Chess
The chess game between two players confronted on a plateau called chessboard, consisting of sixty-four squares alternating light and dark, which operate eight coins and eight pawns clear (called "White") as well as eight coins and eight pions dark ( "blacks"). The goal is to create a situation which would lead to the taking imparablement king's opponents (known situation of failure and mat).
This game has a particular prestige in many cultures. It is known in France "king of games" or "the noble game.
In terms of game theory, it is a strategy game combinatorial pure abstract thinking, eventually, cycle and without complete information.
The world of chess has two very independent domains:
* The area of the game, which is the chess itself, and in which the mat final result of the clash between two players;
* The field of the problem, which is an area of artistic creation in which there is no confrontation and that the final mat is only a result of the will of the composer made in a position which has no necessary relationship with a position of real part.
The myth of Brahmin Sissa
The most famous legend about the origin of chess tells the story of King Belkib (India, 3000 BC), who tried at all costs to deceive his boredom. He therefore promised a reward exceptional who would propose a distraction that the meet. When the wise Sissa, son of Brahmine Dahir, presented him chess, the king, enthusiastic, Sissa asked what he wanted in exchange for this extraordinary gift. Humblement, Sissa asked the prince to file a grain of wheat on the first case, two on the second, four on the third, and so on to fill the board by doubling the amount of grain for each case. The prince immediately granted this award seemingly modest, but his adviser told him that he had to sign death in the kingdom since the harvest of the year would be insufficient to pay the price of the game Indeed, on the last box of the board should submit 263 seeds, or more than nine billion billion grains (9223372036854775808 precisely grains), and add the total grains deposited in the boxes earlier, making a total of 18446744073709551615 grains (the formula is then 264-1)!
Variations exist of this legend, one suggesting that the king accepted provided that the account sage seeds itself, another stating that the head Sissa was settled for such effrontery. Some versions say that Sissa not asked anything in return but insisting that the king, Sissa would then decided to make fun of the king and asking for a reward he could give.
Legend Greek
Another legend places the invention of the game during the War of Troy. Palamedes, a Greek hero, allegedly invented the game to raise the morale of the troops during the siege of the city in 1240 BC. AD That will bring the original creators of the first review to appoint Chess The Palamedes. Other characters in the Greek world were awarded the invention of failures. These include pyrrhic.
The historical research
The origins of chess remains a controversial subject. Indeed, as written by Richard Eales CHESS in his book, The history of a game, the research of the origins of chess is similar to the search for the "missing link" in human evolution.
It is generally agreed that his ancestor known the oldest is a game of India, chaturanga. His oldest traces to identify between the fifth and seventh centuries. Two passages in Sanskrit texts mention the existence of the game without giving other information. This is Vasavadatta, written in 600 by Subandhu which evokes chess players, especially Harshascharita, written by 625 to Bana. The Aashtapada He described a scene of 64 cases, which makes it possible to learn Chaturanga, the Sanskrit name failures.
These books, followed by two other books written in 850 by Ratnakara and Rudrata at the end of the ninth century, to make knowledge of the parts of the game which are those of an army: infantrymen, cavalrymen, tanks and elephants.
The origin of these two writers in the north-west of the kingdom of Kashmir suggests possible transmission of the Ganges basin central to Iran (Persia).
Beyond that time, some assume that the game has evolved from Indian gaming journey, other lends him an ancestor outside China and Central Asia. A game very similar is also known in Chinese civilization, xiangqi, whose earliest traces occurred in 569 (there is a controversy on this subject); its existence is evidenced in 800.
Diffusion
The game is spreading Persia until around the year 600, where he became the chatrang. When the Arabs invaded Persia, they adopt it under the name of shatranj. Failures know when a remarkable development. It was during the ninth and tenth centuries that there early champions and the first treaties. The pieces are stylized because of the prohibition to depict animated beings. We can now:
* King (Shah, it was he who gave his name to the game) moves one step.
* Councillor (Firzan or Vizier) whose movement is limited to one box diagonally.
* Elephant (Al-wire) with a displacement corresponding to a jump two spaces diagonally.
* The horse (Faras), which is identical to modern knight.
* (Rukh), similar to the present tower.
* The soldier (Baidaq), the equivalent of pawn, but not without the initial double.
(Rukh was sometimes portrayed as a chariot of war. Arabs they saw a general commanding the army. But its literal meaning remains obscure. It appears that for the Arabs, the word had no other meaning than designate this piece at Shatranj, a bit like the word rook for English speakers today).
A seductive theory gives the origin of the mode of travel pieces by different routes elementary possible from the center of an area of five cases in five cases. It gives a good explanation of the curious moving jumper (F = Faras), the only one that remained "jumper" and short-range. It leaves the king (S = Shah) traveling more limited (four cases), which corresponds to the displacement of his Chinese counterpart ( "General"). It also suggests that the float (R = Rukh) was to be originally a play 'short' and the other was moving by jumping two boxes as column or row.
chess
