Chess was invented many centuries ago, and it is still unknown who invented it. Due to the remoteness of events, the appearance of this game has overgrown with many myths and legends.
Which country is the birthplace of chess? According to legends, the game originates in India.
Chess history
India is the birthplace of chess. It is believed that they appeared in the first centuries of our era. Later, chess moved to different corners of the planet, and each nation added something different: changed the name of the game, the shape of the figures, but the rules remained unchanged - checkmate the king.
Chess historians are convinced that the game was invented not by one specific person, but by a large team of different nations, supplementing and transforming it at different times. The opinions of scientists agree only in one thing: India is the country the birthplace of chess.
However, there are Chinese historians who do not believe that the Indian origin of chess is fully proven. They are looking for evidence to confirm that the game came from China.
What is the birthplace of chess? There is no evidence to refute the Indian origin of the game, and the first mention of it in Chinese literature dates only to the 8th century AD. This only confirms that the birthplace of chess is India.
The legends of the origin of chess are very interesting and unusual, let us consider some of them.
Brothers Woof and Talhand
A description of this legend was found in the Persian poet Firdousi, who wrote the epic about a thousand years ago.
In one Indian kingdom there lived a queen and her two twin sons, Gav and Talhand. The time had come for them to reign, but the mother could not decide whom to make the king, because she loved the sons of the lonely. Then the princes decided to arrange a battle, the winner and become ruler. The battlefield was chosen on the seashore and surrounded by a moat. They created such conditions that there was nowhere to retreat.
The condition of the tournament was not to kill each other, but to defeat the enemy army. The battle began, as a result of which Talhand died.
Upon learning of the death of her son, the queen fell into despair. She reproached Arriving Gava for the murder of her brother. However, he replied that he did not cause bodily harm to his brother, he died himself from exhaustion of the body.
The queen asked to tell in detail about how the battle took place. Woof, along with people from his circle, decided to recreate the battlefield. To do this, they took a board, marked out the cells and placed on it figures depicting warriors. Opposing troops were put on opposite sides and placed in rows: infantry, cavalry, and again infantry. In the middle row in the center stood the prince, next - his chief assistant, then two figures of elephants, camels, horses and birds Rukh. Moving different figures, the prince showed his mother how the battle went.
Thus, it can be seen that the ancient chessboard had 100 cells and the figures on it stood in three lines.
The most famous legend about chess and grain
This legend tells how a brahmin who invented a chess game outwitted the king.
Once, a Brahmin, who lives in India, invented chess and clearly demonstrated how to play the ruling king, who liked it very much. For this, the king decided to fulfill his every desire. Then the brahmin asked to give him grain, while he said that he would not ask much. It is only necessary to put one seed on the first cell, on the second two, on the third four, on the fourth eight and on each next cell twice the number of grains from the previous cell.
The king agreed, however, when he began to fulfill the promise, the grain of his kingdom was over, and there were still many cells left to the end of the board. Thus, we scolded the king.
Chaturanga game
Since the birthplace of chess is India, the ancestor of modern chess is considered the game of chaturanga. The name indicates the presence of four components: infantry, cavalry, elephant, chariot. There should be four players. The board, consisting of 64 cells, was divided into 4 parts and placed in each of them: 4 pawns, one piece of an elephant, horse, rook and king. The goal of the game is to defeat and destroy the enemy. Dice were used in the game, and tossing them made a move.
Chaturanga from India was transported to other eastern countries and changed over time. The troops merged and made up two teams, each of which turned out to be two kings. Then one king was replaced by an adviser. The pieces began to walk themselves, without using dice, the king cannot be killed, only to block his movement on the board.
Shape conversion
According to legend, the bird Rukh was eventually transformed into a boat. This is due to the fact that Islam forbade making the image of living beings. Therefore, when chess appeared in the Arab countries, the Rukh bird was changed, its wings were cut off: just small ledges at the top of the quadrangle turned out. So there was a transformation of the bird into a boat.
Thus, the origin of the game itself is covered in many legends and fables, it is only known for sure that the birthplace of chess is India.
The game, which appeared in ancient times, gained popularity around the world. From the military, it has turned into cognitive, stimulating and developing memory, logic, attention, while requiring a certain perseverance.