126 Chess and Variations of

database in 2001, as did Martin Fierz, and Schaeffer ers-draughts.htm (cited July 2008); Martin Fierz, “A Brief
released the eight-piece database in 2002. In late 2007, History of Computer Checkers,” www.fierz.ch/history
one book contained 1,869,199 moves. Also in 2007, a .htm (cited July 2008); Martin Fierz, “Checkers,” www.
10-piece endgame book was available for purchase. fierz.ch/checkers.htm (cited June 2008); Neto, Joao Pedro,
“The Checkers Family, The World of Abstract Games,”
Modern Computer Programs homepages.di.fc.ul.pt/~jpn/gv/checkers.htm (cited July
Modern programs can show every possible combina- 2008); Online Museum of Checkers History, “Promot-
tion of moves when eight pieces are left on the board ing the Future of Checkers, by Glorifying its Past,” www
(some say the programs can do this at 10 pieces); the .online-museum-of-checkers-history.com/ (cited July 2008);
result is that computer Checkers is more a game of Usacheckers.com, “World Championship Results,” www
database searching than of strategy. The programs con- .usacheckers.com/worldchampionshipresults.php (cited July
sistently play the best Checkers players to a draw and 2008); World Checkers Draughts Federation, wcdf.wz.cz
sometimes defeat them. The game remains popular /index.htm (cited July 2008).
worldwide and provides training in logic and thinking,
as well as providing a great deal of fun. John Barnhill
Although some people regard Checkers as a simple Independent Scholar
game for old men and small children, estimates of the
number of possible positions reach 500 quintillion.
Expert players can spend years mastering play, develop-
ing favorite strategies for both defense and attack. They Chess and Variations of
study long series of forced jumps, known as strokes, that
have attained classic status. Famous strokes include the Chess has always been a fascinating game. It has a long
Boomerang, Wyllie’s Switcher Winder, and the Goose history, with roots in ancient India. Besides the game in
Walk. The Canalejas Cannonball strategy is 350 years practice, there is a long history of literature recording
old and still can end a game in only five moves. past developments and tactics. Furthermore, this game
Checkers is a worldwide game with local variations has been an interesting object of theoretical specula-
in rules, board, and pieces, but the same basics. A sign tions in psychology, sociology, linguistics, semiotics, and
of the popularity of Checkers and the seriousness with philosophy. It is known as the game of the kings and is
which players regard it is the development of the online not a game of chance. This led to its identification with
Checkers history museum, started as a means of preserv- intelligence in early computer science, whereas mod-
ing images lost in the fire at the Petal, Missouri, Inter- ern literature has shown that its self-referential logic is
national Checker Hall of Fame in 2007. The World of linked to insanity. More prominently, Chess is present
Checkers Museum is in Dubuque, Iowa, and the Ameri- as a symbol in fine arts and cinema. For these reasons,
can competitive Checkers organization posts online Chess could perhaps be the greatest game created by
news of tournaments, as well as rankings, transcripts of humankind.
championship matches, and educational material about
the game and how to become more proficient at it. Origins
As with every other creation, Chess gives the impression
See Also: Chess and Variations of; France; Play as Competi- of having had an inventor, as in myths in which a god cre-
tion, Psychology of; Play as Competition, Sociology of; Unit- ates languages or other cultural artifacts. The first known
ed States, 1860 to 1876; United States, 1900 to 1930; United tale about Chess’s creation is found in a Muslim legend
States, 1930 to 1960; United States, 1960 to Present. that dates back to pre-Muhammadan days, according to
the historian Murray. It reports the history of Qaflan, a
Bibliography. Robbie Bell and Michael Cornelius, Board Persian philosopher who was asked by the Queen Husiya,
Games Round the World: A Resource Book for Mathemati- daughter of Balhait, to invent “war without bloodshed.”
cal Investigations (Cambridge University Press, 1988); Col- The philosopher asked the Queen to give him a gift in
lege Sports Scholarships, “A Brief History and How to grains of corn upon the squares of the chessboard. On
Play Checkers,” www.collegesportsscholarships.com/check the first square one grain, on the second two, on the third
 Chess and Variations of 127

square double of that on the second, and in the same way link between the two routes has been found in Poland,
until the last square. The total of the geometrical progres- where both European and Russian terms are present in
sion is 264-1, or 18,446,744,073,709,551,615—a quantity Renaissance Chess, as in Jan Kochanowski’s poem Sza-
that would cover England to a uniform depth of 38.4 chi. Other hypotheses on Chess’s relation with ancient
feet in grains of corn. Poets never ceased to write legends Latin games, like the Latrunculorum Ludus, are neither
about Chess: in 1763 Sir William Jones wrote a poem on proved clearly by archaeological findings nor supported
Caissa, the nymph who was the means of teaching Chess by linguistic data.
to mankind.
Legends apart, Chatrang Namak (8th century B.C.E.) Evolution
is the first written source explaining Chess rules and From Chaturanga to contemporary Chess, rules have
attributing its origins to India. Earlier sanskrit sources different variants in relation to their geographical and
refer to Chaturanga (four angles), an early Chess historical development. In the Middle Ages, the old
ancestor in which four armies battle on a chessboard. rules inherited from the Muslim world coexisted with
Archaeological findings like the Butrint “King” (465 modern innovations in codexes like the Bonus Socius
B.C.E.) are often uncertain. Because of their differential (8th century). These codexes report a rich collection of
value, we need at least two figures to identify them as Chess problems, often for gambling purposes. Some of
Chess pieces. Linguistic data are more interesting; the them are classified as Partito a la rabiosa, referring to the
evolution of the term Chaturanga led to Persian Cha- modern movement of the queen. Still, the Cracow Poem
trang and Muslim Shatranj. The etymology of English (1422) reports many unfamiliar rules about the king’s
term Rook is related to Sanskrit term Ratha, meaning and queen’s movement. Heterodox Chess, Chess vari-
“chariot.” War chariots were used in Indo-European ants, always coexisted with the official rules that repre-
armies before they learned how to ride (as described in sent just one of the ways in which the game evolved. We
epic poems like the Iliad). Chess history can be useful have heterodox chessboards, heterodox pieces like the
in reconstructing ancient Indo-European institutions. Griffin and heterodox games like Kriegspiel. Nowadays,
Starting from India, lexical data let us reconstruct how everyone can easily play old and new heterodox Chess,
Chess spread across Asia to the Malay Islands, China, like Bobby Fischer’s game on the internet.
and Japan, starting new variants. The history of the term Both the Catholic and the Orthodox churches con-
queen is interesting in understanding how Chess arrived demned the game in the Middle Ages, thus proving the
in Europe. The piece was, in Sanskrit, the mantrin, mean- popularity of the game at that time. The Renaissance saw
ing the Raja’s minister. The term was translated to Per- the standardization of rules across the European courts
sian farzin, then became the arabian firzan or firz, mean- and international Chess activity began. Chess trac-
ing a vizier. This explains the Italian term fersa, which in tates developed Chess theory; in the 15th century, Juan
the Middle Ages designated the piece we call the Queen. Ramirez de Lucena wrote a treatise reporting both the old
The term led to the French vierge (virgin). The femini- rules for the Queen’s movement (De Viejo) and the new
zation of the Indian piece minister was complete, and ones (De dama). Portuguese player Damiano published
explains the modern Italian donna (woman). In Span- his chessbook in Rome (1512). Chess players attained a
ish and in English the vierge became a Queen, probably cosmopolitan reputation and often international con-
because of its position next to the King. Another expla- tests were organized. At the court of Philip II of Spain,
nation could be the political importance of Renaissance the great Ruy Lopez was beaten by Paolo Boi of Syracuse.
queens. The term remains ferz in Russian, thus indicat- The Italian player Gioacchino Greco was so popular that
ing a possible second Chess route from Persia to Europe. he was invited to England, France, and Spain to exhibit
A confirmation comes from slon, the Russian term for his talents. A lot of contemporary knowledge, openings
the bishop, which means “elephant”; like the Sanskrit (the first moves), and theoretical ideas in national schools
hasti, persian pil, and Arabian al-fil (the elephant). The of thought and traditions originate from this period.
term became alfil in Spanish, in Italian alfiere (mean-
ing ensign), and in French fou, meaning joker. The same Modern Chess
linguistic data would seem to exclude an origin from the In modern Chess, theoretical innovations are related
Byzantine game Zatrikion, which is similar to Chess. The to the names of the greatest players and to the cultural
128 Chess and Variations of

vention, and Arnold Schoenberg invented the new

dodecaphonic musical grammar.
In 1924, the World Chess Federation was founded,
thus inheriting the experience of other informal orga-
nizations wiped out by World War I. At that time, the
title of World Champion became formally recognized.
Before that date, those considered world champions
were Wilhelm Steinitz, from 1866 to 1894, Emanuel
Lasker (champion 1894–1921), José Raul Capablanca
(champion 1921–27), Aleksandr Alekhine (cham-
pion 1927–46, with a brief interruption by Max Euwe
between 1935 and 1937). After World War II, Russian
players Mikhail Botvinnik, Mikhail Tal, and Tigran
Petrosyan took turns holding possession of the world
title 1951–69. Boris Spassky obtained the title in 1969
and held it until 1972, when he lost the match to the
American Bobby Fischer. This challenge inaugurated a
new era in Chess and became a symbol of the United
States–Russia Cold War. The young Fischer refused to
play against Anatoly Karpov in 1975, probably because
of psychological pressure. Karpov represented Rus-
sia until 1985, when he was defeated by Garry Kasp-
arov. After the end of the Cold War, Kasparov broke
his relations with the World Chess Federation (FIDE)
Chess has been popular since the Middle Ages, even though and created his own organization. The world title was
both the Catholic and Orthodox churches condemned it. reunified in 2006, when Vladimir Kramnik defeated
World Chess Federation champion Veselin Topalov. In
2007 Kramnik lost the title, beaten by Indian cham-
pion Viswanathan Anand.
glories of their nations. The greatest players spoke
Spanish and Italian during the Renaissance, French Chess and Artificial Intelligence
between the Enlightenment and Romanticism, English In the 20th century, Chess became an interesting topic
and German at the turn of the 20th century, and Rus- of discussion in research fields such as information sci-
sian after World War II. As the great world champion ence, linguistics, sociology, psychology, and philosophy.
Aleksandr Alekhine noticed, these movements are Chess is central in the pioneering research of Alan Tur-
related to artistic and cultural movement too. Philidor, ing, who wrote the first Chess program in 1951. Because
a French composer and Chess player, first analyzed the of the lack of computers, he tested the algorithm man-
pawn chains according to 18th-century rationalism; ually against a young researcher, Alick Glennie. The
players like Labourdonnais or Mac Donnell developed machine lost. In the second part of the century, the Rus-
the impetuous Romantic style, exemplified in histori- sian world champion Botvinnik, an engineer, worked
cal games like Anderssen’s Immortal or Evergreen. The on heuristic Chess algorithms; nowadays, brute-force
positional school of Steinitz and Tarrasch posed some calculus is more employed by programmers, thanks to
of the basis for modern Chess thinking and are related the great improvements in computer execution time. In
to Positivism; Aron Nimzowitsch, Richard Reti, and 1997, the purpose-built Chess computer Deep Blue won
Aleksandr Alekhine developed the new “hypermod- a match against the world champion Garry Kasparov.
ern” conception by reversing the value traditionally More recently, a commercial software program defeated
accorded to center occupation. In the same period, world champion Vladimir Kramnik. During the World
Picasso’s Cubism posed a new representational con- Title Match between Kramnik and Topalov, Topalov’s
 Chess and Variations of 129

coaches accused Kramnik of using a small portable philosophy. He noticed how Chess shows an aesthetic
chessboard during game breaks. effect: what the move says, expresses, discloses, and
Both human and computer strength is measurable announces—it is that which excites and stirs the specta-
by the Elo score—the international standard of evalua- tor. The spectator enjoys not a game of Chess but the
tion. Elo points are attributed or subtracted to a player’s history and drama of the game in which a chessboard is
score in relation to opponent’s strength and game result merely the stage and the pieces its actors. He discovered
(win, draw, loss), using a complex mathematical for- a meaningful relation between position, game rhythm,
mula invented by the american master Arpad Elo. The and passions, and conceived the match as psychologi-
current World Champion Anand has a score of 2,800 cal warfare. He used to study his opponents’ games in
Elo points, whereas contemporary software reaches an order to achieve a deep knowledge of their preferences
incredible score of 3,000. Nevertheless, Chess engines about openings and game lines, thus discovering tactics
are not close to imitating human Chess logic: human psychologically disturbing to the enemy. In Alekhine’s
players construct long-term plans, trying by method example, if a player prefers a defense because of its
to start the antagonist on the way to the position they strength and security, then when the same defense is
aim toward. Computers simply calculate every possible used against him, he will feel in trouble.
move to a certain depth: Beyond their calculus horizon, Lasker’s concept of psychology was related to Bren-
they know nothing. tano’s theories and as such are perhaps outdated. Psy-
choanalysis discovered an importance in Chess quite
Perspectives on Chess Meaning early on; in 1931 Ernest Jones presented to the British
In Saussure’s work, Chess became a metaphor for the Psycho-Analytical Society a work on the great Ameri-
positional and differential conception of linguistic value. can champion Paul Morphy. In a Freudian perspective,
Hjelmslev developed the comparison with formalized Chess is the sublimation of both aggressive and homo-
languages like logic and mathematics. Chess became a sexual impulses. The great Chess player and New York
model of meaning in early Structuralism. Even in the psychoanalyst Reuben Fine extended this point of view,
analytical tradition, Ludwig Wittgenstein was fasci- analyzing the life of many modern Chess champions.
nated by the analogies between languages and Chess. He He also trained the young champion Bobby Fischer. His
focused on rules; the failed attempt to reduce the rules psychoanalytic point of view is rather old-fashioned.
of mathematics to ones of logic led the philosopher to In spite of this, he underlined the relationship between
consider the meaning of following the rules of different Chess and mental disease, present in the works of con-
games in different situations. He argues that when one temporary psychiatrists like Dextreit and Engel.
shows someone the king and says: “this is the king,” this However, contemporary cognitive psychology is
does not tell him the use of this piece unless he already more interested in the role of vision and memory with
knows the rules. With this model, like both Hjelmslev’s respect to Chess position, or in so-called intuition.
and Saussure’s, we are not capable of fully understand- Both psychological and sociological studies investigate
ing how to choose between the possible strategies and the greatest champions’ careers or Chess expertise in
plans permitted by the rules. A more suitable model can children. The gender problem is a good matter of dis-
be found in Umberto Eco’s works: According to him, cussion; sources report that in the Middle Ages, aristo-
in Chess, a given position conveys a series of optional cratic women used to play Chess. In spite of this, Chess
moves, a set of possible responses, and a chain of fore- became a traditionally male competition. Nowadays,
seeable (or unforeseeable) solutions. The two players’ women are often seen as weaker players than men, and
evaluations can be, and effectively are, sensibly differ- a women’s world tournament exists. Still, the Hungar-
ent. Eco agrees with Charles Peirce’s pragmatic notion ian Chess grandmaster Judit Polgár, the only woman
of meaning as “conceivable consequences.” on FIDE’s 2008 Top 100 players list, currently refuses
The most important Chess philosopher was Emanuel to participate in women’s contests. However, differ-
Lasker. The World Chess Champion studied mathemat- ences between men and women at playing Chess are
ics with David Hilbert and became a respected professor not cognitive but cultural, such as the aggressive atti-
of mathematics at Heidelberg University. In his book tude of many players and the sexism of the traditional
Struggle, he developed many Chess ideas in his general Chess training environment.
130 Chess and Variations of

Literature Chess positions are often readable and testify to the game’s
Since the Middle Ages, Chess has been present as a evolution. Chess is a typical theme in Still Life: In The Five
theme in many epic or courtly love poems, as a symbol Senses by Lubin Baugin (1630)—chessmen enclosed in a
of either conflict or seduction. In Tristan (12th century), Chess case are a symbol of the sense of touch. The theme
Tristram and Yseult play Chess on their journey to King also is present in contemporary still-life paintings, such
Mark’s court, during which they become lovers. The as The Queen, by Audrey Flack (1976). Chess Players is
romance Les Eschez Amoureux describes in considerable another common theme in artist’s works, from Ludovico
detail a game in which a lady beats her suitor. In Floire et Carracci (1590, now in Berlin, Gemaldegalerie) to Hon-
Blanchefleur, the hero is able to enter the Saracen prison oré Daumier (1865 Paris, Musee du Petit Palais).
in which Blanchefleur is held, thanks to winning a game Contemporary artists are more interested in Chess’s
against the porter. This poem became the model of geometrical features than in their symbolic meaning.
many novels across Europe—an example is Boccaccio’s Chessboards were present in the art of Kandinsky after
Philicopo. The cliché of Chess as seduction existed even he adhered to the principles of Bauhaus; we can find
up to modern times, for example in the drama Una Par- the same use in Paul Klee’s Super Chess (1937). Avant-
tita a Scacchi by Giuseppe Giacosa (1875). garde Chess sets were designed by both Man Ray and
In modern times, the essay by Edgar Allan Poe, Mael- Yves Tanguy. Chess is a central path in the life and work
zel’s Chess Player, anticipated his detective stories and of Marcel Duchamp, who was also a strong Chess player
revealed that the famous Chess automaton known as and a member of the French Olympic Chess team, cap-
the Turk, which also beat Napoleon, was a fraud. The tained by Alekhine. More recently, David Pelham created
absolute self-referential game logic is often parodied in a minimalist acrylic Chess set in 1970; Cy Enfield cre-
novels; Lewis Carroll’s Through The Looking Glass is a ated a commemorative Chess set for the occasion of the
model for further thematic developments, as in Mas- Fischer–Spassky match. However, Chess set design exists
simo Bontempelli’s The Chess Set in the Mirror. in every culture, from the abstract geometrical Muslim
The same logic is perhaps the key to understanding tradition to the realistic representation of middle age
the link between Chess and insanity, such as in works like warfare in the Lewis Chess set (12th century), depict-
The Luzhin Defense by Vladimir Nabokov and The Royal ing Viking warriors, and the so-called Charlemagne set
Game by Stefan Zweig. The latter is considered, by play- (11th century), probably realized in Amalphi.
ers, the best novel about Chess. At first, the reader sympa-
thizes with the mysterious challenger against the arrogant Cinema
world champion, but then is compelled to take the cham- Like in figurative arts, Chess was also present in the ori-
pion’s side when the challenger shows signs of insanity. gins of cinema: A Chess Dispute by Robert W. Paul dates
The theme of Nazism is also present in the short story, back to 1903. Chess characterizes both the avant-garde,
as in other novels like The Luneburg Variation by Paolo like the Expressionistic Das Wachsfigurenkabinett, by
Maurensig, which was probably inspired by true World Paul Leni, in 1924, and in commercial films such as The
War II episodes, such as the death of many Jewish players, Lodger by Alfred Hitchcock (1927), or The Smiling Lieu-
like the Polish player and problematist David Przepiórka tenant by Ernst Lubitsch (1931). In this period, Chess
(1942). In the same period, many of the world’s great Fever by Vsevolod Pudovkin (1925) uses an avant-garde
players became instruments of Nazi propaganda, and language to parody Chess obsession. The film also fea-
the same Aleksandr Alekhine was forced to write a deliri- tured many Chess champions: Capablanca, Grünfeld,
ous article on “Jewish and Aryan Chess,” in 1941. Chess Marshall, Reti, Spielmann, Torre, and Yates.
is present also in popular literature. Raymond Chandler, A possible explanation for the presence of Chess in
another Chess addict, characterizes his detective Philip films could be that many famous actors and directors
Marlowe as a Chess lover in the The Big Sleep. were known Chess addicts. For example, Humphrey
Bogart is represented alone while studying a Chess posi-
Fine Arts tion in Curtiz’s Casablanca. Similarly, Stanley Kubrick
From Arabian to Western middle age manuscripts, Chess inserts a game between a human and a machine in his
is often represented in miniatures, having the same sym- 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968); the position came from
bolic values attributed to the game in novels. Depicted a real game (Roesch-Willy Schlage, Hamburg 1910). We
 Chile 131

find the same inquietude in Blade Runner by Ridley Scott Chile

(1982), where an android beats its human father at Chess,
and then kills him. The metaphor of a Chess game can be This South American country stretches along the Pacific
found in other works by Scott, such as Black Hawk Down Coast of South America, measuring 2,650 miles from
(2001). But the most interesting movie about Chess is north to south, but is, on average, no more than 110
perhaps The Seventh Seal by Ingmar Bergman (1957), miles wide. There had been a small indigenous popula-
in which a crusader—a knight—plays Chess against the tion there for at least 11,000 years, with the first Spanish
Grim Reaper during the Black Plague. In this film, the explorer arriving in 1535. The town of Santiago, now the
game becomes a second narrative structure, a counter- country’s capital, was founded six years later. Initially, set-
point to the plot. As in Kubrick’s Odyssey, an actual game tlers established farms using the local population as slaves
can be found in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone to farm them. Chile became independent in 1810. Nearly
(Jovanovic-Manzardo, Imperia 1967). 90 percent of the population lives in cities or towns.
The indigenous population used traditional musi-
See Also: Ancient India; Game Theory; Human Relation- cal instruments such as the zampona, the bomba, the
ships in Play; Inter-Gender Play; Luck and Skill in Play; Mem- charango, and the quena, and the “creole” population
ory and Play; Play and Literacy; Russia. was involved in organizing masked dancing ceremo-
nies. Many of the early migrants from Spain were from
Bibliography. Aleksandr Alekhine, Ajedrez Hipermoderno the Basque region, and this influence was seen by the
(Editorial Castilla, 1945); N.J. Cooke, R.S. Atlas, D.M. Lane, playing of pelota, although today few people play this
and R.C. Berger, “Role of High-Level Knowledge in Memory instrument. Horse riding and rodeos also date from
for Chess Positions,” American Journal of Psychology (c.106/3, this period. From the 18th century, flying kites became
1993); H.A. Davidson, A Short History of Chess (Greenberg, a popular amusement of wealthier Chileans, especially
1949); Umberto Eco, A Theory of Semiotics (Indiana Univer- from September until March—it was said to have been
sity Press, 1976); Reuben Fine, The Psychology of the Chess introduced to the country by Roman Catholic monks.
Player (Dover Pub., 1956); Mike Fox and Richard James, The Gradually, kite flying came to be enjoyed by powerful
Complete Chess Addict (Faber and Faber, 1987); A.D. de Groot, people as well. There is a Chilean Kite Fliers Associa-
“Intuition in Chess,” International Computer Chess Association tion, and in some competitions, five people compete
ICCA Journal (June, 1986); Louis Hjelmslev, Prolegomena to against each other. There are also kites that have two
a Theory of Language, (University of Wisconsin Press, 1961); lines so that two people can handle them. Activities
Andrew Hodges, Alan Turing: The Enigma (Burnett Books, were often organized by clubs and professional societ-
1983); D.D. Horgan, “Chess Expertise in Children,” Applied ies called gremios.
Cognitive Psychology (v.4/2, 1990); Israel Albert Horowitz, From Later, during the 19th century, there were quite sub-
Morphy to Fischer: A History of the World Chess Championship stantial numbers of English, Irish, and Scottish immi-
(Batsford, 1973); N.V. Krogijus, Psychology in Chess, (R.M.H. grants, especially in southern Chile around Puenta Are-
Press, 1976); Emanuel Lasker, Lasker’s Manual of Chess (Dover, nas, and at the port of Valparaiso, near Santiago. The
1925, repr. 1960); Edgar Allan Poe, “Maelzel’s Chess Player,” British established the Vina del Mar Lawn Tennis Club
in Complete Works (Harvard University Press, 1902); P. Saa- in 1881, opening tennis courts at the Valparaiso Sport-
riluoma, “Visuospatial and Articulatory Interference in Chess ing Club in 1910. The latter was also the location of the
Player’s Information Intake,” in Applied Cognitive Psychology Valparaiso Golf Club when it opened in 1897, with the
(Routledge, 1992); Ferdinand de Saussure, Course de Linguis- British community establishing another golf course in
tique Générale [Course in General Lingustics, 1922] (Open Santiago in the Prince of Wales Country Club. At around
court Classics, 1998); H.A. Simon, and F. Gobet, “Templates in the same time, other games were introduced, including
Chess Memory. A Mechanism for Recalling Several Boards,” in cricket, polo, horse racing, rugby, and soccer.
Cognitive Psychology (v.31/1, 1996); Gareth Williams, Master The first soccer game was played between British resi-
Pieces (Quintet Publishing Limited, 2000). dents in Santiago in 1891, with a Briton called John Ram-
say later deemed the “father of Chilean football”—the
Francesco Galofaro game at that time being entirely recreational. Since then,
Bologna University soccer has become the major recreational sport in the