Written by: Suprabh Acharya - 27014, Grade IX
Posted on: 30 January, 2024
Chess is a two-player strategy based board game which is said to be one of the oldest games in the world. It is played on a square board which is divided into 64 small squares of generally black and white color. Each player has 16 pieces which contain one king, one queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops and eight pawns. The objective of playing chess is to checkmate the king of the opposing player. Chess involves the skills of strategic planning and tactics.
The board game chess is said to have originated from India and made its way to European countries through Persia during the early 15 century. [1] The Persian players made different variations of the game starting from the positions of all the pieces and how the pieces move. The tradition of chess transformed during the Renaissance period. The queen was made able to move all across the board with power. This change in the game changed the adaptation of the game making it more thrilling and interesting.
As chess continued to spread in the world, many strategies and tactics were made by players. Some of them are: en passant and castling. En passant allows a pawn to capture the opponent’s pawn that has moved at least two squares from its starting position. [2]
Similarly, castling is a strategic move which involves the king and one rook. This move makes it so that the king can escape from the center of the board and position the rook to defend the king or attack. [2] These strategies transformed the tactical chances and complexity of chess.
By the 19th century, chess became famous for passing time and learning new strategies and tactics for leaders too. The competitive nature of chess led to the first international chess tournament in the world. This tournament took place in London, United Kingdoms in 1851 AD. This can be taken as the beginning of the chess era.
This tournament was a platform for players like Emanuel Lasker, Wilhelm Steinitz and other masters to show their talent in front of the world. Each player brought a new and unique style of playing chess and a different vision which influenced various generations of players to get better and learn more from the board game.
Around the 20th century, chess was revolutionized by computers. The match between Garry Kasparov and IBM’s Deep Blue AI showcased the potential of AI in chess and mastering the game of chess. [3] This event emphasized on the evolution of the interrelationship between humans and computers in the chess world. In the 21st century, chess has become a worldwide game. The evolution of chess shows the game’s adaptability and creativity it offers and it still continues to improve and have changes in the game.
