A Game of Thrones - How Chess Conquered the World

The human child starts his life with lots of play. Play and gaming is a very basic human tendency and is found in every society of the world. Dice, gamesmen and remnants of brick game boards have been found at Indus Valley civilisation (2500-1750 B.C) sites.

Chess or the precursors to chess were both a pastime and a part of learning. Chess pieces were originally arranged in the chaturanga like an army in battle: infantry, cavalry, elephants and chariots. This evolved into the modern pawn, knight, bishop and rook.

The equipment needed to play the game led to the fashioning of interesting and beautiful artefact-like boards, dice and chessmen in different media.

India has sculptures where gods and goddesses like Shiva-Parvati are seen playing a chess-like game and miniatures depicting Radha-Krishna enjoying a game of chaturanga.

Here is an old stylised elephant or bishop piece.

India has had other games like dice games, the pachisi or chaupar and ganjifa card games throughout its long history.

Through the Moorish conquest of Spain it spread to Europe around 800 A.D. The game became popular all over Europe including Russia and was mentioned in stories by 1300 A.D.

The game being patronised by the nobility was called the ‘’royal game’’.

Here is a chessman, King, in painted wood from England, from the 20th century.

A chess-piece representing a pawn, carved from ivory. From China, made in the 18th century.

A chessman in coloured ivory from the Qing dynasty of China, made around the 17th or 18th century.

The original Indo-Arabic game changed in some ways with changes in the moves in the 15th century and this is when the modern version evolved.

Modern tournament games began in the second half of the 19th century. It has been a global game since then, with the first international tournament held in 1851.

The first World Chess Championship was held in the year 1886. During the 20th century, the World Chess Federation was established.

In the 21st century there have also evolved Internet Chess games in addition to the organised tournaments.

There is now a world governing body for Chess, Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) with headquarters at Athens in Greece.

Chess was depicted in 'The Gentil album of drawings of Indian life and customs' in 1774. Sir William Jones, English philologist, Orientalist and jurist wrote an essay, 'On the Indian game of Chess' in 1790.

Here is an advertisement for chessboards from England, from the 19th century.

The Salar Jung Museum Library has books on chess from the 19th and 20th century.

Chess, as seen previously, has been depicted in few Mughal and Pahari miniature paintings of India.

Here is a miniature chess table from the early 20th century.

A title in Urdu published in 1900 from Delhi, 'Gunchae Nishat', by Billa Quaddas talks about chess. A manuscript titled Qawaid wa dawabet-e-shatranj by Sayyid Mostafa ‘Shatir’ in Urdu language, scribed in 1312 Hijri on chess is available at the Salar Jung Museum.

As mentioned earlier, the short story 'Shatranj ke Khiladi' or The Chess-Players, by Hindi writer Premchand in 1924 is an acclaimed 1977 film of the same name, by noted film-director Satyajit Ray set against 19th century Awadh, a tale of two chess players obsessed with the game during the reign of King of Awadh Nawab Wajid Ali Shah and the backdrop of the British trying to annex his kingdom, with James Outram as the General.

Here is a 19th century chessboard in marble from India.

One player plays with the light coloured pieces, the other plays with the dark coloured pieces. Each player has sixteen pieces in the beginning of the game: one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights, and eight pawns.

The Chessman King is called 'Shah' in Persian and Arabic and 'Raja' in India. The Queen is 'Rani', or 'mantri' and 'vazir' in Persian and Arabic.

Here's a chess-piece in jade representing King, from India, made in 18th century.

The Bishop is the 'gaja' (elephant) or 'hathi' in India and 'fil' in Persian and 'Al-fil' in Arabic.

Here is a chesspiece, Bishop, in porcelain from Austria, from the 19th century.

The Knight is 'ghoda', 'ashva' (horse) in India, 'Asp' in Persian and 'Fars' in Arabic.

Here is a Knight in porcelain from Austria, from 19th century,

Here is another Knight, in painted wood from England, from around 20th century.

The Knight is known for it's unique movement of two and a half squares, or the 'L' shape.

The Rook is 'ratha' (chariot) in India, 'Rukh' in Persian and Arabic.

Here is a Rook in painted wood from England, 20th century.

Lastly, the Pawn is 'padati' in India and 'Piadeh' in Persian and 'Baidaq' in Arabic.

Here is a Pawn in banded stone from India, around 19th century.

Another Pawn, made from rock-crystal from India, 19th century.

A chessman made in coloured ivory from England, 19th century.

Here's another Pawn piece in coloured ivory from 17th century India.

There are different moves for each chessman as per rules pertaining to the game. The rules of early chess were somewhat different from the modern version. The changes happened 500 years after chess reached Europe.

Anand's main opponents have been Garry Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov and Vladimir Kramnik.

He won the FIDE World Championship in 2000, 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2012. He earned the name ''Lightning Kid'' for his quick moves in chess.