Chess: The Royal Game of India

A brilliant chess player's capacity for anticipating movements sets them apart from average players. It involves foreseeing both how your opponent will respond to your actions and how your opponent will attack. Only one or two moves from the opponent may be predicted by the average player. A skilled player can anticipate numerous movements and choose the best course of action.

Game of Chess. Image Credits: The Spruce Crafts

Chess has been around for centuries, spanning numerous cultures and historical events. It is widely believed that this fascinating game have originated around 1500 years ago. Although the exact origin of this game is uncertain, it is believed that it occurred before the sixth century AD in India, from where it later spread to Persia. Later Muslims adopted it after the Arabs conquered Persia, and spread it to Southern Europe

During ancient time, Indian kings used to believe that war was the most effective school for learning endurance, valor, bravery, decision-making, and circumspection. As a result, war is thought to have been chosen as the game's model.

There is a fascinating and long-running story that attributes the creation of the game to the holy saint Sissa at the courts of the Indian King Balhait.

Once the King of Balhait was very disturbed due to the prevalence of gambling and the addiction to pure chance (luck) games. In order to oppose the teaching of games where the results are determined by chance (luck) through the roll of dice, he asked the holy saint Sissa to create a game that will require only pure mental qualities like judgment, bravery, prudence, endurance, foresight, and circumspection and analytical and reasoning ability.

After a while, Sissa returned to the King's court with an Ashtapada board consisting of 8x8=64 squares and rules similar to those used today. Aiming to capture or kill the king of the opposing army were two armies of different colors, each with 32 soldiers.

This game was named 'Chaturunga,' which means 'four bodies,' to represent elephants, horses, chariots, and foot soldiers because there were four participants. This game was also known as Ashtapada, which means "eight steps.”

The King requested seven days of grace, during which time the wise men tried in vain to discover the secret. Finally, the minister took back the pieces home and solved it within a single day and night.

Sir William Jones defined that chess (Chaturanga in Sanskrit) was exported from India into Persia in the sixth century AD and that natural corruption caused the old Persians to change the name to Chatrang; however, when their country was later taken over by the Arabs, who did not have the initial or final letter of their alphabet, they changed it further into 'Shatranj'.

The historical poem "The Shahnama," written by the Persian poet Firdousi, describes the arrival of Shatranj in Persia during the rule of Chosroes I Anushirwan. In it, Shatranj is given a chessboard by ambassadors from the ruler of Hind (India), who also ask him to figure out the game's secrets if he can or pay homage. The King gave him seven days to solve the game, he tried in vain to figure out the secret but failed. Finally, the King's minister brought the pieces home and solved the mystery in a single day.

Since then, the game’s framework has remained constant. It's a square board that is horizontally and vertically divided into eight rows of eight cells. The traditional board is always referred to as black and white, and chessmen are also referred to as black and white regardless of their actual color.

India has several brilliant chess plates but one player whose name comes to our mind before anyone else is Viswanathan Anand. Known as the chess grandmaster, Viswanathan Anand is five times world chess champion.

Our mind is like a muscle that requires frequent exercise. Just like the body, our brains can be trained too. The more you train your brain, the more intelligent you will become. And there can’t be anything better than Chess. It is a game of strategy and creativity that offers opportunities for intellectual development as well as rules, order, and structure.