History of Chess

2006-04-09T20:09:00.000-07:00

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History of Chess

2006-04-09T20:08:00.000-07:00

History of Chess

Baguio is considered the summer capital of The Philippines
because of its height. It's a lot cooler than the country
at sea level.

At night, Baguio can get cool enough that you really
need a jacket. During most days it warms up enough
that you don't need a jacket -- although many people
still wear them -- but it never gets really hot.

So typical Baguio weather is like mid-spring -- cool
at night and warm during the day.

Almost everything in Baguio is on a steep slope. Driving
there is a good test of your ability to use a stick
shift. Yet the traffic is just as heavy as any other
major city in The Philippines -- which means it's quite
heavy.

In 1978 Ferdinand Marcos was still in charge of The
Philippines. He was a bad dictator but he was an
anti-communist, but I assume that the international
prestige and flow of money from hosting the World
Championship must have attracted him. If he hadn't
wanted it hosted in The Philippines, he would have
stopped it.

Since Korchnoi was a Soviet who'd defected, perhaps
it was hoped that he would defeat Karpov and score
another chess victory against the U.S.S.R.

On the other hand, a Filipino named Florencio Campomanes was
high in FIDE at that time (and would become president
a few years later) -- so that's probably why
The Philippines was chosen as the location. Perhaps
he chose Baguio because it is cooler than the rest
of The Philippines.

Yet Campomanes has been described as a pro-Soviet friend
of Karpov's. That doesn't seem like it would go over
big with Marcos, but it's also possible there are
personal connections that I'm unaware that would
override political differences.

And I think his wife Imelda who was the power behind
his office is from that area. I know she still have a
huge summer mansion there.

Also, the U.S. military has Camp John Hay. I don't
think it's very active, and it was never mentioned
back in the days when we had a naval base at
Olongapo and an Clark Air Force Base at Angeles,
but it is still there in Baguio.

I could be wrong, but I suspect the actual site of
the tournament was in Camp John Hay, or perhaps
somehow in Burnham Park, which is a level area of
the downtown area.

Found it was in the Baguio Convention Center.

The tournament itself was marred by a lot of back
and forth conflicts that seem pretty strange to
read about today. Purple yogurt being a secret
signal. Korchnoi learning yoga from sect members
who were out on bail from a murder charge,
mirror sunglasses, twisting in your chair . . .
it wasn't publicized in the U.S., but it was a
circus in its own right.

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History of Chess

2006-04-09T20:07:00.000-07:00

History of Chess

I find it interesting that the 1978 World Championship
tournament, where Anatoly Karpov defended his title
against Korchnoi. Of course, a lot was on the line
for Karpov.

He'd become the first World Champion to gain his title
by default, because Bobby Fischer refused to play
under the FIDE rules in effect.

Since a lot of people were still excited by Fischer's
win against Boris Spassky in 1972, they looked down
on Karpov.

So this was his first real chance to compete for the
title in a tournament actually played.

I'm curious as to where it actually took place.

Baguio is sort of high in the mountains of The
Philippines. It's not high by the standards of real
mountains such as the Rockies in the U.S. or the
Himalayas in Asia. But for The Philippines, it's pretty
high.

Although it's not a far distance north of Manila,
only 150 miles, it takes hours to drive. You'll be
told 5, but that's optimistic. I don't think I've
ever made it in that short a time. That's true, even now, along
the Marcos Highway. And the final route is up a long
and winding road that circles around the mountains.

They have done a lot of work on that road recently, so
I wonder what kind of shape it was in 30 years ago.

History of Chess

2006-04-09T10:26:00.000-07:00

If you consider chess as analogous to a species of plant
or animal, you can consider it in all its variations
and history as evolving.

This page by a chess fan biologist, analyzes chess as
though tracing its genetic roots. According to him,
the evidence is that chess did originate in India,
rather than China as some have claimed. Although I
don't think he regards this as definitively proven,
since the evidence from those ancient times is scanty.

history of chess considered as a biological species

History of chess

2006-03-28T14:03:00.000-08:00

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History of chess

History of Chess

2006-03-26T20:11:00.000-08:00

To the best of our knowledge, the history of chess started out in
Northern India about 1500 years ago, where it was called chaturanga. However, it was a four-handed game.

There're allegations that it actually started in China, perhaps as
long as 3 thousand years ago. Who knows for sure? Nobody.

After all, we know that people were playing board games in Ur in
4000 BC. It's not at all unreasonable to believe that these
board games were modeled on warfare as practiced in those ancient
times.

Chaturanga became a two-handed game called shatanj, which is
the Arabic word. It spread from India to Persia and Arabia and by the 9th century it reached Europe. Europe changed some of the pieces to fit European culture.

For example, the bishop started out as a elephant -- as essential
for warfare in South and Southeast Asia, but not much used in
Europe! In the late 15th century the alfil -- the Arabic word --
became the bishop and gained the power to slide an unlimited
distance over diagonals.

Pawns started out as foot soldiers, not much different.

The queen started out as the king's chief advisor, or mantri or
vizier. This advisor became the more logical queen to the king
in Europe, and in the 15th century became a much stronger piece.
The advisor -- or fers in Arabic -- became the queen

Indian cavalry became the knights. The chariots became the rook.

The last time chess changed, it was the end of the 15th century.

A version of a chess game has been excavated from a Viking
grave site off Brittany.

Most of the books say that it was a game played by the
nobility for hundreds of years, because ordinary people didn't
have time for it.

I'm sure the average peasant couldn't devote their life to it,
but I suspect that some of those peasants probably played a
mean game of chess in the little spare time they had.

Interestingly, the French dominated chess for many years.
It was Francois Andre Danican Philidor who wrote an early
chess classic, "L'analyse du jeu des Echecs" in 1749.

Benjamin Franklin wrote the first book on chess in America.
He was an expert player who believed that chess was like life.

Howard Staunton designed the standard chess pieces we use now,
around the 1840s.

The first international chess tournament was the London Tourney
of 1851, won by Adolf Andersen of Germany.

The international governing body of chess, Federation Internationale
des Echecs, or FIDE for short, was founded in 1924.

In the U.S., the U.S. Chess Federation was founded to promote
the game.

It's interesting that shatanj didn't just disappear -- it
not only spread to Europe and became chess, it spread throughout
Asia and became:

Sittuyin (Burmese Chess)
Mak-ruk (Siamese Chess)
Shiang K'i (Chinese Chess)
Changgi -- Korean Chess
Sho-gi (Japanese Chess or The General's Game)

You can also check out my other chess blogs --
chess theory pdf, play chess online, and
Russian chess masters

History of Chess

2006-03-21T19:09:00.000-08:00

History of Chess

Hi, and thanks for visiting my blog on the history of chess.
It's a fascinating game that goes back at least to Northern
India over 1500 years ago. War between kings was normal
then, all over the world, and so it's natural that when they
played a game, it was a substitute for making war.