A Brief History of Chess

 “We don’t really know how the game was invented, though there are suspicions. As soon as we discover the culprits, we’ll let you know.”  (Bruce Pandolfini)
                                                 

When it comes to the origin of chess, the history is indefinite. The Chinese, the Indians, the Persians, the Greeks, and the Arabs, among other ancient cultures, claim the invention of the game’s predecessors, if not the game itself. However, the earliest precursor of the game most probably originated in northern India during the Gupta empire in the fifth or sixth centuries A.D. Persian stories written in the seventh century reveal that the game spread to Persia from India. Arab scholars later support this view. The Arab world adopted Chess after conquering Persia in the seventh century A.D, and scattered it to southern Europe, where the game evolved to its current form, more or less, in the fifteenth century. The March of Chess picture displayed shows where the game originated, the directions of its spread, and its native name under different cultures.

The March of Chess

The first World Chess Championship was organized in 1987. The twentieth century marked major advancement in chess theory. The twenty first century is recognized for the introduction of computers for chess analysis. Online gaming first appeared in the mid-1990’s.

The Fool's Mate

        The fool’s mate is the quickest possible checkmate in a chess game.

The Fool's Mate

 The simplest version of this game is as              follows:

• White plays Pf3  
• Black plays Pe5 
• White plays Pg4 
• Black plays Qh4 and captures the white’s king.

Note that the white has to be a very naive player to open up for the black’s queen. Hence, this is why the mate is called “The Fool’s Mate.”

                           

Where does the word CHECKMATE come from?

I always thought that the origin of the word checkmate comes from the Arabic language, where Check is derived from Sheikh who is a leader in a Muslim community and Mate comes from Mata, which means died thus implying that checkmate comes from the Arabic for “The King is dead.” However, research suggests that checkmate is the equivalent phrase for the Persian “Shah Mat”, which means, “The King is ambushed.”  After all, the King never dies in chess game. He just gets defeated.

A puzzle for Geeks!

                            Assume your goal is to become the richest man or woman in the world. Would you rather that I give you $1,000,000,000,000 now (not that I have any of this J), or give you a penny to place on the first square of the chess board, two pennies on the next square, four on the next, eight on the next, and so on till the 64^th square, where you would finally get the sum of pennies on the 64^th square?

Magnus Carlson beats Bill Gates in 71 seconds

Chess Grandmaster,world champion, and the number 1 ranked player in the world Magnus Carlson beats Bill Gates in just 71 seconds.

Playing Chess blindfolded?

Playing Chess blindfolded

Blindfold chess is a type of chess where 

players are blindfolded and thus are not allowed to see the pieces or even touch them.  Maintaining a mental image of their game requires a remarkable memory and Visiospatial abilities. A Hungarian player named Janos Flesch played 52 games at the same time with his eyes blindfolded in Budapest in 1960. He won 31 of them.

Which chess piece are you? Take this five questions quiz and share your result, even if you come out a pawn! Click on "What Chess Piece Are You?" below to find out.

I am the King

I may not move quickly, but I move with purpose. I take every decision in my life seriously. I don't think that most risks are worth their potential downsides. I try to protect myself at all costs. Some people may consider me an egomaniac, but I am simply self-interested. It's perfectly natural to want to put myself first. I have a lot of responsibility, and a lot of people depend on me. If I were taken out of commission, those that depend on me would be doomed.

What Chess Piece Are You?

Blogthings: 100's of Fun, Free Quizzes and 3 Stupid Ones

The Jewel Royale Chess Set

I don’t know how much you would spend for a chess set. Economic theory suggests the higher your income becomes, the more you would be willing to pay for a good you desire. But, would you be willing to buy the world’s most expensive chess set?

This set is called the Jewel Royale Chess set and it costs around $9.8 million. What makes it that expensive is the fact it is made of gold mostly. What makes it even more expensive is that it contains diamonds, pearls, rubies, and sapphires.

The World's most expensive king

How Complex is Chess Really?

It is claimed that the number of atoms in the observable universe is less than the number of possible games of chess.

The number of atoms in the universe is approximately 10⁸⁰.

This is 80 tens multiplied by each other.

 So, how is it possible that the number of possible games of chess is greater than 10⁸⁰?

Let us do the Math!

First, a chess move, by definition, is equal to an initiation by White and a reply by Black. So, “two moves” means that each player plays twice. This is a total of four plays.

Claude Shannon, a mathematician and a theorist estimated that each game has an average of 40 moves, where each player has 30 possible actions to take every time he or she wants to make a play on average. This makes the total possibilities of chess games 10¹²⁰ possible games.

How so?

Suppose it is move 1, player White has an average of 30 possible initiations and player Black has an average of 30 possible replies. So, the total number of possibilities for play 1 is (30*30) or 30²

Suppose it is move 2, player White has an average of 30 possible initiations and player Black has an average of 30 possible replies. So, the total number of possibilities for play 2 is also (30*30)

So now, we have a total of (30*30)*(30*30) or 30⁴ total plays of the first and second moves.

Suppose it is move 3, player White has an average of 30 possible initiations and player Black has an average of 30 possible replies. So, the total number of possibilities with the first, second, and third plays is (30*30)* (30*30)* (30*30)

So now, we have a total of 30²*30⁴=30⁶

And so on…

Look at the pattern

Move 1 yields 30² total plays by both players.

Move 2 yields 30⁴ total plays by both players,

Move 3 yields 30⁶ total plays by both players.

Move 4 yields 30⁸ total plays by both players.

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.

.

Can you see the pattern?

Shannon, after looking at a large number of games, estimated that the average number of moves in a chess game is 40. What is the total number of possible chess games? In other words, how many plays do we have after Move 40?

Move 40 yields 30⁸⁰ total number of possible different games.

Note that only after move 40 (40 initiations and 40 replies is a game going to finish).

30⁸⁰ can be rounded up to 10¹²⁰, which is greater than Shannon’s number of 10⁸⁰.

So, under Shannon’s condition of an average of 40 moves per game, where each player has 30 choices every time it is his or her turn to play, the total number of chess games is greater than the total number of atoms in the observable universe! 

See how complex chess is? 

Selected Chess Quotes

As I was browsing through different chess websites, I found a few quotes that I liked by two of my favorite chess players Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov. Fischer and Kasparov according to many chess experts are the best chess players to ever live. Too bad they did not play against each other. Fischer passed away in 2008. 

Posted below are three of those quotes:

1) Chess is war over the board. The object is to crush the opponents mind.   By Bobby Fischer

2) Chess is a matter of delicate judgement, knowing when to punch and how to duck. By Bobby Fischer

3) Chess is mental torture.  By Garry Kasparov

Reference: www.chessquotes.com