ChessThe chess you play in your browser today runs on rules that are more than five hundred years old, and its ancestors go back even further, to India about 1,500 years ago. This article follows the story in order, showing how a game about armies became the game the whole world plays. When you're done and want a game of your own, head to free online chess.
Origins: chaturanga in India
Chess is generally thought to descend from chaturanga, a game from India that appeared around the 6th century AD. The name means "four parts", the four divisions of an ancient army: infantry, cavalry, elephants and chariots.
Those four became today's pawn, knight, bishop and rook. The moves back then were a bit different, though:
- The "elephant" could only jump two squares diagonally, much weaker than today's bishop.
- Next to the king stood not a queen but an "advisor", who could move just one square diagonally.
One theory holds that xiangqi (Chinese chess) and shogi (Japanese chess) share a common ancestor with chaturanga, but scholars still disagree about this.
On to Persia and the Arab world
Chaturanga traveled west to Persia, where it was called chatrang. From the 7th century on, as the Arab empire expanded, it spread across the Middle East and North Africa under the name shatranj.
This period left behind many chess books and endgame problems. The English word checkmate is commonly said to come from the Persian shāh māt, meaning roughly "the king is helpless".
Into Europe: the queen becomes the strongest piece
Around the 10th century, chess reached Europe through Spain and Italy and quickly caught on among nobles and in monasteries. The pieces took on names Europeans knew: the advisor became a queen, and the elephant became a bishop, a jester or an officer depending on the country.
The biggest change came in the late 15th century in Spain and Italy:
- The queen went from one square at a time to moving any distance along straight lines and diagonals, becoming the strongest piece overnight.
- The bishop went from jumping two squares to sliding any distance diagonally.
- Around the same period, pawns gained the option of moving two squares on their first move, and en passant gradually appeared too, though it took a long time for everyone to agree.
The game got much faster, and a single slip could get you checkmated in a hurry. Around 1497, the Spaniard Lucena published one of the first chess books written for the new rules. The famous Lucena position in the endgame is named after him, although one story says the position isn't actually in his book. Castling went the same way: every region played it differently, and it took centuries to settle on one rule.
Coffeehouses and the first international tournament
In the 18th century, the center of chess was the coffeehouses of Paris. The French player Philidor wrote the famous line "Pawns are the soul of chess" in his 1749 book. Today's Philidor Defense and the Philidor position in the endgame are both named after him.
In the 19th century, competition became more formal:
- 1849: The "Staunton" pieces came out in London. Their simple, easy-to-read design later became the tournament standard and is still used today.
- 1851: London hosted the first modern international tournament, won by Anderssen of Germany.
- 1886: Steinitz beat Zukertort and was recognized as the first official world champion. The story of every champion since then is in world chess champions.
Around the same time, tournaments started using clocks to limit thinking time. For how a chess clock works and how fast and slow games are classified, see chess clocks and time controls.
The 20th century: FIDE and the Soviet school
In 1924, FIDE, the International Chess Federation, was founded in Paris. It began standardizing the rules and running international events, and later took charge of the world championship and ratings.
After World War II, the Soviet Union made chess a national priority, and from 1948 to 1972 every world champion was a Soviet player. In 1972, the American Fischer beat the Soviet Spassky in Iceland, a match that drew the whole world's attention during the Cold War.
The computer and internet age
In 1997, IBM's Deep Blue beat world champion Kasparov, the first time a computer had beaten a world champion in an official match. Computers kept getting stronger, and today no human can beat the top programs. The full story is in computer chess.
The internet changed how people play completely: you can find an opponent any time, and one-minute games have become hugely popular. In 2020, with the pandemic keeping many people at home and a chess-themed TV series becoming a big hit, the number of players shot up almost overnight.
Frequently asked questions
Who invented chess?
There's no single known inventor. It's generally thought to come from chaturanga in India around the 6th century, and then many people across Persia, the Arab world and Europe improved it bit by bit until it became today's game.
Is chess related to Chinese chess?
One theory says both grew out of chaturanga, which is why both have rooks, knights, elephants or bishops, pawns and a king to protect. But the historical records on both sides are incomplete, and scholars still argue about it.
When were today's rules settled?
The queen and bishop moved the way they do now by the late 15th century. Details like castling and en passant took several more centuries to become the same everywhere, and only after FIDE was founded was there one official set of rules shared by the whole world.
Give it a try
People five hundred years ago were probably as surprised to see the queen sweep across the board as you were when you first learned the game. Play chess online and get a feel for this "new" rule. To meet the strongest players in history, read on with world chess champions.