A bit about the history of chess

    I propose to distract from direct contact with the IT world and turn my attention to such a variety of simulators for the brain as board games.
    Now, in many offices, collective board games are specially held, which help to distract from the routine (thereby increasing labor productivity) and positively affect the establishment of good relations in the team. This article will give a brief excursion into the history of the emergence of one of the main games of mankind - CHESS.
    In its modern form, such a famous and well-known board game as chess did not appear immediately. Before the familiar version of the board game, I had to go through a number of changes and forms. Currently, “chess” is a whole class of games.
    a photo


    Some of the board games of this class are independent, distinctive and significantly different from the modern representation of chess.
    In addition to the well-known classic chess, there are a large number of other variations of the chess game. There are national variants of chess, for example, xiangqi, shogi, changi, makruk common in South Asia. Some options use additional pieces and / or unusual boards, for example, options are known on large boards, on round boards, with pieces combining the moves of the horse and the rook and / or the horse and the elephant, with a maharajah (a piece combining the moves of the queen and the horse ) instead of the queen, hexagonal chess (played on a hexagonal board, consisting of hexagonal fields).
    There are chess for more than two players: three- and four-sided chess, in which three or four players play a single board (pair for pair or each for themselves), each controlling their own set of pieces, as well as “team” chess variants, where the game a team is being led on a team on one or several boards, and the actions of more than one player from each team (for example, Swedish chess) influence the course of a game at one board.

    a photo
    Many “chess composers”, as well as scientists, amateur chess players and professionals, were keen on inventing new variants of chess. Capablanca chess is known, for example, on a 10 × 8 chessboard, with two new pieces. Recently, Fischer chess is gaining more and more popularity, in them the game is played according to the classical rules, but with a random initial arrangement of figures on the last horizontals. In terms of options, the rules remained unchanged (or minimally changed), and only the initial arrangement of figures was changed. In addition to the already mentioned Fischer chess and free chess, such are kingchess and war chess.
    According to Robert Bell’s classification, chess belongs to the same group of board games and is a “war game”.
    The following games can be distinguished in the Chess group:
    - shaturanga (chaturanga);
    - shatrange;
    - circular chess (a kind of shatranja);
    - courier chess (another variation of satranja);
    - Maharaj and sepoy;
    - Chinese chess (xiangqi);
    - Japanese chess (shogi);
    - jungle game;
    - Tibetan chess.
    Each of these games is played, as a rule, in a square field, divided into squares and / or lined in accordance with the requirements of the rules of the game.
    And so, let us begin by considering the games of the progenitors of CHESS. Let us turn to the history of the Ancient East.

    SHATURANGA (CHATURANGA)

    In the agricultural areas of ancient India, the game TAAYAM was popular among the population during the ripening period. It was played on a square field consisting of 64 squares that were marked out on plain ground. The game itself does not belong to the class of chess games and was a pursuit game in which the pieces moved counterclockwise around the field in order to reach the center of the field as soon as possible. Which of the players was the first to withdraw his pieces from the field, then he won.
    Around the 5th century AD, a new game began to be played on the TAAYAM game board, SHATURANGU, which in miniature represents the battle of four armies, each of which is controlled by its own commander (in the original Raja) and consists of four types of troops: infantry, cavalry, war elephants and battle boats (I think our name for this figure is “boat” is connected with this).
    SHATURANGA (in some sources - CHATURANGA) - the ancient Indian game, considered the ancestor of chess, shogi and many other games. Shaturanga is a game that was widespread in the East and later ended up in Europe, from which modern chess originated.
    The name "shaturanga" is translated as "four compound" and is supposedly due to the fact that initially it was played by four. In Shaturanga in ancient India, the army was called, consisting of chariots (ratha) and elephants (hastis), cavalry (ashva) and foot soldiers (padati). The game symbolized the battle with the participation of four arms, which were led by the leader (Raja).
    Four players participated in the game, and the “battle” on the playing field was organized between the unions of the players (the “two on two” game).
    The description of SHATURANGI is present in one of the earliest Sanskrit works, Bhavishia Purana.
    This work tells the story that one of the rulers lost all his property (including his own wife) in dice. After that, he went to his old friend to master the secrets of the game of shutatranga in order to recoup.
    The exact rules of the game are unknown, the available information is incomplete and contradictory. The main source of information is the treatise of the 11th century Khorezm scholar Al-Biruni, which contains only an incomplete description of the shaturanga. In addition, the rules of shaturanga probably had local options and, most definitely, changed over time.
    Due to the low mobility of the pieces, the chaturanga party lasted a very long time - 100-200 moves.
    In the game for four players, sets of figures of four colors were used: black, green, yellow and red. Played a couple for a couple. Each set contained eight pieces: a raju (king), an elephant, a horse, a chariot (analogue of a rook), and four pawns. Players took places on the sides of the playing field. The pieces lined up in the lower left corner of the board (relative to the player). On the first line (from the player): an elephant in the corner, followed by a horse, chariot and raja. On the second line is a row of pawns.

    a photo

    The aim of the game was to conditionally destroy the entire army of the enemy. The party continued until the destruction of all the figures of one of the parties. In a two-player game, victory was also achieved by taking the enemy king. There were no such concepts as check, checkmate and stalemate. Taking all the pieces except the king (exposing the king) was also a victory, except when the opponent could take your last piece in the next move. Then a draw was declared. In addition, SHATURANGA had a number of features.
    So, for example, the right of the “first move” was determined by the number that fell when the game dice was thrown (the progenitor of the modern game dice with points from 1 to 6). The player threw a dice before the move and the drawn value indicated the figure by which he should make the move.
    Judging by historical sources, the shaturanga was invented precisely in India, where it was a game, mainly of intellectuals of higher castes. No information about the holding of official competitions in those days was preserved. There are no records of played games. Shaturanga existed in India until the beginning of the 20th century and, according to the Bengali author Raghunanda (XV-XVI centuries), became known as “chaturraja" - the “game of the four kings" over time.
    In the VI or, possibly, in the VII century, Chaturanga came to China, as well as to Persia (Iran). In China, the version of the game for two players was significantly transformed, eventually turning into Chinese xiangqi. In the countries of the Arab East, chaturanga has been modified for several centuries, while retaining, however, its main features. In the end, a descendant game appeared - shatrange, which later turned into chess.
    In addition, SHATURANGA was originally a gamble. Before the start of the game, all players bet a certain amount of money at stake. The win was shared between the winners.
    Gambling was banned in the early periods of Hindu culture. This is stated in the ninth book of the "Law of Manu":
    “Let the lord punish corporally at his discretion both the player and the owner of the gambling establishment, even if they deal with inanimate objects, such as bones or shaturanga, or with living creatures, for example, the fight of roosters to blood and the fight of rams.”
    Players circumvented the requirements of this law by abandoning the dice. After this, a number of changes took place with the game:
    First, the game brought together the forces of the allies into a single army. The game was transformed into a game for two. In a two-player game, two sets of figures were used. Each set contained eight pawns, two bishops, two knights, two chariots, a rajah and an adviser (vizier) - an analogue of the queen. The order in which pieces were drawn before the game became the same as in modern chess.
    Second, the figure of the Allied Raja, after being reduced to an adviser (vizier), has lost part of its “influence” on the gameplay.
    Third, the way of moving the figures of chariots (ratha) and elephants (hasti) on the playing field has changed.
    After the introduction of such transformations, the game ceased to be called SHATURANGA and turned into the initial version of medieval chess - SHATRANGE.

    SHATRANJ

    Shatrange was formed in the 7th-8th centuries in the Arab East, as a modified version of the shaturanga that came from India.
    The poet Firdousi in his poem "Shahnameh" talked about how chess games appeared in Persia:
    “An embassy from the ruler Hind arrived at the court of Shah Shosroes I. After an exchange of courtesies, Ambassador Hind presented the Shah with many gifts, among which was an amazing checkered board on which stood freakish carvings. The ambassador invited the shah and his sages to understand the rules of this game, and then the supreme ruler of Hind recognizes him as his supreme ruler. The board was shown to all the courtiers and in a day one of them (according to the poem - Buzurdzhamikhr) unraveled the secret of this game. The rulers of ancient India recognized their vassality from Persia.
    Most likely the day went to bribe the ambassador to find out the rules of the game from him.
    In the following years, CHATRANGE penetrated throughout the Arab world and into Byzantium.

    a photo

    Already in the 9th century, the game was extremely popular in Central Asia. Representatives of all social strata played shatrange. There were recognized masters of the game, had their own hierarchy of classes of players. The theory was actively developed. Books were published teaching the art of satranja. Mansuba was popular (tasks, mainly to quickly win a combination). “Chess legends” have survived, in which a dramatic story (for example, a player who bet something last, especially expensive, and in the last game in a situation that looks hopeless) was combined with a task, the solution of which was usually achieved by an unexpected and beautiful combination .
    The organic flaw of the shatranja is the lack of dynamism, especially in the opening, caused by the weakness of the figures inherited from the chaturanga. At the beginning of the game, players could make moves for a long time without coming into contact with the opponent. To revive the game, Arab masters began to use tabs - artificially formed conditional positions, usually more or less symmetrical, in which the players' chances were, as in the initial position of the game, approximately equal. By agreement, the players did not start the game from the starting position, but from one of the tabs so that they could immediately proceed to active actions. Tabs were widespread everywhere, they were used very widely, as evidenced by this fact: when the books cited fragments from games played from the initial position, without tabs, this was always noted especially.
    There was a rather interesting form of the game of shatrange: the master developed the position and offered to those who wanted to play with him from this position to bet, and the opponent was asked to choose what color to play. For such games, positions were developed in which, at first glance, one of the parties had a serious advantage, however, this advantage could be reduced by some unexpected move.
    In the 9th century, during the period of the conquest of Spain by the Arabs, the shatrange came to Western Europe, where it turned into modern chess. At the same time or somewhat earlier, through Central Asia, the game came to Russia, already under the modern name of “chess”, which was adopted by the Persians and Tajiks.
    Shatrange was played on a square board measuring 8x8 squares, similar to a chessboard. Two players participated in the game, each of them had one set of pieces of his own color (black and white). The kit includes: king, queen, two elephants, two knights, two rooks, eight pawns. At the beginning of the game, the pieces are located on opposite sides of the board, completely analogous to classical chess, except that kings and queens could be swapped (but kings should have stood opposite each other anyway).
    The order of moves in CHATRANGE is close to modern chess.
    The first move is made by the player playing with white pieces. Then the moves are done in turn. You cannot skip a move. Each move consists of movement in accordance with the rules of one of his pieces. A piece may be placed on an empty board or on a field occupied by an opponent. In the second case, the opponent’s piece is considered to be taken, removed from the board and does not participate in the game.
    The winner is the player who checkmates the opponent’s king or puts him in a stalemate position. In addition, the player is declared the winner in case of taking the last opponent’s piece (leaving him with a naked king, in some versions of the shatranja a draw could be declared if the opponent also took the last piece in response).
    The CHATRANGE pieces are almost identical to the pieces of modern chess, but the rules of the move are slightly different:
    The king (check) walks on one field in any direction. The situation when the king is under battle (can be taken by the opponent on the next turn) is called “check”. The player whose king is under the check must next move him out of the check, it is impossible to make other moves, leaving the king under the check.
    Rook (ruh) walks vertically or horizontally to any number of fields.
    A knight (faras) is similar to a chess knight (this is the only piece whose move rules have not changed over the entire period from shaturanga to modern chess).
    An elephant (alpha) moves diagonally through one field, and the field through which the move is made can be occupied (in modern chess, an elephant can only go along any free diagonal on any number of fields). A very weak figure, could walk only on eight board fields (a modern elephant can walk on half of the fields).
    The queen (fers) walks and hits the same field diagonally (in modern chess, the queen can go to any number of fields in any direction, except when another piece blocks the queen's path).
    A pawn (kayak) moves only forward one field, or strikes diagonally one field forward. A pawn that reaches the end of the board turns into a queen. On the first move, the new queen had the right to go to the second field vertically or diagonally, regardless of whether this field was occupied.
    According to the SHATRANJA rules, castling the king and the rook was not allowed (appeared in the much later rules of chess).
    Today we know the following options for the shatrange:
    Shatrange Kamil I - a version of the game on a 10x10 board with two camels, additional pieces that are orthogonal to the elephants. Perhaps this is the very first version of chess on an enlarged chessboard with unconventional pieces.
    Shatrange Camille II - a variant of the game on a 10x10 board with two combat vehicles (siege weapons) having the same moves as the king.
    Citadel - they also played on the 10x10 board, but there were additional fields ("citadels") in the corners. In addition, the game was attended by additional pieces of combat vehicles having the same moves as the modern elephant.
    Elongated Chess - has the same pieces as a regular shatrange, but is played on a 4x16 board. Often played with hex bones, limiting the moves of the pieces.
    Byzantine chess - the game is played by ordinary pieces, but on a round board. There is also a modern version with the same board, but with modern pieces and rules (circular chess).
    Four seasons is a shatrange for four players on a regular board.
    Tamerlane chess is a variant of the game on the 11x10 board with strongholds, several types of additional pieces and different pawns (apparently different types of troops were introduced for the infantry). The invention of the game is attributed directly to Tamerlane.
    Courier chess is a European version of the game on a 12x8 board with several types of additional pieces, including a courier with the move of a modern elephant.
    Many researchers believe that classical chess appeared precisely thanks to the courier chess.

    a photo

    Thus, having passed a number of modifications, the game CHESS appeared in Europe and the Middle East. But the movements of chess went not only to the West. With merchants, travelers and conquerors, ancient chess games entered Asia. Here, the rules of these games were mixed with the rules of local national games, imbued with the gaze of the inhabitants of this region and the idea of ​​strategic games.
    In Southeast Asia, fascinating and distinctive games of xiangqi (China), makruk (Thailand) and shogi (Japan) appeared. In Asia, these games are even more popular than classic chess. But this is the next story.

    Also popular now: