The Brief Origins Of Chess Games similar to chess have been about for at least a thousand years, but there are also board games that could be called chess' antecedents that go back another 500 years or so. North-east India appears to have been the place of origin of a game known as 'caturanga', which was played on a board with squares although they were not black and white. The name of the inventor is also lost in the mists of time. Caturanga was played by priests and the nobility in north-east India in the Sixth Century. Buddha came from Nepal a thousand years before that and it is thought that the priests took caturanga on their pilgrimages to the East. China has a game of chess known as xiangqi, but it is unclear which came first. Japan has a game known as shogi, which is also played on a grid or uncheckeded squares. It appears that traders also took the game to northern Africa where the Persians took it up with gusto. The kings of Persia were known as Shahs and this became the root of the word for chess in numerous European countries. 'Shaxmati' in Russian, had reached northern Europe by 1000 AD at the latest, but the route into the countries of Europe came from the north and the south. Vikings were playing a kind of chess in Britain in the Eighth Century known as 'Taefl' or 'Hnefatafl'. The game was known as 'shatranj' in Persian and this entered Portugal and Spain with the Arab invasions. However, by 1200 AD, the rules were being altered and by 1475, the game was roughly like the game we know and play today. Chess became part of a knight's formal education in tactics. Books and pamphlets on how to play chess started to appear in the late 15th Century. By the 18th Century, the home of European chess had moved from Spain to France, but by the early 19th Century northern Europe was beginning to figure significantly in the early stages of European Chess Championships. Chess clubs started to spring up all over Europe in the mid-19th Century. Britain and Ireland were starting to figure prominently in the tournaments. Individuals began purchasing books on chess and well-known chess matches were published so that they could be scrutinized by enthusiasts. Newspapers were publishing chess problems and correspondence games were being played between the London and Edinburgh chess societies in 1824. However, it took until 1851 before the first contemporary 'all comers' chess championship was held. It was won by a German called Adolf Anderssen. Anderssen's aggressive style became the manner of the day.
German players dominated the world chess scene until a Cuban, Capablanca, spoiled it for them by holding sway as World Grand Master between 1921 and 1927. Capablanca did not lose a game for three years. Alekhine, a Russian French player took the title from Capablanca and retained it until his demise in 1946, although he lost it for two years to the Dutchman, Euwe. No changes to the rules of chess have been brought in for hundreds of years. Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on a number of subjects, but is now involved with the Gyro Helicopter S107. If you would like to know more, please visit our website at Smart Toys for Kids.