The curious case of Chess

Hello everyone, and welcome back to your favorite series on the internet. So today, we are talking a more old fashioned and classical approach or route. Basically, we are going to be reviewing different eras of chess and I am going to rate them one by one, little by little, and we will determine which one was the best era to be alive as a chess player. We are going to be taking a bunch of ideas and criteria into consideration.

• Culture
• Facilities
• Players
• Competiveness

So without further ado, lets get into this.

Table Of Contents

• Chaturanga
• Al Masudi said...
• When In europe, be like the romans
• Industry
• The Cold War
• Today (Basically online)

Chaturanga

1500 years ago we go to the Gupta Empire in India, that ruled during the 6th century. The Gupta Empire described the death of one of their commanders by the dramatic reanimation of the incident through a board. This board was called Chaturanga, which means four divisions. The four divisions include Infantry, Cavalry, Chariots and Elephants. There was also a Vizer, that instead of a queen acted as a week aide to the King. This started being played in royal courts to sharpen strategy, intellect, and innovation.

Overall Score : 5/10, it would be only of meaning to play it if you were a royal, and that's a tiny fraction of the population. So its not having a big scope.

Al Masudi said...

Basically what happened is that from India it spread on to Persia (Iran). This was because of a high tech thingy called trade routes. When this happened, chess really got its big break. From Persia it spread onto the Arab World, in the middle east, and this is where we start to see Chess take the modern shape. "Shah Maut" emerged, which means death of the king in Persian, which later on became the word for Checkmate. In the middle east this game became a symbol of sophistication, becoming favored by the scholars and elite, and kings spending dozens of hours locked up in their room, trying to figure out complex positions. The revered historian Al Masudi Said: 

"Chess is a testament to the human will rather than games of chance."

Rating

So I am going to give this era an 8.5 out of ten. Not only were you playing a royal game (literally!), the major developments made a really nice chess culture for this time. Onward!

When In europe, be like the romans

From the middle east trade happened, and because of the trade routes teeming with Venetian merchants it went on to the middle ages. This is also where chess started getting modern, although at first the game was played at coffeehouses and faced severe opposite from royalty. Gradually it started gaining traction in the mainstream medieval media, and that catapulted Chess to fame. People like Phillidor and Ruy Lopez started arriving, and started writing long books and spending countless time studying the game, which increased its popularity in the public. Chess moved from courts to coffeehouses, and people started taking up the game. 

I am going to give this an 8/10, because there was a lot of opposition, but the adding of the queen piece and flourishing of chess literature made it a good place for chess.

Industry

As the Industrial Revolution transformed society, chess experienced a resurgence in popularity. The establishment of formal tournaments and the first chess clubs brought the game to the masses. Chess became a symbol of progress and intellectualism, with figures like Howard Staunton championing the game’s promotion.

This era also witnessed the rise of chess as a competitive sport. Newspapers began to publish chess problems and games, making it accessible to a broader audience.

rating

I would say a 9 out of ten, because it was quite the time to be alive while playing chess. The emergence of tournaments and the overall style of romantic play was just at another level.

The Cold War

Gone were the days of royalty and coffeehouses, now Chess had taken over the geopolitcal scene. Chess players were considered pawns (no pun intended) for their country and representing your country meant you were carrying your country and giving them a show of power on the global stage. This culminated in the match of the ages, Fischer vs Spassky in 1972, in which either side losing was considered a loss for either the KGB or the CIA.

 It  had a geopolitical role during the cold war as the soviets were almost undefeated for a long time. It represented that the Soviets were smarter then the rest. But know a new challenger arrived. IBM's famous computer called deep blue beat Gary Kasparov in 1997, revolutionizing the chess world.  

rating

I would give this era a 9.5 out of 10, because of the global dominance era. But this is much better than the digial age since there were no cheats, no bongclouds, and chess was much serious than is now.

so that brings us to

Today

I dont even know what to say, the rise of new players, super gm's, online platforms, kid prodigies has changed chess forever. Cheating scandals, dramatic accusations, clashes of claims, this has all brought more drama and popularity to chess, but is it for the worse?

Thanks for tuning in to today's blog  and tune in next time for our next edition!