The history of the chess game. The history of chess - who invented and how chess appeared

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 Eastern countries, so say archaeological excavations and the names of certain chess pieces that have survived to this day. 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 to be a 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.

AT different countries this game has its own name: in England - chess (chess), in Spain - ahedres (el axedres), in Germany - check (Schach), in France - 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 ascribes the creation of chess to a certain Brahmin (this is 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 how the legend goes:

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 wish to adequately reward you, Seta, for the wonderful game that you have come up with,” 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 the seas and oceans, order to melt the ice and snow that cover 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.
As
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's 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. One cubic meter wheat he would have counted out 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. Opposing troops put 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 it. He was 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 began to play, he liked this game and he was sure that will win the Shah with ease, but in the first game 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 in the countries flourished, but he had a son, twins, they differed 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 the government equally. But soon the brothers wanted to have one ruler, and each believed that he should become it. The brothers quarreled and a big war began in which an awful lot of people died. After some time, the brothers realized that the war is uncountable, 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 got wooden plank and figurines of black and white color, he told the brothers the rules of the game and a many-day “war” began in which every move was carefully thought out. And in this game "White" won, and after this incident, White is the first to move 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 of 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 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 - the 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. Under the influence of the cultural characteristics of the region and the board games that were in circulation there, the game noticeably changed in appearance and acquired new features, becoming the basis for the Chinese game of xiangqi. From it, in turn, came the Korean game of 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 figures limited area actions that can only move within a part of the board, in addition, the traditional "jumping" pieces have become linear (neither the knight nor the bishop can jump over the fields occupied by other pieces), but the new "cannon" piece - can beat the opponent's pieces, only by 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 most interesting feature shogi - the opponent's pieces taken by the player can be placed by him in any place of 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 a 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, a sharply negative position in relation to them has taken Christian church. 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 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 alone in Novgorod, 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 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 to officially hold 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. To late XIX century, official tournaments and matches without time control were practically not held. Simultaneously with the advent of time control, the concept of "time pressure" appeared. Thanks to the introduction of time control, special forms of chess tournaments with a greatly reduced time limit arose: "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 and beginning of the 20th century, the development of chess in Europe and America was very active, chess organizations grew larger, and 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 for winning the title of champion: the winners of the qualifying rounds 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 a 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, 11 of the 14 chess Olympiads for women were won during the same period 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, fled from the USSR to the West).

In 1993, Garry Kasparov, who was then world champion, 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 (Anatoly 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 unequivocal 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 a high enough level to surpass a 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 performance and memory capacity of computers, combined 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.

The current world chess champion is Viswanathan Anand, who won the 2007 World Chess Championship. In 2008, a rematch between Anand and Kramnik took place, Anand retained his title. In 2010, another match was held, in which Anand and Veselin Topalov took part; Anand again defended the title of champion.

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 has also retained the tradition of holding personal matches between a champion and a challenger: according to the 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 deadlines are met: the match must end no later than six months before start of the next World Cup.

"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. Chess pieces are placed in the same way in each game. Pawns are placed on the second and seventh lines. The rooks are in the corners, the knights next to them, then the bishops, and finally the queen, who always stands on a square of the same color as her (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 bishop can move as far as it wants, but only diagonally. Each bishop starts on a square of its own color, and must always remain on squares of the same color. Bishops work well together as they cover each other's weaknesses.

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 distinctive feature - they can turn into other pieces. 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 by which a 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 cages 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 apply 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!

Look on the site:
Evpatoria

The history of chess is very interesting. Someone may link the history of the emergence of chess with Persia (based on the name, which contains the words "shah" and "mate", which in Persian means "the king is dead"), but this is not at all the case.
Thousands of years before our era, there lived a king named Maharaja Ranvir, who ruled in the ancient city of Magadha, on the banks of the sacred river Ganges. He loved battles so much that he always either prepared a war or returned from a campaign. But not everyone in his realm shared this enthusiasm, and the ministers grew weary of his incessant military campaigns. It was necessary to think of something to save the king from his obsession.
And so, the first minister summoned Anantha, a reclusive Brahmin, a famous astrologer and mathematician, and asked him to help. A week later, Anantha reported that he had found a cure, which he would demonstrate at court the very next morning. The next morning, Anantha came with a black-and-white-checkered board with 64 pieces and taught Maharaja Ranvir how to play chess. In those days, going to war, the lord took with him elephants, camels, horses and foot warriors. The army was led by the first minister. Thus, the game was like a real battle. Maharaja Ranvir liked her so much that he promised to give Anantha whatever he wanted.
Anantha's request looked very modest: one grain placed on the first cell, two on the second, four on the third, and so on until all the cells were filled.

chessboard. The king at first thought that Anantha had fallen into insanity, until he realized that with each cell the number of grains doubles and by the end of the third row it takes 17 million grains (and 27 weeks to count them). If all the cells were filled, then it would take a very long time to count 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 grains of wheat per last cell...
The matter ended with the Maharaja appointing Anantha as Minister of Finance and never again went to war, enjoying the game of chess.
In ancient India, there were many varieties of chess - chaupar, chaturanga, ashtapadha. These games are also mentioned in the Mahabharata, which tells how the Kaurava brothers won their kingdom and wife Draupadi from the Pandavas in chaupara. But when the Kauravas tried to undress Draupadi, her honor was saved by Krishna, who infinitely lengthened her sari, so that the Kauravas simply could not unwind it to the end. This story ended with a battle on the field of Kurukshetra ...
Historical research says that in its original form, Indian chess was a four-person game with four sets of pieces. This game was called "Shatranj" or "Chaturanga" (translated from Sanskrit - "four squads"). And according to Indian mysticism, "shatranzh" represents the Universe, where four sides display not only four elements: earth, air, fire and water, but also four seasons and four human temperaments.
The game had a completely recognizable "chess" look, but was fundamentally different from modern chess in that the moves were made in accordance with the results of throwing playing cards.
bones. The exact rules of the game, which has been played in northwestern India since the early 6th century, are unknown, and the available records are incomplete and contradictory. The main source of information is a treatise by the 11th century Khorezm scholar Al Biruni, which contains only an incomplete description of Chaturanga. The rules below are reconstructions and may not be accurate.

The game was based on the structure of the Indian army, which consisted of 5 parts:
1. Infantry, represented in the game by a line of pawns
2. The king and his adviser (vizier or general) in the center
3. War elephants in the center of the army
4. Cavalry represented in the game by horses
5. War chariots represented by boats (modern name)

Due to the low mobility of the pieces, the Chaturanga game lasted a very long time, up to 200 moves. The game resembled bridge in a way. Two partners sitting opposite each other play with another pair. The player who placed his king on a friendly partner's king square took command of both armies. The goal of the game is to take 2 opponent's kings. After the penetration of chess into Europe, many books devoted to chess appeared. Probably one of the most valuable books was written in 1283 by the Spanish king Alfonso the Wise. This wonderful book contains 150 color miniatures based on original Persian drawings. Chess has gone through the history of many cultures and has been influenced by them. It should be noted that the names of chess pieces differ in different parts Sveta. For example, an elephant in Europe is called a bishop, a queen is called a queen ( ancient name- minister), a horse - a knight (the ancient name is a rider). But the shape and rules for moving the pieces are almost identical. The official rules of the game of chess are perfectly preserved and today differ little from those that were used thousands of years ago.

India, as the birthplace of chess, confirmed this title by the fact that the Indian citizen Viswanathan Anand became the World Chess Champion in 2000-2002 (according to FIDE). In 2007 he became the 15th world chess champion, and in 2010 he confirmed this title, which he still holds.

And chess in India today remains quite a popular game, both among the elderly and among children. Although the rules of the chess game in India are different from international ones. For example, the first move of a pawn according to Indian rules is one square, and according to international rules it is two, a pawn, having reached the last row of the board, does not become a queen, and so on ...

Tyutrina Natalya Andreevna

This work is devoted to the history of the origin of chess and the history of the origin of the name of chess pieces.

This work will be useful for students elementary school and all chess lovers.

Download:

Preview:

Municipal budgetary educational institution

secondary school No. 55

CHESS AND CHESS PIECES:

HISTORY OF THE ORIGIN OF NAMES

Work for the school scientific

practical conference

"Youth. The science. Success."

Tyutrina Natalia

Student 3 "B" class

Supervisor:

Tyutrina Tatyana Rafisovna

primary school teacher

IRKUTSK, 2013

Page

Introduction……………………………………………………………………3

1. Chess is the game of kings……………………………………………4
2. E2 - E4………………………………………………………………..6
3. Tours on wheels…………………………………………………...8
4. Animal or human? ....................................................... .......................ten
5. First Minister or Crowned Person?...............................................12

Conclusion……………………………………………………………..13

References……………………………………………………….14

Appendix…………………………………………………………….15

Introduction

“… Do not women play chess?!!!”

(Grand Duke of Kyiv Vladimir the Red Sun

from the cartoon "Vasilisa Mikulishna")

Chess is one of the most famous and popular games on the planet. This game has a very ancient and interesting history.

Every cultured and educated person all over the world has an idea about chess, many know how to play this game, they know the rules, the ethics of chess, the naming of pieces. However, few people thought about where the name of this game came from - “chess”, why the “rook” looks like a tower medieval castle and not on a warship ancient Russia, and the graphic and figurative representation of the chess "elephant" so little resembles a large, strong and kind animal. Why not otherwise?

The purpose of our study- to find the answer to this question.

object study is a game chess and pieces , its components.

To achieve our goal of research, we need to plunge back into the depths of the centuries, trace the history of the origin and changes of those words that denote chess pieces and solve the following tasks and answer questions:

1) What does the word "chess" mean?;

1. Find out why the pawn is called the "soul of the chess game"?;
2. Understand what is common between a huge animal, an officer, and a minister of the church?;
3. Find a connection between a medieval castle, a ship and the mythical Roc bird;
4. Why is the queen stronger than the king?

1. Chess is the game of kings

"Chess is too game for science and too science for game"

(Lessing)

There is a legend. Long ago, there lived a despotic Rajah in India. One of the close associates (brahmin priest) decided to show the ruler how much he depends on his subjects, and came up with a game where the king (king, shah), although he is the main figure, does not mean much without the support and protection of other figures.

The game turned out to be surprisingly interesting, and, not noticing the moralizing hint, the rajah offered the creator any reward. The Brahmin expressed his desire to be rewarded with grains of grain, but in such a way that for the first square of the chessboard he would be given one grain, for the second - two, for the third - four, then eight, sixteen, etc.

Since there are only sixty-four squares on the board, the rajah thought to get by with one or two bags, but in fact it turned out that in the whole world one could not find as many grains as needed in order to satisfy the wish of the ingenious inventor (264 − 1 ≈ 1.845 × 1019 grains are needed , which is enough to fill a storage facility with a volume of 180 km 3 ).

The oldest, primitive form of chess war game"Chaturanga" - originated in this country in the first five hundred years BC. e. From India, the game penetrates into China, Iran. Peoples make a great contribution to the development of chess Central Asia. After the conquest of Central Asia by the Arabs in the 8th century A.D. e. chess is spreading over the vast territory of the Arab Caliphate. Then, through the Arab conquerors, the game gets to Spain and, in general, to Europe.

To Eastern Slavs chess, according to some historians, penetrated in the 5th-6th centuries. AD from India or Central Asia.

But still, the world of man, the world of culture is so wide and varied that games with very ancient history, similar to classical chess, we can find in many nations.

For example, in the old days in Russia there was a game very similar to chess. It was called "Tavlei". Despite the differences in the rules of the game, the pieces were called:

Magus - King

Prince - Queen

Warrior - Rook

Archer - Elephant

Rider - Horse

Warrior - Pawn

The name of this game comes from two words -"shah" - the king, and "checkmate" - died. Two opponents, moving their pieces across the 64 cells of the game board, must create such a situation for the opponent's "king" when the next move will lead to his "death". There are 32 chess pieces in total - 16 white and 16 black. Each side has 8 pawns, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, one queen and one king. Each figure moves around the playing field in accordance with the established rules.

2. E2 - E4.

"Pawn - small fry, little man,

zero without a wand, small fry,

Small fry ... "(Ozhegov's dictionary)

"That soldier is bad,

who does not dream of becoming a general" (Russian proverb)

In everyday speech, the word "pawn", apparently, came from chess. In everyday life, it is used with a negative connotation when they want to note the insignificance, pettiness, uselessness of a person.

A pawn is the lowest rank of pieces in a chess game. She is the main unit of measurement of chess material (in chess it is not customary to call it a piece). In pawn equivalent, the “weight” of other pieces is measured (a light piece is approximately equivalent to three pawns, a rook is five).

However, the famous master of the game F. Philidor believed that the pawn is the “soul of a chess game”, and the structure of the pawn arrangement determines the strategic pattern of the game.

To resolve this contradiction, we need to find out the history of the origin of the word "pawn".

The image of a pawn on chess diagrams and the chess pieces themselves vaguely resemble a person in a military helmet or helmet, and the initial arrangement of pawns on the game board is the formation of an army before a battle. The pawns are placed in a line in front of the main pieces, as if covering them and taking the first blow of the enemy.

Since ancient times, the main combat unit of the armies of the whole world has been infantryman - a foot warrior armed with a sword, spear or gun, and the branch of the army, consisting of detachments of infantrymen, was called infantry . Forts, cities and settlements the enemy was considered occupied only when the foot of the infantry entered there.

Pawns in a chess game play a very important role. In the opening, the first pawn moves allow an experienced player to seize the playing space (in a real battle, this is the capture of strong points, important heights). Pawns can serve to protect and support the main pieces (in the modern army, tanks without the help of infantry soldiers are helpless). And, finally, one of the rules of chess - a pawn that has passed through the entire field turns into any strong piece, even a queen. How can one not recall the tradition of many armies of the world, including the Russian one, when an ordinary soldier, the first to climb the walls of an enemy fortress, became an officer and a nobleman!

Thus, the pawn has much in common with the brave, but often nameless, hero - an infantry soldier, and, apparently, she owes her name to him.

3. Tours on wheels

There is no stronger fortress, no more desperate defense,

like Ishmael, who fell in a bloody assault!

(report by A.V. Suvorov to G.A. Potemkin)

"Centuries before Alfred

built british ships,

Russian ships fought in desperate sea battles;

and a thousand years ago

the first sailors of that time

they were Russians...

(F. Jane, English maritime writer)

The chess piece "rook" in its appearance and silhouette in the graphic image resembles the tower of a medieval castle. And this is no coincidence. The fact is that this game came to Europe in the Middle Ages. In the VIII-IX centuries, during the conquest of Spain by the Arabs, chess came to Spain, then, over several decades, to Portugal, Italy and France. The game quickly won the sympathy of Europeans, by the XI century it was already known in all countries of Europe and Scandinavia. By the 15th century, chess had acquired, in general, a modern look. And as we know, most military actions in the Middle Ages were connected with the assault on huge stone structures, dwellings of noble feudal lords and kings - castles. AT European languages the name of this figure means just that - a castle (for example, in English "castle").

In Russian there is another name for the boat -"tour". In Russia, a siege tower on wheels was called a turus or turus, which was specially built of wood and was intended to storm the fortress walls of cities or castles. The construction of such towers is a very long and troublesome business. Perhaps this is where the saying “to breed turuses on wheels” came from, which is used in a situation of useless, worthless long conversations.

However, in Russian the most stable name for this chess piece is"rook". Why?

It seems to us that this is due to the fact that chess came to Russia directly from Asia through merchants or oriental traders. In the Arab countries, this chess piece was often made in the form of the mythical Rukh bird, a character from Arab fairy tales. This huge bird of a ferocious disposition hunted elephants in order to feed their chicks with them. The image of the head of this monster often adorned the nose of the warships of Russian soldiers - boats. In this example, we can see how on Russian soil there is a mixture of two worlds - Asian and European.

4. Animal or human?

"Oliphant! There are, therefore, oliphants, and I saw one!

This is life! But at home, who will believe me?

Well, if nothing else is shown, I'm going to bed."

(John R.R. Tolkien "The Lord of the Rings")

The elephant is the largest mammal with a long trunk, two tusks and very thick skin that lives in India and Africa. The famous commander Alexander the Great, during one of his campaigns of conquest, faced an army, in the battle formations of which he saw amazing, huge animals, on whose backs archer warriors sat in special baskets. They were war elephants. Therefore, it is no coincidence that in Indian and Arabic versions of chess a worthy place was found for this type of troops, and chess pieces were small sculptures of these animals. Name -"Elephant" - adopted in the Russian language.

However, if we look at modern pieces and chess diagrams, we will find very little in common between them and representatives of the animal world. Rather, they look like a person or a kind of headdress.

In Russia, the "elephant" is also called the "officer" . An officer in the army is a person who, by virtue of his experience and special knowledge, commanded ordinary soldiers and held various military positions.

In English, this figure is called bishop - "bishop ”, and if you look closely, it looks like a miter - a hat of a Catholic priest. We know that the game of chess, like many other games, was frowned upon and often banned by the medieval church. Where did the bishop come from in chess?

During the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church was very big influence to the life of society. The head of this church, the Pope, even wanted to take spiritual and temporal power into his own hands. The church punished very severely for crimes against it. Excommunication, torture and burning at the stake threatened any person - both a noble nobleman and a simple peasant. Even kings bowed their heads to the people in mitres. Despite severe persecution by the church, chess was played and loved this game very much, not only by nobles, but also by simple people. However, fear and admiration for the church was reflected in the fact that one of the main strong chess pieces was given a high church rank - a bishop, and she began to be depicted in the form of a priest's headdress.

5. First Minister or Crowned Person?

"But I'll tell you what, Your Majesty:

you shouldn't lie here on the grass!

Queens must conduct themselves with dignity!”

(Lewis Carroll "Alice Through the Looking Glass")

The strongest piece on the chessboard is " Queen" or "Queen" . How did it happen that the queen in chess is more powerful than the king and very often it is she who plays the main role in defeating the opponent? In history, powerful warrior kings are known who led their armies and actively participated in the battles themselves, and their queen wives at that time were waiting in the palaces or castles of their spouses with victory.

We have two hypotheses in this regard.

First, as mentioned earlier, chess came to Europe with the Arabs, who conquered almost all of Spain. After a while, the peoples who inhabited this land began the struggle for independence - the reconquista. An important role in this struggle was played by the spouses - Queen Isabella of Castile and King Ferdinand of Aragon. These two states united into a single Spanish kingdom, and the troops of Isabella and Ferdinand finally expelled the Arabs from their country. Queen Isabella of Castile went down in history as a wise politician and a beautiful woman who is not inferior in courage to men. In addition, she was very fond of playing chess and was a strong player. It is possible that this chess piece is named "queen" in memory of Queen Isabella.

The second assumption is connected with the eastern origin of this game. "Queen" comes from the Persian "fertz" - commander or adviser. That was the name of the person who was right hand ruler. If you recall the Arabian tales, they meet a character (usually negative) - the vizier, the first minister of the state. He was always near the padishah, was aware of all the affairs in the state, and also replaced his master in military campaigns. He was the most influential person in the country, and often even the Sultan himself was afraid of his minister.

Conclusion

Summing up our research, we can draw the following conclusions:

1. Chess has a very long history and originates from the eastern countries - India and Persia.
2. This game penetrated Russia from two sides: from the East (India, Arab countries) and from the West (European countries).
3. This fact is reflected not only in the external image of the figures, but also in their name.
4. Despite the influence of East and West, the names of some pieces (eg pawn, rook, tour) come from Russian words.

Bibliography

1. Karpov A.E., Gik E.Ya. "Chess Kaleidoscope". - M.: "Nauka", 1981. - 208 p.

2. Gik E.Ya. “Conversations about chess” - M. 1985

3. Linder I.M. "At the origins of chess culture". - M.: "Knowledge", 1967. - 352 p.

4. Ozhegov S.I. Dictionary of the Russian language - M .: publishing house Oniks Mir and Education, 2006.

5. Ushakov D.N. Spelling dictionary of the Russian language. - M .: Uchpedgiz, 1937. - 162 p.

8. http://www.istorya.ru/articles/shahmaty.php

APPENDIX

Fig.1. Modern classical chess.

Rice. 2. Chess diagram.

Rice. 3. White and black pawns

Rice. 4. Infantry. Armor reconstruction. The army of Prince Dmitry Ivanovich.

Rice. 5. Black and white rooks.

Rice. 6. Medieval castle.

Rice. 7. Reconstruction of the warship of the Slavs (rook).

Rice. 8 and 9. White "elephant". War elephant of the Persian army.

Rice. 10. Graphic representation of the "elephant" figure on chess diagrams.

Rice. 11. Catholic bishop.

Ministry of Education and Science Russian Federation

Federal Agency for Education

RUSSIAN CHEMICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

named after D.I. Mendeleev

Department of Physical Education

ESSAY

"History of Chess"

Is done by a student

course, group P-18

Roshchin Dmitry Evgenievich

Gradebook No.

Checked: Ivanov I.I.

Moscow 2014

Introduction

1 India - the birthplace of chess

1 Shatranzh

2 Dynamic queen

Bibliography

Introduction

Chess is an ancient intellectual game with a long history. It has educational value: it contributes to the formation of personality, teaches you to think logically and plan your actions, develops concentration and perseverance. Now - one of the most common board games. Combines elements of sports, science and art. Many people are still wondering what is chess? Sport, game, science, art? Everyone has different opinions. For example, Mikhail Botvinnik believed that this is a science based on logic. Chess, in his opinion, is the triumph of reason. But his namesake Mikhail Tal proved with his game that this is a great art that can give real aesthetic pleasure. All chess players have a unique style of playing: some like to attack, others like to build a defense, and others are masters of combinations. But in any case, all famous chess players are virtuosos. Psychologists often refer to chess as effective method improve your memory. It also allows you to decide challenging tasks and think of ideas. Not surprisingly, chess has become recommended in the fight against Alzheimer's disease. Many people believe that chess is a game for those who are naturally highly intelligent. This is partly true, but you can also significantly increase your intelligence by playing chess. Moreover, studies have shown that chess activates both hemispheres of the brain, improves Creative skills, concentration, critical thinking and reading skills.

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 comes from the Persian "checkmate" - the ruler is defeated.

Chapter 1: Paths of chess through centuries and countries

1 India - the birthplace of chess

The history of chess has at least one and a half thousand years. There is an ancient legend that attributes the creation of chess to a certain Brahmin. For his invention, he asked the rajah for a seemingly insignificant reward: as many grains of wheat as will be on the chessboard if one grain is placed on the first cell, two grains on the second, four grains on the third, etc. It turned out that there is no such amount of grain on the entire planet (it is equal to 264? 1.845×1019 grains, which is enough to fill the storage capacity of 180 km ³). So it was, or not quite, hard to say, but, one way or another, India is the birthplace of chess.

2 Development of chess after the conquest of the Persian Empire

After the Persian Empire was conquered by Muslim Arabs, chess was brought to the West by Muslims who conquered territories from India and Persia in the East to Spain in the West.

By the 10th and 11th centuries, chess was known in Scandinavia and later reached Bohemia from Italy at the end of the 11th century. It is believed that the European version of the chess game came to Russia in the X-XI centuries, from Italy, through Poland. The following diagram illustrates the journey of chess through centuries and countries.

Chapter 2: Historical variants of chess

1 Shatranzh

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 written in Pahlavi (Middle Persian language) was found, 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.

Board for the ancient chess game Shatranzh

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:

2 Byzantine chess Zatrikion

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. The modern official rules of chess are perfectly preserved and differ little from those that were used as far back as 1430 years ago.

Chapter 3: Interesting Facts from the history of chess

1 The chess machine that fooled everyone

In 1770, the Hungarian inventor Wolfgang von Kempelen created a chess machine. The car was a figure of a "Turk" in human height, who sat behind a huge wooden cabinet, whose doors opened, demonstrating to the public complex mechanisms. mechanical arm moved pieces around the field, and beat such famous opponents as Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin. As it turned out many years later, the chess machine was not a machine. Inside the machine was a chess player who moved inside and hid when the public was shown the complex mechanisms of a smart "machine".

2 Dynamic queen

The chess piece Queen or Queen has undergone many changes throughout the history of chess. It all started with the fact that she could only walk along one square diagonally, later she moved two squares, and then further and further, like a horse. Now this figure can move both diagonally and horizontally and vertically. At first, she was an adviser or prime minister to the king. But in the future, she became the most powerful piece in chess.

3 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. 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, in the Nerevsky excavation of Novgorod alone, archaeologists found many chess pieces in the layers of the XIII-XV centuries, and in the layer of the XV century, chess is found in almost every excavated estate. And in 2010, the chess king was found in a layer of the XIV-XV centuries in the Novgorod Kremlin, next to the residence of the archbishop

A chess game is not only a creative, but also always a competitive process. In the centuries-old history of chess, the rules of the game have changed, various forms acquired chess pieces, but the question was always at the forefront - who is stronger ?!

The range of chess competitions was constantly expanding. In the last century, for example, a game with a handicap was common, when a stronger opponent gave a weaker handicap - some kind of chess piece. But the most common forms of competitions are: tournaments - competitions involving several chess players; matches - with the participation of two rivals; match tournaments - with the participation of 3 to 6 chess players playing each other in several circles.

Tournaments (the first took place in 1575 in Madrid with the participation of Spanish and Italian chess players) are held according to various systems. The most common is circular, when a chess player must play with all other participants. Since the early 1970s one of the most popular is the Swiss system, in which rivals with the same number of points meet each other in the next round. In addition, there are: the Olympic system or the "knockout system", that is, the losing participant is eliminated from the competition; Scheveningen system, in which half of the participants play alternately with the other half

One of the most traditional forms of chess competition is matches. For more than 100 years it has been in matches (the first in 1886, Steinitz-Zukertort) that the strongest chess player in the world has been determined. The exception was the match-tournament for the world championship in 1948 with the participation of 5 chess players in 5 rounds, the winner of which was M. Botvinnik.

In 1883, at the London International Tournament, a mechanical chess clock was used for the first time (the inventor was the English engineer G. Wilson). Since then they are indispensable attribute any serious chess competition.

Bibliography

chess game figure

1.https://www.gambler.ru/%D0%98%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%8F_%D1%88%D0%B0%D1 %85%D0%BC%D0%B0%D1%82

K. E. On the origin of chess // Chess in the USSR . 1984, №1.

Kalinin O.M., Cherevko K.E. Ancient Chinese numerology, proto-chess (qi) and the genetic code // Nineteenth Scientific Conference "Society and State in China". Ch. I. M., 1988. S. 46-50.

Novotelnov N.A. Meet Chess. - L.: Lenizdat , 1976. - 256 p.

Linder I. M. Chess in Russia / Ed. ed. corresponding member USSR Academy of Sciences V. L. Yanin .- Ed. 2nd, add. and revised - M .: Nauka , 1975.- 208, p.- (From the history of world culture ).- 150,000 copies. (reg.)

6. http://www.riddle.ru/?page=articles/chess/history

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