A Brief History of Chess

The past, the present and the future

Chess, our royal game, has its origins over five thousand years ago in India- as a four-player game called Chaturanga. It spread to the west, evolving with the times. The pieces became more powerful as it spread from India to Arabia and then to Europe. Rather than the old, maneuvering form of chess, a newer, faster and more exciting version emerged, and its popularity skyrocketed. Indeed, the second book to ever be printed was about chess! Ruy Lopez, Stamma, Philidor, Barnes, Anderssen and Morphy, among others helped usher in the Romantic era of chess- games in which attacking the opponent's king was the only thing on the players' minds! Carefree sacrifices for the initiative which would have given even Tal a heart attack (and short-circuited AlphaZero!), sometimes culminated in exciting combinations, the kind of which Alekhine would have been proud! Such inconsistent and erratic play, however, was bound to be surpassed by sound play based on certain irrefutable principles of chess. Steinitz, Lasker, Chigorin, Rubinstein- I can go on and on! Their precise play, focusing more on positional and material advantages than tactical shots, propelled them to chess greatness. Pillsbury discovered that 1.e4 is not the only good opening in chess. Tarrasch showed us that a backward queen's pawn is not necessarily bad. It was in this era that opening theory progressed beyond the Spanish and Italian games. But an individual cannot stand against the might of a whole nation (and the world's biggest one at that). After the magical intuition of Capablanca, the stunning combinations of Alekhine and the instructive endgames of Euwe, it was the turn of the Soviets. Botvinnik, the Patriarch, won the 1948 World Chess Championship, ending the vacuum left by Alekhine's death. Keres, Geller, Bronstein, Smyslov, Averbakhm Nezhmetdinov- the list is endless. One particular player deserves a special mention here. He was derided by Smyslov. His style was dismissed as nothing but some cheap flashy tricks. Yet, in a true example of poetic justice, he is probably the most well-known and revered one of them all. I am talking, of course, about none other than Mikhail Tal. The Magician from Riga dazzled the world with his insane sacrifices and crazy tactics. He was the one who breathed fresh life into chess, which had been suffering from much the same problem it is today- an abundance of draws at the highest level eroding the excitement of games. It was him, rather than his illustrious successors, who showed the world that it is possible to play for a win with Black, and to do so in style. Then came Petrosian- the antithesis of Tal. Thriving in closed and cramped positions, he took the crown from Botvinnik for the final time. Then came Spassky, a World Champion who is often not given his due because of how he lost the title. Which brings us to a man who disproves my earlier statements about a man versus a whole nation. Fischer, the controversial upstart who took on the Soviet machine single-handedly, was also the first to connect physical fitness with chess performance. He didn't just beat them, he humiliated them. By 1972, his domination of the chess world was so complete that even the Soviets couldn't stop him from challenging Spassky. In the end, he almost didn't. Known for his tantrums and eccentricities, he had to be dragged kicking and screaming to Iceland, where he finally won the crown, despite giving away the first two games. This done, he practically disappeared from the international chess scene. A sad end, no doubt, but one that allowed for the domination of the chess world for the next three decades by the three K's- Karpov, Kasparov and Kramnik. Karpov's style was one never seen before- an active positional one. Kasparov was known for his trademark aggression and great pressure he put on the opponent. Kramnik, despite his aggressive style in his youth, shifted to a more mature and strategical one, notably shocking Kasparov in the 2000 World Championship, going undefeated, with Kasparov being unable to break down his famed Berlin Wall. Then, it was the turn of the Lightning Kid. Anand, with his attacking style, stunned the world and ended the Russian hegemony for good. Although he still plays at the highest level (despite being decades older than his competitors), he was overtaken by a certain Norwegian grandmaster who has definitely lived up to his name (Magnus means great).Indeed, along with Fischer and Kasparov, he is often ranked among the top three chess players of all time. Now a word about our soulless silicon overlords. Many people don't know that Kasparov beat DeepBlue in 1996, only that he lost to it in 1997. To be fair to him, the matches were played on consecutive days and were extremely tiring. He later drew a match against DeepJunior in 2003 (an engine considerably stronger than DeepBlue), which included winning a memorable first game with a thrilling attack in the Semi-Slav. After that, however, even the most hardened skeptics have agreed that engines have surpassed humans in chess. However, there is a silver lining to this cloud as well- after years of boring positional maneuvering, we have AlphaZero, who not only sacrifices material for the initiative (like the masters of centuries long past), but does it with accuracy. It has not just breathed life, but fire into chess! Even Stockfish, long-time king of chess engines, has gotten a neural network upgrade (Stockfish+NNUE). I, for one, cannot wait to see what wonderful surprises the new generation of chess engines have in store for us!