THE HISTORY OF CHESS: FROM CHATURANGA TO ONLINE PLAY
Chess has travelled 1,500 years, from an Indian war game to Persian courts, medieval Europe, world championships, supercomputers and, finally, your phone.
Born in India: chaturanga
The earliest recognisable ancestor of chess is chaturanga, played in northern India around the 6th century. Its name refers to the four divisions of an ancient Indian army: infantry, cavalry, elephants and chariots, which became the pawn, knight, bishop and rook. Even then it was a game of pure strategy on an 8x8 board, with no dice and no luck.
Persia gives us "checkmate"
The game travelled the Silk Road into Persia, where it became shatranj. Persian players called an attack on the king "shah" (king), and a helpless king "shah mat": the king is finished. That phrase survives in nearly every language today as checkmate. After the Islamic conquest of Persia, shatranj spread rapidly through the Arab world, which produced the first known chess masters and the first recorded chess problems.
Medieval Europe and the rise of the queen
Chess reached Europe through Spain and Italy around the 10th century and became a fixture of court life, so much so that it appears in medieval paintings, poetry and sermons. The biggest change in the game's history came in the late 15th century in southern Europe: the counsellor piece, previously one of the weakest on the board, was transformed into the modern queen, the strongest piece in the game. The bishop gained its long diagonal reach at the same time. The faster, sharper game that resulted is essentially the chess we play today.
Tournaments, champions and the romantic era
The first international tournament was held in London in 1851, won by Adolf Anderssen, famous for dazzling sacrificial attacks in what is now called the romantic era of chess. In 1886 Wilhelm Steinitz won the first official World Chess Championship, a title line that runs unbroken through legends like Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Botvinnik, Fischer, Karpov, Kasparov and Carlsen.
Man versus machine
In 1997, IBM's supercomputer Deep Blue defeated world champion Garry Kasparov in a six-game match, the first time a computer beat a reigning world champion at classical time controls. Today chess engines running on an ordinary phone play far beyond any human level, and top players train with them daily rather than fear them.
The online era
The internet did for chess what the printing press did for books. Millions of games are now played online every day, across every time zone and skill level, and streaming plus a certain television series pushed the game to its biggest audience in history. You no longer need a club, a set or even an opponent in the same country.
Add your own chapter
Fifteen centuries of history are waiting on the other side of one click: play chess online free, or brush up first with our complete beginner's guide to chess. Playing with mates? Here is how to play chess online with friends.