The chess game that we are
familiar with today was established in 1475. While it is not
definitive which culture invented the game, many countries
attribute this great game's beginnings to the land of India.
Proof has been found that both Persian and Arabic cultures
played a version of the game of chess. It was very popular among
royal courts. Since then chess has spread to every corner of the
globe.The game of chess
is played by two players on a board of 64 squares -- 8 rows of 8
squares per row. Each player has 16 chess pieces consisting of
the members of a royal court. They are comprised of a king, a
queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, and eight pawns.
Each piece has set rules that govern the direction of their
movement. The object of the game is to capture the opponent's
pieces and to eventually force the other player's king into
submission.
Chessboards and the pieces can
and have been constructed from many materials. Beautiful sets
are made out of everything from wood, metal, polished glass and
precious jewels, bone and ivory. Many artisans excel in the
craft of making exquisite chess sets. These sets can sell for
hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The game of chess became so
popular that the play could go on for days with challengers
playing winners in order to determine an eventual chess
champion. It wasn't until 1851 that the first international
chess tournament was held in London. This exhibition tournament
was held during the first world fair. One important change to
tournament play was made because of this tournament and that was
the need for timed play. By the end of the 20th century over
1,000 international chess tournaments were being held all over
the world every year.
Along with the hundreds of
chess tournaments held annually, chess aficionados have created
thousands of local and international chess clubs. The United
States Chess Federation is a club numbering tens of thousands of
members. This is also the club that governs official chess play
in the US and the club that included Bobby Fisher, the only
American to become world champion. This club has been making a
resurgence in membership and has spawned other clubs, most
notably the Scholastic Chess in the United States Club, which
promotes tournament play for school aged children from
kindergarten through high school.
The past few decades have
brought a new dimension to the chess world and that is the
addition of computers. Many tournaments incorporate computers as
opponents. There have even been chess tournaments that pit
computers against other computers until there is one final CPU
champion. Because of the personal computer, the average person
can learn to play this honored game by playing against a
computer at the level that suits the novice player. There are
also virtual clubs and online tournaments that a player can join
to "pick up" a game of chess with another player anytime from
anywhere around the globe.
