The Growth and Popularity of Chess in the World
The game of chess hasn't always looked the way it does today. Over time the pieces and the rules have changed drastically. The original game played would have been unrecognizable to modern eyes, and our version of chess didnt develop until the 1400’s.
The first Chess set is believed to have been invented in India, sometime before 500 AD. It quickly spread to Persia where it was called Shatranj, a Persian version of a Sanscrit word. The muslims retained the Persian name when they adopted it for themselves. By 700 AD a version of the game had also reached mainland china where it was called Xiangqi, another modification of an Indian word.
In Europe, the game started to take on its current form around 1200 AD, and by 1475 it looked very much like the modern game we play. These standard rules developed in southern Italy, or possibly in Spain, but they spread throughout Europe rather quickly.
The standardization of this game which had for centuries given rise to variations was due to a number of factors. First, these rules were developed during the renaissance, a time of unprecedented learning and sharing of information. In this climate, the philosophy of chess developed, with strategies and mathematical analysis of the game becoming relatively widespread. In order to be sure that someone in England was theorizing about the same game as someone in Germany, a standard set of rules had to be agreed upon. In this way the development of the standard chess set is due largely to the development of chess theory.
This effect was furthered by the fact that the printing press was invented in the 1430’s. With printing now easy and affordable treatises on chess and strategy could be easily spread throughout Europe. This led to the development of tournaments and eventually rankings, which also helped to solidify chess.
When european expansion began to dominate and colonize the world, they brought their own style of chess to these new regions. In this way they took a game which was invented in India, and which had been played in china and the Middle East for hundreds of years, and reintroduced a new version to these cultures.
Today there are many different types of chess sets, but in general the rules are the same throughout the world. There are some variations such as Chinese checkers, but in general these are designated under different names, and chess means a game played by a standard set of rules.