Which country is the birthplace of chess?

2024 Author: Sierra Becker | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-26 03:46

Chess was invented many centuries ago, and it is still unknown who exactly invented it. Due to the remoteness of events, the appearance of this game has acquired many myths and legends.

Which country is the birthplace of chess? According to the legends, the game originates in India.

History of chess

India is the birthplace of chess. It is believed that they appeared in the first centuries of our era. Later, chess was transferred to different parts of the planet, and each nation added something of its own: they changed the name of the game, the shape of the pieces, but the rules remained unchanged - checkmate the king.

Chess historians are sure that the game was invented not by one specific person, but by a large team of different nations, supplementing and transforming it at different times. Scientists agree on only one thing: India is the birthplace of chess.

However, there are some Chinese historians who do not believe that the Indian origin of chess is fully proven. They are looking for evidence that the game came from China.

What is the birthplace of chess? There is no evidence to refute the Indian origin of the game, and the first mention of it in ChineseLiterature refers only to the 8th century AD. This only confirms that the birthplace of chess is India.

The legends of the origin of chess are very interesting and unusual, let's look at some of them.

Brothers Woof and Talhand

The description of this legend was found by the Persian poet Ferdowsi, who wrote the epic about a thousand years ago.

In one Indian kingdom lived a queen and her two twin sons Gav and Talhand. The time had come for them to reign, but the mother could not decide whom to put as king, because she loved the sons of a lonely one. Then the princes decided to arrange a fight, the winner would become the ruler. The battlefield was chosen on the seashore and surrounded by a moat of water. They created conditions so that there was nowhere to retreat.

The condition of the tournament was not to kill each other, but to defeat the enemy army. A battle began, as a result of which Talhand died.

Having learned about the death of her son, the queen fell into despair. She reproached the arrived Gav for the murder of his brother. However, he replied that he did not cause bodily harm to his brother, he died himself from exhaustion.

The queen asked to tell in detail about how the battle took place. Gav, along with people from his entourage, decided to recreate the battlefield. To do this, they took a board, marked out the cells and placed on it the figures depicting the belligerents. The opposing troops were placed on opposite sides and placed in rows: infantry, cavalry and again infantry. In the middle row in the center stood the prince, next to him was his main assistant, then two figures of elephants, camels, horses and Rukh birds. Moving different shapesthe prince showed his mother how the battle went.

Thus, it is clear that the ancient chessboard had 100 cells and the pieces on it were in three lines.

The most famous legend about chess and grain

This legend tells how the Brahmin who invented the game of chess outwitted the king.

Once a Brahmin living in India invented chess and clearly demonstrated how to play it to the ruling king, who liked it very much. For this, the king decided to fulfill his every wish. Then the brahmin asked to give him grain, while he said that he would not ask for much. It is only necessary to put one grain on the first cell, two on the second, four on the third, eight on the fourth and twice the number of grains from the previous cell on each next cell.

The king agreed, however, when he began to fulfill the promise, the grain of his kingdom ended, and there were still many cells left to the end of the board. Thus scolding outwitted the king.

Chaturanga game

Since the birthplace of chess is India, the game of chaturanga is considered the progenitor of the modern chess game. The name denotes the presence of four components: infantry, cavalry, elephant, chariot. There must be four players. The board, consisting of 64 cells, was divided into 4 parts and each of them was placed: 4 pawns, one each of the bishop, knight, rook and king. The goal of the game is to defeat and destroy the enemy. The game used dice, on the throw of which the move was made.

Chaturanga from India moved to other eastern countries and over timechanged. The troops merged and made up two teams, each of which turned out to be two kings. Then one king was replaced by an adviser. The pieces began to move by themselves, without the use of dice, the king cannot be killed, only to block his movement on the board.

Transform Shapes

Existing, according to legend, the Roc bird was eventually transformed into a boat. This is due to the fact that Islam forbade making images of living beings. Therefore, when chess appeared in the Arab countries, the Rukh bird was changed, its wings were cut off: it turned out just small protrusions on the top of the quadrangle. This is how the bird was transformed into a boat.

Thus, the origin of the game itself is covered with many legends and tales, only one thing is known for sure that the birthplace of chess is India.

Dating back to ancient times, the game has gained popularity around the world. From military it has turned into a cognitive, stimulating and developing memory, logic, attention, while requiring a certain perseverance.