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Origins and Myth (Or, Why Chess is Elevated to "The Immortal Game")
Our notions of the origins of chess have as much to say about the game as about ourselves.
Common knowledge would suppose that chess is older than our Common Era - at least as old as classical civilization. Age-old theories propose Pythagoras as the father of chess, or that Roman commanders studied it, and even that Moses introduced it along with the alphabet. The truth is that chess is no more than 1500 years old. Chess did not come about at once, but rather as a process of game convergence, the influence of authority, and the creation of a competitive class of chess player. (1)
But first we must address the following: Was there a cultural imperative for chess? Certainly, in today's light, chess plays a role in defining courteous and creative competition. Chess players are considered ferocious mentally while exhibiting a perfectly calm and collected frame. Furthermore, the chess player is attributed for elevating educational values of evaluation and modeling hard-to-grasp mathematics. Shenk points to the story of "The Doubling of the Squares," which communicates the mathematical principle of exponential growth through the parable of chess. In total, the reason for chess may be edification - if not for mathematics, then war. This wiki will constantly confront the "cultural imperative" hypothesis, so let's depart from it for a second.
Very little is actually known about the beginning of chess, but a lot of what we do know reinforces the "cultural imperative" narrative. Chess grew out of "chatrang," an Indian game in the 5th century AD. The game organically evolved from various "highway" games. Although the pieces have too evolved, the game consisted of animal warrior pieces deployed to trap or capture the opponent's king. The war justification is difficult to justify from the data; we can attribute the game to no single king's mobilization of forces. The trade environment along the highways, however, lends credence to the emergence of Persian mathematics. The positions represented wins and losses and bargaining in ways that naive conceptions of the counting numbers (1, 2, 3...) could not. (2)
The Muslim era of chess created a culture around chess, to the point that I would argue that the Golden Age of Chess is long gone. Chess was an innovative game in the sense that it required all skill and no luck. Muslim authorities flatly denounced any games of chance, and chess had to pass through societal scrutiny before reaching acceptance. The result is that the chess we know today is almost devoid of profit motive. It symbolizes - at the most fundamental level - applied skill. The caliph elite soon started employing chess masters - known as aliyat - to compete against and learn from. (3) The historical significance of Islam's holy wars cannot be discounted. Chess was employed especially to train the warrior sense "without bloodshed." Under Muslim influence, chess grew up from a pastime to an occupation.
Chess is like no other game in the Western catalog (I guard against the equally powerful Go) in that it commands reverence for its history. It is very much unlike Tetris, where a player may gently glide from one game to the next. Chess commands an analytical mind that borrows from the past at all times. Those who pursue chess are going to study previous games and analyze them from both tactical and creative points of view. The game centers around primal instincts of overthrow. Chess creates us: the game inspires in the player ferocity and cleverness that was not previously there. Also, we generate the metaphors (Chess: As Metaphor) that are supposed to describe what chess represents. Of course, there will be those (maybe the majority) who never get engrossed in chess.
Before leaving the topic of origins, the Christian game of chess must be addressed. The introduction of Chess to Europe brought about the flair that makes Western chess Romantic. Islam had also forbidden the use of symbolic imagery, so shatranj pieces were awfully abstract pieces of art. But with medieval chess came the ornamentation of the colored chess board with distinctive piece designs. Standing tallest in this version of course was the king and queen, with a caste system of other characters below them. On the side, medieval philosophers even thought of alternative feudal descriptions of the figures - tillers, guards, and merchants. Thus chess evolved from a game into a system of ordering labor in which every piece did its part. The game commanded respect for the king, who even in a loss, is not captured - in fact, this is a significant change from the "Oriental" rule that one could win by taking all of his opponent's pieces. Humorously, despite the increase of power wielded, chess became more and more a tinkering hobby for the elite to play for recreation and even companionship. (4)
Consider that in the Christian world, chess is king. You've seen chess grids everywhere in real life. And if you've ever seen a human chess game, you get it - people are the pieces in chess. So get ready for Chess: We're All Pawns. But first, check out...
Chess: Origins Photographs
FAQs
The ancient Indian Brahmin mathematician Sissa (also spelt Sessa or Sassa and also known as Sissa ibn Dahir or Lahur Sessa) is a mythical character from India, known for the invention of Chaturanga, the Indian predecessor of chess, and the wheat and chessboard problem he would have presented to the king when he was ...
Is chess haram in Islam? ›
Is chess “haram” and “unIslamic”? For brief while, fundamentalist Islamic “scholars” — from both Sunni and Shia camps — decreed it is and banned the game. Saudi Arabia's grand mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Sheikh once ruled that chess is forbidden in Islam, saying it encourages gambling and is a waste of time.
Is chess older than Islam? ›
The irony is that chess, which is believed to have originated in India, has roots in the Middle East older perhaps than even Islam. According to one account, a chess set was gifted to a Persian king as a riddle and a challenge from a Hindu monarch in the 6th century AD.
What is the historical origin of chess? ›
The game of chess was born in India during the Gupta dynasty in the 6th century. Today, more than 1500 years later, it is played in 172 countries. Chess is one of India's contribution to world culture, with games played in the court of kings, to those played in villages, and now, is a professional sport.
Who was the god of chess? ›
Caïssa, the legendary mythological creature, is now known as the Goddess of Chess, and was later notoriously described in a poem called Caïssa written in 1763 by English poet and philologist Sir William Jones. “Caissa, the Goddess of Chess, had punished me for my conservative play, for betraying my nature”.
Which religion invented chess? ›
Chess has been called the “game of kings” and pious Christian legend attributed its invention to King Solomon himself. Hindu legend says that it came from a wise man who invented the game to instruct a tyrannical king named Shimram what his subjects were actually like, hence the variety of characters on the board.
Is it a sin to play chess? ›
Chess isn't a sin, but chess might provoke emotions (or blindness of emotions like rage) which might serve as a catalyst to sin. Just about everything in life could serve as a catalyst to sin though.
What religion can't play chess? ›
Chess (shatranj) was a legal issue after Mohammad died in 642 A.D. In 655 his son-in-law, Caliph Ali Ben Abu-Talib disapproved the game for his sect of Muslims because of the graven images. In 680 the 50th rule of canons was interpreted as forbidding chess.
What does Allah say about chess? ›
“This verse indicates that it is haram to play dice or chess , whether that involves gambling or not, because when Allah forbade alcohol He explained the reason for that, which is 'Shaytan (Satan) wants only to excite enmity and hatred between you with intoxicants (alcoholic drinks) and gambling, and hinder you from ...
Who is the father of chess? ›
Wilhelm Steinitz, the first World Champion, widely considered the "father of modern chess," extensively analyzed various double king-pawn openings (beginning 1. e4 e5) in his book The Modern Chess Instructor, published in 1889 and 1895.
Early forms of chess originated in India around the 6th century AD in the Gupta Empire. Its ancestor, “Chaturanga,” a Sanskrit name for a type of battle formation, found its mention in Mahabharatha.
What is the oldest game in the world? ›
Some historians believe that mancala is the oldest game in the world based on the archaeological evidence found in Jordan that dates around 6000 BC. The game might have been played by ancient Nabataeans and could have been an ancient version of the modern mancala game.
Is Albert Einstein a good chess player? ›
It's also known that Einstein could play chess, though he reportedly disliked the competitive aspect. That said, he was a great player, even though he never really pursued the game.
Did the Moors invent chess? ›
The history of chess goes back almost 1500 years. The game originated in northern India in the 6th century AD and spread to Persia. When the Arabs conquered Persia, chess was taken up by the Muslim world. Later, through the Moorish conquest of Spain, chess spread to Southern Europe.
Why does white go first in chess? ›
The early chess books focused on how to exploit the white advantage over black. It was an attempt to show the power of the first-move privilege. When one looks at chess books, the diagrams are generally positioned to be from the white army's perspective.
What is the lore behind chess? ›
Chess, as we know it today, was born out of the Indian game chaturanga before the 600s AD. The game spread throughout Asia and Europe over the coming centuries, and eventually evolved into what we know as chess around the 16th century. One of the first masters of the game was a Spanish priest named Ruy Lopez.
Where did the death playing chess come from? ›
Much of the film's imagery is derived from medieval art. For example, Bergman has stated that the image of a man playing chess with a skeletal Death was inspired by a medieval church painting from the 1480s in Täby kyrka, Täby, north of Stockholm, painted by Albertus Pictor.
What was the reasoning behind the creation of chess? ›
Legend has it that chess was invented around 200 B. C. by a commander, Hán Xin, who invented the game as a battle simulator. Soon after winning the battle, the game was forgotten, but it resurfaced in the 7th century. For the Chinese, Chess was invented by the mythical Emperor Shennong or by his successor, Huangdi.
What is the origin of playing chess? ›
Dieting Among the Ancients
If you had a healthy body, the Greeks believed it meant you also had a healthy mind. your body was as healthy and beautiful as a Greek god, that meant your mind was healthy too. Being fat was not only ugly, it was also a sign of mental unbalance.
