We explain what chess is and the history of this game. Also, how is your board and the movements of your pieces.
What is chess?
Chess is a popular play table top tradition ancestral, whose frequent and sporting practice in the West dates back to the 15th century. The game simulates the confrontation between two ancient armies on a squared board and assigns each player one of the sides, with the purpose of defeating the opponent and capturing their king.
The name of the game comes from the Arabic ash-shatranj, itself a loanword from the Persian language. Its initial form in Spanish was acedrex, which would then become chess and finally, in the modern phony of Castilian, chess.
Chess is a game widely spread and practiced throughout the world and at the time it was considered a "game of kings" because it was very common among the nobility. The rule standard used today dates back to the 19th century. Since the middle of the 20th century it has been considered a game worthy of prestigious international competitions, whose official tournaments are organized locally, nationally, regionally and worldwide.
In fact, world chess championships have been held since 1866, and players from very different nationalities have been crowned in them, such as Germany, Cuba, India, the United States and, above all, Russia.
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history of chess
There is no consensus regarding the exact origin of the game of chess. It was probably invented in Asia by some ancient culture, such as India, whose game chaturanga It had important similarities, either for China, with its version of the game known as Xiangqi.
The oldest mentions of the game come from ancient Persia, as is the Kar-Namag i Ardashir i Pabagan ("Book of the rights of Ardeshir, son of Pabag") of the sixth century, a work in which the foundation of the Persian Sanssanid dynasty by Ardacher I is narrated.
The game passed from Persian hands to Arab hands after the conquest of Persia and it was the Muslims who transmitted it to Africa and the West, especially to the regions of Europe that were controlled by the Islamic empire and therefore received a strong influence from their culture during the dark ages of Europe: Italy and Spain. From there the game spread from the 10th century to the rest of the European continent.
For its part, in Asia chess flourished in variants that still exist, such as shogi (Japanese chess), janggi (Korean chess) or markuk (Thai chess), all heirs to the Chinese version of the game.
The great success of chess in Europe occurred in the fifteenth century, when it became popular among the nobility and was later brought to the American colonies. Throughout all the centuries, the rules and the pieces were changing, and the Europeans made their contributions to it (such as the queen and the bishop).
The first chess clubs emerged in the 18th century and in 1851 the first international chess tournament in history was played, based in London, and in 1886 the first world champion in history, the Austrian Wilhelm Steinitz, was crowned. In 1924 the International Chess Federation was founded and the first Chess Olympiad was organized. The sport has not stopped growing in fans since then.
Already in contemporary times, the first automated chess games emerged, hand in hand with the first computers and pieces of software, and the arrival of Internet it allowed online play between humans or against the machine. Also, in 1997 the Deep Blue supercomputer defeated the world champion Gari Kasparov.
chess pieces
The chess pieces are always the same, although they are of two different colors (black and white, or light and dark) and are distributed in the same proportion on both opposing sides. Each one has its own range of allowed movements and a rating in points. In this way, each player will have:
- A king, on which the party depends. It is the only piece that cannot be captured normally, but must be cornered in a position such that it has no possible moves and is under attack by an enemy piece (that is, in check). When the king is in check and has no way out and no way to defend himself, he is said to be in check. checkmate and this sentences the end of the game. The king can move one square at a time in any desired direction, and any piece in its path can be captured by the king, as long as this does not expose the king to check.
- A lady or queen, the most powerful piece in the match, worth 9 points when captured. The queen can move any number of squares in any desired direction (horizontally, vertically, or diagonally), and she can capture any piece in the same directions.
- Two towers, worth 5 points each. These pieces can only move horizontally and vertically, but they can do so as many squares as desired, being able to capture pieces to the same extent.
- two bishops, worth 3 points each. These pieces can only move vertically, but they can do so as many squares as desired. For that reason there is one in black squares and another in white squares, exclusively. Bishops capture pieces on their respective diagonal squares.
- Two horses, worth 3 points each.These pieces are the most agile in the game, and in their path they can pass over (“jump”) other pieces that are crossed, something impossible in the rest of the cases. However, its movement must always trace an "L", that is, two squares in a row in the same horizontal or vertical direction (never diagonal) and then a vertical or horizontal square. Therefore, to capture a piece, it must be located in that last square of the "L", and not in the initial squares "jumped" by the knight.
- eight pawns, the pieces with the least value in the game: 1 point each. These pieces can only move forward and one square at a time, except for their initial move (known as “exit”) in which they can choose between advancing one or two squares. In addition, pawns can only capture the enemy pieces that are in their two immediate front diagonal squares (right diagonal and left diagonal). However, when a pawn advances uninterrupted to the end of its row on the enemy side of the board, it can be "crowned" and exchanged for any other game piece except the king.
There is a special move known as "castling", in which a king and a rook that have not yet moved in the game and are not under any threat can exchange their original positions, occupying the intermediate squares to shelter the king. There is a short castling (with the king's rook) and a long castling (with the queen's rook).
chess board
The chessboard is square and is divided into 64 identical squares forming an 8×8 matrix. Looking at it from the front, the leftmost square must always be white (or some light color), while the two that follow it (above and below) must be black (or some dark color) and the ones following those light , alternating successively.
Each of the two players will occupy one side of the board, facing each other and arranging their pieces according to the following formation:
The squares of the chessboard are normally numbered from 1 to 8 as they ascend vertically, and identified in the a to h as they move horizontally. These elements are important for chess notation, which records the moves of a match using a special language.
chess rules
The rules of chess can be summarized as follows:
- Only two players can play per game, each one in charge of a side (light or dark). Each side must be drawn before the game.
- The player on the light side will always have the first move. The object of the game is to defeat the opposing side by capturing their pieces until they can corner the opposing king and lead it to the checkmate.
- The game takes place in turns. On each turn a player can move one piece at a time. No player can skip their turn, nor is it allowed to go back to previous moves.
- Each player's turn will last as long as necessary, or it can be measured through a clock. In the latter case, the player who runs out of the total time set for the game on his turn will lose the game.
- When an enemy piece is captured, it must be removed from the board and the own piece that captured it takes its place. Captured pieces cannot return to the board. Unless captured, pieces in play cannot leave the board either.
- The king is the only piece that cannot move to occupy a square threatened by an opposing piece. That is, the king can never voluntarily expose himself to check. Similarly, no player can ignore a check to his king.
- Any player can resign from the game whenever he wishes. This, however, is considered to give the other the victory.
The game can end in a tie (called boards) when any of the following conditions occur:
- Both players agree to suspend the game without a declared winner.
- Neither player has enough pieces left to give the other checkmate.
- The exact same position of the pieces on the board is repeated for three consecutive turns.
- Without being in check, the player in turn cannot make any legal moves (he is said to be stalemate).
- When 50 consecutive moves have elapsed without a piece being captured or a pawn having advanced.
Chess tactics and strategy
Since both sides in play have the same number of pieces arranged in exactly the same way, victory in chess depends entirely on the skill of the player, that is, on his ability to tactic Y strategy.
For this reason, the game is not considered "chance", but "strategy". Its fans are normally dedicated to the study of the sequences of movements and their tactical variants, in order to control the development of the game and reduce the options of the opposing side.
In this sense, chess players aspire to capture the largest number of the opponent's pieces or to capture their key pieces, or to achieve a favorable positioning of their own pieces in order to advance over the enemy territory towards the king. It is, in fact, the mastery of tactics and strategy that differentiates novice chess players from more advanced players.
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References
- "Chess" on Wikipedia.
- "History of chess" on Wikipedia.
- "The history of chess, a millennial game" in National Geographic.
- "Etymology of Chess" in the Online Spanish Etymological Dictionary.
- “Chess (game)” in The Encyclopaedia Britannica.