Chess

“It is not only the most delightful and scientific, but the most moral of amusements. It recommends itself to the wise, by the fact that its mimic battles are fought for no prize but honour,” said World Chess Champion Paul Morphy in 1858. Who are we to argue with that…

The origins of chess are shrouded in the mists of time. Nobody really knows for sure who invented the square board game with different pieces idea, but the Indians, Chinese and Persians were all playing back in the BC. It spread to Europe through first the Middle East and then into Moorish Spain. There were initially many different sets of pieces and moves, with the present simple yet fiendishly complex European rules only formalised in Renaissance Italy. The Japanese game of Shogi and the Chinese XianQi are more than likely related games with similar origins.

Historical personages such as Napoleon, Lenin (Vladimir Ilyich), Lennon (John) and Che Guevara were all keen chess fans, adding to the game’s intellectual outsider reputation. Chess has also appeared in many films including Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey, the first Harry Potter movie and The Thomas Crown Affair. Then there is Ingmar Bergman’s masterpiece The Seventh Seal where Death himself plays against a medieval knight with the winner getting to keep the knight’s soul. This ties into a widely held idea of chess as a test of intelligence and also moral strength. In many eyes chess is seen as closer to martial arts like Tai Chi than other board games like Monopoly.

Famous chess-masters have included 19th century child prodigy Paul Morphy quoted above, the Russian Borises Spassky and Kasparov, the American Bobby Fischer and the IBM computer Deep Blue. Fischer became a hero in the US in the 1970s for defeating Spassky in a televised series of games. His style of play – individualistic, creative – was contrasted with Spassky’s – allegedly mechanical and impersonal – to show how America was much better than the commie USSR. In 1996 and 1997 Kasparov and Deep Blue played to decide whether man or machine should rule the (chess) world. Kasparov lost amid allegations that the computer had deliberately cheated.

Just in case you are called upon to uphold your country or species’ good name at some indeterminate stage in the future, we’ll run through a quick introduction of the rules. Chess is an abstract strategy board game for two players. It is played on a square board with eight by eight rows of squares of alternating colour, light and dark. Each player begins the game with 16 pieces that can move in defined directions and can attack other pieces and remove them from the game. One player takes the black pieces; his opponent controls the white. Each side consists of eight pawns, two knights, two bishops, two rooks, one queen and one king. The object of the game is to win by achieving checkmate; this occurs when the opponent's king cannot move to save itself.

All of which sounds simple enough in theory, but an American mathematician called Claude Shannon has worked out that there are more possible games of chess than there are atoms in the universe. Chess players say that no luck is involved, each game is won by a mix of strategy and creative reaction to the ongoing situation. At competition levels these strategies get very complex. Grandmasters memorise past games and hold thousands of different moves and tactics in their head.

However the enduring genius of chess is that it can be enjoyably played at many different levels. Once the players are evenly matched it doesn’t matter if they are beginners, experienced or grandmasters, each game can be challenging. Children can learn the game at an early age (and then quickly beat their parents), friends can improve together and rivals can battle for the hand of their beloved without anybody getting (physically) hurt. The number of games possible really is infinite.

As well as being a stimulating mental activity, chess works well as a method of recreation. It allows you to concentrate all your thoughts and energies in one area for a while and switch off from the rest of the world. Playing chess together can be a great friendship builder. Some players take the game very seriously, which can put others off, but if you find someone at a similar skill and experience level, who you get on with, chess can be an ideal way of whiling away the hours.