History of Chess
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It emerged in India around 1500 years ago and was then known as chaturanga.
Chaturanga means “the four divisions”
Around 600 AD, the Arabic game shatranj developed from the Indian game chaturanga, becoming
the first game identifiable as chess.
Shatranj was played on an 8x8 board and featured 16 pieces on each side, similar to today's chess: the
soldier (pawn), the horse (knight), the elephant (a weaker bishop), the chariot (rook), the counselor (a
much weaker queen), and the shah (king).
One of the first masters of the game was a Spanish priest named Ruy Lopez.
In 1749, the French Master Francois-Andre Philidor stepped onto the scene with his book titled Analyse
du jeu des Échecs. This book covered some new opening ideas (including the defense which still bears
his name), and also contained Philidor's famous defense in rook and pawn endgames - an endgame
technique that is still used today. Philidor's famous statement that "The pawns are the soul of
chess" was first introduced to the world in this book.
In 1770, the Hungarian inventor Wolfgang von Kempelen unveiled the Mechanical Turk, an
automatic chess-playing “machine” that entertained and bewildered audiences by defeating strong
human opponents.
In 1849, Jaques of London (a manufacturer of games and toys) introduced a new style of pieces created
by Nathaniel Cooke.
These same pieces were endorsed by Howard Staunton, the strongest player of his time. This new style
of pieces, known as the Staunton pattern, became instantly popular and were used in tournaments
and clubs all over the world.
The Staunton pieces, and minor variations of it, are still considered to be the standard for tournament
chess sets.
In 1861, the first chess timers were introduced using sand hourglasses with three hours of sand
each.
Chess games in the early 1800s sometimes lasted more than 14 hours! There were no time limits, and
losing players would try to tire out their opponents.
the Austrian-American chess player William Steinitz became the first official world chess champion in
1886 when he defeated Johannes Zukertort in a match for the undisputed championship.
Chess was developed during the 1800s. The most famous games of this time period
were swashbuckling attacking games.
It was during this attacking era in chess that the American player Paul Morphy entered the scene.
During his tour of Europe, Morphy soundly trounced every major player in the world except Howard
Staunton (who was past his prime and didn't accept Morphy's challenge).
Morphy steamrolled Adolf Anderssen, Louis Paulsen, Daniel Harrwitz, and a host of other masters.
In 1858, the famous "Opera House" game was played by Morphy vs the allies (the Duke of Brunswick
and a French Count), and is considered one of the best games of all time.
1972, a world chess championship match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky.
In 1989, the computer company IBM hired a team of Carnegie Mellon engineers to create a
computer capable of beating the world chess champion.
Magnus is undeniably one of the most prodigious chess figures in the history of the game.
He's the highest rated player ever. He became a grandmaster at age thirteen. In 2013, Carlsen
defeated GM Viswanathan Anand to win the world chess championship. And he's a fashion model.