Russia won the last tournament organised by FIDE, and has achieved the title 18 times since 1924. In 1924 only 16 countries joined the tournament as opposed to 133 countries in 2006. FIDE (the official chess body) organises a world tournament every two years applying the rules set up for Olympic sports, including a doping test. There are discussions to have chess included as an Olympic sport. Checkmate is the point at which the king cannot escape, therefore the king is never technically captured. The objective of the game is to checkmate your opponent’s king, this means that when your attack is final and the king can’t escape, the game has been won. Each game is unique as expert players always develop new strategies to defeat their opponent. It is a game of strategy, and it can be very tense as it’s never possible to predict the opponent’s movements. Chess is played regularly by millions of people around the world and statistically played once a year by 70% of the Indian population and 12% of the British population.Ĭhess is a game with two opposed players. In the 15th century the influence of the Italian game, chess pieces and their movements began to modernise. For example in early European versions of the game bishops were allowed to continue only two spaces diagonally, the queen could only move one space diagonally, and the pawn weren’t allowed two spaces at the beginning of the game. Modifications have also taken place through time. For example, the power of the queen increased in European versions of the game. The spread of chess has resulted in some modifications.

From Persia the game spread across the world, for example in Russia through Mongolia, where it was played from the 7th century, cementing its presence and importance there. It’s in Persia that archaeologists have discovered the oldest chess pieces. From Asia the game spread to Persia, and then Southern Europe after the Arab invasion of Persia. Its origins have been debated between India (where it was called Chaturanga) and China. The history of the game of chess dates back 1500 years.

Checkmate painting in europe