and could easily lift an elephant into the air! If she had not left the chessboard, then the development of chess would probably have gone along some other path ...
• And they don't write anything about castling. Apparently, it was not in the original version.

In general, move by move, Gav, with the support of invited mobeds on this chessboard, recreated the whole picture of the battle for his queen mother. This is how chess was born.

And then it’s completely sad (although it’s much sadder if Talhand died). The queen mother sat over this chessboard, heartbroken, without food or water, shedding bitter tears until her end came.

Legend No. 2 “About chess and grain”

This is perhaps the most common story about how there was a brahmin in India, and one day he invented chess. Just took and invented them. At leisure. In his free time from his brahminical affairs. And the Indian king liked this invention so much that he said to the Brahmin:
- Oh, the great inventor of this beautiful game, the wisest of the wisest, ask for any reward, I will fulfill everything.
So or so said the Indian king in admiration.
Although in some versions of this story, there is also an ideological background twisted - supposedly a brahmin did not just invent those chess, but with a great secret purpose. That king, it turns out, was so poorly managed with state affairs that he brought his kingdom into decline, and he did not listen to the advice of any wise brahmins. And in order to gently and delicately show the king that he alone is not a warrior in the field, and that without the help of other state figures (and even pawns!) He will not be able to do anything, it was with this great goal that the Brahmin invented chess at his leisure.
The king's hint was understood correctly, and he decided to thank the brahmin for the lesson in worldly wisdom.
Was there this ideological background or not, in any case, the result is obvious: "Ask for any award, I will fulfill everything."
And don't be a fool for a brahmin... Some versions of this story add that it was the same brahmin who invented the degree of number. It was the same Brahmin or not - we do not know, but he certainly knew the raising to a power (in contrast, apparently, from the king). And he easily says:
Oh, great king! I am a modest little brahmin, and I do not need many riches. Give me just a little grain, and that's enough. A little bit. Place one seed on the first square of the chessboard, two seeds on the second, four on the third... and so on... doubling constantly.
Some strange brahmin, the king thought, but oh well. He does not want a lot of grain - do not. I'll give him as much as he wants.
He put one grain on the first cell, 2 on the second, 4 on the third, 8 on the fourth, 16 on the fifth…etc…. First, his first barn was empty... Then the second... the third... The king was no longer happy that he had contacted this cunning brahmin. He no longer needs any chess! He has already given the brahmin all the grain that was in his country, and he hasn’t even got close to the 64th cell! ..
And since then, all the children at school, when studying raising a number to a power, are asked the same problem in mathematics - about the unfortunate king, the cunning Brahmin and the grain on the chessboard.
And by the way! Some chess historians claim that this legend dates back to about the year 1000 BC! (This is a question "When Chess Was Invented")

Story #3 “Chaturanga”

Chess historians believe that the progenitor of modern chess is ancient indian game chaturanga.
The word "chaturanga" means "an army consisting of 4 parts": infantry, cavalry, elephants and chariots.
The Chaturanga board, like modern chess, is divided into 64 cells. Each corner has 4 pawns (infantry), 1 knight (cavalry), 1 bishop, 1 rook (chariot) and 1 king (general). Four people play, two by two, each has an army of its own color (black, red, yellow, green).

The goal of the game is to destroy all enemy forces. But! The movement of pieces in chaturanga was determined by throwing dice.
Chaturanga is believed to have originated in India between the 2nd and 4th centuries CE. From India it spread to other countries of the East.
Over time, the number of troops in the chaturang changed, while the number of figures remained the same - instead of four troops of 8 figures each, there were two troops of 16 figures.
Those. two armies merged into one. Each army got two commanders, one of which turned into a queen (adviser). The rules of the game have also changed. Now it became impossible to kill the king (shah), but you can only set traps for him. Another important change is that dice throwing has been removed from the game.
Such updated version called "shatrang".
Pay attention to the photo of Chaturanga. There this game is called “Chatrang”. Even from the names it is clear that this is the same game: Chaturanga - Chatrang - Shatrang.

Legend No. 4 “The story of the shatrang”

Another interesting legend related to the history of chess.
It says that the Indian king once sent a shatrang (as we already know, shatrang is the original version of chess) to the Shah of Iran with a caravan of camels, so that he would unravel the essence of the game. A letter on silk was attached to the shatrang, which said that if the shah revealed the secret of this beautiful game, he would surpass all the wise men, and in this case the Indian king would send any tribute requested by the Iranian shah. And if there is not such a sage in Iran who could unravel the mystery of chess, then, on the contrary, you would be kind enough to pay us a tribute and send it to India, because our knowledge is ahead of yours. Because the king is famous for knowledge, not for treasures!
At the same time, the Indian ambassador gave the shah one hint that in this game all the images of the figures and the ways of their movements were taken from the war, from the rules of the battle.
The shah asked for seven days to solve this game.

Day and night, the shah and his wise men tried to unravel the meaning of the game - where which piece should stand and how to move. But to no avail. And then a comrade volunteered, a vizier named Buzurgmihr, who said that he saw what the outcome of the party should be, i.e. what should be the output, but how to get to this outcome is not yet clear, but he will try to understand it.
And the shah, with joy and relief, handed him a chessboard with pieces and sent him to think. “All hope is in you,” the Shah said. "Don't let the state down."
Buzurgmihr stared at the board and began to think a thought. And he came up with it!
On the appointed day, the shah summoned all his associates - and the Indian ambassador, of course. The vizier sat down in front of the board and began to arrange the pieces. The Indian ambassador looked at this matter with all his eyes, and his eyes became more and more saddened, because all the figures were placed correctly.
Infantrymen stood in the front row, behind them in the center was the shah, next to whom stood the wisest dastur, pointing out the most correct paths in battle. Remember the mentor from Legend #1? Here, a dastur acts as a mentor - this is the same mobed (priest in Zoroastrianism), only of a higher rank (yes, these are also Zoroastrians). Well, further down the list - elephants, horses, Roc birds.
Everyone froze in amazement. How did he manage to unravel the correct arrangement of the figures, because he had never seen them in his eyes? ..
As a reward for the fact that the vizier did not let down the power, the shah generously endowed him with precious stones and presented him with a horse.
And the vizier Buzurgmihr was so carried away by intellectual games that he went to his home, closed himself there, plunged into thoughts - and invented backgammon.
And what did the Shah of Iran do? Correctly! He sent these backgammon to India. With the same caravan of camels with which chess arrived here from India, and with the words that there are many wise Brahmins in India, and let them try to reveal the meaning of the game of backgammon.
And ... oh, woe to my beloved India! .. Mystery new game they couldn't open it. And by agreement, and as a sign of admiration for human thought, the Indian Raja loaded gold, clothes, pearls and gems- and sent to Iran. Here the fairy tale ends.

Homeland of chess or where chess was invented

Now it is clear to us where they were invented. Homeland of chess - India. Definitely!
From ancient India, chess gradually penetrated to the West - to the countries of the Arab Caliphate, and to the East - to Burma, China, Japan ... Each nation brought some elements of its culture to them, the appearance of the pieces changed, the name of the game changed, but the basic principle remained the same. same - the main piece of the opponent was declared a checkmate.

At the same time, chess historians unanimously decided that everything is simple and clear with authorship - this game has no specific author.
“There is no doubt that chess (in its modern version) was not invented by one person, but is the result of collective folk art, moreover, not one, but many peoples” - all chess historians agree on this. At the same time, they also agree that their origin is undoubtedly Indian.

Some Chinese historians do not believe that Indian roots chess game fully proven. They admit that both Indian and Chinese chess may have evolved from a common, as yet undiscovered, predecessor.
However, they do not deny the fact that the first mention of this game in Chinese literature dates back only to the 8th century AD. So the superiority of India is not in doubt even among Chinese historians.

When was chess invented

Chess historians believe that they originated around the 6th century AD. The earliest found documents belong to this time. This is if we talk about those chess that have a form familiar to us and known rules. At the same time, there is a lot of evidence that before the advent of today's chess, there were similar board games, which were also based on the tactics of conducting a battle, the main figure was the shah (commander), and he had his army as assistants.
As an example, a certain Persian poem written in 600 AD is cited, where Indian chess is mentioned and it is said that they penetrated into Persia from India.
Harold Murray, an English orientalist and an outstanding historian of chess, in his fundamental work “The History of Chess” (1913) even names the exact date of the appearance of chess - 570 AD. He claims that before 570 there was no information about chess, although individual travelers of those times described India in detail, but this game was not mentioned.
In the year 700, the first mentions of a blind chess game are already found, i.e. without looking at the board.
In the 8th century, there are already reports of qualifying tournaments!
And in the 9th century - the first treatise on chess Al-Adli.

Some interesting facts from the history of chess

In Arabic chess, for example, for a long time the queen was a minor piece and could only move one square diagonally. The bishop was limited in its movements to three squares diagonally, while the bishop could jump over the piece. The rook also once moved only two squares.
Over time, the queen became the main piece on the chessboard (after the king).
The rules were gradually changed - in order to speed up the pace and spice up the game.

Where did the legendary bird Rukh go? For what reason did she give way to the rook? Blame everything, it turns out, the Arabs. I rummaged through my father's chess books and found this explanation.
Initially, in India, in chess (or rather, in shatrang), the pieces were given a shape that corresponded to their names. The elephant looked like an elephant, the rider looked like a rider, and so on. But during their large-scale Muslim conquests, among other cultural riches, the Arabs got acquainted with chess. Of course, they adopted this wonderful game. According to the laws of Islam, the image of living beings was forbidden. And from the Rukh bird there were small stumps of wings in the form of protrusions at the top of the quadrangle. This symbolic image of a fabulous bird served as a prototype of the modern boat.
Just in case, let me remind you that even earlier - before the Rukh bird - these extreme cells on the chessboard were occupied by Indian chariots (rathas).
So, here is such a curious step-by-step transformation: ratha - bird Rukh - boat.

And here is another interesting fact from the history of the development of chess, which I read in a large thick book by Jerzy Gizhitsky “With chess through centuries and countries”. True, this is no longer about India, but about Russia, but the fact seemed very curious.
In Russia in past centuries, when playing chess, sometimes the strength of the queen was increased. They came up with the idea that the queen can walk not only in straight lines, but also in the letter G, like a horse. In this case, the queen was called "the queen of all." And before the start of the game, it was necessary to agree in advance how the game would be played - with an “ordinary queen” or “every queen”.

Almost every nation has preserved many legends and fairy tales about such a subject as chess. It is now impossible to establish the history of its origin in its original version. It's not even really a game. This is philosophy. Not a single scientist has found its origins, although careful research on this issue has been carried out for several centuries. It is believed that it was the ancient Indians who invented chess. The history of their appearance in Russia speaks of Persian roots: - the death of the ruler, this is how these two words are translated from Persian. Scientists argue not only about this. Even the time of occurrence of the game more or less precisely cannot be established. The most common opinion is that chess was born in the first century AD in North India. The history of its origin is drawn only from legends, since this game is the prototype of wars and battles.

Back to the origins

Of course, chess is a bloodless war, but a war that consists entirely of the ability to defeat the enemy with intelligence, cunning, and foresight. The rulers of ancient states devoted a lot of time to such useful pastime like a game of chess. The history of its origin suggests that there were cases when the rulers of two warring clans resolved their disputes at the chessboard, thus not causing harm to any person from their troops.

Researchers show the world a brief history of chess, which speaks of an even more ancient game of "chuturanga", from which "chaturaja" gradually formed - already with sixty-four cells on the board. The figures, however, were located differently - in the corners, and not along the front. Excavations show that it was in the first century that this game spread, and therefore it is called the birth of chess.

legends

And what beautiful legends were made about chess! Short story, but very instructive, about how one smart peasant sold this game to his king, an example of this. Somewhere it is told about a king, somewhere about a rajah, somewhere about a khan, somewhere about wheat, and somewhere about rice, but the essence always remains the same. Apparently, the legendary peasant devoted more time to studying chess than to farming, because in return he simply asked for wheat grains according to the number of cells on the board, but in geometric progression: the first cell is a grain, the second is two, the third is four, and so on.

It seemed to the king that the peasant was not asking much for such an excellent game. But despite the fact that there are only 64 cells on the chessboard, the king did not have so many grains in the bins, the grain of the whole world would not be enough. The king was amazed at the mind of the peasant and gave him all his harvest. But he now had a game of chess. The history of this intellectual fun has been lost for centuries, but a huge number of interesting legends have been preserved about their development.

Infinity

Just as it is impossible to collect grain to the sixty-fourth degree, even if you empty all the barns of the world, it is also impossible to play all possible games on the chessboard, even if you have not left it for a minute since the creation of the world. The history of the creation of chess, this ancient intellectual game, despite its "venerable age", is also constantly updated with new and wonderful information. It was, is and will remain the most widespread and world-favorite board game. It has everything - sports, science, and art. And its educational value is enormous: the history of the development of chess contains many examples of personal development with the help of this game. And yet a person achieves success by perseverance, gets the logic of thinking, the ability to concentrate, plan actions, and predict the course of thought of his opponent.

It is not for nothing that the history of chess is so interesting for children. Scientists, psychologists and educators study personality traits by observing children who prefer fun. Even the capabilities of the computer were tested through this game, when tasks of the enumeration type were solved - choosing the best of all options. It must be said that each country has taken root its own name for chess. In Russia - with Persian roots - "chess", in France they are called "eshek", in Germany - "shah", in Spain - "ahedress", in England - "chess". All the more different is the history of chess in the world. Let's try to take a closer look at individual countries where this game appeared earlier than others.

Indians or Arabs?

In the sixth century, Chaturanga was already widely played in the northwestern provinces of India. And this is still quite a little similar to chess game, since there were fundamental differences in it. The move was made according to the result of the thrown, not two, but four people played, and in each corner of the board stood: a rook, an bishop, a knight, a king and four pawns. The queen was absent, and the pieces present had much fewer opportunities in battle than the modern rook, knight and bishop. To win, it was necessary to completely destroy the enemy troops.

Then, or a century later, the Arabs began to play this game, and innovations immediately appeared in it. The book "History of Chess" (handbook) describes that it was then that there were only two players, and each had two sets of troops. In the same period, one of the kings became a queen, but he could only move diagonally. Bones were also abolished, each player made a move strictly in turn. And now, to win, it was not necessary to destroy the enemy to the root. It was enough stalemate or mat.

The Arabs called this game shatranj, and the Persians called it shatrang. It was the Tajiks who gave them their present name. The Persians were the first to mention shatranj in their fiction("Karnamuk", 600s). In 819, the first chess tournament was held by Caliph Khorasan Al-Mamun. The three most powerful players of that time tested their own and the enemy's strengths. And in 847, the first book about this game appeared, the author - Al-Alli. That is why researchers argue about the history of the origin of chess and about the homeland, and about the time of their occurrence.

In Russia and in Europe

How this game came to us, the history of the game of chess is silent. But it is known when it happened. In the 820s, the Arabic shatranj with the Tajik name "chess" was described in the monuments that have survived to this day. Which way they came, it is now difficult to establish. There were two such roads. Either through the Caucasus Mountains directly from Persia, passing through the Khazar Khaganate, or through Khorezm from Central Asia.

The name quickly turned into "chess", and the "names" of the pieces did not undergo major changes, since they remained similar both in meaning and in consonance with Central Asian or Arabic. However, the history of the development of chess grew with modern rules of the game only when Europeans began to play it. The changes came to Russia with great delay, nevertheless, the old Russian chess was also gradually modernized.

In the VIII and IX centuries there were constant wars in Spain, which the Arabs tried to conquer with varying success. In addition to spears and arrows, they also brought their culture here. Thus, shatranj was carried away at the Spanish court, and after a short time the game conquered Portugal, Italy, and France. By the 2nd century, Europeans were playing it everywhere - in all countries, even in the Scandinavian ones. It was in Europe that the rules were especially strongly transformed, as a result, by the fifteenth century, turning the Arab shatranj into a game that is known to everyone today.

For some time, the changes were not coordinated, and therefore, for two or three centuries, each country played its own parties. Sometimes the rules were pretty bizarre. For example, in Italy, a pawn that reached the last rank could only be promoted to the piece that had already been removed from the board. Until the appearance of a piece captured by the opponent, it remained an ordinary pawn. But even then in Italy castling existed both in the presence of a piece between the king and the rook, and in the case of a “beaten” square. Books and reference books about chess were published. Even a poem was dedicated to this game (Ezra, 1160). In 1283, a treatise on chess by Alphonse the Tenth the Wise appeared, which describes both the obsolete shatranj and the new European rules.

Books

The game is very widespread modern world, so much so that almost every second child says: "Chess is my friends!". Almost every one of them knows the history of the emergence of chess, since there are many wonderful books: fascinating ones for children, serious ones for adults.

All famous chess players have their own library of favorite works about this game. And everyone has a different list! Much more fiction has been written about chess than about all other sports combined! There are fans who have collected more than seven thousand books on the subject of the game in their own library, and this is not all that has been published.

For example, Yasser Seirawan, a grandmaster, four-time world champion, who has written many excellent books about his favorite game, including textbooks, literally "under his pillow" keeps the books of Mikhail Tal, David Bronstein, Alexander Alekhin, Paul Keres, Lev Polugaevsky. And each of these numerous works leads him, when re-reading, into "continuous admiration." And the international master and researcher of the history of the emergence of chess (he also wrote books about it for children), John Donaldson loves the book by Grigory Piatigorsky and Isaac Kazhen. Professor Anthony Sadie is a legend of the chess game, he managed to collect a huge chess library and write several books himself, each of which has become a desktop for all fans of this game in the world. And for some reason he reads most often Russians, but on the same topic: Nabokov ("Luzhin's Defense") and Alekhine ("My best games").

Chess theory

Systematic theory began to develop in the sixteenth century, when the basic rules were already universally accepted. A complete chess textbook first appeared in 1561 ( Ruy Lopez), where we have already considered all the stages distinguished and now - the endgame, the middlegame, the opening. The most interesting type was also described there - the gambit (the development of an advantage due to the sacrifice of a piece). Philidor's work, published in the eighteenth century, is of great importance for chess theory. In it, the author revised the views of the Italian masters, who considered a massive attack on the king to be the best style and for whom pawns were auxiliary material.

After the appearance of this book, the positional style of playing chess began to really develop, when the attack ceases to be reckless, and a strong and stable position is built systematically. Strikes are precisely calculated and directed to the weakest positions. For Philidor, pawns have become the "soul of chess", and defeat or victory depends on them. His tactics of promoting the chain of "weak figures" survived the ages. Why, it has become the basis of chess theory. Philidor's book went through forty-two editions. But still, Persians and Arabs wrote about chess much earlier. These are the works of Omar Khayyam, Nizami, Saadi, thanks to which this game has ceased to be perceived as a war. Many treatises were written, peoples composed epics, where they associated chess games with everyday ups and downs.

Korea and China

Chess "gone" not only to the West. Both Chaturanga and early versions of Shatranja penetrated into Southeast Asia, since two players participated in different provinces of the same China, and other features were visible. For example, the movement of the pieces for a short distance, there is no castling, either. The game also changed, acquiring new features.

The national "xiangqi" is very similar to ancient chess in its rules. In neighboring Korea, it was called "changi", and along with similar features, it also had some differences from the Chinese version. Even the figures were placed differently. Not in the middle of the cell, but at the intersection of lines. Not a single figure could "jump" - neither a horse, nor an elephant. But their troops had "cannons" that were able to "shoot", killing the piece they were jumping over.

In Japan, the game was called "shogi", it had its own characteristics, although it was clearly derived from "xiangqi". The board was much simpler, closer to the European one, the pieces stood in a cage, and not on a line, but there were more cells - 9x9. The pieces were able to transform, which the Chinese did not allow, and this was done ingeniously: the pawn simply turned over, and the sign of the piece turned out to be on top of it. And more interesting: those "warriors" that were taken from the enemy can be set as their own - arbitrarily, almost anywhere on the board. The Japanese game was not black and white. All figures are of the same color, and the affiliation will be determined by the setting: with a sharp end towards the enemy. In Japan, this game is still much more popular than classical chess.

How did the sport start?

Chess clubs began to appear from the sixteenth century. Not only amateurs came to them, but also almost professionals who played for money. And two centuries later, almost every country had its own national chess tournament. Massively printed books about the game. Then there is also a periodical on this subject. First, single, then regular, but rarely published collections are released. And in the nineteenth century, popularity and demand forced publishers to put this business on a permanent basis. In 1836, the first purely chess magazine, Palamede, appeared in France. It was published by one of the best grandmasters of his time Labourdonnais. In 1837 Great Britain followed the example of France, and in 1846 Germany began publishing its own chess magazine.

International matches have been held in Europe since 1821 and tournaments since 1851. The first "chess king" - the strongest chess player in the world - appeared in London at the 1851 competition. It was Adolf Andersen. Then in 1858 this title was taken from Andersen by Paul Morphy. And the palm was taken to the USA. However, Andersen did not reconcile himself and regained the crown of the first chess player already in 1859. And until 1866 he had no equal. And then Wilhelm Steinitz won, so far unofficially.

Champions

Again, Steinitz became the first official world champion. He defeated Johann Zuckertort. It was also the first match in the history of chess where the world championship was negotiated. And so the system appeared, which exists now in the continuity of the title. The world champion can be the one who wins the match against the reigning champion. Moreover, the latter may not agree to the game. And if he accepts the challenge, he independently sets the place, time and conditions for the match. Only public opinion could force the champion to play: the winner who refused to play with a strong opponent could be recognized as a weakling and a coward, so most often the challenge was accepted. Usually, the agreement to hold the match provided for the right to a rematch for the loser, and victory in it returned the title to the champion.

Since the second half of the nineteenth century, time controls have been used in tournaments. At first, it was an hourglass, limiting the chess player's time per move. It couldn't be called convenient. Therefore, a player from England, Thomas Wilson, invented a special clock - a chess clock. Now it has become easy to control both the whole game and a certain number of moves. Time control entered chess practice quickly and firmly, it was used everywhere. At the end of the 19th century, matches were no longer held without a clock. At the same time, the concept of time trouble reigned. A little later they began to hold matches of "rapid chess" - with a limit of half an hour for each of the players, and a little later "blitz" appeared - from five to ten minutes.

Life is a game of chess.
Cervantes

No one knows exactly when chess appeared. It is only known that this happened in India no later than the 6th century AD. But there is no complete agreement on this point either.

According to one version, the divination technique developed in China in the 6th-1st centuries. BC. to determine the balance between the energies of yin and yang, formed the basis of chaturanga, a game that is the prototype of modern chess (in Sanskrit, "chaturanga" means "four kinds", that is, an army with four types of weapons: chariots, elephants, cavalry, infantry). In chaturanga, according to Biruni (India, 11th century), the goal was to destroy the enemy forces, and not to checkmate the king. But in Chinese literature, the first known information about chess appears in the 8th century. AD

Apparently, the ancient Etruscans were also engaged in divination on a 64-cell board: their mythology mentioned a magical horse-horse covering the entire heavenly space in 64 jumps (in chess, a horse can bypass the entire board in 64 moves).

Through Iran, chess entered the Arab countries. In the Near and Middle East, the game acquired the name "shatrang" (Persian) or "shatranj" (Arabic). In the Persian parable-novela “The Acts of Ardashir Papakan” (circa 600 AD), it is said that its hero showed great skill “in playing ball, riding, in shatrang, hunting and in other competitions.” The Oxford Handbook of Chess (1984) cites this quote as "the first mention of chess in world literature". But other sources (for example, G. Golombek's reference book) believe that even earlier chess was mentioned in Indian poems of the 6th century. "Vasvadata" and "Hartaharita".

“Some undoubtedly authentic chess pieces found during excavations in Italy have been identified as dating back to the 2nd century BC. AD Although no one questions the scientific integrity and professional qualifications of the archaeologists who made this discovery, their conclusions about the belonging of the figures to such an early era are usually taken with skepticism. If they are confirmed, the entire history of chess will have to be rewritten” (G. Golombek).

The Persian poet Ferdowsi, who lived at the turn of the 10th-11th centuries, repeatedly described chess in his works, and in one of his poems he spoke about the arrival of envoys of the Indian Raja with gifts, among which was a game depicting a battle between two armies .

They even say that chess was invented by Palamedes, one of the Greek kings who took part in the siege of Troy (about 1250 BC). Playing chess, Palamedes penetrated the opponent's camp with a horse, and this is what led him to the idea of ​​a "Trojan horse" that brought the Greeks victory in the war. However, we do not know of any mention of chess in Greece at that time.

The Oxford Handbook of Chess categorizes hypotheses about their origins:
1. "Military": learning strategy, from boredom during a long siege, to relieve tension.
2. "Comforting". Thus, the poet Ferdowsi (940-1020 or 1030) in his epic Shahnameh wrote that chess owes its origin to the Indian sages who created this game in order to console the widowed queen Pershnari (lit. “beauty with an angelic face”) and distract her from sad thoughts about the son who died in battle.
3. "Competitive".
4. "Peaceful" (as an alternative to war when resolving controversial issues).

With the conquests of the Arabs, chess penetrated into Spain and Italy - the first countries of Western Europe, where they became known in the VIII-IX centuries. From Spain, chess entered France, and from Italy to Germany. Then they came to England. Their rapid spread and growth in popularity is evidenced by the fact that many ancient families began to decorate their coats of arms with the image of chess pieces or a chess field.

There is no generally accepted hypothesis regarding the penetration of chess into Russia. D. Sargin believes that chess first appeared in Russia as a result of trade and cultural ties with the East even before the conquest of Iran by the Arabs, i.e. no later than the 7th century. I. Savenkov believes that chess could have penetrated from the East via the Caspian-Volga route (VIII-IX centuries). In 1876, a chess leaflet (issued by M. Chigorin, the strongest chess player in Russia at that time) wrote: “Russia acquired this game not from the West, but directly from India, which is proved by the Russian names of chess pieces.”

Mentions of chess are found in Russian epics: "Sadko ...", "About the good fellow Vasily Buslaevich ...". Interestingly, the ability to play chess was considered a distinctive feature of the character of the heroes, sung in epics. Based on the archaeological finds of Prof. Artsikhovsky in Novgorod can be considered that in the X-XI centuries. first in the territory of southern Russia, and then in the north, the game of chess became known to the Eastern Slavs.

Often, when talking about the birth of chess, the following legend is told, although, according to some scholars, it is much older than chess (about 1000 BC) and may have originally belonged to another board game.
The Indian ruler Sheram was not distinguished by either great organizational talent or the ability to manage, and therefore, in a short time, brought the state to ruin. Then the brahmin sage Sessa, wanting to make a tactful remark to the king, came up with a game in which the king cannot achieve anything without the help of other pieces and pawns. Chess made an impression on the king, and, wanting to thank Sessa, Scheram promised to reward him with whatever he wished. Sessa, having decided to teach the king a lesson in modesty, asked for what seemed to be a small reward: to give him some wheat so that he could put one grain on the first square of the board, two on the second, 2x2 on the third, 4x2 on the fourth, etc. (in geometric progression to all 64 squares of the chessboard). The lord agreed, rejoicing that he got off so lightly. But when grain began to be supplied from the barns, it turned out that the sage's desire could not be fulfilled.
When counting, it turned out that the 64th cell had 87,076,425,546,692,656 grains, and the total number of grains, which is the sum of numbers raised to a power from 0 to 63 (1 + 21 + 22 + 23 + 24, etc. ) is 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 grains. According to one of the estimates, this is 922 337203 685 m3 of wheat, assuming that there are 20 million grains per m3 of grain (20 grains per cm3). To obtain such a quantity of grain, it would be necessary to sow the surface of the Earth eight times and harvest the same number of times.
Perelman in the book "Live Mathematics" gives a different calculation: 1 m3 of wheat contains about 15 million grains. The amount of wheat required by the Brahmin would be 12000000000000 m3. If we were to build a barn for this amount of grain: 4 meters high and 10 meters wide, then its length would be 300,000,000 km, i.e., twice as much as the distance from the Earth to the Sun.

Life is an ongoing struggle. That is why the theory of any struggle, including on the chess fields, winds around the green tree of life.

Em. Lasker

Chess in the form known to us was formed at the turn of the 15th-16th centuries. The division of the board into dark and light squares came into general use in the 16th century. Previously, they played on a one-color board, divided into square cells. A single-color board is still used in the Far East. In Arabic chess (at least until the beginning of the 13th century), the queen moved only one square diagonally. The bishop walked diagonally across the cage, he could jump over the piece.

During the Middle Ages, chess was persecuted in many Christian countries, perhaps because it turned into a game of chance, which deprived them of noble features. But since the XIII century, chess has been used as one of the means of knightly education. Chess, according to an unwritten statute, is one of the seven "knightly virtues" along with riding, swimming, wielding a spear, fencing, hunting, the art of writing and singing poetry.

The most famous work of the Middle Ages on chess is a treatise in Latin by Jacob Tsessolis. The book, written at the end of the 13th century, has a moralizing character, and chess is used in it as an occasion for uttering maxims and edifications of a moral, social, religious and political nature. This work was distributed in numerous handwritten copies in Latin, German, French, Czech and other languages. In the largest European libraries there are several copies of this book (for example, in Prague - nine).

The history of chess competitions goes back many centuries.

The contemporary German historian Helmut Faustin has documented that one of the first official chess competitions in Europe took place in the German university city of Heidelberg in 1467. The Heidelberg tournament contributed to the popularity of the game in Germany, although the center of chess life later moved to Nuremberg. From 1477, chess tournaments began to be held as regularly as the minnesinger competitions. There were two categories of chess players: masters and apprentices. Tournaments continued until the beginning of the Thirty Years' War of 1618-1648, after which chess life in Germany fell into decay.

In 1616, Duke August von Braunschweig-Lüneburg, hiding under the pseudonym "Gustav Selenus", in the book "Chess, or the Royal Game" wrote: "These Russians, or Muscovites, play chess very well and diligently. They are so skillful in this game that, in my opinion, it is extremely difficult for other peoples to compete with them.

In 1815, chess was declared a compulsory subject at the Military Academy of the Danish Army in Copenhagen. In support of this decision, the head of the academy reported to the Minister of War that "the game, in which there are about 72,000 different ways to make the first two moves, cannot but be useful for future officers in terms of developing their responsiveness to a rapidly changing situation."

On March 28, 1873, the first match took place between the combined chess teams of the two largest British universities - Oxford and Cambridge. Since then they have been held regularly.

In Germany, the "chess" village of Strebeck (Shtropke) became widely known. There are many legends about its history and traditions. According to one of them, it has existed for about 1000 years. In 1823, the teaching of chess was introduced at the local school (from grade 3). Another story tells that the one who wooed the local bride had to "win" her at the chessboard from her parents. In case of losing the game, the applicant not only received a refusal, but also paid a fine. Often parents passed the role of the examiner to the village headman - according to tradition, a strong chess player. This provided the Strebeck community with a good income.

Since 1886 (from the Steinitz-Zuckertort match) competitions have been held for the title of world chess champion. True, after Kasparov became world champion, the contenders were divided, and the last title draws were held in two independent leagues (two different world champions turned out). Negotiations are underway to merge them. It remains to be hoped that the subsequent history of chess competitions will be unified.

Chess in the lives of wonderful people

Peter I in his youth was interested in the game of chess; he became especially interested in chess during his travels. He not only abolished the then-existing ban on them, but also popularized chess on every occasion, introducing the tradition of chess corners at court balls. In the diary of the king there is a mention that he once carved chess from wood with his own hands.

During the capture of Ochakov in the summer of 1788, Suvorov was wounded. The French surgeon Massot was called to him. Running into the ward, the doctor found him covered in blood, but playing chess. Only after persistent persuasion did the commander allow himself to be bandaged.

Catherine II played chess well. She especially loved the game for two couples, which in those years was common in Russia.

American politician and educator of the 18th century B. Franklin considered chess from the educational, ethical and moral side. In his work Morals of chess (the first chess book in America), he draws attention to the character-forming properties of the game: the development of the ability to look into the future and weigh the consequences, the development of a sense of prudence, discretion and responsibility for one's decision. “Some very valuable qualities of the mind, necessary in human life, are required in the game of chess and are strengthened in it so that they become a habit that is useful in many cases of life. ...Playing chess, we acquire the habit of not losing heart and, hoping for favorable changes, persistently continue to search for new opportunities. The game is so replete with heterogeneous situations subject to unexpected changes that it develops the ability to find a way out of seemingly insurmountable difficulties ... In the chess game, we see an example of how even modest success can raise faith in one's own strength, and inattention can lead to I'll lose."

Napoleon was a weak chess player. In his youth, he was a frequent visitor to the Café de la Régence in Paris, the chess center of France (before the creation of chess clubs, cafes were the centers of chess life). Being at the pinnacle of power, Napoleon did not play chess: they took a lot of time. At this time, he preferred checkers, drawing in this game an example for tactics on the battlefield. On St. Helena, Napoleon returned to chess, but he was unaware of the secret his chess pieces held. He had ivory and mother-of-pearl chess made by Napoleon's friends, and inside several of these pieces were hidden plans for escaping the island. These chess pieces were to be given to Napoleon as a gift by one of the trusted officers who died while traveling on the ship, and the gift was given by someone else who did not know the secret. Chess was with Napoleon until the end of his days and was bequeathed to his son.

A.S. Pushkin in a letter to his wife: “Thank you, my soul, for learning chess. This is absolutely necessary in any well-organized family: I will prove it later ... "

A high-class player and participant in the tournament of masters was I.S. Turgenev. During his stay in Paris, he was a regular guest of the Café de la Régence. In 1862, he took second place in a tournament organized by the cafe owner for the 60 strongest chess players who frequented his cafe. In 1870 he served in Baden-Baden (Germany) as vice-chairman of the chess congress.

Many chess lovers gathered in the house of the chemist Mendeleev. He was a strong chess player, interested in theory, made notes of the games played. Playing until late in the evenings, he did not get tired, but, on the contrary, refreshed by mental exertion at the chessboard, he began his nightly scientific work.

A. Alekhine (1892-1946), the fourth world champion, said this about chess: “Through chess I brought up my character. Chess, first of all, teaches to be objective. In chess, you can become a great master only by realizing your mistakes and shortcomings. Just like in real life."

“I consider three factors necessary for success. First, understanding your strengths and weaknesses; secondly, an accurate understanding of the strength and weakness of the enemy; thirdly, a higher goal ... I see this goal in scientific and artistic achievements that put the game of chess in a number of other arts.

Chess was invented many centuries ago, and it is still unknown who exactly invented it. Due to the remoteness of events, the appearance of this game has acquired many myths and legends.

Which country is the birthplace of chess? According to the legends, the game originates in India.

History of chess

India is the birthplace of chess. It is believed that they appeared in the first centuries of our era. Later, chess was transferred to different parts of the planet, and each nation added something of its own: they changed the name of the game, the shape of the pieces, but the rules remained unchanged - checkmate the king.

Chess historians are sure that the game was invented not by one specific person, but by a large team of different peoples, supplementing and transforming it at different times. The opinions of scientists agree on only one thing: India is the birthplace of chess.

However, there are some Chinese historians who do not believe that the Indian origin of chess has been fully proven. They are looking for evidence that the game came from China.

What is the birthplace of chess? There is no evidence to refute the Indian origin of the game, and the first mention of it in Chinese literature dates back only to the 8th century AD. This only confirms that the birthplace of chess is India.

The legends of the origin of chess are very interesting and unusual, let's look at some of them.

Brothers Gav and Talhand

A description of this legend was found in the Persian poet Firdousi, who wrote the epic about a thousand years ago.

In one Indian kingdom lived a queen and her two twin sons Gav and Talhand. The time had come for them to reign, but the mother could not decide who to put as king, because she loved the sons of a lonely one. Then the princes decided to arrange a fight, the winner would become the ruler. The battlefield was chosen on the seashore and surrounded by a moat of water. They created such conditions that there was nowhere to retreat.

The condition of the tournament was not to kill each other, but to defeat the enemy army. A battle began, as a result of which Talhand died.

Upon learning of the death of her son, the queen fell into despair. She reproached the arrived Gav for the murder of his brother. However, he replied that he did not cause bodily harm to his brother, he died himself from exhaustion of the body.

The queen asked to tell in detail about how the battle took place. Gav, along with people from his entourage, decided to recreate the battlefield. To do this, they took a board, marked out the cells and placed on it the figures depicting the belligerents. The opposing troops were placed on opposite sides and placed in rows: infantry, cavalry and again infantry. In the middle row, in the center, stood the prince, next to him - his main assistant, then two figures of elephants, camels, horses and Rukh birds. Moving various figures, the prince showed his mother how the battle went.

Thus, it is clear that the ancient one had 100 cells and the figures on it stood in three lines.

The most famous legend about chess and grain

This legend tells how the Brahmin, who invented the game of chess, outwitted the king.

One day, a Brahmin living in India invented chess and clearly demonstrated how to play it to the ruling king, who liked it very much. For this, the king decided to fulfill his every desire. Then the brahmin asked to give him grain, while he said that he would not ask for much. It is only necessary to put one grain on the first cell, two on the second, four on the third, eight on the fourth, and twice the number of grains from the previous cell on each next cell.

The king agreed, however, when he began to fulfill the promise, the grain of his kingdom ended, and there were still many cells left to the end of the board. Thus, the curse outwitted the king.

Chaturanga game

Since the birthplace of chess is India, the game of chaturanga is considered the progenitor of the modern chess game. The name denotes the presence of four components: infantry, cavalry, elephant, chariot. There must be four players. The board, consisting of 64 cells, was divided into 4 parts and each of them was placed: 4 pawns, one each of the bishop, knight, rook and king. The goal of the game is to defeat and destroy the enemy. The game used dice, by throwing which a move was made.

Chaturanga from India was transferred to other eastern countries and changed over time. The troops merged and made up two teams, each of which turned out to be two kings. Then one king was replaced by an adviser. The pieces began to move on their own, without using the king you can not kill, only block his movement on the board.

Shape transformation

The existing one, according to legend, was eventually transformed into a boat. This is due to the fact that Islam forbade making images of living beings. Therefore, when chess appeared in the Arab countries, the Rukh bird was changed, its wings were cut off: it turned out just small protrusions on the top of the quadrangle. This is how the bird was transformed into a boat.

Thus, the origin of the game itself is covered with many legends and tales, only one thing is known for sure that the birthplace of chess is India.

The game, which appeared in ancient times, has gained popularity around the world. From the military, it has turned into a cognitive, stimulating and developing memory, logic, attention, while requiring a certain perseverance.

Players have been arguing about the essence of chess, perhaps, since its inception in India about two thousand years ago. Some consider chess gambling intellectual game. Others - entertainment and leisure activities. Someone - art, and on a par with theater or science. And still others draw an analogy with a military battle. But the most popular opinions, especially now, are two. First, chess is a sport, and a professional one at that. Second, they are just a hobby.

In different countries, this game has its own name: in England - chess (chess), in Spain - ahedres (el axedres), in Germany - check (Schach), in France - echecs (echecs). The Russian name originates from the Persian language: “shah” and “mat”, which means “the ruler is dead”.

The history of chess has at least one and a half thousand years. It is believed that the progenitor game, chaturanga, appeared in India no later than the 6th century AD. As the game spread to the Arab East, then to Europe and Africa, the rules changed. In the form that the game has at the present time, it was formed by the 15th century, the rules were finally standardized in the 19th century, when international tournaments began to be systematically held. So invented in India in 5 - 6 Art. Chess has spread almost all over the world and has become an integral part of human culture.

There are several ancient legends about the origin of chess.

The great scientist Al-Biruni tells about one of them in the book "India", which attributes the creation of chess to a certain Brahmin (this is a social group in India). For his invention, he asked the rajah for an insignificant, at first glance, reward: as many wheat grains as there will be on a chessboard if one grain is placed on the first cell, 2 grains on the second cell, 4 on the third, 8 on the fourth, and 8 on the fifth - 16, for the sixth - 32. etc. It turned out that there is no such amount of grain on the entire planet (it is equal to 264 - 1 ≈1.845 × 1019 grains, which is enough to fill the storage with a volume of 180 km³).

This is the first legend:

When the Hindu Raja Sheram met her, he was delighted with her wit and the variety of positions possible in her. Having learned that it was invented by one of his subjects, the king ordered to call him in order to personally reward him for a successful invention.
The inventor, his name was Seta, came to the throne of the ruler. He was a modestly dressed scientist who received his livelihood from his students.
“I wish to adequately reward you, Seta, for the wonderful game that you have come up with,” said the raja.

The sage bowed.
- I am rich enough to fulfill your most daring wish, - continued the Raja. - Name the reward that will satisfy you, and you will receive it.
Seth was silent.
“Don’t be shy,” the Raja encouraged him. - State your wish. I will spare nothing to fulfill it.
“Great is your kindness, my lord. But give me time to think about the answer. Tomorrow, after mature reflection, I will communicate my request to you.
When the next day, Seta again appeared at the steps of the throne, he surprised the Raja with the unparalleled modesty of his request.
“Lord,” said Seta, “order me to give me one grain of wheat for the first cell of the chessboard.”
“A simple grain of wheat? - Raja was amazed.
- Yes, sir. For the second cell, order to give out 2 grains, for the third 4, for the fourth - 8, for the fifth - 16, for the sixth - 32 ...
“Enough,” the rajah interrupted him with irritation. “You will receive your grains for all 64 cells of the board, according to your desire: for each, twice as much as the previous one. But know that your request is not worthy of my generosity. By asking for such an insignificant reward, you disrespectfully disregard my grace. Truly like a teacher you could show best example respect for the goodness of his sovereign. Go. My servants will bring you your sack of wheat.

Seta smiled, left the hall and waited at the gates of the palace.
At dinner, the raja remembered the inventor of chess and sent to find out if the reckless Seta had already taken away his miserable reward.
“Lord,” was the answer, “your command is being carried out. Court mathematicians calculate the number of grains to follow.
the raja frowned. He was not accustomed to his orders being carried out so slowly.
In the evening, going to bed, the raja once again inquired whether Seta had left the palace fence with his sack of wheat.
“Lord,” they answered him, “your mathematicians work tirelessly and hope to finish counting before dawn.
Why are they delaying this case? the Raja exclaimed angrily. “Tomorrow, before I wake up, every last grain must be given to Seth. I don't order twice.
In the morning, the rajah was informed that the foreman of the court mathematicians asked to listen to an important report. the Raja ordered him to be brought in.
“Before you speak of your case,” Sheram announced, “I want to hear if Seth has finally received the insignificant reward that he assigned himself.
“That is why I dared to appear before you at such an early hour,” the old man replied. The number is so big...
“No matter how great it is,” the raja interrupted arrogantly, my granaries will not become scarce. A reward has been promised and must be given...
“It is not in your power, lord, to fulfill such desires. In all your barns there is not such a number of grains as Seth demanded. Nor is it in the granaries of the whole kingdom. There is no such number of grains in the entire space of the Earth. And if you want to give out the promised reward without fail, then order to turn the earthly kingdoms into arable fields, order to dry the seas and oceans, order to melt the ice and snow that cover the distant northern deserts. Let all their space be completely sown with wheat. And all that is born in these fields, order to give to Seth. Then he will receive his reward. With amazement, the king listened to the words of the elder.
“Give me that monstrous number,” he said thoughtfully.
“Eighteen quintillion four hundred and forty-six quadrillion seven hundred and forty-four trillion seventy-three billion seven hundred nine million five hundred and fifty-one thousand six hundred and fifteen, O Lord!”

Such is the legend. Whether what is told here really happened is not known, but that the reward of which the tradition speaks was to be expressed in just such a number, you yourself can see for yourself by patient calculation.
Starting with one, you need to add the numbers: 1, 2, 4, 8, etc. Otherwise, this sum can be written like this:
1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + . . . = 20 + 21 + 22 + 23 + . . . + 263.
The last term shows how much was due to the inventor for the 64th cell of the board.
Let's simplify the resulting sum based on the following considerations. Denote
S = 20 + 21 + 22 + 23 + . . . + 263,
then
2S = 2 (20 + 21 + 22 + 23 + . . . + 263) = 21 + 22 + 23 + 24 + . . . + 264
and
S = 2S - S = (21 + 22 + 23 + 24 + . . . + 264) - (20 + 21 + 22 + 23 + . . . + 263) = = 264 - 20 = 264 - 1.
Required number of grains
S = 264 - 1.
So, the calculation is reduced only to the multiplication of 64 twos! (And then we can subtract one).
S = 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 – 1.
To make calculations easier, let's divide the 64 multipliers into 6 groups of 10 twos each and one last group of 4 twos. The product of 10 twos, as you can easily see, is 1024, and 4 twos is 16. Hence, the desired result is equal to
S = 1024 1024 1024 1024 1024 1024 16 – 1.
Because
1024 1024 = 1048576,
then
S = 1 048 576 1 048 576 1 048 576 16 – 1.
Let's be patient and accurate in the calculations and get: S = 18446744073709551615.
This amount of grain is about 1,800 times the world's wheat harvest per year (in the 2008-2009 agricultural year, the harvest was 686 million tons), that is, it exceeds the entire wheat harvest harvested in the history of mankind.
In units of mass: if we assume that one grain of wheat has a mass of 0.065 grams, then the total mass of wheat on the chessboard will be about 1.200 trillion tons: = 1 199 038 364 791, 120 t.
If the mass of wheat is converted into volume (1 m3 of wheat weighs about 760 kg), then approximately 1500 km3 is obtained, which is equivalent to a barn with dimensions of 10 km x 10 km x 15 km. This is the largest volume of Mount Everest.
The Hindu king was not in a position to issue such an award. But he could easily, if he were strong in mathematics, free himself from such a burdensome debt. To do this, it was only necessary to invite Seth to count himself grain by grain, all the wheat due to him.
In fact: if Seta, having taken up the account, kept it continuously day and night, counting one grain per second, he would have counted only 86,400 grains on the first day. To count a million grains, it would take at least 10 days of tireless counting. He would count one cubic meter of wheat in about half a year. And it would remain to count another 1,499,999,999,999 m3. You see that if he devoted even the rest of his life to the account, Seta would receive only a tiny fraction of the reward he demanded.

A description of another legend was found in the Persian poet Firdousi, who wrote the epic about a thousand years ago. In one Indian kingdom lived a queen and her two twin sons Gav and Talhand. The time had come for them to reign, but the mother could not decide who to put as king, because she loved the sons of a lonely one. Then the princes decided to arrange a fight, the winner would become the ruler. The battlefield was chosen on the seashore and surrounded by a moat of water. They created such conditions that there was nowhere to retreat. The condition of the tournament was not to kill each other, but to defeat the enemy army. A battle began, as a result of which Talhand died. Upon learning of the death of her son, the queen fell into despair. She reproached the arrived Gav for the murder of his brother. However, he replied that he did not cause bodily harm to his brother, he died himself from exhaustion of the body. The queen asked to tell in detail about how the battle took place. Gav, along with people from his entourage, decided to recreate the battlefield. To do this, they took a board, marked out the cells and placed on it the figures depicting the belligerents. The opposing troops were placed on opposite sides and placed in rows: infantry, cavalry and again infantry. In the middle row, in the center, stood the prince, next to him - his main assistant, then two figures of elephants, camels, horses and Rukh birds. Moving various figures, the prince showed his mother how the battle went. Thus, it is clear that the ancient chessboard had 100 cells and the pieces on it stood in three lines.

The following legend says that once in India, when it was a very strong country, it was ruled by one ruler. And all the power of the army was in specially trained war elephants. With their help, he had already defeated all the armies of his opponents and for many years did not know what to do. Once he announced that the one who manages to come up with something that he likes will get whatever he wants. And insanely many wise men from all countries came to him and brought him everything very beautiful and made only of gold or jewelry. But everything that these wise men brought was not to the liking of the ruler. And once a poor Shah came to him. He came with a small board and figurines but the whole game was made of wood and as soon as the ruler saw this he got terribly angry “What is this? All the products that they show me are made of gold or jewelry, and you came here with some pieces of wood, ”the Shah answered so“ the interest of games is not in gold, but in wisdom ”and at that moment the ruler saw that the figures looked like and his army. The ruler became interested and agreed to take a look. And when the Shah showed the ruler how to play the game with the words "Your army is majestic and invincible, but can you win here on a small board with your army and with an enemy with the same army." When the ruler started playing, he liked this game and was sure that he would win the Shah easily, however, in the first game, the Shah defeated the ruler and the ruler tried again, but already thinking about each move, and in the second game he won. After that, he really liked this game. And every time he attacked the enemy king, he said “check” (she check) warning that the king was in danger, and when he won, he said “Shahu mat” which meant the king died. But as you remember, the ruler promised everything he wanted to the one who would make the product that he liked and the king decided to fulfill his promise and he asked what the Shah wanted and the shah answered at first glance a small reward “if one grain is put on the first cell of the chessboard on the second two to the third four and so on, but it turned out that there is no such number in the whole kingdom. After all, this is 92,233,720,000,019 grains. History has not been told how the ruler paid off with the check. But there is another legend about how this wonderful game appeared.

Once in India there was a very wise ruler. During his reign, the country prospered and he had two twin sons who differed from each other only in that they liked to wear different clothes. One liked to walk in white clothes, and the other in black. Before his death, the wise ruler did not know which of his sons to make king and divided power equally. But soon the brothers wanted to have one ruler, and each believed that he should be the one. The brothers quarreled and a big war began in which a lot of people died. After some time, the brothers realized that the war is endless, but no one stopped the war, because the one who ends the war will lose and will not become the ruler. But still, every brother wanted to make peace and find a way to become a ruler. And once an old man came to them and said that if they finish the war in which half of India died, then he will show them how to honestly determine the ruler. The brothers agreed and the old man took out a wooden board and figurines of black and white color, he told the brothers the rules of the game and a multi-day “war” began in which every move was carefully considered. And in this game, white pieces won, and after this incident, white pieces go first in chess, and a lot of people began to play chess.

The first official mention of chess is a book that describes in detail the process of penetration of chess from India to Persia. The Indians tried to appease the Persian king Khosrov I Anushiravan (who ruled Iran from 531 to 579) with their offerings. The book describes in detail absolutely everything related to chess. Special attention is given to terminology, as well as the possibilities of each of the figures. The next written document describing chess is a poem by the famous Persian poet Ferdowsi. In his poem, he described in detail the outlandish thing presented to the Persian king by the grateful Indian people. Such a thing is "pretty entertaining game". Here is what Ferdowsi himself wrote: “Among the gifts presented to the Persian king, there was a rather entertaining thing. It was a game. She reproduced the battle of two armies: black and white.

Persian chess players

Not later than the beginning of the 6th century, the first game known to us related to chess appeared in northwestern India - chaturanga. It already had a completely recognizable “chess” look (a square game board 8 × 8 cells, 16 pieces and 16 pawns, similar pieces), but fundamentally differed from modern chess in two features: there were four players, not two (they played a pair against a pair) , and the moves were made in accordance with the results of throwing the dice. Each player had four pieces (chariot (rook), knight, bishop, king) and four pawns. The knight and the king walked in the same way as in chess, the chariot - within two fields vertically and horizontally, the elephant - first one field forward or diagonally, later he began to "jump" across one field diagonally, moreover, like a horse, during the course he could step over his own and enemy pieces. There was no queen at all. To win the game, it was necessary to destroy the entire army of opponents.

Arabic transformations

In the same 6th or possibly 7th century, Chaturanga was adopted by the Arabs. In the Arab East, the chaturanga was transformed: there were two players, each received two sets of chaturanga pieces under control, one of the kings became a queen (walked one square diagonally). They abandoned the bones, they began to walk one move strictly in turn. The victory began to be fixed not by the destruction of all the opponent's pieces, but by setting a checkmate or stalemate, as well as at the end of the game with the king and at least one piece against one king (the last two options were forced, since checkmate with weak pieces inherited from chaturanga , was not always successful). The resulting game was called by the Arabs and Persians "shatranj". The Buryat-Mongolian version was called "" or "hiashatar". Later, having got to the Tajiks, shatranj received the name "chess" in Tajik (in translation - "the ruler is defeated"). The first mention of Shatranj dates back to around 550. 600 - the first mention of shatranj in fiction - the Persian manuscript "Karnamuk". In 819, at the court of Caliph Al-Mamun in Khorasan, a tournament was held for the three strongest players of that time: Jabir Al-Kufi, Abyljafar Ansari and Zayrab Katai. In 847, the first chess book was published, which was written by Al-Adli.

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

Chess in South-East Asia

Simultaneously with the advancement of the chess game to the west, it also spread to the east. Apparently, either a variant of chaturanga for two players, or some of the early versions of shatranj, came to the countries of Southeast Asia, since their features have been preserved in the chess games of this region - the moves of many pieces are made over short distances, there are no typical for European chess castling and captures on the aisle. Influenced by the cultural characteristics of the region and circulating there board games the game has noticeably changed in appearance and acquired new features, becoming the basis for Chinese game xiangqi. From her, in turn, came korean game changi. Both games are original appearance and mechanism. First of all, this manifests itself in changing the size of the board and in the fact that the pieces are placed not on the squares of the board, but on the intersections of lines. These games have limited-area pieces that can only move within a part of the board, and the traditional "jumping" pieces have become linear (neither a knight nor a bishop can jump over squares occupied by other pieces), but a new "cannon" piece "- can beat the opponent's pieces, only jumping over another piece when hitting.

The Japanese version that appeared later - shogi - is considered a descendant of xiangqi, but has its own characteristics. The shogi board is simpler and more similar to the European one: the pieces are placed on the squares, not on the intersections, the size of the board is 9x9 cells. In shogi, the rules of moves have changed and a transformation of pieces has appeared, which was not in xiangqi. The transformation mechanism is original - a figure (a flat chip with a printed image), having reached one of the last three horizontal lines, simply turns over to the other side, where the sign of the transformed figure is depicted. And the most interesting feature of shogi is that the opponent's pieces taken by the player can be placed by him anywhere on the board (with some restrictions) as his own instead of the next move. Because of this, in the shogi set, all the pieces have the same color, and their belonging is determined by the setting - the player places the piece on the board with the tip towards the opponent.

Classical European chess is not particularly common in this region, xiangqi and shogi are much more popular to this day.

The appearance of chess in Russia

Around 820, chess (more precisely, the Arabic shatranj under the Central Asian name “chess”, which in Russian turned into “chess”) appeared in Russia, coming, as it is believed, either directly from Persia through the Caucasus and the Khazar Khaganate, or from the Central Asian peoples, through Khorezm. The Russian name of the game is consonant with the Central Asian “chess”, the Russian names of the pieces most of all correspond to Arabic or Persian ones (bishop and horse are translations of the corresponding Arabic terms, queen is consonant with Persian “farzin” or Arabic “firzan”). The rook, according to one of the assumptions, got its name due to the fact that the corresponding Arabic figure "rukh" depicted a mythical bird, and looked like a stylized image of the Russian boat. A comparison of Russian chess terminology with the terminology of Transcaucasia, Mongolia and European countries shows that neither the name of the game nor the names of the pieces could be borrowed from these regions either in meaning or in consonance.

Changes in the rules, later introduced by the Europeans, with some delay penetrated into Russia, gradually turning the old Russian chess into modern. It is believed that the European version of the chess game came to Russia in the 10th - 11th centuries, from Italy, through Poland.

Penetration into Europe

In the 8th - 9th centuries, during the conquest of Spain by the Arabs, shatranj came to Spain, then, over several decades, to Portugal, Italy and France. The game quickly won the sympathy of Europeans, by the 11th century it was already known in all countries of Europe and Scandinavia. European masters continued to transform the rules, eventually turning shatranj into modern chess. By the 15th century, chess acquired, in general, a modern look, although due to the inconsistency of changes, for several centuries different countries had their own, sometimes quite bizarre, features of the rules. In Italy, for example, until the 19th century, a pawn that reached the last rank could only be promoted to pieces that had already been removed from the board. At the same time, it was not forbidden to move a pawn to the last rank in the absence of such pieces; such a pawn remained a pawn and became the first piece captured by the opponent at the moment when the opponent captured it. Castling was also allowed there if there was a piece between the rook and the king and when the king passed through a beaten field.

Chess in art

With the spread of chess in Europe, both chess itself and works of art began to appear that tell about this game. In 1160, the first chess poem appeared, which was written by Ibn Ezra. In 1283, the first chess book in Europe, a treatise by Alphonse X the Wise, was published. This book is of significant historical interest, as it contains a description of both new European chess and the now obsolete Shatranj.

Starting from the 16th century, chess books were published more and more often, chess constantly appeared in works of art. In the 18th century, chess had a patron muse. It was invented by the English poet William Jones, a great chess fan. He published a poem about the origin of chess, in which Mars, the god of war, fell in love with the forest nymph Caissa; the nymph did not reciprocate the fan, and in order to achieve his goal, Mars invented chess and taught Caissa to play it. In general, the motif of the chess game of the ancient gods was often found in art.

Christian church against chess

Since the advent of chess, the Christian church has taken a sharply negative position towards them. Chess was equated with gambling and drunkenness. It is noteworthy that representatives of various directions of Christianity were united in this. In 1061, the Catholic Cardinal Damiani issued a decree banning the game of chess among the clergy. In his letter to Pope Alexander II, he called chess "an invention of the devil", "an obscene, unacceptable game." Bernard, the founder of the Knights Templar, spoke in 1128 about the need to fight the passion for chess. The French Bishop Hades Sully in 1208 forbade the Paters "to touch chess and have them at home." The head of the reformist wing of the Protestant Church, Jan Hus, was also an opponent of chess. Under the influence of church rejection, the Polish King Casimir II, the French Louis IX (Saint), and the English Edward IV banned the game of chess.

In Russia, the Orthodox Church also banned the game of chess under the threat of excommunication, which was officially enshrined in the helmsman's book of 1262.

Despite church prohibitions, chess spread both in Europe and in Russia, and among the clergy there was no less (if not more) passion for the game than among other classes. So, on the Nerevsky excavation site of Novgorod alone, archaeologists found many chess pieces in the layers of the 13th - 15th centuries, and in the layer of the 15th century, chess is found in almost every excavated estate. And in 2010, the chess king was found in a layer of the 14th - 15th centuries in the Novgorod Kremlin, next to the residence of the archbishop. In Europe, in 1393, the Regensburg Cathedral removed chess from the list of prohibited games. In Russia, there is no information about the official abolition of the church ban on chess, but at least since the 17th - 18th centuries this ban has not actually been in effect. Ivan the Terrible played chess (according to legend, he died at the chessboard). Under Alexei Mikhailovich, chess was common among the courtiers, the ability to play it was common among diplomats. Documents of that time have been preserved in Europe, which, in particular, say that the Russian envoys are familiar with chess and play it very well. Princess Sophia was fond of chess. Under Peter I, assemblies did not pass without chess.

Development of chess theory

By the 15th and 16th centuries, the rules of chess had largely settled down, which began the development of a systematic chess theory. In 1561, Ruy Lopez published the first complete chess textbook, which dealt with the currently distinguished stages of the game - opening, middlegame and endgame. He was the first to describe a characteristic type of opening - "gambit", in which an advantage in development is achieved by sacrificing material.

Philidor made a great contribution to the development of chess theory in the 18th century. He seriously revised the views of his predecessors, first of all, the Italian masters, who believed that the best style of play was a massive attack on the opponent's king with all available means and used pawns only as auxiliary material. Philidor developed what is now called the positional style of play. He believed that the player should not rush into reckless attacks, but systematically build a strong, stable position, inflict precisely calculated blows on the weaknesses of the opponent’s position, if necessary, resort to exchanges and simplifications if they lead to a profitable endgame. The correct position, according to Philidor, is, first of all, the correct arrangement of pawns. According to Philidor, “Pawns are the soul of chess; only they create attack and defense, victory or defeat depends entirely on their good or bad location. Philidor developed tactics for advancing the pawn chain, insisted on the importance of the pawn center, and analyzed the struggle for the center. In many ways, his ideas formed the basis of the chess theory of the next century. Philidor's book "Analysis of a Chess Game" became a classic, it went through 42 editions only in the 18th century and was reprinted many times later.

Turning chess into international view sports

Since the 16th century, chess clubs began to appear, where amateurs and semi-professionals gathered, often playing for a cash bet. Over the next two centuries, the spread of chess led to the emergence of national tournaments in most European countries. There are chess publications, at first sporadic and irregular, but over time gaining more and more popularity. The first chess magazine, Palamede, was published in 1836 by the French chess player Louis Charles Labourdonnet. In 1837 a chess magazine appeared in Great Britain, and in 1846 in Germany.

In the 19th century, international matches (since 1821) and tournaments (since 1851) begin to be held. The first such tournament, held in London in 1851, was won by Adolf Andersen. It was he who became the unofficial "chess king", that is, the one who was considered the strongest chess player in the world. Subsequently, this title was challenged by Paul Morphy (USA), who won the match in 1858 with a score of + 7-2 = 2, however, after Morphy left the chess scene in 1859, Andersen again became the first, and only in 1866 Wilhelm Steinitz won the match against Andersen with a score of +8-6 and became the new "uncrowned king".

The first world chess champion to officially hold this title was the same Wilhelm Steinitz, who defeated Johann Zuckertort in the first match in history, in the agreement on which the expression "world championship match" appeared. Thus, a system of succession of the title was formed on a whim: the new world champion was the one who won the match against the previous one, while current champion reserved the right to agree to a match or reject an opponent, and also determined the conditions and venue of the match. The only mechanism capable of forcing the champion to play with the challenger was public opinion: if a strong, admittedly, chess player could not win the right to a match with the champion for a long time, this was considered as a sign of the champion's cowardice, and he, saving face, was forced to accept the challenge. Generally, the match agreement provided for the champion's right to a rematch if they lost; victory in such a match returned the title to the previous owner.

In the second half of the 19th century, time controls began to be used in chess tournaments. At first, an ordinary hourglass was used for this (the time for a move was limited), which was rather inconvenient, but soon the English amateur chess player Thomas Bright Wilson (T.B.Wilson) invented a special chess clock that made it possible to conveniently implement a time limit for the entire game or for a certain number moves. Time control quickly entered into chess practice and soon began to be used everywhere. By the end of the 19th century, official tournaments and matches without time control were practically non-existent. Simultaneously with the advent of time control, the concept of "time pressure" appeared. Thanks to the introduction of time control, special forms have arisen chess tournaments with a greatly reduced time limit: "quick chess" with a limit of about 30 minutes per game for each player and "blitz" - 5 - 10 minutes. However, they became widespread much later.

Chess in the 20th century

At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, the development of chess in Europe and America was very active, chess organizations grew larger, and more and more international tournaments were held. In 1924, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) was created, initially organizing the World Chess Olympiads.

Until 1948, the system of succession to the title of world champion that had developed in the 19th century was preserved: the challenger challenged the champion to a match, the winner of which became the new champion. Until 1921, Emanuel Lasker remained the champion (the second, after Steinitz, the official world champion, who won this title in 1894), from 1921 to 1927 - Jose Raul Capablanca, from 1927 to 1946 - Alexander Alekhine (in 1935 Alekhine lost the match for the championship peace to Max Euwe, but in 1937 he returned the title in a rematch and held it until his death in 1946).

After the death in 1946 of Alekhine, who remained undefeated, FIDE took over the organization of the world championship. The first official World Chess Championship was held in 1948, the winner was the Soviet grandmaster Mikhail Botvinnik. FIDE introduced a system of tournaments for winning the title of champion: the winners of the qualifying rounds advanced to the zonal tournaments, the winners of the zonal competitions advanced to the interzonal tournament, and the winners of the best results in the latter took part in a candidate tournament, where the winner was determined in a series of knockout games, who I had to play a match against the reigning champion. The formula for the title match has changed several times. Now the winners of zonal tournaments participate in a single tournament with the best (by rating) players in the world; winner and becomes world champion.

The Soviet chess school played a huge role in the history of chess, especially in the second half of the 20th century. The wide popularity of chess, active, purposeful teaching of it and the identification of capable players from childhood (there was a chess section, a children's chess school in any city in the USSR, there were chess clubs at educational institutions, enterprises and organizations, tournaments were constantly held, a large amount of special literature was published) contributed to the high level of play of Soviet chess players. Attention to chess was shown at the highest level. The result was that from the late 1940s until the collapse of the USSR, Soviet chess players dominated world chess almost undividedly. Of the 21 chess Olympiads that took place from 1950 to 1990, the USSR team won 18 and became a silver medalist in one more, out of 14 chess Olympiads for women during the same period, 11 were won and 2 "silver" were taken. Of the 18 draws for the title of world champion among men in 40 years, only once a non-Soviet chess player became the winner (it was the American Robert Fischer), and twice more the contender for the title was not from the USSR (moreover, the contender also represented the Soviet chess school, it was Viktor Korchnoi, who fled from the USSR to the West).

In 1993, Garry Kasparov, who was then world champion, and Nigel Short, who became the winner of the qualifying round, refused to play another match for the world championship under the auspices of FIDE, accusing the federation leadership of unprofessionalism and corruption. Kasparov and Short formed new organization- PCHA (Professional Chess Association), and played a match under its auspices.

There was a split in the chess movement. FIDE stripped Kasparov of his title, and Anatoly Karpov and Jan Timman, who at that time had the highest chess rating after Kasparov and Short, competed for the title of FIDE world champion. At the same time, Kasparov continued to consider himself a "real" world champion, since he defended the title in a match with a legitimate contender - Short, and part of the chess community was in solidarity with him. In 1996, the PCHA ceased to exist as a result of the loss of a sponsor, after which the champions of the PCA began to be called the "world champion in classical chess." In fact, Kasparov revived the old title transfer system, when the champion himself accepted the challenge of the challenger and played a match with him. The next "classic" champion was Vladimir Kramnik, who won a match against Kasparov in 2000 and defended the title in a match with Peter Leko in 2004.

Until 1998, FIDE continued to play the championship title in the traditional order (Anatoly Karpov remained FIDE champion during this period), but from 1999 to 2004 the format of the championship changed dramatically: instead of a match between the challenger and the champion, the title was played in a knockout tournament in which the current champion must was to participate on a general basis. As a result, the title constantly changed hands and five champions changed in six years.

In general, in the 1990s, FIDE made a number of attempts to make chess competitions more dynamic and interesting, and therefore more attractive to potential sponsors. First of all, this was expressed in the transition in a number of competitions from the Swiss or round robin system to the knockout system (in each round there is a match of three knockout games). Since the knockout system requires an unequivocal outcome of the round, additional games in rapid chess and even blitz games have appeared in the tournament regulations: if the main series of games with the usual time control ends in a draw, an additional game is played with a shortened time control. Sophisticated time control schemes began to be used to protect against hard time trouble, in particular, the “Fischer clock” - time control with an addition after each move.

The last decade of the 20th century in chess was marked by another important event - computer chess has reached enough high level to surpass the human chess player. In 1996, Garry Kasparov lost a game to a computer for the first time, and in 1997, he also lost a match to Deep Blue by a one-point margin. The explosion of performance and memory capacity of computers, combined with the improvement of algorithms, led to the fact that by the beginning of the 21st century there were public programs capable of playing at the level of grandmasters in real time. The ability to connect pre-accumulated opening databases and a table of small-figure endings to them further increases the strength of the machine's game. This resulted in changes in the format of high-level competitions: tournaments began to use special measures to protect against computer prompts, in addition, they completely abandoned the practice of postponing games. The time allotted for a game has also been reduced: if in the middle of the 20th century the norm was 2.5 hours for 40 moves, then by the end of the century it decreased to 2 hours (in other cases, even up to 100 minutes) for 40 moves.

Current state

After the Kramnik-Topalov unification match in 2006, FIDE's monopoly on holding the world championship and awarding the title of world chess champion was restored. The first "unified" world champion was Vladimir Kramnik (Russia), who won this match.

Viswanathan Anand, defeated Vladimir Kramnik in the 2007 World Championship. In 2008, a rematch between Anand and Kramnik took place, Anand retained his title.

Viswanathan Anand defended the champion title in May 2010 against Bulgarian challenger Veselin Topalov (score 6.5:5.5) and in May 2012 against Israeli challenger Boris Gelfand (6:6 in the main match; 2.5: 1.5 in tie-break).
In 2013, Viswanathan Anand lost a match in Chennai and lost the title to Norwegian challenger Magnus Carlsen. In 2014, Magnus Carlsen defended the title against Viswanathan Anand in Sochi, and in 2016 in New York against Sergey Karjakin. In 2018, in London, Magnus Carlsen defended his title for the third time against Fabiano Caruana.

The championship formula is being adjusted by FIDE. In the last championship, the title was played in a tournament with the participation of the champion, four winners of the challenger tournament and three personally selected players with the highest rating. However, FIDE also retained the tradition of holding personal matches between the champion and the challenger: existing rules, a grandmaster with a rating of 2700 or higher has the right to challenge the champion to a match (the champion cannot refuse), provided that funding is secured and the deadlines are met: the match must end no later than six months before the start of the next world championship.

"Live Chess"

When the system of playing chess acquired a finished look, the so-called "live chess" came into fashion - theatrical performances held in large open areas marked like a chessboard. The first mention of "live chess" dates back to 1408. It was then that at the court of Sultan Mohammed, who ruled Grenada, a chess performance that surprised many took place for the first time.

Today "live chess" has not lost its popularity. For example, once every 2 years in the Italian commune of Marostica, a similar action takes place, in which city residents take part. And in London, based on "live chess", the Spanish designer Jamie Hayon placed huge chess pieces on Trafalgar Square as part of the Design Festival.

Chess in an Iranian souvenir shop

Chess has long been one of the sports. But this does not prevent millions of people from playing chess just like that, finding joy in the game. Chess is the most exciting intellectual game. In the "Persian Shop" you can find exclusive Iranian chess with wood, bone and metal inlays and traditional Persian painting. Handmade chess is a great gift for a boss, colleague, friends or loved ones.

Benefits of the game

Experts have found that the benefits of chess for the brain are simply enormous. Indeed, during the game, a person uses two of his hemispheres at once. Chess battles accompany the development of logical thinking, short-term and long-term memory. They teach the ability to predict events, make the right decisions.

Rules of the game

Beginning of the game
At the beginning of the game, the chessboard should be positioned so that each player has a white (or light) cell in the lower right corner. Chessmen are placed in the same way in each game Pawns are located on the second and seventh lines. The rooks are in the corners, the knights next to them, then the bishops, and finally the queen, which always stands on a square of the same color as it (white queen on white, black queen on black), and the king next to the queen.
The player with the white pieces always goes first. Prior to this, players usually decide who gets which pieces by drawing lots. White moves first, then black, then white again, then black again... And so on until the end of the game.

How the pieces move
All six pieces move differently. Pieces, with the exception of the knight, cannot “jump” over other pieces, and cannot move to squares occupied by pieces of their own color. Pieces can occupy the squares on which the opponent's pieces are located by capturing them. Pieces should generally be positioned so that they threaten to capture opponent's pieces, defend their own pieces, or control important squares.

King
The king is the most important but also the weakest piece. The king can only move one square in any direction - up, down, sideways, diagonally. The king cannot move to those squares where he will be in check (that is, he can be taken).

Queen
The queen is the strongest piece. He can move in any straight line (horizontally, vertically or diagonally) for any possible distance, but without jumping over the pieces of his color. And, like all pieces, if the queen captures an opponent's piece, its movement ends.

Rook
The rook can move any distance, but only horizontally and vertically. Rooks are especially strong when they protect each other and work together!

Elephant
The elephant can move as far as it wants, but only diagonally. Each elephant starts on its own color square, and must always stay on the same color squares. The elephants work well together as they cover weak sides each other.

Horse
The knight moves differently than all the other pieces. First, the knight moves two squares horizontally or vertically, and then one square perpendicular to the original direction (like the Russian letter “Г”). Also, the knight is the only piece that can "jump" over other pieces and pawns.

Pawn
Pawns differ from other pieces in that they move and capture differently: they move straight forward, and the capture is carried out diagonally. Pawns only move forward one square at a time, except on their very first move, when they can move forward two squares. A pawn can move to a square occupied by an opponent's piece (pawn), which is located diagonally on an adjacent file, simultaneously capturing this piece (pawn). Pawns cannot move (capture) backwards. If there is another piece or pawn directly in front of the pawn, it cannot move past or capture that piece or pawn.

transformation
Pawns have one distinguishing feature- they can transform into other figures. A pawn that has reached the last rank (8th for white, 1st for black) is replaced by any (except the king) piece of the same color at the choice of the player making the move. The transformation is performed immediately (in the same move) regardless of the presence of pieces of the same name on the board. Usually a pawn is promoted to a queen. Only pawns can promote to other pieces.

Taking on the pass
Another rule related to pawns is called “passing on the way” (from “en passant,” French for “on the way”). An aisle capture is a special pawn move in which it captures an opponent's pawn that has been moved two squares at once. But under attack is not the square on which the second pawn stopped, but the one that was crossed by it. The first pawn completes the capture exactly on this crossed square, as if the opponent's pawn moved only one square. Such a situation becomes possible only in those cases when the pawn is located on the fifth (for white pawns) or fourth (for black pawns) rank, and the square that the opponent's pawn crosses is under attack. The capture of an opponent's pawn can be carried out only immediately after it has been moved two squares. Capturing on the aisle is only possible with a return move, otherwise the right to capture on the aisle is lost.

Castling
Another special rule is called castling. This move allows you to do two important things at the same time: secure your king and get your rook out of the corner of the board and into a more active position. Castling consists in moving the king to the side of the rook of its color by 2 squares and then the rook to the square next to the king on the other side of the king. Castling is possible under the following conditions:
This must be the first move of the king in this game;
This must be the first move of the moved rook in the given game;
The squares between the rook and the king are free, there are no other pieces on them;
The king must not be in check and the square it must cross or occupy must not be attacked by one or more of the opponent's pieces.
Note that at the beginning of the game in one direction, the king is closer to the rook. If you castle this way, it is called kingside castle. Castling in the other direction, across the square on which the queen stood at the beginning of the game, is called castling on the queenside. Regardless of which side the castling takes place, the king moves two squares.

Checkmate
As stated above, the object of the game is to checkmate the opponent's king. This happens when the king comes under check and cannot get out of it. The king can get out of check in three ways: move to a safe square (castling is forbidden!), hide with another piece, or capture a checker piece. If the king cannot avoid checkmate, then the game is over. Usually, when a checkmate is made, the king is not removed from the board, and the game is considered over.

Draw
Sometimes there is no winner in a chess game, but a draw is fixed.

There are 5 rules chess game ends in a draw:
Pat, that is, a position in which a player who has the right to move cannot use it, since all his pieces and pawns are deprived of the opportunity to make a move according to the rules, and the king is not in check.
Players can simply agree to a draw and stop playing.
There are not enough pieces on the board to checkmate (eg king and bishop against king).
A player declares a draw if the same position on the board is repeated three times (not necessarily three times in a row).
Fifty consecutive moves were played, with none of the players making a pawn move or capturing a piece or a pawn.

Fischer Chess (960)
Chess960 (also called Fischer's chess) is a chess variant in which the same rules are used as regular chess, but where "opening theories" are not played big role in the game.. The initial position of the pieces is formed randomly, using only 2 rules: the bishops are on squares of different colors, and the king must be between the rooks. Black and white figures are arranged symmetrically. There are exactly 960 possible starting positions that follow these rules (hence the prefix “960”). The castling rule is unusual: everything is the same here (the king and rook have not moved before, they castle not in check or through a square with check), plus all the cells between the king and rook must be free of pieces.
Many tournaments use identical rules. These rules do not have to be applied if you are playing at home or online..

Got it - go!
If a player touches a piece, then he must move it.. If a player touches an opponent’s piece, he must capture it.. A player who wants to touch a piece only to correct it on the board must first declare his intention, usually saying "correct".

Time control.
Most tournaments use time control for the whole game, not for each move.. Both players get an equal amount of time per game, each player can decide how to use this time.. After a player makes a move, he presses the button on the clock to start the opponent's clock. If a player runs out of time and the opponent claims it, the player who runs out of time loses. The exception is when the player who declared does not have enough pieces to checkmate - in this case the game ends in a draw.

Basic Strategies
Protect your king
Move the king to a corner of the board, as a rule, it is safer there. Don't put off castling. As a general rule, you should castle as quickly as possible. Remember, it doesn't matter how close you are to checkmate your opponent as long as he checkmates you first.!
Don't give away figures aimlessly
Don't lose your pieces thoughtlessly! Each piece has a price, and you cannot win the game without the pieces needed to checkmate. There is a simple scale that allows you to evaluate the relative value of each figure:
Pawn - basic unit
A knight is worth 3 pawns
Bishop is worth 3 pawns
A rook is worth 5 pawns
A queen is worth 9 pawns
The king is priceless
Why do we need to know the comparative strength of the figures? First, it determines the overall utility of the piece. That is, a rook usually brings more value on the board than, say, a bishop. Secondly, the value of a piece must be realized when exchanging ..

Control the center of the board
You must control the center of the board with your pieces and pawns. If you control the center, then you have more opportunities to place your pieces well on the board, and it is harder for your opponent to find good squares for his pieces. In the example above, white makes good moves to control the center, black moves are bad..
Use all your shapes.
Your pieces do no good by sitting in the rear. Try to develop all your pieces so that you can use them when attacking the opponent's king. Using only one or two pieces to attack will not work against a strong opponent.

Getting Better in Chess
Knowing the rules and fundamentals of strategy is only the beginning - there is so much to learn from playing chess that it would take a lifetime to learn everything! To get stronger, you need to do three things:
- Play
Just keep playing! Play as much as possible. You must learn from every game you lose and win.
- To study
If you really want to improve your skill quickly, then get a chess book. There are also many resources on the internet to help you learn and improve your game.

have fun
Don't be discouraged if you don't win all your games!. Everyone loses sometimes - even world champions. If you learn to learn from losing games, you can always enjoy chess!

Look on the site:
Evpatoria