Links to More Great Chess Sites. Contact Us. The long-standing authority on chess history is H. Murray's A History of Chess , published in According to Murray, chess began in Northern India, traveled from there to Persia, and later, from Persia back eastward to China, and on to Korea and Japan. Murray's work was so intimidatingly huge — some pages of text with passages in obscure languages and elaborate footnotes in small print — that few have dared to reassess his assumptions or conclusions — nearly years later.
But gradually, advances in research, archeology and world communication are giving us tools to look at these questions anew. Without being too quick to evaluate the evidence one way or the other, let us take a brief look at a view of chess history that comes from Chinese texts Consider This:. The original chess was invented in China, right around B.
This first chess was called The game to capture Xiang Qi, Xiang Qi being the name of the commander of the opposing army. These four books remain some of the most prized books he has for Xiangqi.
Among the four books, the Webmaster feels that Professor Zhang Ru-an's books is the most comprehensive and detailed book of them all. Unfortunately, the book is out of print and the Webmaster is grateful to a friend in China who donated his copy for me to study. As mentioned earlier, the vast majority of the information mentioning the origins of Xiangqi in the major history books was scattered, and they would have to be presented in different topics and segments.
Over the years, the Webmaster has also compiled a list of mention of Xiangqi in the Western literature. Most were short mentions of the game with an introduction to the pieces and how to play the game. Even so, there were mistakes in the introduction. Many other discrepancies were noted.
The following is a precious list of books, articles, dissertations that mentioned Xiangqi in Western literature. It is also part of the contents page of the book that the Webmaster is still slogging to finish. The list is by no means exhaustive. Lady Luck would visit the Webmaster now and then, and there would be new findings.
It is an incomplete list that the Webmaster is still organizing. There are also books and dissertations by modern historians like Peter Banaschak, Jean-Louis Cazaux, Rick Knowlton, et cetera that will be discussed in separate articles. The Webmaster has either found the original work over the Internet or bought the relevant books or articles.
Google must be credited for their efforts in preserving the ancient texts. The Webmaster intends to write a series of articles introducing the origins of Xiangqi based on the sub-topics listed right above based on his findings.
By no means is this article an exhaustive passage on the origins of Xiangqi, nor does the Webmaster pretend that he is an authority. Rather, he views his work as a continuation of the research into the origins of Xiangqi, whereby foundations have been laid by the ancient Chinese and early Western historians. The Webmaster fervently hopes that more research can be done, and more light can be shone on the origins of Xiangqi.
Disclaimer: The connection between Xiangqi and International Chess remains a major point of contention, and the Webmaster will refrain from making speculations. The interested reader is invited to draw whatever conclusions that he might have. For interested readers who want to read material in English, the following is a list of books that can be bought on Amazon.
The link would send you to your nearest Amazon outlet if you do not live in the US. Collector's item. Perhaps the most unbiased and factful book to date on the origins of International Chess, Xiangqi and other games. Chinese Chess by Z. This set was unearthed in Kai Feng in Beijing. Did Niu name the game after Elephant which rhymes with the word Minister thus indirectly naming the game after himself or is it just a coincidence; nobody knows Cheng Jing of Bei Song A. Wagons and horses provide all around attacks, Minister and advisors are official titles of the Han Dynasty.
The wellbeing of the general inside the nine-space palace determines the outcome of the game, pawns swiftly move across the river diagonally. Smiling in front of a Catalpa Xiangqi table, even powerful leaders like Liu and Han can fight it out casually.
The poem mentions Generals in both characters of general as in modern the game , Wagons, Horses, and Pawns. The game differs from the previous version of Bao Yin Xiangqi in that the generals are confined to palaces and pawns are allowed to step side way after crossing the river. Although the poem uses the word 'diagonally', it is generally agreed that in those day pawns don't physically step diagonally, but appear to move diagonally after stepping side way.
From this, most people deduced that the board size in Bei Song A. This contradicted Zhao Jing's writing. However since Lee actually showed the board, her account of the board size tends to be more credible. Thus it is safe to conclude that the modern board size was arrived at before the Bei Song Dynasty.
Let's look at how 32 game pieces can be arranged on a 11x11 board as suggested by Zhao Jing, which seems puzzling. Having empty spaces next to the rooks will give Red who plays first a tremendous advantage over the opponent in the deployment of the rooks and is almost impossible to have a balance game.
Moreover, the route of the Minister will be all over the place on a 11 x 11 board. Reading Guang Xiang Xi Xu carefully one realizes that the way the game was played was to place pieces in-between the lines like the Western Chess instead of on the intersections. Thus a board of 11 line x 11 lines, is only 10 x 10 physically. However, with a 10x10 board, it's impossible to have a palace of nine-spaces in the center of the two sides.
This lead to the suspicion that Zhao was sloppy in his description of the board size; what he meant to say was a board size of 10 x 11 which is identical to the modern boards of 9x Otherwise, it is difficult to explain the discrepancy between Lee and Zhao's accounts on the board size.
One interest point is that ancient Xiangqi was probably played with pieces in-between lines like the Western Chess and did not convert to the current way until some time around the turn of the first millenium. The user can surf from one main site to another using these bottons.
Within each main site use the vertical navigation bar on the left hand side to navigate from one page to another. Use the search command on the upper left to find what you are looking for. Join these leading companies today! Giant Chess sets can be obtained from Masters Traditional Games. Computer programs which can play Chess were first written in the 's but these were easily beaten. Since then Chess programs have become increasingly better at the game and can now beat all but the best Grand Masters.
In , history was made when Deep Blue 2, a machine running the best Chess program yet written, managed to beat Kasparov, the undisputed best player in the world at the time. Masters Traditional Games have a wide range of unusual and historical chess sets including Chaturanga and Replica Lewis Chessmen.
There is so much on the net for Chess that there isn't much point trying to list links. None-the-less, here are a few to get you started:.
The Chess Page gives a history of chess and some links - not disimilar to this page. Online Chess Sites - play Chess on-line for free. The Chess Variants Page is thoroughly recommended. Yutopian's Chinese Chess Page.
Toshi's Shogi and Chess page Japan. Chess Origins A great deal has been written about the origin of Chess and there is still a lot of debate on the subject.
There are three main theories as to the genesis of Chess: Chess appeared first, fully-formed, in North Western India Some people say that the earliest ancestor is 4-player Chaturanga played with dice which metamorphosed into the 2 player strategy game Backed up by 2 or 3 Chinese legends, the other primary theory is that Chess came to India from China. So the hypothesis currently holding the consensus view is that 2 player Chaturanga was invented independently in North Western India probably in the 5th or 6th century Indian Chess is known as Chaturanga and there were probably multiple variations of the ancient game as there are to this day developed by ancient Indians - primarily to confuse twenty-first century historians.
Chaturaji - Four Player Chaturanga One of the early forms of Chaturanga was a four-player game played with dice, sometimes known as Chaturaji. It is believe that two players were loosely allied against the other two with moves as follows: Infantry - 4 Pawns which moved as pawns do in Chess Boatmen - A ship which could only move 2 squares diagonally but could jump over intervening pieces Cavalry - A horse which could move like a Knight in Chess Elephant - An elephant which could move like a Rook in Chess Rajah - A human figure which could move like a King in Chess The game started with the four armies in each of the four corners, in a double row, like Chess, the four main pieces behind the four pawns.
Shatranj - Ancient Persian Chess Shatranj is the oldest known form of Chess that became established across the Middle East and Europe and which lasted for almost years. There are three versions of the story of arrival of Shatranj in Europe. Elephant Fil - moved two squares diagonally only but could jump over intervening pieces. War Horse Faras - moved like a Knight in Chess Ruhk - moved like a Rook in Chess Pawn - moved like a pawn in Chess and when a pawn reached the far side of the board it was promoted to a Prime Minister Over the next four centuries, the game stayed in much the same form as above - the European form of medieval Chess described in Caxton's 'The Game and Playe of Chesse' wasn't much different to the Persian form that the Crusaders probably discovered.
Earliest Chess Pieces The picture shows the oldest Chess pieces ever found. The General - moves orthogonally one space but cannot move outside the Fortress or such that the opposing general is on the same file with no men between the two.
The Mandarins - move one point diagonally only but must stay within the Fortress The Elephants - move two points diagonally but cannot jump over intervening pieces and cannot cross the River. The Horsemen - move like a knight in Chess but cannot jump over intervening pieces The Chariots - move like a Rook in Chess The Cannons - move any distance orthogonally but can only capture if they have jumped over a single intervening piece known as the 'Screen' The Soldiers - move one point forwards until they reach the other side of the River whereupon they are allowed to move one point sideways as well.
There is no promotion In Xiang Qi, the concept of Stalemate does not exist. Shogi Japanese Chess or Shogi or Sho-gi or "The Generals Game" has a major innovation over other games in the Chess family: Pieces when taken are allowed back onto the board.
Jewelled King - moves like a King in Chess Gold General - moves one space orthogonally or one space diagonally forwards Silver General - moves one space diagonally or one space forwards. Promotion is to a Gold General. Honourable Horse - two spaces forward and one sideways only. Flying Chariot - like a Rook in Chess. Lance - forwards only any distance.
Soldiers - one space forwards only. Sittuyin - Burmese Chess Sittuyin or Burmese Chess still bears the original horse and elephant pieces. Makruk - Thai Chess and Cambodian Chess Unlike Korean and Burmese Chess, Makruk or Thai Chess is presently thriving well in its home country where proponents outnumber those who play European Chess by a huge proportion and the game is a nationally televised attraction. Modern European Chess Chess in roughly the form of today appeared in in Southern Europe around the end of the 15th century and quickly became popular Europe wide.
Links There is so much on the net for Chess that there isn't much point trying to list links.
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