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Chess’ history is very long and varied with an origin steeped in legend and conjecture. One story, told by the Persian poet Firdawsi (c. 935-1020) in his epic Book of Kings, describes the game as being invented to placate an Indian queen after the death of one of her two sons. In order to alleviate her worries that it was his brother who had killed him, the wise men of the kingdom, according to the tale, had used those original chess pieces to re-create the battle and prove that her son had died honorably Thus was born the term shah mat, Persian for checkmate, which most often translates as "the king is dead." While an interesting tale, this account, and various others, belies the fact that no one really knows exactly when or how chess truly began to be played.

That India and Persia should feature in this story will come as a surprise to many Westerners, who often associate chess and its references to kings, queens, knights, and bishops with chivalry and the Middle Ages. However, a mountain of historical evidence places the game's early beginnings in India (though there are those who argue for China), where the game was called chaturanga, a Sanskrit term meaning "four members" that referred to the four parts of the Indian army: chariots (rooks), elephants (bishops), cavalry (knights), and infantry (pawns). The Persians would later rename the pieces, removing raja, or king, and adding shah in its place. This paved the way for the new name of the game in all the major European languages: Schach in German, Shakmati (checkmate) in Russian, and, echecs (for check, an attack on the king) in French, which in turn produced the word chess in English.

Given its origins in war, it should come as no surprise that there was no queen in the initial game. Instead, there was a vizier (firzan or firz in Arabic), the adviser to the king. The voracious all-powerful queen that dominates today's game would not cement herself until approximately the fifteenth century, at a time when European queens often ruled alongside, and even in place of, their male counterparts.

Chess spread across Persia like wildfire. The all-powerful caliphs enjoyed playing games, and chess became featured among the popular pastimes. One tale has it that Caliph Amin of Baghdad (reigned 809-813) bought a female slave for two thousand dinars, in large part because of her skill as a chess player. Caliphs kept resident chess players at their courts, the most famous of which was asSuli.

Stories and poems written at the time featured chess often and attest to the extent to which the game had seeped into popular culture. A love story between the Muslim prince Sharkan and the Christian princess Abriza is depicted in the popular Arabian Nights. Sharkan, distracted by the princess's beauty, loses the game. It will not be the last time a man claims distraction after being defeated by a woman in chess.

When the dark-skinned Moors brought chess with them during the Arab conquest of Spain, the game took its first toehold in European society. In Iberia, chess was taken up with a passion and zeal that quickly elevated it to the "royal game." Soon it was being played in all the courts of Europe, where it was considered a necessary part of proper regal upbringing. Not so clear was how much chess was being played by the masses, since they often worked long hours in service of the royals and had little time for many leisure activities. But from the courts of Charlemagne, the popular French king and Holy Roman Emperor, to the palace of Eleanor of Aquitaine, chess took its place alongside poetry, dancing, horseback riding, and archery as a standard form of royal entertainment.

Bad Bishop

Despite, and maybe because of, its popularity, chess playing often clashed with the clergy. Although the Koran does not expressly forbid it, some imans saw the game as a distraction, and a promotion of idolatry (there is text in the Koran that restricts the use of images representing animals or people). In Christendom, the game was considered on a par with gambling by some religious leaders. This was due in part to one popular variant of the game in which players threw dice to see what piece to move, thereby making the result based more on chance than on skill. Apparently it had also become a little too popular among a clergy that was supposed to be out preaching the ministry. Influential Jewish leaders also felt it necessary to ban chess, again because of the gambling connection. Once the game took on its more current form - around the 1500s - however, chess became an acceptable pastime, even on the Sabbath.

Still, the perception of chess as a gambler's game caused problems elsewhere. As recently as 1981, chess was banned in Iran because of the belief that it encouraged gambling. It took a 1988 decree from the Ayatollah Khomeini to deem chess once again acceptable, as long as it was not being played for stakes. He even admitted that it had redeeming intellectual and educational values. This did not stop the Taliban rulers in Afghanistan from later banning chess, throwing participants in jail, and burning the chess pieces. Once the Taliban were ousted from power in 2001 by the U.S. Army for their role in the 9/11 attacks, the people of Afghanistan unearthed their chess sets once again.

Promotion

Back in the Middle Ages, exotic chess sets were considered a status symbol in the homes of those who could afford them. The period saw many exquisitely carved masterpieces. The most famous were the Lewis chessmen, which sits today in the British Museum. Discovered in 1831 on the Isle of Lewis, off the western coast of Scotland, the pieces show the solemn expression of an army ready for war. This stood in dramatic contrast to the abstract pieces the Arabs played with, in respect to their prohibition against idolatry. The Charlemagne chess set, apparently made to honor a real battle between a Norman warlord and a Byzantium emperor, is another popular set from the period. It features elephants (today's bishops) and chariots (today's rooks) as well as an actual queen, which showed the early beginnings of chess's transition from a representation of battle to one based on the feudal structure of society.

The late 1400s and early 1500s saw the most dramatic changes in the game's rules. The bishop, who once could only move three squares diagonally (including its own), now was able to fly the length of the board. The pawns were able to move two squares on their first move instead of just one. But the most drastic change of all pertained to the movement of the queen, who went from being able to go only one square at a time diagonally to the unlimited multidirectional monster it is today. In Marilyn Yalom's provocative new book The Birth of the Chess Queen, she argues that this acceleration of the queen's power was consistent with the rise of actual queens all over Europe, most notably Spain's Queen Isabelle, who, along with her husband, King Ferdinand, sponsored the voyage of Christopher Columbus. She also draws a connection to the Virgin Mary, who was the subject of quite a few chess carvings, and the cult of love, which saw the elevation of women as romantic figures deserving of courtship and personal sacrifice.

While the reasons may be unclear, the metamorphosis of the queen from the impotent vizier to super-Amazon had rippling effects that changed the game dramatically. For one, the slow strategic game that could have lasted a day or two now could literally end in two moves. This meant that the leisurely game that could be sipped like fine wine became far more frenzied. Players had to concentrate like never before since la Dame enragee (the mad queen) might pounce at any moment and gobble up a few pieces on her way to delivering a swift checkmate. The opening moves took on more importance as one bad move might spell early disaster. Books on the openings systematized the best practices of the times and were necessary reading to anyone who wanted to survive in the early goings. Also, as suggested by Yalom, the speeding up of the game and the rise of competitions may have inadvertently led to a lessening of female involvement. For one, the quickening of the game returned it to its martial roots - games that may have been a cover for romantic encounters now contained a ferocity that was inappropriate for the purpose. While this seems a bit of a stretch, one can imagine that the royals who were trained to play by traveling professionals were also well versed as to how to win quickly if the opportunity presented itself, making the game faster, more competitive, and less romantically engaging. Simultaneously, formal competitions effectively barred women from playing against men, a social convention that is still in effect in many chess circles around the world.

Still, there is no question that the new rules served to heighten the overall popularity of the game. Famous chess players toured Europe and visited royal courts. In 1549, Paoli Boi of Italy gained prominence by playing and defeating Pope Paul III. In 1561, the Spanish priest Ruy Lopez wrote a famous treatise that has immortalized him in chess circles. In 1613, chess appeared onstage when Miranda plays against Ferdinand in Shakespeare's The Tempest. The royals propagated the new game with zeal: King Charles I of England and Louis XIII of France were considered virtual addicts; the Shah Jahan, who financed the construction of the world-famous Taj Mahal, also had a chess palace built; and Ivan the Terrible of Russia is reputed to have died while about to begin a chess game.

More significantly, the rise of the European middle class, full of desire to emulate their wealthy counterparts, led to a chess explosion on the continent. This also led to the pieces becoming affordable and less ornate. Since many more games were being played, it didn't make sense for the finest masterpieces to be used over and over again. By the 1700s, chess sets of common design overtook the more elegant.

It wouldn't be long before chess gained a foothold in the newly formed United States. As is to be expected, many of the Founding Fathers were keen players. George Washington had a set made of ivory that is now housed in the U.S. National Museum in Washington, D.C. Thomas Jefferson, third president and author of the Declaration of Independence, was also an avid player. He owned several chess sets and, not surprisingly, loved to read famous books on the game. His vice president Aaron Burr was also an enthusiastic player, and they apparently played together. Thus began a long line of executives who played chess, including James Madison, John Quincy Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton.

Maybe the most famous and fervent American statesman who played chess was Benjamin Franklin. Though he had many skills as a printer, author, and scientist, chess held a special place in his heart. A measure of his skill was the fact that Jefferson bragged that he was just as good a player as his friend Franklin. (Presidential ego is something.) Jefferson also wrote that the reason Franklin was so popular in France was because he played chess with beautiful and powerful women. Franklin penned the first chess article published in the United States and titled it "The Morals of Chess." It shows his passion and respect for the game from the very beginning: "The Game of Chess is not merely an idle amusement; several very valuable qualities of the mind, useful in the course of human life, are to be acquired and strengthened by it, so as to become habits ready on all occasions; for life is a kind of Chess, in which we have often points to gain, and competitors or adversaries to contend with, and in which there is a vast variety of good and ill events, that are, in some degree, the effect of prudence, or the want of it ...

During Franklin's time, the best player in the world was a Frenchman by the name of Andre Philidor. His book, The Analysis of Chess, was a best seller and he would stun onlookers by playing three games at a time while blindfolded (with players relaying the moves to him orally). He was also a composer of over twenty operas, but his most enduring claim is a quote of his that some say presaged the revolutionary movements of the eighteenth century: "The pawns are the soul of chess." Shortly after that, the royalty in France would be overturned and beheaded by the peasants in yet another instance of life mirroring chess and vice versa.

In the nineteenth century, with worldwide expansion continuing at a furious pace, chess tournaments began to increase. Europe remained the center of chess development, with the English and French as the leading players (as they were in world politics). In the middle of the century, however, an American genius named Paul Morphy foreshadowed future Yankee ingenuity by defeating all the top European players save the Englishman Howard Staunton, who seemed to be avoiding him. Morphy would become, according to the Oxford Encyclopedia of Chess, the first American to be acknowledged the best in the world at a specialized field. Sadly, his career was shortlived (1861-1863), and his life took a turn for the worse when he was stricken by bouts of paranoia and self-talk. Though he wrote no books, his games showed a daring and logic that was far ahead of his time.

Maurice Ashley. Chess for Success. Broadway. 8/9/2005.

Opposing Kings and Queens go directly opposite each other.

Rules Of Chess

When a game of chess begins, one player controls the sixteen black pieces while the other uses the white pieces. The colors are chosen either by a friendly agreement (a game of chance) or by a tournament director. White always moves first and therefore has a slight advantage over black. The chess pieces should be set up on a standard chessboard with a white square in the bottom right hand corner.

Each chess piece moves a different way. The rook moves along horizontal and vertical lines, while the bishop moves in diagonal lines of the same color. The queen is a combination of the rook and bishop (it can move diagonally, horizontally and vertically). The knight can jump over occupied squares and moves in an L shape. Pawns can move forward just one square at a time (they can move two squares if they have not moved off their starting square). Pawns are unusual because they attack diagonally and not in the direction of movement. The King is the most important piece, yet it can only move to an adjacent or diagonally adjacent square.

When a piece is captured (or taken), the attacking piece moves towards and replaces the enemy piece on its square (en passant being the only exception). The king cannot be captured in regular chess, only put in check. If a player is unable to get their king out of check it is called checkmate and the game is over.

Chess games do not have to end in checkmate. It is popularly considered that perpetual check - where one player gives a series of checks from which the other player cannot escape - is a draw, but in fact there is no specific provision for this in the laws of chess. However, any perpetual check situation will eventually be claimable as a draw either under the fifty move rule or by three-fold repetition. The official FIDE laws of chess detail the ways a game may end in a draw:

Stalemate

if the player on turn has no legal move but is not in check, this is stalemate and the game is a draw.

Impossibility of checkmate

if a position arises in which neither player could possibly give checkmate by a series of legal moves (because there is insufficient material left, as for example, king and bishop against king), the game is a draw.

Mutual agreement

a player may offer a draw to his opponent at any stage of a game; if the opponent accepts, the game is a draw.

Threefold repetition

if an identical position has occurred three times, or will occur after the player on turn makes his move, the player on move may claim a draw (note that in this case the draw is not automatic - a player must claim it). A position is considered identical to another if the same player is on move, the same pieces of the same colour occupy the same squares, and the same moves are available to each player (that is, each player has the same castling and en passant pawn capturing rights).

Fifty move rule

if fifty moves have passed with no pawn being moved and no capture being made, a draw may be claimed (again, the draw is not automatic).

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