Which country invented chess. Where was chess invented: interesting facts and myths. The history of the emergence and development of chess

One of the oldest and exciting games- chess. She is known everywhere the globe, so there are dozens of its variations in the world. This is not just a game, because chess has long been a sport and art. Chess marking is used in almost all areas of life, and the game algorithm is used for scientific purposes. But where is her homeland and who invented it? There is still no unambiguous and plausible opinion. Scientists argue, putting forward their versions.

Controversial version

Some publications state with certainty that chess appeared in India sometime in the 6th century AD. e. One could read about this at the beginning of the 20th century in Harold Murray's book The History of Chess. Yes, the game was invented there and at that time, but it was invented much earlier. Scientists seriously took up the study of this topic and found many of the most different versions which sometimes surprise with facts.

If we consider India as the progenitor of chess, it is worth remembering the famous legend about the Raja and the Brahmin. After numerous campaigns, victories and defeats, the ruler was tired and sad. Raja ordered his advisers and sages to come up with fun for him, for which he spent 3 days and nights. No one could satisfy him and interest him, except for a modest peasant who brought a board with cells and wooden figures. When the Raja learned the terms of the game, his joy knew no bounds.

This was what they had been trying to find for so long. In return, the peasant demanded a modest reward - a few grains of wheat. But he set a condition: the number should increase with each cell of the board (1 cell - 1 grain, 2 cells - 2, 3 cells - 2 2, 4 cells - 2 3, ..., 64 cells - 2 64). The Raja at first ridiculed the stupid Brahmin, but only then did he realize his mistake. There is no such amount of grain on the entire planet, because after calculations the final amount is - 1.8 * 10 19. This board was the battlefield of modern chess, which in Persian means “death of the king”.

There is another option - a Korean legend. Sometime 4,500 years ago, the prototype of modern chess was the game that the formidable king of Mesopotamia Ravan invented for his beloved wife Mandodari. He had to be absent for a long time due to numerous campaigns, so his wife was often sad. Chess interested all the inhabitants of the palace so much that it spread all over the world (India, China, Korea).

It is curious, but there is real documentary evidence of this. At the beginning of the 20th century, von Bork proved the existence of a game prototype. According to him, it appeared in 1250 BC. e. in Hindustan. It was played by representatives of a local tribe who borrowed an ancient game from Elam (present-day southwest Iran).

Now it is impossible to establish this precisely, because at that time, under the word chess, people could combine different games: dice, backgammon, chaupara or pachisi. All of these options have one thing in common - a square or cruciform board. We can only guess which of them was the first.

ancient board games

So, at that time there were 2 options for boards: with a square or a cross. The sizes are also different. In Asia, the following are known:

• 5 by 5;
• 7 by 7;
• 9 by 9.

The rules of the game are somewhat different from the well-established modern ones, because then it was possible to play not only with two, but also with four. In some versions, the game started from the middle of the field, in others it was necessary to move from the edge (from the fortress). The movement could be spiral or in the form of a special labyrinth. The set consisted of a field (matter on which squares are drawn) and 4 shells (seeds or sticks). But the poor and ordinary passers-by were satisfied with a piece of land on which squares were drawn with a stick.

Ashtapada is an ancient game played on a one-color board with 64 squares. She is associated with a spider that had 8 legs, because in the translation of "ashtapada" - 8 squares. The first mention of it appeared in the 5th century AD. e. in the northern part of India. The progenitor of modern chess retained only the line, but the rules and movements were lost. So far, no scientist has been able to unravel this mystery and provide the most plausible version of the game.

If we compare the Indian prototype of the game with the Chinese one, we can see the considerable simplicity of the first version. It has fewer figures, they are voluminous, and not flat like the Chinese or Koreans, and also have a smaller range of moves. If the Chinese borrowed chess from the Indians, they had to work hard to complicate the rules of the game, to modify the figures.

But there are several important inconsistencies here: official relations between these countries are recorded only in 150 BC. e., and nothing was found during archaeological excavations in India, while different prototypes of this fun are constantly found in China. There is another discrepancy - there are no rules of the game or manuscripts about chess in Sanskrit, but there are many in Chinese.

famous chaturanga

This is the closest variant that is similar to modern chess. Everyone began to play it in the same northern part of India, but somewhere in the 6th century. The exact rules of the game have not survived to this day, although scientists have presented several of their options to the world. Main similarities:

1. board in the form of a square and size 8 by 8 cells;
2. figures are outwardly similar to chess;
3. a total of 32 pieces (one half of the main, the second - pawns);
4. The king and knight move the same way.

The difference between these games is in the number of players: in chaturanga there should have been 4 of them, and each had 4 pieces (king, bishop, rook and knight). You need to play 2 on 2. The person who rolled the dice began to walk. But the Chaturanga did not have a queen at all.

I would like to consider this game a prototype of chess, but here there are a number of inconsistencies. The very name "chaturanga" means at the same time at least 2 completely different games. According to Sanskrit, this is a four-sided game, and in the Vedic texts, the word described 4 different types of troops. But there was a game of chaturanga for two. No one knows which version is older.

The problem is that several centuries ago, many researchers misinterpreted the meaning of this word or simply did not want to buy into the essence. This confusion arose due to the inability to confirm the reliability of some sources, and it is also impossible to accurately determine the date of their writing. After the release of their works, the British and French began to refer to these unexplained facts.

This is how the hypothesis of the American anthropologist Stuart Kulin about the evolution of chess games appeared. He believed that historically the game developed along the following lines:

• racing for two (game in a circle or maze);
• racing for 4 players;
• chess for 4 players;
• chess for two

It was not until 1913 that this version was completely destroyed by the Englishman Harold Murray in his History of Chess. He proved that chess is mentioned in the Bhavishya Purana, which previous opponents considered the most ancient and true, but he is not so ancient. Apart from this source, there is no one that would confirm or mention the game of chess.

Therefore, the first reliable work in which both Chaturanga and Shatranja are mentioned can be considered the treatise of 1030 "India or the Book containing an explanation of the teachings belonging to the Indians, acceptable by reason or rejected." Its author is Al-Biruni, a Khorezm scientist. He personally visited northern India and noticed that 4 people play chess there at the same time, for which they have 2 sets of pieces. From there, the name of the queen became known - shah. The concept of checkmate did not exist, because the main task of the player was the complete destruction of his opponent's pieces.

The Indians did not care about their future generation, so for a long time they did not write down the rules of the game, which now greatly complicates the work of researchers. But still, it can be said with certainty that in 1130 there is the first mention of the classical chess game in the Manamollas encyclopedia. This entry was made by King Someshvara III, who ruled at that time in India (the center and south of the country). Chess is already two-sided, the pieces are arranged according to the rules familiar to a modern person, and they move almost the same way. The only thing is that there is no exact location on the board of the queen and king.

Further movement of the game around the world

Supporting the theory about the appearance of chess in India, we can say with confidence that from this country, Chaturanga came to Iran and Central Asia. But they called her there - chatrang. This is also documented in the ancient Persian chronicle "Chatrang-Namak", which dates back to 750-850 years. BC e. In the middle of the 7th century, Iran was conquered by the Arabs, who again renamed chatrang into shatranj. It was under this name that the game entered Europe.

It was the Arabs who transformed Chaturanga. Main changes:

• 2 players;
• 2 sets of figures;
• rejection of bones;
• sequence of making a move;
• 1 king turned into a queen and walked diagonally;
• victory is not the destruction of all the pieces, but the checkmate (stalemate).

The further movement of the game around the world gradually changed its name. The historical change of the name of chess took place as follows:

• Arabs - shatranj;
• Persians - shatrang;
• Buryats - shatar;
• Mongols - hiashtar;
• Tajiks - chess.

The Penetration of Chess to the East

China currently has its own chess system, which differs significantly from the international one. This game is called xiangqi. Instead of figurines, they use wooden discs, but it is unrealistic to play them without knowing the hieroglyphs. Even after the translation of pictures, connoisseurs note a discrepancy with the rules, because the magic of the game is lost, which attracts all lovers of intellectual tasks.

The game also reached Korea, about which there is documentary evidence dating back to the 16th century. The rules of the game are similar to modern ones, but there are similarities with Chinese xiangqi, but there are few historical records. The board is 9 by 10 cells, and in the center is the palace, but only the verticals are drawn. The figures are not voluminous, but flat with hieroglyphs. Changa has its own feature that distinguishes it from other variants of chess games - 16 ways to decompose pieces at the beginning of the match.

Main changes:

• you can now walk a shorter distance;
• no castling;
• figures are located in points;
• individual figures are endowed with a limited range of motion;
• lack of capture of a piece on the aisle;
• the knight and bishop do not jump over the squares occupied by pieces;
• added a figure - a cannon.

Now chang, according to experts, is a transitional stage from Chinese xiangqi to. Until now, it remains unclear how the figures could become voluminous, and the boards could acquire cells. No one has solved this mystery yet.

Thai and Cambodian variant

These varieties are almost identical, but there are still external differences between them. The Thai type is makruk, in Cambodia the game is called ok-chatrang (it is ancient). The first documentary records of this game can be found in the 17th century, when the game was described by the French ambassador La Lubere.

The board in the game makruk is familiar - 8 by 8, one-color. It no longer has the characteristic Indian ashtapada crossroads. Already 2 players are playing, not 4. The main difference of the game is the use of shells instead of figures, although the figures are here, but they are similar to each other.

Shogi originated from the game of xiangqi and may have family ties with makruk, as there are similar features. This game is somewhat simpler than the previous ones and is more reminiscent of modern chess:

• board 9 by 9 cells;
• the location of the figures on the fields;
• transformation of figures upon reaching the horizontal;
• the enemy’s prisoners can be placed on the next move anywhere on the board as their own piece;
• figures are one-color;
• the initial arrangement and moves are reminiscent of makruk.

By bringing together all 3 games: makrug, xiangqi and shogi, you can restore variants of ancient chess. They appeared due to the exchange between countries, since at that time Japan, the Malay Islands and India were connected by sea trade route.

Malaysia and Burma

Any variant could become the ancestor of modern chess ancient game in Burma or Malaysia. In the first it is called sittuyin (war of 4 clans), and in the second - mein chator. In Burma, it is customary to play with red and black figures, which look like pre-Islamic warriors.

So, the main features of Burmese chess:

1. A board of the same color with 8 by 8 squares, but with two diagonals of Sit-Ke-Myin or the general's line.
2. The location of the pawns on the 3rd-4th rank.
3. The red pieces are placed first, and only after that the black ones.
4. All other pieces are placed anywhere behind the pawns, except for the rook (they stand only on the first two horizontals).
5. The black rook cannot stand opposite the red queen.
6. The red pieces move after the black pieces are placed.

The goal of the game is to checkmate, but it was not allowed to put a stalemate, there is no direct check there.

Malaysian chess mostly bears the names of pieces taken from Sanskrit, except for the name of the pawn (derived from the Arabic "baydak"). They had one interesting feature, because the local kings of the tribes played right on the field near their houses with huge boulders. The duration sometimes reached a whole year.

Game Features:

1. Board without two colors, 8 by 8 cells.
2. Some have diagonal markings.
3. The figures are arranged in cells.
4. The figures are either abstract from bamboo or figured with carvings according to the Indian tradition.
5. Mirror initial arrangement of figures.
6. A special rule for promoting a pawn to a piece.
7. There is a rule for capturing a pawn on the pass, which was not in any previous game.

Chess in Russia

The game came to us in 820. It was a variant of the Arabic shatranj called chess. For harmony, they began to call them the word familiar to everyone - chess. It turns out that the path of movement begins in Persia, after which they penetrated the Caucasus and the Khazar Khaganate, and from there to us. If we consider the names of the figures, one can notice a striking resemblance to the Arabic and Persian names. So, the name of the bishop and the horse is Arabic, and the queen comes from the Persian word farzin.

But the international European terminology and variation of the game was brought from Poland, which chess entered through Italy. Therefore, the beginning of chess in Russia dates back to the X-XI century. In parallel, the yoke seeped into Europe, where it acquired the form of modern chess. But still, for many years, each town and village had its own characteristics, rules and methods.

Church against the game

Previously, the church played a huge role in the life of every person, so they often dictated the rules for holding and even games. So, the clergy condemned drunkenness, revelry and gambling. At that time, chess did not have strict rules, so it was difficult to prove that it was a logic game. But it still used dice, on which the course of the tournament depended.

Therefore, in 1061 they were banned among the clergy, and chess itself was considered something obscene and diabolical. But if you look closely at the most avid chess players, you can see a lot of Catholics. In Russia, the ban was strict, because disobedience threatened to excommunicate any caught chess player from the church. This was recorded in the Novgorod helmsman's book in 1280.

But despite such strict prohibitions, the game continued to seep into different segments of the population. There were also many apostates among the clergy, who played avidly. And only a hundred years later chess was allowed. In Europe, this happened in 1392.

A special kind of "crazy" chess

So you can only talk about the Swedish version of the game, which literally translates as “madhouse”. Outwardly, it looks like this, if you do not know its rules thoroughly. The pace of such chess is fast, and while thinking, the players have every right to talk to each other.

To play Swedish, you need to take 2 boards. You need to play in pairs, and 1 person will wield white pieces, and the second - black. There is one peculiarity: if a piece has been captured, then it is transferred to the partner's board, who can safely put it on any cell whenever he wants. Partners are allowed to prompt each other, ask to transfer a certain figure.

This game is interesting for its fast pace and the presence of a partner who can always help. As a result, the Swedish players have more developed logical thinking, because they think in terms of the scheme both for themselves and for their partner, they have excellent combinational vision. But the computer is much easier to beat than in classical chess.

Long way of chess

The full theory of the game of chess began to develop only in the 15th-16th centuries, when the rules were settled and all countries played more or less the same. At that time, 3 main stages of the party were distinguished:

• opening (separate part - gambit);
• middlegame;
• endgame.

This is detailed in the chess textbook Ruy Lopez om in 1561. Until the 18th century, Italian masters considered a massive attack on the king by all means and the use of a pawn as an auxiliary material as the best style of this logic game. But Philidor significantly changed this thought. He pointed out the recklessness of such attacks, because you can gradually build a strong position without losses, using exchanges and simplifications.

The main idea of ​​the game should be the correct placement of pawns, as they are an excellent defense and a way to attack. Philidor came up with a special chain of pawns that moved according to a certain tactic. He even had a special pawn center. These developments became the basis for the next century.

Chess as a sport

A little later, people began to unite in chess clubs, where they played for money. The popularity of chess increased so much that in 1575 the first international chess tournament was held. It was held at the court of King Philip II in Madrid. True, only 4 people (2 Italians and a Spaniard) took part in the game.

After this significant event, national tournaments were held in almost all European countries, and in 1836 the world saw the first chess magazine, Polymed. Its publisher was the Frenchman Louis Charles Labourdonnet. In 1821, they began to constantly hold international matches and tournaments. At the same time, the world learned the name of the strongest chess player - Adolf Andersen. Later, the American was ahead of him, after which Andersen again regained the title.

AT modern form the tournament was held much later. In the 19th century, the chess clock appeared, which was invented by the Englishman Thomas Bright Wilson. This gave impetus to the development of new shortened games called “quick” (30 minutes) and “blitz tournament” lasting 5-10 minutes.

People all over the world liked this game so much that many works of art have been written about it. The chessboard inspired more than one painting.

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 it was very interesting for me, as the daughter of a chess player and an international chess arbiter (one of the oldest and most experienced arbiters in Russia), 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. After that, from ebony wood 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 chaturanga 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 could 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 no such sage in Iran who could unravel the mystery of chess, then, on the contrary, you would be kind enough to pay us 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 people brought some elements of their 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”.

According to archaeological excavations, games associated with the movement of chips on the board were known as early as the 3rd-4th centuries. BC e. The true age of the game known in the Western world as chess, shrouded in the darkness of mystery.

Al-Biruni in his book "India" tells a legend that attributes the creation of chess to a Brahmin mathematician around 1000 BC. When the ruler asked how to reward him for this wonderful game, the mathematician replied: “Let's put one grain on the first cell of the chessboard, two on the second, four on the third, and so on. So give me the amount of grain that will turn out, if you fill in all 64 cells. The ruler rejoiced, believing that we are talking about 2-3 bags, but if you count 2 to the 64th power, it turns out that this number is more than all the grain in the world.

According to another legend, chess was invented by an Eastern sage, whose name was Shishakh, and he lived in Babylon. Under him, the young king Amolni sat on the throne, who greatly oppressed the lower strata of society, especially the peasants. In the greatest desperation, the peasants turned to Shishah, who was highly respected at the royal court, and asked him for help. Basically, they persuaded him to convince the king that the peasant is also a person who benefits the state. To convince the king of this, Shishakh invented chess and taught the king how to play chess. Thus he proved to him that the peasants, i.e. the pawns on the board are still the king's best guard. The king understood in this way the main idea of ​​the chess game and stopped oppressing the peasants, and generously rewarded his adviser.

Based on another legend, chess was invented by the wife of King Ravan of Ceylon. When everyone in his besieged capital had already lost heart and lost all courage to continue the fight, the desperate king Ravan decided to give the city to the enemy. But the king had a wife, Queen Ranaliana, a heroic woman, and she invented the game of chess to prove to her husband that he should not surrender to the enemy until all means of defense were exhausted, until at least one pawn soldier remained on the board, until there is at least a faint hope of victory!

Scientific hypotheses push back the creation of chess even further, to 2-3 millennia BC, based on archaeological discoveries in Egypt, Iraq, and India. However, since there is no mention in the literature about this game before 570 AD, many historians recognize this date as the birthday of chess. The first mention of the game of chess was in a Persian poem from 600 AD, and in this poem the invention of chess is attributed to India.

Raja Krishna playing ancient chess chaturanga

The oldest form of chess war game Chaturanga - appeared in the first centuries AD. e. In India, the Chaturanga was the name given to the formation of an army, which included war chariots (ratha), elephants (hasti), cavalry (ashva) and foot soldiers (padati). The game symbolized the battle with the participation of four branches of the army, led by the leader. They were located at the corners of a 64-kopeck square board (shtapada), 4 people participated in the game. The movement of the pieces was determined by throwing the dice. Chaturanga existed in India until the early 20th century. and eventually became known as "chaturraja" - the game of four kings; at the same time, the figures began to be painted in 4 colors - black, red, yellow and green.

In the first centuries of our era, the game was so widespread in Persia that it was considered a shame when an intelligent person did not know how to play it. The game of chess left traces in the language of that time, in symbols and metaphors, as well as in the poetry of that time.

Chaturanga was succeeded by the game shatrang (chatrang), which arose in Central Asia at the end of the 5th - beginning of the 6th centuries. It had two "camps" of figures and a new figure depicting the king's adviser - farzin; played by two opponents. The goal of the game is to checkmate the opponent's king. So the "game of chance" was replaced by the "game of the mind."

The penetration of chess from India to ancient Iran (Persia) during the reign of Chosroy I Anushiravan (531-579) is described in a Persian book from 650-750. The same book describes chess terminology and the names and actions of various chess pieces in great detail. Since there are no written references to chess in the literature before the 6th century AD before this book, many historians recognize this period as the birth of chess.

The game of chess is also mentioned in the poems of Firdusi, a Persian poet who lived in the 10th century AD. The poem describes the gifts presented by the messengers of the Indian rajah to the court of the Persian sheikh Chosroy I Anushiravan. Among these gifts, according to the poem, was a game depicting a battle between two armies. After the Persian Empire was conquered by the Muslim Arabs, the game of chess began to spread throughout the civilized world.

It is proved that in Byzantium in the 6th and 7th centuries AD the game of chess was very popular. The Byzantine emperor Nicophorus himself, in a letter to Caliph Harun al Rashid, makes a comparison between the queen on the board and his predecessor on the throne, Empress Irene.

In the 8th-9th centuries. shatrant spread from Central Asia to the East and West, where it became known under the Arabic name shatranj.

In shatranj (9th-15th centuries), the terminology and arrangement of the shatrang figures was preserved, but the appearance of the figures changed. In view of the prohibition of images of living beings by Islam, the Arabs used miniature abstract figures in the form of small cylinders and cones, which simplified their production and contributed to the spread of the game.

The strongest players of shatranj, along with the Arabs - Al-Adli and others - were from Central Asia - Abu Naim, al-Khadim, al-Razi, al-Supi, al-Lajlaj, Abu-Fath, etc. Among the patrons of the game were famous caliphs Harun-ar-Rashid, al-Amin, al-Mamun and others. The game developed slowly, since only the rook, king and knight moved according to modern rules, while the range of action of other pieces was extremely limited. For example, the queen moved only one square diagonally.

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 sacred game of chess (Omar Khayyam, Saadi, Nizami).

The emergence of the so-called descriptive notation is also associated with the Arab period, thanks to which it became possible to record the games played.

Shatranj was brought directly to the West of Europe during the early Middle Ages by the Arabs. Here chess became known in the X-XI centuries, after the Arabs conquered Spain and Sicily. The game had a pronounced military character, so it was very well received in the knightly countries of medieval Europe.

From Spain, the game reached France, where, for example, Charlemagne was a big fan of it.

Chess in medieval France

Also, from Spain and Sicily, chess gradually penetrated into Italy, England, Scandinavian and other European countries, despite the most severe persecution of the church, which forbade chess along with the game of "dice" and other "demonic obsessions".

Chess was brought to Spain by the Moors, and the first mention of chess in Christendom is in the Catalan Testament of 1010 AD. Although chess was known in Europe in earlier times. According to some legends, an expensive set of chess pieces was presented as a gift to Carloman (8th-9th century) from the famous Muslim ruler Harun al-Rashid.

There is a poem describing that chess existed in the court of the legendary King Arthur. Chess came to Germany in the 10th and 11th centuries, the earliest mention in literature was made by the monk Frumun von Tegermsee, in 1030-1050. It records that Svetoslav Shurin from Croatia defeated the Venetian Dodge Peter II in the game for the right to rule the Dalmatian cities. By the 10th and 11th centuries, chess was known in Scandinavia and later reached Bohemia from Italy at the end of the 11th century.

"Two Ladies Playing Chess"
illustration from the "Book of Games" by King Alfonso X of Castile the Wise, grandson of Frederick Barbarossa

Despite the fierce resistance of the initially Muslim, and then the Christian church, (which equated chess with gambling considered to be a "demonic obsession", chess was banned in Europe for some time, as it was often used to play for money and it was claimed that they bore signs of paganism), nothing could stop the growing popularity of the game, which is confirmed numerous literary references. The popularity of chess continues to grow and soon the whole world knows and plays this most popular game of the ancient world.

In the 14-15 centuries. traditions Eastern chess in Europe were lost, and in the 15-16 centuries. a departure from them became obvious after a series of changes in the rules for the moves of pawns, bishops and queens.

On the territory of Russia, in Bulgaria the game became known around the 10th-12th centuries. Important archaeological finds in Novgorod testify that chess, which was mainly distributed by the Arabs, came to Russia directly from the Middle East. To this day, the names of chess pieces in Russia point to their Persian and Arabic roots.

A unique find has survived to our time - a chess piece made by Novgorod masters in the 14th century. The figurine was found near the Vladychnaya Chamber, the former residence of the Novgorod archbishop. The found figure is a king, it was made of strong wood, most likely from juniper (see on the right).

In old Russian folk poems, there are references to chess as a popular game. At a later time, European chess came to Russia from Italy, through Poland. There is an incorrect version that allegedly chess was brought to Russia during the Mongol-Tatar invasion, the Mongol-Tatars, in turn, learned about this game from the Persians and Arabs.

Peter I, going on campaigns, took with him not only chess, but also two permanent partners. Catherine II was also fond of chess. In 1796 Count A.S. Stroganov arranged for Catherine II and the Swedish king Gustav IV, who were visiting his country palace, a game of live chess. In a meadow where a “chessboard” was laid out with green and yellow turf, servants dressed in medieval clothes moved in accordance with the moves of the chess pargai.

Chess was widely spread among the Russian intelligentsia. In the library of A. S. Pushkin, a book by A. D. Petrov, published in 1824, who was the strongest chess player in Russia for half a century, "A chess game brought into a systematic order" with the author's dedication, has been preserved; Pushkin was a subscriber to the first chess magazine, Palamede, which began to appear in Paris in 1836.

Despite the fact that chess was a popular game, until the end of the 19th century, Russia lagged behind England, France, and Germany in terms of the level of development of chess. The first Russian chess club was opened in St. Petersburg only in 1853, and the first Russian chess magazine was published in 1859.

The situation changed at the beginning of the 20th century, when the St. Petersburg Chess Assembly, which arose from a private circle, was founded, whose activities in popularizing chess turned out to be very fruitful.

The club was opened on January 17, 1904, and in April 1914, the All-Russian Chess Union was established in the premises of the Assembly at 10 Liteiny Prospekt.

The club held professional and amateur tournaments, friendly matches between the teams of Moscow and St. Petersburg, simultaneous games, published special literature. Within the walls of the Assembly housed the richest chess library in the country.

Historical variants of chess

Historically, chess, in its original form, was a four-person game with four sets of pieces. This game was originally called Shatranj (in Sanskrit, Shatr means "four" and anga means "squad"). in the Persian literature of the Sassanid dynasty (242-651 centuries AD), a book was found written in Pahlavi (Middle Persian language), which was called "Chess Manual". In modern Persian, the same word shatranzh is used to designate modern chess. A popular historical theory is that shatranj (chess), according to Indian mysticism, represents the universe. The four sides display the four elements - earth, air, fire and water; as well as the four seasons and the four temperaments of man. It is also claimed that the word chess comes from the Persian "king" (shah) and the term chess comes from the Persian "The king is dead". Below is the evolution of the European names for chess pieces from their ancient names that are still used in India, Iran, and many other parts of the world.

It should be noted that although the names of chess pieces vary slightly in different parts of the world, their shape and movement rules are almost identical.

Muslim Arabs have probably made the greatest impact on the game of chess than any other culture. The word "chess" originally comes from the Persian Shah (king) and the Arabic word mat (died). Early Muslim contributions to the game include: the blind game mentioned as early as 700 CE, the first tournaments and qualifying tournaments, and the chess problems described in Al-Adli's first chess book. Al-Adli's books contain openings, the first "mansuba" chess problems, and discuss differences in Persian and Indian rules of the game. Unfortunately, this valuable book is now lost. However, a valuable Arabic manuscript from the beginning of the 9th century is kept in the Yugoslav library, which contains mansubs. This manuscript was discovered in 1958. Some of these mansubs (chess problems) were based on the legend "Mat Dilarama". According to legend, Dilaram was a chess player who gambled and lost all his possessions. In the last game, he put his wife on the line, but he played recklessly and almost lost this game. However, his wife remarked that he could checkmate his opponent if he sacrificed both of his rooks. His wife whispered this in his ear, and he won the game.

The following table lists some of the ancient Arabic names for the figures, and their meanings:

It was played on a round board, but the pieces and their movement were similar to Arabic chess of the same time period.

After the penetration of chess into Europe, many books appeared devoted to this game. Probably one of the most important and valuable of these books was written in the Middle Ages by the Spanish King Alfonso the Wise in 1283. This wonderful book contains 150 color miniatures based on the original Persian drawings. This book also includes a collection of endgames borrowed from Arabic literature. Chess has gone through the history of many cultures and has been influenced by them. Modern official rules chess games are perfectly preserved and differ little from those that were used 1430 years ago.

Chess is a real mirror of culture. Countries have changed, the structure of society has changed - the rules have changed.

For example, the figure of a queen, "queen", appeared only in the Middle Ages, when a noble lady began to play an important role, and they began to pay honors to her at jousting tournaments. In the game, she took on the role of the king's adviser - the vizier in the Eastern version of chess. The current freedom of movement, independence, "emancipation" of the queen was unthinkable until the end of the 15th century.

The old versions of the game are generally less dynamic, like the ancient society. In traditional Chinese chess, the "master" is inactive, he maneuvers in a very small space - as if within the walls of the imperial palace. Indian "chaturanga" followed a strict division of figures into castes - priests, rulers, peasants, servants.

But in Japan, the military-aristocratic system from the 12th century allowed a person of noble birth, ready to apply due diligence, to achieve a quick take-off. And chess pieces were given the opportunity to raise their status. And in European chess, a pawn that has reached the opposite edge of the board turns into any piece - even a queen.

In modern times, they wanted to bring chess closer to the changing reality. During the Nazi era in Germany, they tried to turn the “game of kings” into a “game of the Fuhrers”: several leaders entered the battle, one of them had to be defeated. The game didn't catch on. Just like the Fuhrers.

A more diplomatic option was offered by the famous Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951). In the chess he invented, planes and submarines appeared on the board, but negotiations and alliances were allowed. Moreover, four "powers" played the game at once - one on each side of the board, as in the ancient Indian "four chess"

An engraving from 1909 allegedly depicts a chess game between Hitler and Lenin. It is even signed by both of them on the reverse side.

Whatever one may say, chess appeared in India! Is this statement true? We will learn about this today. Let's see where chess was invented, how many versions of the history of the game exist, and which one is proven.

The birthplace of chess

Where was chess invented?

There are indeed many versions of the creation of this board game. How old is chess? The first legend says that chess was invented by a mathematician from India around 1000 BC. The same mathematician is known for the fact that he invented such a famous mathematical operation as raising to a power. These two events are closely related. The ruler liked the board game of chess so much that he wanted to thank the mathematician, but did not know how. Then the mathematician said that he could be thanked with grain in an amount that would allow filling all 64 cells of the chessboard according to the following principle ... First you need to put 1 grain on the first cell of the board, then 2 on the second, 4 on the third, etc. d. The ruler did not know that 2 to 64 degrees of grain cannot be found all over the world, so he foolishly became delighted, thinking about 2-3 sacks of grain.

The legend, of course, is beautiful, but it has never been proved. However, this happened with the second version that the game of chess was invented in the second or third millennium BC. This version is based only on the excavations of archaeologists again in India, Egypt, Iraq.

Historians attribute the invention of chess to 570 AD. The country where chess was invented is India. Indeed, for the first time, the board game of chess was mentioned in a Persian poem, which says that chess was invented in India. The Persian book is a proof of the theory of the invention of chess, since it indicates the entire terminology of the game, the various actions of the pieces and. The book tells how chess got from India to Persia (that is, to ancient Iran). In the works of the Persian poet Firdusi, one can also find information about how the envoys of the Indian Raja presented gifts to the Sheikh of Persia, Chosroy I Anushiravan, and one of the gifts was the same chess. Chess spread to all civilized countries after Persia was conquered by Muslim Arabs.

Chess came to Russia directly from the eastern countries, as archeological excavations and the names of certain chess pieces that have survived to this day say. And in Russia in poems they wrote about chess as a popular game. And chess in the European manner was brought to us through Poland from Italy.

It turns out that whatever the legend may be true, the country where chess was invented is India.

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 present, 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 want to adequately reward you, Seth, for great game which you invented,” 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 up the seas and oceans, order to melt the ice and snow covering 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 said 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 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" (her 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 you put one grain 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 a 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- 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 Southeast 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 who officially held this title was the same Wilhelm Steinitz, who defeated Johann Zukertort 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 basis: the one who won the match against the previous one became the new world champion, while the current champion reserved the right to agree to the match or reject the 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. Typically, 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 - beginning of the 20th century, the development of chess in Europe and America was very active, chess organizations grew larger, 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 to win the title of champion: the winners of the qualifying stages 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 the 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 the world champion at that time, 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 (Anatoli 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 unambiguous 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 computer performance and memory, coupled 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 as regular chess, but where "opening theories" do not play a big role in the game. The starting position of the pieces is randomly generated using only 2 rules: bishops stand on cells 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 mindlessly! 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 pieces? 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!

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