My name is Tomas and I own this link for the history of chess, hope you learn something!  Well, not own, just made it....


When was the game of chess invented? This question, often asked, has acquired a sort of history of its own, stretching from Indian, Persian, and medieval myth through antiquarian conjectures to something like a secure foundation in modern Oriental scholarship.  A chronological account of the history of chess from its first invention is impossible, because no one knows for certain when or where the first invention was, so the method used here is to look in turn at each of the areas of civilization associated with its early progress: Islam, Persia, India, and China.  From only one of these cultures, Islam is there a surviving chess literature which tells us in detail about the rules of the game and how it was played.  It is possible from Arabic sources to reconstruct substantial portions of treatises written as early as AD 850, the oldest known chess books.  The earliest of these texts can be placed around the year 600.  Before that, there is only archaeology, and conjecture, and references to other board games which may have anticipated the appeal of chess.

There are different names for the different pieces of chess:
Modern Equivalent
 		Persian
 		Arabic
 		Contemporary Meaning
King
 		Shah
 		Shah
 		King
Queen
 		Farzin
 		Firzan or Firz
 		Counsellor (later Vizir)
Bishop
 		Pil
 		Fil
 		Elephant
Knight
 		Asp
 		Faras
 		Horse
Rook
 		Rukh
 		Rukh
 		Chariot
Pawn
 		Pujada
 		Baidaq
 		Foot Soldier

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                The Lewis Chessmen on display in the British Museum, London.  78 of these chessmen were found by a peasant in a stone chamber on the Island of Lewis in the Northern Hebrides in 1831.  They are believed to have been carved between 1150 and 1170 AD - the most complete set of ancient chessmen in existence today.  Replica Lewis chessmen are produced by a number of manufacturers. 

    Modern international chess as it is played today is a relatively recent invention. The sweeping moves of the queen and the long reach of the bishops were not elements of the original game. Nor were such maneuvers as castling or capturing en passant. On the other hand, the moves of the remaining pieces are nearly identical to those of their ancient analogues.

    Moreover, there are other forms of chess still being played today which, while not so widespread geographically as western chess, are yet played by significant numbers of people. Indeed, the variety of chess played in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan can claim as many, if not more, players as its western counterpart. Japan's chess, significantly different from both the western and Chinese versions, also claims players who number in the millions.

     “One of my ancestors, Stanislaw Rusiecki, emigrated from Poland in 1863 for political reasons.  Many refugees chose France for exile, some chose England, but he escaped to Romania.  Stanislaw’s grandson, Ryszard Rusiecki, whose mother was Polish, was born in Bucharest in 1900.  He was my grandfather.  He finished his studies in the Academy of Economics in Varna, and could speak fluent French, Russian and German, besides Polish and Bulgarian.  After graduation he worked as an employee of a certain German company’s representative office and later was nominated Commercial Attaché in the newly opened Polish Embassy in Sofia.  In the 1930s my grandfather was very keen on chess composition.  He probably had earlier played some practical chess, though he never mentioned it.  Here are two of his best works, from a total of 130:
                                                                                        R. Rusiecki
                                                                        Match Sofia - Province 1953
                                                                                        Mate in 2
                                                                                         1. Place
                                                                
 

Hope You Learned Something!!!!!

                                                                                            
                                                                                                                 
                                                                                       
                                                                                                                                                                                                      
Back To Home Page
 Starting The Game
 Openings
 Strategy
 Moving Pieces
 Rules
About Us          Bibliography              Checkmate             Other Rules