History of Chess
Genesis of Chess
Chess is thought to have begun in eastern India around 280-550 CE, where it was called chaturanga. This game can be seen as the direct precursor of chess, as it was revolutionary in having both pieces with specific powers and an 8 by 8 square board. In this form, there was an adviser instead of a queen, an elephant instead of a bishop, and a chariot instead of a rook; and the adviser and elephant were both drastically weaker than the queen and rook today.
Spread to Persia
From India chess spread to Persia (modern-day Iran), and became known as chatrang. In Persia, the precedent was set for calling Shah! (or "King!") when attacking the King, and calling Shah Mat! (or "the king is helpless!") when the King was attacked and could not escape, ending the game. This persists today in the form of calling check and checkmate, respectively. The first rulebook of the game, the Matikan-i-chatrang ("book of chess") was also set down. Finally, the oldest game of chess for which we still have a record was played in the tenth century.
Absorption in Islamic World
When the Persian Empire fell to the Islamic caliphate in the seventh century, the Arabic world absorbed chess, or as they knew it, shatranj. Two key developments followed from this. Firstly, the chess pieces developed from depictional imagery to more abstract shapes, to avoid idolatry. Secondly, the most enduring myth regarding the creation of the game of chess was started, revolving around two half-brothers competing for the throne of India, and the victor's efforts to prove to their mother that he did not directly kill his rival.
Spread to Europe
The Islamic Empire spread chess to Europe as it expanded, but it did not catch on in popularity until more representational figures replaced the abstract pieces. Between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, chess became a cultural behemoth, wildly popular among academics, nobility, and even royalty. Over time, the names of the pieces began to shift as well, with the Queen, Bishop, and Rook taking the places of the earlier Adviser, Elephant, and Chariot. Rules were shifted slightly to increase the speed of the game, especially that of the opening phase.
Modern Chess
What we consider the era of modern chess began in the fifteenth century, when the Queen and Bishop both were substantially improved to the movement abilities they have today. This drastically increased the pace of the game, and allowed for a far wider array of tactics and strategies. Because of the western depiction of the Rook as a turret, many also began to call the Rook the Castle around this time. Chess theory and puzzles became prevalent, and organizations and publications devoted to chess developed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Competitive Chess
Competitive chess came into its own in the mid nineteenth century. Very quickly the time players took to make their moves became a concern, and various time limitations were introduced to the competitive scene. The first modern chess tournament was in London in 1851, and European-American chess tournaments grew from there. After World War II, the World Chess Federation formally took over the organization of top-level chess, and created a structured system of matchups and advancement. From then on, professionals from across the globe have competed for the coveted title of grandmaster.
Gameplay
In chess, the objective is to checkmate the opponent's king; that is, to place it in a threatened position from which it cannot escape. The following describe the basic rules of chess. The movement abilities of specific pieces are laid out in the following section.
Setup
Chess is played on an 8x8 board divided evenly between light and dark squares. The bottom right square from each player's perspective should be a light square.
Each player begins with one set of sixteen pieces, black or white. Each set consists of one king, one queen, two bishops, two knights, two rooks, and eight pawns.
On the row closest to yourself, place from each outside in the rooks, knights, and bishops.
In the front middle two squares, place the king and queen. The queen goes on her own color; that is, a white queen goes on a light square.
On the second row, place all eight pawns in a row.
When your opponent does likewise, you are ready to begin the game!
Turns
The player with white pieces always moves first. After this, players alternate turns. On each player's turn, they must move one piece to either an unoccupied space or one occupied by an opponent's piece. Moving to the same space as an opponent's piece captures the piece, removing it from play.
Players must move every turn, there is no "passing." When playing with time control, each player will have a clock running down during their turn, and upon ending their turn will hit the clock, causing it to stop counting down their time and resume counting down their opponent's.
Check and Mate
The king is both the most critical piece in chess and the most fragile. When the king is under attack by any number of the opponent's pieces, it is in check. In response to a check, the player must make a legal move that places the king out of check. This can result from moving the king out of danger, capturing the checking piece, or placing a piece along the path of attack.
Checkmate occurs when the opponent's king is in check, and there is no legal move they can make which removes it from check. At this point, the king is laid down sideways on the board and the game is ended. The king's owner loses, and their opponent is the victor.
End of the Game
The objective of the game is to end in checkmate, but this is often not the case. Any player may at any point resign, conceding the game to their opponent. Running out of time in time control games will also lose you the game. In professional chess, forfeits are also possible for those who cheat or violate the laws and rules of the game.
The game can also end in a draw in a variety of ways. Most commonly is the draw by agreement, where one player offers the draw and the other accepts. The other most common method is the stalemate, when a player cannot make any legal move on their turn, but are not in check. There are several other specific conditions for a draw relating to the repetition of positions and periods of time without significant movement or capture.
Movement
Each piece in the game of chess has a unique path of movement and other options. Click a piece below to learn about its options.
The Pawn
The pawn has the most unusual movement abilities. Pawns in normal circumstances can advance one space forward per turn. Unlike all other pieces, the pawn does not capture according to its standard movement, and thus if an enemy piece occupies the space in front of the pawn, it cannot move forward. The pawn can attack the two spaces diagonally in front of it, signified by x's on the image. A pawn on its home row may elect to move two spaces forward instead of one.
The Rook
The rook can move any number of spaces orthogonally (along ranks/files, or rows/columns). It cannot leap over any other pieces, and thus is blocked by allied pieces and must stop to capture enemy pieces.
The Knight
The knight has an unorthodox path of movement: it moves in an L-shape. That is, it moves either two squares vertically and one horizontally, or two squares horizontally and one square vertically. The knight is the only piece which can leap over both allied and enemy pieces on its way to its target space.
The Bishop
The bishop can move any number of squares diagonally. This means a bishop will always remain on the same color of square it begins play on, so some players refer to their bishops as their light and dark bishops. The bishop cannot leap over other pieces.
The Queen
The queen has the broadest range of movement and thus is a critical piece. It combines the abilities of the rook and bishop, being able to move any number of spaces orthogonally or diagonally. However, the queen is still unable to leap over any other pieces.
The King
The king may be the most important piece, but it is one of the least mobile. The king can only move one space in any direction per turn. The king cannot be moved into a position where it is under attack.
Advanced Movement
There are also three advanced or special moves in the game of chess, which can only take place under specific circumstances.
Castling
Each king is able to make a move called castling once per game. When a king castles, it moves two squares horizontally toward a rook, then moving the rook to the space the king most recently crossed. The above images show the process of castling: the left image shows the spaces each king can move to as dots, while the right image shows the white king having castled "kingside" while the black king has castled "queenside".
The following conditions must be met for castling to occur:
- Neither the king nor the target rook may have previously been moved at any point in the game.
- There cannot be any pieces, allied or enemy, between the king and the rook.
- The king cannot castle while in check.
- The king cannot pass through squares that are under attack by enemy pieces, or move to a space where it would be in check.
En Passant
En passant occurs in a very specific circumstance. In a situation where a pawn in its home row would be able to be captured by an enemy pawn if it advanced one space, it may elect to advance two spaces. If this is done, the opponent may move their pawn to the space the pawn passed over and capture it en passant. This must be done immediately after the initial pawn moves two spaces, or the ability to do so is lost.
The above images showcase an en passant capture. On the leftmost image, the white pawn elects to advance two spaces. On the middle image, the black pawn executes the move. The rightmost image shows the board after these two moves.
Promotion
The pawn has one other special move, that of promotion. By advancing all the way to the far end of the board, the pawn is immediately replaced by its owner's choice of a queen, knight, rook, or bishop of its color. This replacement occurs instantaneously, and is all considered part of one move. The pawn can be promoted to a new piece even if the player has lost of those pieces; thus a player could have two or more queens. The most common promotion is to a queen, as it is by far the most powerful piece. In specific situations, however, it may be advantageous to "underpromote" into a knight, a rook, or (rarely) a bishop.
Strategy and Tactics
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