What was the name of chess before. The emergence of chess in Russia

Almost every nation has preserved many legends and tales about such a subject as chess. The history of origin is now impossible to establish in its original form. It's not even really a game. This is philosophy. Not a single scientist has found its origins, although thorough studies of this issue have been carried out for several centuries. It is believed that it was the ancient Indians who invented chess. The history of their appearance in Russia speaks of Persian roots: - the death of the ruler, this is how these two words are translated from Persian. Scientists argue not only about this. Even the time of the origin of the game cannot be more or less accurately determined. The most widespread opinion is that chess was born in North India in the first century AD. The story of its origin emerges only from legends, since this game is the prototype of wars and battles.

To the origins

Of course, chess is bloodless, but a war entirely consisting of the ability to defeat the enemy with intelligence, cunning, and foresight. The rulers of ancient states devoted a lot of time to such a useful pastime as playing chess. The history of its emergence suggests that there were cases when the rulers of two warring clans decided their disputes at the chessboard, thus not causing harm to any person from their troops.

Researchers present the world with a brief history of chess, which speaks of even more ancient game"Chuturanga", from which "Chaturaja" was gradually formed - already with sixty-four cells on the board. The figures, however, were located differently - in the corners, and not along the front. Excavations show that it was in the first century that this game spread, and therefore it is called the time of the birth of chess.

Legends

And what beautiful legends related to chess were composed! A short story, but very instructive, about how one clever peasant sold this game to his king, as an example. Somewhere it is about a king, somewhere about a rajah, somewhere about a khan, somewhere about wheat, and somewhere about rice, but the essence always remains the same. Apparently, the legendary peasant devoted more time to studying chess than farming, because in return he asked for just wheat grains according to the number of cells on the board, but exponentially: the first cell is a grain, the second is two, the third is four, and so on.

It seemed to the king that the peasant was not asking so much for such an excellent game. But despite the fact that there are only 64 cells on the chessboard, the king did not have so many grains in the bins, the whole world would not have enough grains. The king was amazed at the peasant's mind and gave him all his harvest. But now he had a game of chess. The history of the emergence of this intellectual fun has been lost in the centuries, but their development has been preserved. great amount interesting legends.

Infinity

Just as it is impossible to collect grains in the sixty-fourth degree, even if all the barns in the world are emptied, it is also impossible to play all possible games on the chessboard, even if one does not leave it for a minute since the creation of the world. The history of the creation of chess, this ancient intellectual game, despite its "venerable age", is also constantly updated with new and wonderful information. It was, is and will remain the most widely used and world-loved board game. It has everything - sport, science and art. And its educational value is enormous: the history of the development of chess contains many examples of personal development with the help of this game. And a person also achieves success by perseverance, receives the logic of thinking, the ability to concentrate attention, plan actions, and predict the course of thought of his opponent.

It is not for nothing that the history of chess is so interesting for children. Psychologists and educators study personality traits by observing children who prefer fun. Even the capabilities of computers were tested by means of this game, when problems of an exhaustive type were solved - choosing the best of all possible options. I must say that each country has its own name for chess. In Russia - with Persian roots - "chess", in France they are called "eshek", in Germany - "shah", in Spain - "ahedress", in England - "chess". This makes the history of chess in the world all the more different. Let's try to take a closer look at individual countries where this game appeared earlier than others.

Indians or Arabs?

In the sixth century, chaturanga was already widely played in the northwestern provinces of India. And it is still quite a little like a game of chess, since there were fundamental differences in it. The move was made according to the result of the thrown, not two, but four people were playing, and in each corner of the board there were: a rook, a bishop, a knight, a king and four pawns. The queen was absent, and the pieces present had much fewer opportunities in battle than the modern rook, knight and bishop. To win, it was necessary to completely destroy the enemy troops.

Then or a century later, the Arabs started playing this game, and immediately there were innovations in it. The book "History of Chess" (reference) describes that it was then that there were only two players, and each had two sets of troops. In the same period, one of the kings became a queen, but he only knew how to move diagonally. The dice were also abolished, each player made a move strictly in order. And now, to win, it was not necessary to destroy the enemy at the root. A stalemate or mate was enough.

The Arabs called this game shatranj, and the Persians called it shatrang. It was the Tajiks who gave them their present name. The Persians were the first to mention shatranja in their fiction ("Karnamuk", 600s). In 819, the first chess tournament was held with the Caliph of Khorasan Al-Mamun. The three most powerful players of that time tested their own and their opponents' strengths. And in 847, the first book about this game appeared, by Al-Alli. That is why researchers argue about the history of the origin of chess and about the homeland, and about the time of its origin.

In Russia and in Europe

How this game came to us, the history of the game of chess is silent. But it is known when it happened. In the 820s, the Arabic shatranj with the Tajik name "chess" was described in the monuments that have survived to this day. Which way they came is now difficult to establish. There were two such roads. Either through the Caucasus Mountains directly from Persia, passing through the Khazar Kaganate, or through Khorezm from Central Asia.

The name quickly turned into "chess", and the "names" of the figures did not undergo major changes, since they remained similar in meaning and consonance with the Central Asian or Arabic ones. However, with the modern rules of the game, the history of the development of chess grew later, only when Europeans began to play it. The changes reached Russia with great delays, nevertheless, the old Russian chess was also gradually modernized.

In the 8th and 9th centuries, there were constant wars in Spain, which the Arabs tried to conquer with varying success. In addition to spears and arrows, they carried their culture here. Thus, the shatranj was carried away at the Spanish court, and through a short time the game conquered Portugal, Italy and France. Europeans already by the II century played it everywhere - in all countries, even in the Scandinavian ones. It was in Europe that the rules were especially strongly transformed, as a result, by the fifteenth century, turning the Arab shatranj into a game that is known to everyone today.

For some time, the changes were not coordinated, and therefore for two or three centuries each country played its own games. Sometimes the rules were pretty bizarre. For example, in Italy a pawn that reached the last rank could only be turned into a piece that had already been removed from the board. Until the appearance of a piece captured by the enemy, it remained an ordinary pawn. But even then in Italy there was castling both in the presence of a piece between the king and the rook, and in the case of a "bat" square. Books and reference books about chess were published. Even the poem was dedicated to this game (Ezra, 1160). In 1283, a treatise on chess by Alphonse the Tenth the Wise appeared, which describes both the moribund shatranj and the new European rules.

Books

The game is very widespread in the modern world, so much so that almost every second child declares: "Chess is my friends!" Almost every one of them knows the history of the emergence of chess, since there are many wonderful books: exciting - for children, serious - for adults.

All famous chess players have their own library of their favorite works about this game. And everyone has a different list! Much more fiction has been written about chess than about all other sports combined! There are amateurs who have collected more than seven thousand books on the subject of the game in their own library, and this is far from all that has been published.

For example, Yasser Seirawan, a grandmaster, a four-time world champion, who has written many excellent books about his favorite game, including textbooks, literally "under his pillow" holds the books of Mikhail Tal, David Bronstein, Alexander Alekhin, Paul Keres, Lev Polugaevsky. And each of these numerous works brings him, when re-read, in "continuous admiration." And an international master and researcher of the history of the emergence of chess (he also wrote books about this for children), John Donaldson adores the book by Grigory Pyatigorsky and Isaac Kazhden. Professor Anthony Sadie is a legend chess game, he managed to collect a huge chess library and write several books himself, each of which became a tabletop for all fans of this game in the world. And for some reason he reads most often Russians, but on the same topic: Nabokov ("Luzhin's Defense") and Alekhine ("My Best Games").

Chess theory

Systematic theory began to develop in the sixteenth century, when the basic rules were already universally accepted. The full textbook of chess first appeared in 1561 (Rui Lopez), where all the stages that have been identified and now were considered - endgame, middlegame, opening. There was also described the most interesting view- gambit (development of an advantage by sacrificing a piece). Philidor's work published in the eighteenth century is of great importance for chess theory. In it, the author revised the views of the Italian masters, who considered the best style to be a massive attack on the king and for whom pawns were auxiliary material.

After the appearance of this book, the positional style of playing chess began to really develop, when the attack ceases to be reckless, and a strong and stable position is built systematically. The shots are precisely calculated and directed to the weakest positions. For Philidor, pawns have become the "soul of chess", and defeat or victory depends on them. His tactics of promoting the chain of "weak figures" have survived the centuries. Why, it has become the basis of chess theory. Forty-two editions have survived the book of Philidor. Still, the Persians and Arabs wrote about chess much earlier. These are the works of Omar Khayyam, Nizami, Saadi, thanks to which this game was no longer perceived as a war. Many treatises were written, peoples composed epics, where they associated chess games with everyday vicissitudes.

Korea and China

Chess has gone not only to the West. Both chaturanga and early versions of shatranj penetrated Southeast Asia, since two players participated in different provinces of the same China, and other features were visible. For example, the move of the pieces for a short distance, there is no castling, either. The game was also modified, acquiring new features.

National "xiangqi" is very similar to ancient chess in its rules. In neighboring Korea, it was called "changi", and along with similar features, some differences from the Chinese version were observed in it. Even the pieces were placed in different ways. Not in the middle of the cell, but at the intersection of the lines. Not a single figure could "jump" - neither a knight, nor an bishop. But their troops had "guns" that were able to "shoot", killing the figure over which they jumped.

In Japan, the game was called "shogi", it had its own characteristics, although in the base it was clearly derived from "xiangqi". The board was much simpler, closer to the European one, the pieces went into a cage, not on a line, but there were more cells - 9x9. The pieces knew how to transform, which the Chinese did not allow, and this was done cleverly: the pawn simply turned over, and at the top it had a piece sign. And it is also interesting: those "warriors" that were taken from the enemy can be set as your own - arbitrarily, almost anywhere on the board. The Japanese did not play in black and white. All the figures are of the same color, and the position will be determined by the setting: with the sharp end to the enemy. In Japan, this game is still much more popular than classical chess.

How did the sport begin?

Chess clubs began to appear in the sixteenth century. They were attended not only by amateurs, but also by almost professionals who gambled. And two centuries later, almost every country had its own national chess tournament. Books about the game are being published in large quantities. Then periodicals appear on this subject. First, single, then regular, but rarely published collections are published. And in the nineteenth century, the popularity and relevance forced publishers to put this business on a permanent basis. In 1836, the first purely chess magazine "Palamed" appeared in France. It was published by one of the best grandmasters of his time, Labourdonna. In 1837 Great Britain followed the example of France, and in 1846 began publishing its own chess magazine in Germany.

International matches have been held in Europe since 1821 and tournaments since 1851. The first "chess king" - the strongest chess player in the world - appeared in London at the 1851 competition. It was Adolf Andersen. Then in 1858 this title was taken away from Andersen by Paul Morphy. And the palm was taken to the United States. However, Andersen did not accept and regained the crown of the first chess player already in 1859. And until 1866 he had no equal. And then Wilhelm Steinitz won, unofficially.

Champions

Steinitz again became the first official world champion. He defeated Johann Zukertort. It was also the first match in the history of chess, where the world championship was stipulated. This is how the system appeared, which still exists in the continuity of the title. The world champion can be the one who wins the match against the reigning champion. Moreover, the latter may not agree to the game. And if he accepts the challenge, he independently sets the place, time and conditions for the match. Only public opinion could force the champion to play: a winner who refused to play with a strong opponent could be considered a weakling and a coward, so most often the challenge was accepted. Typically, the match agreement provided for the right to a rematch for the loser, and winning it would return the champion to his title.

Since the second half of the nineteenth century, time control has been used in tournaments. At first, it was an hourglass that limited a chess player's time per move. It was not convenient. That is why a player from England Thomas Wilson invented a special clock - a chess clock. Now it has become easy to control both the whole game and a certain number of moves. Time control entered chess practice quickly and firmly, it was applied everywhere. At the end of the 19th century, matches were no longer held without watches. At the same time, the concept of time trouble reigned. A little later, they began to hold "rapid chess" matches - with a limit of half an hour for each of the players, and a little later a "blitz" appeared - from five to ten minutes.

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 an intellectual game of chance. Others are for entertainment and leisure. Someone - art, and on a par with theater or science. And still others give an analogy with a military battle. But the most popular opinions, especially now, are two. First, chess is a professional sport. Second, they are just a hobby.

V different countries this game has its own name: in England - chess (chess), in Spain - ahedres (el axedres), in Germany - shah (Schach), in France - echecs (echecs). The Russian name originates from the Persian language: "shah" and "checkmate", which means "the ruler is dead."

The history of chess goes back 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 now, 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 tbsp. 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.

One of them is described by the great scientist Al-Biruni in his book "India", which attributes the creation of chess to a certain Brahmin (this social group in India). For his invention, he asked the rajah for a seemingly insignificant reward: as many wheat grains as there will be on the chessboard, if one grain is put on the first cell, 2 grains on the second cell, 4 on the third, 8 on the fourth, 8 on the fourth - 16, on 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 a storage facility with a volume of 180 km³).

This is the legend:

When the Hindu Raja Sheram met her, he was delighted with her wit and the variety of possible positions in her. Upon learning that it was invented by one of his subjects, the king ordered him to be summoned 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 livelihoods from his students.
“I wish to reward you with dignity, Seth, for the wonderful game that you have invented,” said the Raja.

The sage bowed.
“I am rich enough to fulfill your wildest wish,” the raja continued. “Name the reward that will satisfy you, and you will receive it.
Seth was silent.
“Don't be shy,” the Raja encouraged him. - Express your desire. I will spare nothing to fulfill it.
- Great is your kindness, sovereign. But give me time to consider the answer. Tomorrow, on second thought, I will communicate my request to you.
When the next day Seta again appeared at the steps of the throne, he surprised the Rajah with the unparalleled modesty of his request.
- Lord, - said Seta, - order to give me one grain of wheat for the first cell of the chessboard.
- Simple wheat grain? - the Raja was amazed.
- Yes, lord. For the second cell, order to give 2 grains, for the third 4, for the fourth - 8, for the fifth - 16, for the sixth - 32 ...
“Enough,” the raja interrupted him with irritation. “You will receive your seeds for all 64 cells of the board, according to your desire: for each, twice as much against the previous one. But know that your request is not worthy of my generosity. By asking for such a paltry reward, you disrespectfully disregard my grace. Truly, as a teacher, you could set the best example of respect for the kindness of your sovereign. Go on. My servants will bring you your sack of wheat.

Seta smiled, left the hall and waited at the gate of the palace.
At dinner the Rajah remembered the inventor of chess and sent to find out if the reckless Seth had already taken away his pitiful reward.
- Lord, - was the answer, - your order is being carried out. Court mathematicians calculate the number of grains to be followed.
the Raja frowned. He was not accustomed to his orders being carried out so slowly.
In the evening, going to sleep, the Raja once again asked how long ago Seta had left the palace fence with his sack of wheat.
“Lord,” they replied, “your mathematicians work tirelessly and hope to finish the count 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 was asking for an important report. the raja ordered to bring him in.
“Before you tell me about your case,” Sheram announced, “I want to hear if Sete has finally been given that insignificant reward that he has appointed for himself.
“For this, I dared to appear before you at such an early hour,” the old man replied. “We have conscientiously counted all the number of grains that Seth wants to receive. The number is so great ...
“No matter how great it may be,” the rajah interrupted haughtily, my granaries will not become scarce. The reward is 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 the promised reward, then order to turn the earthly kingdoms into arable fields, order to drain the seas and oceans, order to melt the ice and snow that cover the distant northern deserts. Let their entire space be sown with wheat. And all that will be born in these fields, order to give Sethe. Then he will receive his reward. With amazement, the king listened to the words of the elder.
“Tell me this monstrous number,” he said thoughtfully.
- Eighteen quintillion four hundred forty-six quadrillion seven hundred forty-four trillion seventy-three billion seven hundred nine million five hundred fifty-one thousand six hundred and fifteen, oh lord! ..

This is the legend. Whether or not what is said here is unknown, but that the reward of which the legend speaks should have been expressed in just such a number, you yourself can be convinced of this by patient counting.
Starting from 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 square of the board.
Let's simplify the resulting sum based on the following considerations. We 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.
This means that the calculation is reduced only to the multiplication of 64 twos! (And then we will be able to subtract the unit).
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 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 - 1.
To make the calculations easier, we will divide 64 factors into 6 groups of 10 twos in each and one last group of 4 twos. The product of 10 twos, as you can easily verify, is equal to 1,024, and 4 twos - 16. Hence, the desired result is
S = 1 024 1 024 1 024 1 024 1 024 1 024 16 - 1.
Because
10241024 = 1 048 576,
then
S = 1,048 576 1,048 576 1,048 576 16 - 1.
Let's be patient and accurate in calculations and get: S = 18 446 744 073 709 551 615.
This amount of grain is approximately 1800 times higher than the world wheat harvest per year (in the 2008-2009 agricultural year, the harvest was 686 million tons), that is, it exceeds the entire wheat harvest collected in the entire 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 a chessboard will be about 1,200 trillion tons: 18 446 744 073 709 551 615 0.065 gr = 1 199 038 364 791 120 854, 975 gr = 1 199 038 364 791, 120 t.
If the weight of wheat is converted into volume (1 m3 of wheat weighs about 760 kg), then you get approximately 1500 km3, 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 unable 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 himself to count for himself grain by grain, all the wheat due to him.
Indeed: if Seta, having taken up the count, led him continuously day and night, counting grain per second, he would have counted only 86,400 grains on the first day. It would take at least 10 days of relentless counting to count a million seeds. One cubic meter wheat he would have counted in about six months. And there would be another 1,499,999,999,999 m3 left to count. You see that if he had devoted even the rest of his life to counting, Seta would have received only a tiny fraction of the reward he demanded.

A description of another legend was found by the Persian poet Ferdowsi, 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 whom to appoint as king, because she loved the sons of the lonely. Then the princes decided to arrange a battle, who won and would become the ruler. The battlefield was chosen on the seashore and surrounded by a moat of water. We 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. The battle began, as a result of which Talhand died. Upon learning of the death of her son, the queen fell into despair. She reproached Gava who had arrived for the murder of his brother. However, he replied that he did not cause bodily harm to his brother, he himself died from exhaustion of the body. The queen asked to tell in detail about how the battle took place. Woof, together with people from his entourage, decided to recreate the battlefield. To do this, they took a board, marked out the cells and placed figurines depicting the belligerents on it. The opposing troops put on opposite sides and placed in rows: infantry, cavalry and infantry again. In the middle row in the center stood the prince, next to him was his main assistant, then two figures of elephants, camels, horses and Rukh birds. By moving various figures, the prince showed his mother how the battle had gone. Thus, it can be seen that the ancient chessboard had 100 cells and the pieces on it stood in three lines.

The next 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 whoever can think of something that he likes will get whatever he wants. And insanely many sages 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 figures, but the whole game was made of wood and as soon as the ruler saw it. He was terribly angry. “What the hell is this? All the products that are shown to me are made of gold or jewelry, and you came to me here with some pieces of wood ", to which the Shah replied" not in gold the interest in games, 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 look. And when the Shah showed the ruler how to play the game with words "Your army is majestic and invincible, but can you win here on a small board with your army and with the 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 the Shah defeated the ruler and the ruler tried again, but already thinking over 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 pronounced "shah" (her shah) warning that the king was in danger, and when he won, he said "Shahu checkmate" which meant the king was dead. 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 replied, at first glance, a small reward “if you put one grain on the second one on the first square of the chessboard two by a third, four, and so on, but it turned out that there is no such amount in the whole kingdom. After all, these are 92,233,720,000,019 grains. History does not say how the ruler paid off from the shah. But there is another legend about how this wonderful game appeared.

Once in India there was a very wise ruler during his reign, 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 the sons to make king and divided the government equally. But soon the brothers wanted to have one ruler and everyone believed that he should become him. The brothers quarreled and a great war began in which an awful lot of people died. After a while, the brothers realized that the war is countless, but no one stopped the war, because the one who ends the war will lose and will not become the ruler. Yet 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 end the war in which half of India died, he would show them how to honestly determine the ruler. The brothers agreed, and the old man took out a wooden plank and figurines of a black and white, he told the brothers the rules of the game and a lot of day's "war" began in which every move was carefully thought out. And in this game the “white” won, and after this incident, the first to move in chess were white, and a lot of people started to play chess.

The first official mention of chess is a book in which the process of penetration of chess from India to Persia is described in detail. 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. Particular attention is paid to the terminology, as well as the capabilities 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 interesting thing. It was a game. She reproduced the battle of two armies: black and white. "

Persian chess players

No later than the beginning of the 6th century in the north-west of India, the first game known to us, akin to chess, appeared - chaturanga. It already had a quite recognizable "chess" appearance (a square game board of 8 × 8 cells, 16 pieces and 16 pawns, similar pieces), but it fundamentally differed from modern chess in two features: there were four players, not two (they played a pair for 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 king moved the same way as in chess, the chariot - within two squares vertically and horizontally, the bishop - first one square forward or diagonally, later he began to "jump" across one square diagonally, and, like a knight, during the move, 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.

Arab conversions

In the same 6th or, possibly, in the 7th century, chaturanga was borrowed 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 (moved one square diagonally). They refused the bones, began to walk one move strictly in turn. The victory began to be recorded not by the destruction of all the opponent's pieces, but by the setting of 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 to put a checkmate with weak pieces inherited from chaturanga , it was not always possible). 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, the shatranj received the name "chess" in Tajik (translated as "the ruler is defeated"). The first mention of shatranj dates back to about 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 Kataya. 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 among the people as a symbol of a military battle and was increasingly associated with everyday vicissitudes, which was reflected in the epic and treatises on the chess game (Omar Khayyam, Saadi, Nizami).

Chess in South-East Asia

Simultaneously with the advancement of the game of chess to the west, it spread to the east. Apparently, the countries of Southeast Asia got either a chaturanga variant for two players, or some of the early shatranj variants, since their peculiarities have been preserved in the chess games of this region - the moves of many pieces are made over short distances, there are no typical European chess castling and taking on the aisle. Influenced by the cultural characteristics of the region and the board games that were in use there, the game has noticeably changed in appearance and acquired new features, becoming the basis for the Chinese game xiangqi. From her, in turn, came the Korean game changi. Both games are original in outward appearance and the mechanism. First of all, this is manifested in the change in 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 the 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 a knight nor a bishop can jump over squares occupied by other pieces), but the new "cannon" piece can beat the opponent's pieces, only jumping over another piece on impact.

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 squares. In shogi, the rules of moves were changed and a transformation of pieces appeared, which was not in xiangqi. The transformation mechanism is original - a figure (a flat chip with an applied 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 the 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 edge towards the opponent.

Classical European chess is not very common in this region; xiangqi and shogi are much more popular to this day.

The emergence 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, having come, as it is believed, either directly from Persia through the Caucasus and the Khazar Kaganate, 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 correspond most of all to Arabic or Persian (the bishop and horse are translations of the corresponding Arabic terms, the queen is consonant with the Persian "farzin" or the Arabic "firzan"). The rook, according to one of the assumptions, received this name due to the fact that the corresponding Arab figure "rukh" depicted a mythical bird, and looked like a stylized image of a Russian boat. 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, penetrated Russia with some delay, gradually transforming the old Russian chess into modern chess. It is believed that the European version of the chess game came to Russia in the 10-11 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 transforming shatranj into modern chess. By the 15th century, chess had, in general, acquired a modern look, although due to the inconsistency of changes, for several centuries different countries had their own, sometimes quite bizarre, peculiarities of the rules. In Italy, for example, until the 19th century, a pawn that reached the last rank could only be transformed into 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 turned into the first piece captured by the opponent at the moment when the opponent took it. In the same place, castling was allowed if there was a piece between the rook and the king and when the king passed a broken square.

Chess in art

With the spread of chess in Europe, both chess itself and works of art, telling about this game, began to appear. In 1160, the first chess poem, written by Ibn Ezra, appeared. In 1283, the first chess book in Europe was published - a treatise by Alfonso X the Wise. This book is of significant historical interest, as it contains a description of both new European chess and the already outmoded shatranj.

Starting from the 16th century, chess books were published more and more often, chess constantly appeared in works of fiction. In the 18th century, chess had a patron muse. It was invented by the English poet William Jones, a great chess lover. He published a poem about the origin of chess, in which the war god Mars fell in love with the forest nymph Caissa; The nymph did not reciprocate with the admirer, and in order to achieve his goal, Mars invented chess and taught Caissa to play them. In general, the motif of the chess game of ancient gods was often found in art.

Christian church against chess

Since the emergence of chess, a sharply negative position has taken Christian church... Chess was equated with gambling and drunkenness. It is noteworthy that representatives of various branches of Christianity were united in this. In 1061, 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." The founder of the Knights Templar, Bernard in 1128, spoke of the need to fight the hobby for chess. The French bishop Hades Sully in 1208 forbade the patrons "to touch and have chess 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 were banned from playing chess.

In Russia Orthodox Church also banned the game of chess under threat of excommunication, which was officially enshrined in the 1262 book of the helmsman.

Despite church prohibitions, both in Europe and in Russia, chess was spreading, and among the clergy the enthusiasm for the game was no less (if not more) than among other classes. So, at the Nerevsky excavation site of Novgorod alone, archaeologists have 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 14-15 centuries in the Novgorod Kremlin, next to the residence of the archbishop. In Europe, in 1393, the Cathedral of Regensburg removed chess from the list of prohibited games. In Russia, there is no information about the official cancellation of the church ban on chess, but at least from the 17th - 18th centuries this ban did not actually work. Ivan the Terrible played chess (according to legend, he died at the chessboard). Under Alexei Mikhailovich, chess was widespread among the courtiers, the ability to play it was common among diplomats. In Europe, documents of that time have survived, which, in particular, say that the Russian envoys are familiar with chess and play it very well. Princess Sophia was fond of chess. Under Peter I, assemblies did not take place without chess.

Development of chess theory

By the 15th and 16th centuries, the rules of chess were generally established, which gave rise to the development of systematic chess theory. In 1561, Rui Lopez published the first complete chess textbook, in which the stages of the game, which are now distinguished, were considered - the opening, the middlegame and the endgame. He was the first to describe the 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 subjected to a serious revision the views of his predecessors, primarily Italian masters, who believed that the best style the game is a massive attack on the opponent's king with all available means and using pawns only as an 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, deliver precisely calculated blows to the weaknesses of the opponent's position, and, if necessary, resort to exchanges and simplifications if they lead to a profitable endgame. The correct position, according to Filidor, 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 disposition ”. 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 the Chess Game" became a classic; it went through 42 editions only in the 18th century and was reprinted many times later.

Making chess an international sport

From the 16th century, chess clubs began to appear, where amateurs and semi-professionals gathered, who often played on a money rate. Over the next two centuries, the spread of chess led to the emergence of national tournaments in most European countries. Chess publications are published, at first isolated and irregular, but over time they are gaining more and more popularity. The first chess magazine "Palamed" was published in 1836 by the French chess player Louis Charles Labourdonnais. In 1837 a chess magazine appeared in Great Britain, in 1846 - in Germany.

In the 19th century, international matches (from 1821) and tournaments (from 1851) begin to be held. The first such tournament, held in London in 1851, was won by Adolph 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 with a score of + 7-2 = 2 in 1858, but 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 who officially bore this title was the same Wilhelm Steinitz, defeating Johann Zukertort in the first match in history, in the agreement of which the expression "world championship match" appeared. Thus, a system of title succession was established without prior arrangement: the one who won the match against the previous one became the new world champion, while the reigning champion reserved the right to agree to the match or reject the opponent, and also himself determined the conditions and place 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 for a long time could not secure the right to a match with the champion, this was seen 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 in the event of a loss; winning such a match would return the title to the previous owner.

In the second half of the 19th century, time control began to be used in chess tournaments. At first, an ordinary hourglass was used for this (the time per move was limited), which was rather inconvenient, but soon the English amateur chess player Thomas Bright Wilson (TBWilson) 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 chess practice and soon became widespread. TO late XIX For centuries, official tournaments and matches without time control have practically disappeared. Simultaneously with the emergence of time control, the concept of "time trouble" appeared. Thanks to the introduction of time control, special forms of chess tournaments have emerged with a greatly shortened time limit: "rapid 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

In the late 19th - early 20th centuries, the development of chess in Europe and America was very active, chess organizations were enlarged, 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, established 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 Alekhin (in 1935 Alekhin lost the championship match Peace to Max Euwe, but in 1937 in a rematch he regained the title and held it until his death in 1946).

After the death of Alekhine in 1946, 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 to win the title of champion: the winners of the qualifying rounds entered the zonal tournaments, the winners of the zonal competitions entered the interzonal tournament, and the owners of the best results in the latter took part in the candidates' tournament, where the winner was determined in a series of “elimination” games. had to play a match against the reigning champion. The formula for the title match has changed several times. Now the winners of the zonal tournaments are participating 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, targeted training in it and the identification of capable players from childhood (a chess section, a children's chess school was in any city of the USSR, there were chess clubs under educational institutions, enterprises and organizations, tournaments were constantly held, a large number of special literature) contributed to the high level of play of Soviet chess players. The 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 almost completely dominated world chess. 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 out of 14 chess Olympiads for women were won during the same period and 2 “silver” were taken. Out of 18 draws for the title of world champion among men in 40 years, only once a non-Soviet chess player won (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, who fled from the USSR to the West).

In 1993, Garry Kasparov, the then world champion, and Nigel Short, who won the qualifying round, refused to play the next world championship match under the auspices of FIDE, accusing the federation leadership of unprofessionalism and corruption. Kasparov and Short formed a new organization, the PCA (Professional Chess Association), and played a match under its auspices.

There was a split in the chess movement. FIDE stripped Kasparov of his title, 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 his title in a match with a legitimate challenger - Short, and part of the chess community was in solidarity with him. In 1996, the PCA ceased to exist as a result of the loss of the sponsor, after which the PCA champions were called "world champion in classical chess." Basically, Kasparov revived the old system of title transfer, 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 the match against Kasparov in 2000 and defended his title in the match with Peter Leko in 2004.

Until 1998, FIDE continued to play the title of champion in the traditional way (Anatoly Karpov remained the FIDE champion during this period), but from 1999 to 2004 the format of the championship changed dramatically: instead of a match between a challenger and a champion, the title was played in a knockout tournament in which the reigning champion must was to participate on a general basis. As a result, the title constantly passed from hand to hand, 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 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 - a match of three elimination games). Since the knockout system requires an unambiguous outcome of the round, additional rapid chess games 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 with a shortened time control is played. Complicated time control schemes began to be used, protecting from severe time trouble, in particular, "Fischer's 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 achieved enough high level to surpass the human chess player. In 1996, Garry Kasparov lost a game to the computer for the first time, and in 1997 he lost the match to Deep Blue by an advantage of one point. An avalanche increase in computer performance and memory, combined with improved algorithms, led to the emergence of open source programs by the beginning of the 21st century that could play at the grandmaster level in real time. The ability to connect to them the previously accumulated databases of openings and the table of small-figure endings further increases the power of the machine's play. The consequence of this was changes in the format of high-level competitions: special measures were used at tournaments to protect against computer prompts, in addition, the practice of postponing games was completely abandoned. The time allotted for the game has also decreased: 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) by 40 moves.

State of the art

After the unification match Kramnik - Topalov in 2006, the FIDE monopoly on holding the world championship and conferring the title of world chess champion was restored. The first “united” world champion was Vladimir Kramnik (Russia), who won this match.

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

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 Candidates Tournament and three personally selected players with the highest rating. However, FIDE has 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 funding is secured and the deadlines are met: the match must end no later than six months before the beginning of the next world championship.

"Live Chess"

When the system of playing chess acquired a complete form, the so-called "live chess" came into vogue - theatrical performances held in large open areas marked like a chessboard. The first mention of "living chess" dates back to 1408. It was then that at the court of Sultan Muhammad, 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 event takes place, in which city residents take part. And in London, based on "living 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 become one of the sports for a long time. But this does not stop millions of people from playing chess just like that, finding joy in the game. Chess is the most addicting intellectual game. In the Persian Shop you can find exclusive Iranian chess inlaid with wood, bone and metal and traditional Persian painting. Chess self made- this is a great gift for your boss, colleague, friends or close people.

The benefits of the game

Experts have found that the benefits of chess for the brain are enormous. Indeed, during the game, a person uses two of his hemispheres at once. Chess battles accompany development 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) square in the lower-right corner. Chess pieces are placed the same in each game. Pawns are placed on the second and seventh lines. The rooks are in the corners, the knights are next to them, then the bishops, and, finally, the queen, which always stands on the square of the same color (white queen on white, black queen on black), and the king next to the queen.
The player with white pieces always moves first. Prior to this, players usually decide who gets which pieces by drawing lots. First white moves, 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 a knight, cannot “jump” over other pieces, and cannot move to squares occupied by pieces of their own color. The pieces can occupy the squares on which the opponent's pieces are located, having carried out their capture. Pieces, as a rule, need to be positioned so that they threaten to capture the opponent's pieces, can defend their 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 on which he will be in check (that is, he can be captured).

Queen
The queen is the strongest piece. He can move along any straight line (horizontally, vertically or diagonally) to any possible distance, but without jumping over the pieces of his color. And, like all pieces, if the queen takes an opponent's piece, his movement ends.

Rook
The rook can move any distance, but only horizontally and vertically. Rooks are especially powerful when they protect each other and work together!

Elephant
The bishop can move as far as he wants, but only diagonally. Each bishop starts on a square of its color, and must always stay on the squares of the same color. Elephants work well together, as they cover each other's weaknesses.

Horse
The knight does not move like 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 “G”). 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 in different ways: they move straight ahead, and the capture is carried out diagonally. Pawns only move forward one square at a time, except for 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, while taking this piece (pawn) at the same time. Pawns cannot walk (capture) back. If there is another piece or pawn directly in front of the pawn, it cannot go past that piece or pawn or capture it.

Transformation
Pawns have one distinctive feature - they can transform into other pieces. The pawn that reaches the last rank (8th for White, 1st for Black) is replaced by any (except for the king) piece of the same color at the choice of the player making the move. The transformation is performed immediately (by 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 transform into other pieces.

Taking on the aisle
Another rule related to pawns is called “en passant capture” (from “en passant,” translated from French “on the pass”). Capture on the passage is a special pawn move, in which it captures the opponent's pawn, moved to two squares at once. But under the 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 on this crossed square, as if the opponent's pawn had moved only one square. A similar 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 the opponent's pawn can be carried out only immediately after it has been moved to two squares. It is possible to capture on the aisle only 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: to secure your king and to move the rook out of the corner of the board to 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 adjacent 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 rook being moved in this 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 that he 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 side, it is called kingside castling. Castling to the other side, across the square where the queen was at the beginning of the game, is called queenside castling. Regardless of the direction in which castling is made, 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 is in check and cannot leave it. The king can get out of the check in three ways: go to a safe square (castling is prohibited!), Close with another piece, or take the checking piece. If the king cannot avoid checkmate, then the game is over. Usually, when a checkmate occurs, 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 according to which a chess game ends in a draw:
A stalemate, that is, a position in which the 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 have been played, with none of the players making a pawn move or capturing a piece or pawn.

Fischer's Chess (960)
Chess960 (also called Fischer's chess) is a variant of chess in which the same rules as in regular chess, but where “opening theories” do not play a big role in the game. The initial position of the pieces is formed randomly using only 2 rules: bishops stand on squares of different colors, and the king must be between the rooks. Black and white pieces are arranged symmetrically. There are exactly 960 possible starting positions that fulfill these rules (hence the prefix “960”). The castling rule is unusual: everything is the same here (the king and rook did not move before, they are castle not in check or through a square with a check), plus all squares between the king and rook must be free of pieces.
Many tournaments use identical rules. These rules do not need to be applied if you play at home or online.

Got it - go!
If a player touches a piece, he is obliged to make a move to it. saying “correct” ..

Time control.
Most tournaments use the control of the time allotted for the whole game, rather than for each move .. Both players get an equal amount of time for the game, each player can decide how to use this time .. After the player makes a move, he presses the button on the clock to start the opponent's clock. If the player has run out of the time allotted for the game and the opponent declares this, the player who has run out of time loses. The exceptions are when the declaring player does not have enough pieces to checkmate, in which case the game ends in a draw.

Basic strategies
Protect your king
Move the king to the corner of the board, as a rule, it is safer there .. Do not delay castling. Generally, castle as quickly as possible .. Remember, it doesn't matter how close you are to checkmating your opponent if they checkmate you first.!
Don't give away the pieces aimlessly
Don't mindlessly lose your pieces! Each piece has a price, and you cannot win the game without the pieces needed to checkmate. There is a simple scale for assessing the relative value of each piece:
Pawn - basic unit
The knight is worth 3 pawns
The bishop costs 3 pawns
The rook costs 5 pawns
The queen is worth 9 pawns
The king is priceless
Why do we need to know the comparative strength of the figures? First, it determines the overall usefulness of the piece. That is, a rook is usually more useful 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 good location his pieces on the board, and it is harder for his opponent to find good squares for his pieces .. In the example above, White makes good moves to control the center, while Black's moves are bad ..
Use all of your shapes.
Your pieces are of no use 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 basics of strategy is just the beginning - there is so much to learn from playing chess that a lifetime is not enough 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 win and lose.
- 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 of your games !. Everybody loses sometimes - even the world champions. If you learn to learn from lost games, you can always enjoy chess!

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Evpatoria

CHESS- ancient intellectual game, which has a long history. Nowadays it is one of the most widespread board games. Combines elements of sport, science and art. It has an educational value: it contributes to the formation of personality, teaches you to think logically and plan your actions, develops concentration and perseverance. When playing chess, many features are manifested human personality therefore they are sometimes used as a research model in psychology and pedagogy. They were also used to identify the capabilities of computers when solving problems of the so-called enumeration type, when from the possible elements of the solution it is necessary to choose the best one.

In different countries this game has its own name: in England - chess (chess), in Spain - ahedres (el axedres), in Germany - shah (Schach), in France - echecs (echecs)

INDIAN ORIGINS

There is an ancient legend that ascribes the creation of chess to a certain Brahmin. For his invention, he asked the rajah for a seemingly insignificant reward: as many wheat grains as there will be on the chessboard if one grain is put 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 ≈ 1.845 × 1019 grains, which is enough to fill a storage facility with a volume of 180 km³). So it was, or not entirely, it is difficult to say, but, one way or another, the homeland of chess is India.

Not later than the beginning of the 6th century in the north-west of India, the first game known to us, akin to chess, appeared - chaturanga. It already had a completely recognizable "chess" look, but fundamentally differed from modern chess in two features: there were four players, not two (they played a pair for a pair), and the moves were made in accordance with the results of throwing dice. Each player had four pieces (chariot (rook), knight, bishop, king) and four pawns. The knight and king moved the same way as in chess, the chariot and bishop were much weaker than the current chess rook and bishop. 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 VI or, possibly, in the VII century, chaturanga was borrowed 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 (moved one square diagonally). They refused the bones, began to walk one move strictly in turn. The victory began to be recorded not by the destruction of all [the opponent's] pieces, but by the mate 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 to checkmate with weak pieces inherited from chaturanga, it was not always possible). The resulting game was called by the Arabs - shatranj, by the Persians - "shatrang". Later, having got to the Tajiks, the shatranj received the name "chess" in Tajik (translated as "the ruler is defeated"). The first mention of the shatraja dates back to about 550. 600 - the first mention of shatranj in fiction - the Persian manuscript "Karnamuk". In 819, at the court of Caliph al-Mamun in Khorosan, a tournament was held for the three strongest players of that time: Jabir al-Kufi, Abyljafar Ansari and Zairab Katan. In 847, the first chess book was published, which was written by Al-Alli.

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, having come, as it is believed, either directly from Persia through the Caucasus and the Khazar Kaganate, or from the Central Asian peoples, through Khorezm. In any case, the Russian name for the game is inherited from the Tajiks or Uzbeks, the names of the figures in Russia are also consonant or similar in meaning to the Arabic or Central Asian ones. Changes in the rules, later introduced by the Europeans, penetrated Russia with some delay, gradually transforming the old Russian chess into modern chess.

PENETRATION IN EUROPE

In the VIII-IX 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 transforming shatranj into modern chess. By the 15th century, chess had acquired, in general, a modern look, although due to the inconsistency of changes, for several centuries different countries had their own, sometimes quite bizarre, peculiarities of the rules. In Italy, for example, until the 19th century, a pawn that reached the last rank could only be transformed into 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 turned into the first piece captured by the opponent at the moment when the opponent took it. In the same place, castling was allowed if there was a piece between the rook and the king and when the king passed a broken square.

With the spread of chess in Europe, both chess itself and works of art, telling about this game, began to appear. In 1160, the first chess poem, written by Ezra, appeared. In 1283, the first chess book in Europe was published - a treatise by Alfonso X the Wise. This book is of significant historical interest, as it contains a description of both new European chess and the already outmoded shatranj.

CHRISTIAN CHURCH AGAINST CHESS

Since the appearance of chess, the Christian Church has taken a sharply negative attitude towards it. Chess was equated with gambling and drunkenness. It is noteworthy that representatives of various branches of Christianity were united in this. In 1161, Catholic Cardinal Damiani issued a decree banning the playing of chess among the clergy. In his letter to Pope Alexander II, he called chess "an invention of the devil", "an obscene, unacceptable game." The founder of the Knights Templar, Bernard in 1128, spoke of the need to fight the hobby for chess. The French bishop Hades Sully in 1208 forbade the patrons "to touch and have chess 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 were banned from playing chess. In Russia, the Orthodox Church also banned the game of chess under the threat of excommunication, which was officially enshrined in the book of the helmsman in 1262 and confirmed in 1551 by the Stoglav Cathedral.

Despite church prohibitions, both in Europe and in Russia, chess was spreading, and among the clergy the enthusiasm for the game was no less (if not more) than among other classes. In Europe, in 1393, the Regenburg Cathedral removed chess from the list of prohibited games. In Russia, there is no information about the official cancellation of the church ban on chess, but at least from the 17th-18th centuries this ban did not actually work. Ivan the Terrible played chess. Under Alexei Mikhailovich, chess was widespread among the courtiers, the ability to play it was common among diplomats. In Europe, documents of that time have survived, which, in particular, say that the Russian envoys are familiar with chess and play it very well. Princess Sophia was fond of chess. Under Peter I, assemblies were held with indispensable chess games.

DEVELOPMENT OF CHESS THEORY

By the 15th-16th centuries, the rules of chess were basically established, thanks to which the development of systematic chess theory began. In 1561, Rui Lopez published the first complete chess textbook, in which the stages of the game, which are now distinguished, were considered - the opening, the middlegame and the endgame. He was the first to describe the 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 using 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, deliver precisely calculated blows to the weaknesses of the opponent's position, and, if necessary, resort to exchanges and simplifications if they lead to a profitable endgame. The correct position, according to Filidor, 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 disposition ”. 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 the Chess Game" became a classic; it went through 42 editions only in the 18th century and was reprinted many times later.

Chess - board logic game for two people with special figures and a 64-cell field. Chess combining elements of art (in terms of chess composition), science and sports. As a sport, chess has a hierarchy of titles, a developed system of regular tournaments, and national and international leagues.

The International Chess Federation (FIDE, French Federation Internationale des Echecs, FIDE) is an international sports organization that promotes chess and organizes international competitions and tournaments. It unites national chess federations.

The history of the emergence and development of chess

The history of chess is more than one and a half thousand years old. Chess was invented in India in the 5th-6th centuries BC. No later than the 6th century, a game appeared in India - chaturanga, which had a recognizable chess appearance. Unlike chess, it was played by 4 players at the same time, and the moves depended on the throws of the dice. To win the game, it was necessary to destroy all the opponents' pieces.

Having spread from India to neighboring countries, chaturanga underwent a number of changes. In the east, it began to bear the name - shatranj, in China - xiangqi, in Thailand - makruk. In the 9th-10th centuries, the game came to Europe, where the "classical" rules of the game were drawn up. The rules were finally formed in the 19th century.

The first world chess championship was held in 1886.

Chessmen

Pawn ♙ - moves vertically one square forward. If the move is accompanied by the capture of the opponent's piece, then the pawn has the right to move diagonally one square forward-right or forward-left.

Knight ♘ - moves to a cell located at a distance of 2 vertically and 1 horizontally or 1 vertically and 2 horizontally from the current position.

Bishop ♗ - moves diagonally to any square.

Rook ♖ - moves to any square vertically or horizontally.

Queen ♕ - moves to any square vertically, horizontally or diagonally.

King ♔ - moves 1 square vertically, horizontally or diagonally.

Before the start of the game, each of the players has on the chessboard:

• pawn - 8 pcs.;
• boat - 2 pcs.;
• horse - 2 pcs.;
• elephant - 2 pcs.;
• queen - 1 pc.;
• king - 1 pc.

Chess rules

Moves in chess are made alternately, and the first move is made by the player with white pieces. The draw determines the right to play with white pieces.

A move is considered made in the following cases:

• the player's hand lowered a piece after it moved to an unoccupied square;
• when capturing an opponent's piece, after replacing the opponent's piece with his own;
• when castling;
• when a pawn is promoted, in the case when the pawn is removed from the board and the player has removed his hand from the new piece placed on the field.

In addition to the usual moves, there are 2 special moves in chess:

• Castling is a simultaneous change in the position of the king and rook of the same color, provided that they have not moved since the beginning of the game. When castling, the king is moved 2 squares towards the rook, and the rook is placed on the square between the initial and final positions of the king. Castling is considered a king's move.
• Capture on the passage is a special pawn move, in which it captures the opponent's pawn, which was moved to two squares at once. But under the attack is not the square on which the second pawn stopped, but the one that was crossed by it.

Before correcting one or more pieces on the field, the player must warn the opponent about this. Otherwise, after touching the piece, it will be necessary to complete the move.

Winning chess

Check - a situation when the king of one of the players is under attack from the opponent's piece. In order to repulse a check, you must perform one of the following actions:

• move the king to any square that is not under attack by the opponent's pieces;
• take a piece that threatens the king;
• put another piece under attack.

Checkmate is a situation when the king is in check, but cannot avoid it.

The game is considered won if:

• one of the players checkmated the opponent's king;
• one of the players has admitted defeat;
• one of the players has run out of time allotted for moves;
• technical victory.

Draw in chess

A stalemate is a situation when the player with the right to move cannot use it, since all his pieces are deprived of the opportunity to make a move. In this case, the king should not be in check.

In addition, a draw is recorded in the following cases:

• no sequence of moves leads to mate;
• three times repetition of positions (not necessarily for three moves in a row) or five times repetition of the same position during five consecutive moves;
• both players made 50 moves without capturing and without a pawn move (50 moves rule);
• mutual agreement to a draw;
• one of the players has expired.

Time control in chess

All official games in chess are held with time control using a special chess clock. The player who made the move presses the button on the clock, which stops his clock and starts the opponent's clock.

The player's time is considered expired if the flag on his watch has fallen. This is true except in the following situations:

• there is a checkmate on the board;
• a situation on the board that leads to a draw;
• flags fell on both players;
• the opponent has no way to checkmate.

Chess competition

All chess competitions are held according to one of four tournament systems:

• Swiss system;
• circular system;
• knockout system;
• Scheveningen system.

Popular international chess tournaments include:

• world chess championship;
• European Chess Championship;
• world Cup;
• national championships;
• FIDE Grand Prix Series.

Chess structures

The Professional Chess Association (PCA) is an organization that was created on the initiative of Garry Kasparov and Nigel Short, who decided to hold a world championship match without the participation of FIDE.

International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF - International Correspondence Chess Federation).

We tried to cover the topic as fully as possible, therefore this information can be safely used in the preparation of messages, reports on physical education and essays on the topic "Chess".

Good day, dear friend!

Most experts believe that the history of the emergence of chess has its roots in Eastern cultures.

Origin

Many historians are of the opinion that the homeland of the chess game - India... Others, more cautious, believe that chess rather a product collective creativity of several peoples, and they developed in those times immemorial - in parallel in several countries.

The most intelligible legend regarding the origin of chess is this:

At the turn of the fifth-sixth centuries, a game was born in India, which was called chaturanga... For the modern perception of chess, the game looks very strange:

Four are playing. Two for two. Each player has his own set of pieces of white or black color. The goal of the game is to destroy the "army" of rivals.

Curious fact: in this game, the moves were not invented by the players. What should be the move was determined by the roll of dice.

Gradually, the game developed and spread. White and black sets of pieces "united", instead of 4 players there are two left. Chaturanga gradually acquired the contours of the game that we know today as chess.

In general, most historians believe that chess began to be played according to the rules similar to modern sixth century. The first manuscripts related to the mention and description of chess are dated precisely to the sixth century.

Spread around the world

It is believed that a little later, a century in 7 , the game spread to the Arab world, China and some other regions of the East. The game gained popularity and acquired national traits characteristic of these peoples.

The names have also changed, which have survived to this day. Shatrang, shatrange, such Arabic and Persian names are unusual for us, modern chess players. In Japan - shogi, among the Chinese - xiangqi, they still occupy a prominent place in the cultures of these peoples.

Over time, the Arab shatrange "penetrated" Spain... According to the historians, it happened in 8 century.

V 9 century next in line France, a little later, other European nations could not resist "under the pressure" of an attractive game.

At the same time, in 9 century, chess appeared in Russian earth. And directly from the East. However, cultural ties with Europe played a role. Gradually, chess in Russia acquired a European look and by the end of the 10th century it was completely “Europeanized”.

The rules were gradually changing. In different countries with their own characteristics

Curious fact:

“In Italy in the eighteenth century, there was a rule: a pawn, upon reaching the square of promotion, can only become the piece that is not on the board at the moment. The pawn on the last rank could remain a pawn. The transformation took place at the moment of capture of any piece by the opponent. The pawn became this captured piece "

Persecution period

At some point in history, a century in 15-16 , chess was divided into two branches - the version we are used to and “ gambling". In the gambling version of the game, the rules were similar to chaturanga, and the move was made by throwing the dice .

It is not surprising that this version was perceived more as a gamble, since it looked a lot like a dice game. Even then, gambling did not particularly complain and was often persecuted by the church and the state. Chess in general fell under this image.

Not really understanding the nuances, church and government officials enthusiastically used their right to “keep and not let go,” considering chess as one of the types of idle pastime.

However, sprouts appear on the stones and trees grow. The forbidden fruit, as you know ... The game spread and gained prominence in the culture of European peoples.

By the way, during the excavations, chess was also found in the institutions of the church, not to mention just the estates and houses of people of different classes.

Prohibitions, as is often the case, were ignored by default. Furthermore, the ability to play chess well has become fashionable and almost obligatory for people of an intellectual kind of activity.

Development of game theory

While the servicemen were breaking spears, the rules of the game were gradually shaken in different countries, unified and it became possible to communicate on a single basis.

V 16 and 17 century, various theoretical models began to appear. One of the pioneers of this approach was Philidor... He introduced into use the concept of the struggle for the center, counter-gabit ideas.

Philidor believed, and found many supporters, that the key factor around which the game is built is location. 1585 the 1st international tournament is dated by year. It took place in Spain.

Chess as a sport

Curious fact: Chess maestro from Itlia Lorenzo Busnardo amassed, according to unconfirmed reports, a fortune by organizing and playing matches and tournaments.

National championships have also been held since the eighteenth century. International tournaments have become regular.

A logical continuation was the establishment of an unofficial world championship. First carrier informal champion crown became Adolf Andersen, who excelled in the London tournament 1851 of the year.

V 1886 the first match for the official took place. champion crown. Wilhelm Steinitz who defeated Johann Zukertortand became the ownerchampion title.

The next fateful event for chess is the introduction of control. First, an hourglass, then they already invented and designed ( T. Wilson) special chess clock.

It was the control of the time spent on thinking that became the starting point in the recognition of chess by the world sports community as one of the sports.

Curious facts

• The record holder for thoughtfulness is a chess player from Brazil F. Trois... One day he was thinking about his own move 2 hours 20 minutes.
• Longest party record 20 full hours and fifteen minutes. Everything has been done 268 moves. The game ended in a draw. Perhaps after that, the rule was adopted 50 moves, when in the absence of capture of pieces or movement of pawns, a draw is declared.

At the turn of the millennium

In the twentieth century, chess developed by leaps and bounds. However, like other types of human activity. In Russia, and especially in the USSR, chess was actively supported and was on a par with the most popular sports.

Still, let's be objective, chess is specific in terms of entertainment and, accordingly, profitability, it cannot compete with football or tennis.

And yet the chess niche is strong enough. It is impossible to replace chess in the heart with football ... For example, I have them quite get along with each other.

Recently, there has been a tendency to increase the entertainment of tournaments and matches. In my opinion, it is positive. Mainly in terms of playing and using knockout tournaments and matches.

Another objective trend is computerization ... Everyone has already come to terms with the fact that the computer beats a person.

Hence the desire of the leading grandmasters to squeak new ways in theory, the growing popularity of rare game formats, for example,

Interest in chess is reviving. People understand that this is not only a game, a sport or a science, which has been argued for many years with foaming at the mouth.

Chess - personality development tool. No more and no less ... I hope this understanding in the minds of people will only grow stronger.

Thank you for your interest in this article.

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