Chess Travelling

      As everyone knows that chess is a classic game of skills and strategies. It is a game of 64-square that is full of mental exercise, thriller, romance and adventure. Marching of pieces towards the opponent’s king contains the deeper analysis, calculations and outcomes of moves to avoid counterplay so that the player would get an advantage in the overall game.

A tale about the origin of chess

      Once upon a time, there was a king Shahram, and a wise man in a kingdom. The wise man wanted to convince Shahram of the importance of each resident of his Kingdom. So, he invented a game to represent the kingdom consisting of the king himself, his queen, rooks, bishops, knights, and pawns, all of which were important.

       The king liked the game very much and understood that the game was just like real life. So, he ordered everybody in his kingdom to play chess! Shahram offered the man all the gold and silver that he wanted, but the wise man didn’t want any treasure.
Together with the king, he went to a chessboard and asked him to put one grain of wheat on the first square, two on the second and to keep doubling it until the chessboard was full.

       First of all, the king felt highly offended, but then he ordered his servants to fulfil the man’s wish. Desperately, the servants conveyed that such an enormous amount of wheat did not exist! The king understood that the wise man had given him a second lesson. Just like the pawns in chess, you should never underestimate the small things in life! (ichess.net)

A Brief History

      There are a variety of hypotheses about the history of chess, and there is no specific person who invented this well-known game. It has changed throughout the centuries and will probably keep changing with the times.

      As per the website ichess.net, the history of chess can be traced back around 1500 years; started in the north of India and then spread throughout the Asian continent. Chess made its way via the expanding Islamic Arabian Empire to Europe. Its rules had finalised in the 1880s (the romantic era of chess), and the first world chess championship held in 1886. The 20th century revolutionised chess with the invention of databases and chess engines.

     First dogma about its origin

     One day, a man called H. J. R. Murray decided to share his discoveries with the world by writing a book named A History of Chess”, in 1913. In his book, Murray assumes that the history of chess started in the North of India, travelled to Persia, and then spread throughout the Asian continent.

      In the Eastern World, for example in India or Persia, chess became a part of the courtly education of the nobility. In those days words like “Shāh!” – Persian for the king – or “Shāh Māt!” – the king is helpless – were used in the games. These words are very similar to the terms we use today with “check” and “checkmate”. The rules were already quite similar to the chess rules we know nowadays. 

      Second Dogma about the origin

      There are not only those who believe chess comes from India, but some people believe that chess was invented in China. The legend says that chess was invented around 200 B.C. by a commander, Hán Xin, who invented the game to represent a particular battle. Soon after the battle, an important battle in Chinese history, the game was forgotten and then resurfaced in the 7th century A.D. with several new rules.

      The game became popular under the name “XiangQi” which means the “elephant game”, losing its reference to the ancient battle. The elephant game was very dissimilar to the chess game that we know today. They had other pieces, another board, and even other rules. According to this belief, chess went from China to India and Persia afterwards, where it slowly modified into the chess game we know today with an 8×8 square chessboard and the chess pieces that we are familiar with.

       Development of the modern chess game

       The romantic era of chess started in the 1880s. The Immortal Game between Anderssen and Kieseritky was famous. Chess slowly gained its competitive character and concrete rules, growing in popularity among the people. Strategically planning or long study of the theory were pretty subordinate topics. 

       The first chess tournaments started to take place and even the first official World Championship was hosted in 1886 where Wilhelm Steinitz became the first official World Chess Champion.

FIDE: The governing body of the chess

       It is the governing body of the sport of chess and it regulates all international chess competitions. It was founded in 1924 in Paris (France), under the motto “Gens Una Sumus” (Latin for “We are one Family”) FIDE is a non-governmental institution, and it was one of the first associations of its kind in the world, alongside the governing bodies of the sports of Football, Cricket, Swimming, and Auto Racing. In 1999, FIDE was recognized by the International Olympic Committee as a Global Sporting Organization.

      A similar body in India for regulating the game of Indian chess is the All India Chess Federation (AICF). It is central administrative body founded in 1951, the federation is affiliated to FIDE. The AICF has produced champions Viswanathan Anand, Nihal Sarin, Pentala Harikrishna, Rameshbabu Praggnandhaa and Vidit Gujrathi and many Grandmasters. It organizes many chess completion on several occasions. 

World Chess at a glance

       Almost 1500 Grandmasters in chess are in the world. This number is only 0.3% of the total chess player. FIDE organized many chess competitions in its registered player. The World Chess Championship is such a competition that is played to determine the world champion in chess. The current world champion is Magnus Carlson of Norway. He has been winning this tournament since 2013. Viswanathan Anand of India had been getting victory from 2007 t0 2013 when Carlson defeated him. 

Chess in India

      Total 65 Indian chess player has achieved the title of Grandmaster. Many are from south India, especially 36% is from Tamilnadu. Even in North India, this game is highly popular but giving full-time effort is in a penny that symbolises the no title of GM in the north. No one player from Hindi speaking Belt is in the list of GM. Decentralisation of Chess is the need of the hour that would provide equal opportunity and the best competition for the players. In this regard, the government must take steps to popularise this game in modern style, set a ground for training, and organise competitions even in the rural side of the country along with the urban side.