The origin and development of chess

Chess is an ancient cultural heritage. Up to now, there is no universally accepted and conclusive opinion on the history of its appearance, evolution and spread. There is no doubt that chess and Chinese chess have many similarities in that they evolved separately from a primitive chess game. In recent decades, the archaeological relics unearthed and the translated ancient books have provided a wealth of research materials for historians, so that they can draw conclusions that are more in line with the real situation.

In the 1950s, Mr. Permanent Xia, a famous scholar of Indian culture in China, said in his "Oriental Art Series" : "At that time, the chess of the Tang Dynasty was exported to the East, and some researchers said that it was exported to the West at the same time, spreading from Persia to Europe," and European chess originated from China. But eastward spread does have a history; The literature is not enough to prove the westward spread. However, since the Song Dynasty, Western chess has been influenced by China, and there are quite clues to find. ... In the Indian era, the famous British scientist Needham Boto, in his brilliant book "The History of Science and Technology in China", in a detailed analysis of the relationship between the early chess - six Bo and astronomy, Yi, art and mathematics, etc., believes that the simulation of the nature of war chess may be developed from the instruments used in the prophetic land to weigh the reliability of the prophecy... It is used to predict good or bad things in the universe. In the 6th and 7th centuries AD, it evolved into a chess game played in leisure time. The Yugoslav historian Bijiv, in his 1972 monograph Chess - A Symbol of the Universe, also concluded that chess first appeared in China in 569 AD and then gradually spread.

In the study of the history of chess, there are many people who hold the Indian origin: chess is believed to have evolved from "chatulangka" to "Saudi Landz", and then reformed into modern chess. However, as Yi Ringier, a former deputy professor of Soviet history, put it in a 1975 article: "Little evidence of the original form of chess has survived." We cannot determine exactly when and where the game called Chaturangka arose in India, nor do we know any circumstances under which Chaturangka became the game of chess with which we are familiar, nor any means by which it spread to other countries... The more explicit reference to the Chaturangka game is the Kashmiri epic of the mid-9th century AD - (Ratlakal)..." Ringier introduced his research on Chatulangka in the masterpiece Indo Kao by Biruni, a Persian born in the second half of the 10th century.

The records of Biruni, who was described by the famous American historian Hiti as "the most creative and profound scholar produced by Islam in the field of natural sciences," show that until the first half of the 11th century, when Biruni lived in India for a long time, scholars who believed that the origin of India was the Chatulangka, the original type of chess. Still stay in the toss to determine the movement of the pieces, to eat the opponent's pieces to distinguish the loss of sen, is just close to the general gambling game. It is difficult for scholars of Indian origin to give a convincing explanation for this situation. In addition, the analysis of the changes in the chess board and pieces also shows that modern chess is closer to Chinese chess. The stereotyped era of chess is nearly 500 years later than that of Chinese chess, which is the most convincing evidence that the two chess originated from China.

In short, from the current materials, the Chinese origin of chess, compared with the Indian origin, Persian origin, etc., is more convincing. We can imagine that in the middle of the 6th century, the reformed "Xiang Opera" reached the Sui and Tang dynasties, when the cultures of the East and the West frequently exchanged on a large scale, and spread by land and sea to Iran, borrowing the names of some pieces in the local popular chess games, and later gradually spread to other countries in Central Asia.

Around the 10th century, chess was very popular in Central and Western Asia, but the game was very different from today: the main point was to play slowly and win the game not only by killing, but also by eating all the troops of the opponent. At that time, a method of chess was to shorten the time of playing chess by starting from a certain situation "other bia" where the initial deployment of forces had been completed. Chess was spread to Europe from the Arab states and Central Asian states, first to Italy and Spain, and by the end of the 11th century, it had spread throughout Europe. Ancient documents prove that since the 13th century, chess has been included in the "seven arts" of knight education, namely riding, swimming, archery, fencing, hunting, singing and poetry, and chess. In the 14th and 15th centuries, the names and moves of certain pieces were changed, and chess works appeared. It was not until the 16th century that chess gradually settled into its modern form. From the 17th to the middle of the 18th century, chess was spread to North and South America and Oceania with waves of immigrants. Since the middle of the 18th century, chess has continued to develop, and more and more fans. In the mid-19th century, chess began to become an official game. In 1924, the World Chess Federation was established in Paris, and so far, there are nearly 190 subordinate association members, and China joined the International Chess Federation in 1975. There are now hundreds of millions of chess enthusiasts in the world.

At present, the major world competitions hosted and commissioned by FIDE member chess associations are: the Chess Olympiad; World Chess Men's Team Championship; Men's World Chess Championship; Women's World Championship; Chess University World team and junior World Championship and so on. The Chess Olympiad is the world chess team competition, which is held every two years and is the largest and largest world competition with the largest number of participating countries and players. The first Chess Olympiad was held in London in 1927. It was interrupted during World War II. Before 1957, there were only men's team events, and after 1957, women's team events were added. Chess has a long history in our country, but it has not been really carried out in our country for a long time. In 1956, it was listed as a national sport together with Chinese traditional chess and Weiqi. Since then, the technical level of the sport has improved rapidly, and excellent players continue to emerge.

In December 1977, Chinese chess players participated in the Asian Chess team competition for the first time and won the second place. In December 1980, the Chinese Women's Chess team entered the international chess world for the first time, and won the fifth place in the world women's team after drawing with the world champion Soviet Union in the Chess Olympiad. In the 1994 and 1986 Chess Olympiad, the Chinese women's chess team steadily improved its record, and reached the fourth place in the world women's team. In the 1986 Chess Olympiad, the Chinese men's chess team won the joint fifth place. At present, the level of Chinese men's and women's chess teams has been promoted to the ranks of the world's first class. In recent years, China's outstanding players have made remarkable achievements in the world chess championship candidates competition, regional competition, regional competition and other important international competitions. Female chess players Liu Shilan and Wu Minyin have broken into the world top eight, won the title of international grandmaster, became China and even Asia's first batch of female international grandmasters (four levels of chess titles), attracted wide attention in the world chess circle. In 1991, Chinese female chess player Xie Jun won the world women's championship, which was a sensation in the chess world.