Chess Guide

The History of Chess


Defined Tag: Chess.

Just how much do you know about chess? Did you know that it is one of the oldest games in world? Do you know where it came from? No one really knows for sure where chess originated. It was played centuries ago in China, India and Persia. In the eighth century, the Moors invaded Persia and learned chess from the Persians. From the Moors, it can be traced to Spain and from Spain to all of Europe.

The Europeans are the ones that named the pieces as we know them now. At the time, it represented the way in which ordinary and persons of rank lived. The pawns on the chess board represent serfs, of which there is more than any other piece on the chess board. In medieval times serfs could be traded, used as a diversion, or sacrificed to keep the landowner from harm.

Each game has four castles, which would have represented home in the medieval times. It was a place that the knights, kings and queens could depend on in times of trouble or war.

A knight's job was to protect the queen, king and bishop. In a game, as then, the knights can be sacrificed for the protection of the hierarchy. There are two knights per side in a game of chess.

There are two bishops on each side in a game, which represents the history of religion. The bishop was the main priest in the Catholic Church in medieval times, a man with a great deal of power who had risen through the ranks to gain that power.

Have you ever noticed that the queen is the only female in the game? How about the fact that she is the most powerful piece in the whole game? The king would was often guided by the queen's advise, and history is full of stories of queens against (and for) their kings.

The king is the tallest of the pieces on the board. If the king fell in medieval times, it meant the fall of his kingdom and possibly doom for those in his kingdom. The king is the most important, but not the most powerful, piece in chess. You loose the king, you loose the game.

The next time you play it, invite your children to play with you and turn it into a wonderful and memorable history lesson.