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Chess History
Chess is the oldest skill game in the world. Looking at the way the chessboard is set up and the studying the pieces and how they are used gives us an idea of the medieval times. Chess was played centuries ago in India, China and Persia. A thousand years ago, the names of the pieces represented the way in which people lived, including the peasants and people of higher ranks.
The origins of chess are obscure and there is no written account of the game until the seventh century. The first mention of chess is found in a Persian poem according to which the advent of the game took place in India. The game was called “Chaturanga”. The laws of chess and the movements of the traditional pieces have been the same since the sixth century. The changes that took place quickened the pace of the game. Chess spread to Europe when the Moors invaded Spain in the eighth century. Chess is mentioned as a popular game in Russian folk poems.
By the end of the 15th century, the modern rules for the basic moves had been adopted from Italy. Chess in Europe since that time has been almost the same as today. The current rules of chess were finalized in the early 19th century, except for the exact conditions for a draw. Europe’s biggest contribution to chess was the checkered board.
The title "Grandmaster" was created by Russian Tsar Nicholas II who first awarded it in 1914 to five players after a tournament he had funded in Saint Petersburg.
Chess Game
Chess or “The Game of the Kings” is a classic, abstract strategy board game for two players, which requires 32 chess pieces, or chessmen as they are popularly called and a board. The chessboard consists of 64 squares (8 rows x 8 columns), arranged in alternating colors. The game of chess has been described as both an art and science. Sometimes, a game of chess could be seen as an abstract war game or a mental martial art. Chess is played recreationally and competitively in clubs, tournaments, on-line, and by mail (correspondence chess). The number of legal positions in chess is estimated to be between 1043 and 1050.
Chess playing machines were built since 1769. The motivation to build such machines can be considered two-fold: One is to build a machine to play chess for personal entertainment; the other is to investigate chess as a problem to offer some insight into human cognition. Many programs can beat grandmasters under tournament conditions, but sadly, chess has not taught anything about building machines with human-like intelligence.
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