A brief history of chess - Alex Gendler
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0:07 - 0:11The attacking infantry advances steadily,
-
0:11 - 0:15their elephants already having
broken the defensive line. -
0:15 - 0:20The king tries to retreat, but enemy
cavalry flanks him from the rear. -
0:20 - 0:23Escape is impossible.
-
0:23 - 0:25But this isn’t a real war–
-
0:25 - 0:27nor is it just a game.
-
0:27 - 0:32Over the roughly one-and-a-half millennia
of its existence, -
0:32 - 0:36chess has been known as a tool
of military strategy, -
0:36 - 0:41a metaphor for human affairs,
and a benchmark of genius. -
0:41 - 0:45While our earliest records of chess
are in the 7th century, -
0:45 - 0:50legend tells that the game’s origins
lie a century earlier. -
0:50 - 0:56Supposedly, when the youngest prince
of the Gupta Empire was killed in battle, -
0:56 - 1:01his brother devised a way of representing
the scene to their grieving mother. -
1:01 - 1:07Set on the 8x8 ashtapada board used for
other popular pastimes, -
1:07 - 1:11a new game emerged with two key features:
-
1:11 - 1:14different rules for moving
different types of pieces, -
1:14 - 1:19and a single king piece whose fate
determined the outcome. -
1:19 - 1:23The game was originally
known as chaturanga– -
1:23 - 1:26a Sanskrit word for "four divisions."
-
1:26 - 1:29But with its spread to Sassanid Persia,
-
1:29 - 1:32it acquired its current name
and terminology– -
1:32 - 1:39"chess," derived from "shah," meaning
king, and “checkmate” from "shah mat," -
1:39 - 1:42or “the king is helpless.”
-
1:42 - 1:46After the 7th century Islamic conquest
of Persia, -
1:46 - 1:48chess was introduced to the Arab world.
-
1:48 - 1:51Transcending its role as a
tactical simulation, -
1:51 - 1:55it eventually became a rich source
of poetic imagery. -
1:55 - 2:00Diplomats and courtiers used chess terms
to describe political power. -
2:00 - 2:04Ruling caliphs became avid
players themselves. -
2:04 - 2:09And historian al-Mas’udi considered the
game a testament to human free will -
2:09 - 2:12compared to games of chance.
-
2:12 - 2:17Medieval trade along the Silk Road carried
the game to East and Southeast Asia, -
2:17 - 2:20where many local variants developed.
-
2:20 - 2:25In China, chess pieces were placed at
intersections of board squares -
2:25 - 2:29rather than inside them, as in the native
strategy game Go. -
2:29 - 2:34The reign of Mongol leader Tamerlane saw
an 11x10 board -
2:34 - 2:37with safe squares called citadels.
-
2:37 - 2:43And in Japanese shogi, captured pieces
could be used by the opposing player. -
2:43 - 2:48But it was in Europe that chess began to
take on its modern form. -
2:48 - 2:53By 1000 AD, the game had become part
of courtly education. -
2:53 - 2:55Chess was used as an allegory
-
2:55 - 2:59for different social classes performing
their proper roles, -
2:59 - 3:02and the pieces were re-interpreted
in their new context. -
3:02 - 3:07At the same time, the Church remained
suspicious of games. -
3:07 - 3:11Moralists cautioned against devoting
too much time to them, -
3:11 - 3:15with chess even being briefly
banned in France. -
3:15 - 3:17Yet the game proliferated,
-
3:17 - 3:22and the 15th century saw it cohering into
the form we know today. -
3:22 - 3:27The relatively weak piece of advisor was
recast as the more powerful queen– -
3:27 - 3:32perhaps inspired by the recent surge
of strong female leaders. -
3:32 - 3:35This change accelerated the game’s pace,
-
3:35 - 3:37and as other rules were popularized,
-
3:37 - 3:42treatises analyzing common openings
and endgames appeared. -
3:42 - 3:45Chess theory was born.
-
3:45 - 3:50With the Enlightenment era, the game
moved from royal courts to coffeehouses. -
3:50 - 3:54Chess was now seen as an expression
of creativity, -
3:54 - 3:57encouraging bold moves and dramatic plays.
-
3:57 - 4:04This "Romantic" style reached its peak
in the Immortal Game of 1851, -
4:04 - 4:07where Adolf Anderssen managed a checkmate
-
4:07 - 4:11after sacrificing his queen
and both rooks. -
4:11 - 4:16But the emergence of formal competitive
play in the late 19th century -
4:16 - 4:21meant that strategic calculation would
eventually trump dramatic flair. -
4:21 - 4:24And with the rise of international
competition, -
4:24 - 4:27chess took on a new
geopolitical importance. -
4:27 - 4:29During the Cold War,
-
4:29 - 4:34the Soviet Union devoted great resources
to cultivating chess talent, -
4:34 - 4:37dominating the championships for the rest
of the century. -
4:37 - 4:41But the player who would truly upset
Russian dominance -
4:41 - 4:43was not a citizen of another country
-
4:43 - 4:48but an IBM computer called Deep Blue.
-
4:48 - 4:51Chess-playing computers had been
developed for decades, -
4:51 - 4:55but Deep Blue’s triumph
over Garry Kasparov in 1997 -
4:55 - 5:00was the first time a machine
had defeated a sitting champion. -
5:00 - 5:05Today, chess software is capable of
consistently defeating -
5:05 - 5:07the best human players.
-
5:07 - 5:09But just like the game they’ve mastered,
-
5:09 - 5:12these machines are products
of human ingenuity. -
5:12 - 5:18And perhaps that same ingenuity will guide
us out of this apparent checkmate.
- Title:
- A brief history of chess - Alex Gendler
- Speaker:
- Alex Gendler
- Description:
-
View full lesson: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/a-brief-history-of-chess-alex-gendler
The attacking infantry advances, their elephants already having broken the defensive line. The king tries to retreat, but the enemy flanks him from the rear. Escape is impossible. This isn't a real war— nor is it just a game. Over the 1,500 years of its existence, chess has been known as a military strategy tool, a metaphor for human affairs and a measure of genius. Alex Gendler shares its history.
Lesson by Alex Gendler, directed by Remus & Kiki.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TED-Ed
- Duration:
- 05:20
lauren mcalpine approved English subtitles for A brief history of chess | ||
lauren mcalpine accepted English subtitles for A brief history of chess | ||
lauren mcalpine edited English subtitles for A brief history of chess | ||
Tara Ahmadinejad edited English subtitles for A brief history of chess | ||
Tara Ahmadinejad edited English subtitles for A brief history of chess |