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6 BCE
First Record of Chess
The earliest records of chess found were game pieces that date back to the 6th century CE. The game pieces were found in Russia, China, India, Central Asia, and Pakistan. -
Period: 6 BCE to
Evolution of Chess
This timeline will show you how chess started and how it is now. -
600
The Father of Modern Chess
Modern chess was born out of a game named Shatranj was similar to today's chess with the soldier (pawn), horse (knight), elephant (a weaker bishop), chariot (rook), counselor ( a weak queen), and the shah (king). The game would end with a checkmate, if all pieces of the other army were taken except the king. -
1450
The Mad Queen
By the second millennium, chess evolved a lot from Shatranj. It wasn't until around 1450, though, that chess changed radically. With the Mad Queen, it was meant to make the game more fun and fast-paced. It made it to where the queen is how she is now. -
The First Automatic Chess Board
Of course, the Mechanical Turk was an entertaining hoax. The machine was controlled by a concealed human chess player who moved the pieces with magnets. Several strong chess masters had hidden inside the Turk through the decades it was in operation. Despite this trick, the Turk spread the popularity of chess. -
The Staunton Pieces
The Englishman Howard Staunton was arguably the strongest player in the world from 1843 to 1851. Staunton, a passionate chess promoter, advocated a specific style of chess pieces https://www.chess.com/article/view/the-10-most-important-moments-in-chess-history -
The First Chess Tournament
The first chess tournament took place when Leonardo da Cutri and Paolo Boi traveled to the court of Philip 2 in Madrid to play Ruy Lopez and Alfonso Ceron of Spain. -
Its About Time
In 1861, the first chess timers were introduced using sand hourglasses with three hours of sand each. Those evolved later into "tumbling" chess clocks (patented in 1884), where one clock would start when the other stopped. The first electronic clocks weren't introduced until 1964. https://www.chess.com/article/view/the-10-most-important-moments-in-chess-history -
First World Championship
The Austrian-American chess player William Steinitz became the first official world chess champion in 1886 when he defeated Johannes Zukertort in a match for the undisputed championship. Steinitz’s biggest contribution to chess, however, was his advancement of the game’s strategic understanding. Before the rise of Steinitz, chess was played in a romantic, hopeful, and daring style full of reckless attacks. https://www.chess.com/article/view/the-10-most-important-moments-in-chess-history -
Soviet Dominates
From 1927-2006, players from the Soviet Union and Russia held the world championship title that proved the domination of the title in the 20th century and early 21st century. https://www.chess.com/article/view/the-10-most-important-moments-in-chess-history -
Fischer and Kasparov
Fischer’s ascendancy peaked in 1972 when he defeated Boris Spassky and the Soviet chess monolith to win the world championship in what is still considered the most famous chess event ever. Kasparov became the youngest world champion ever at age 22 after defeating Anatoly Karpov and remained the undisputed strongest chess player for nearly 22 years. His peak rating of 2851 stood as the highest in history until it was surpassed by the current world champion Magnus Carlsen in 2013. Chess.com -
Computer Wins
In 1989, the computer company IBM hired a team of Carnegie Mellon engineers to create a computer capable of beating the world chess champion. That champion was Garry Kasparov, who said “There is still a long way to go before a human on his or her best day is unable to defeat the best computer.” https://www.chess.com/article/view/the-10-most-important-moments-in-chess-history -
The Magnus Era
Magnus is undeniably one of the most prodigious chess figures in the history of the game. He's the highest-rated player ever. He became a grandmaster at age thirteen. In 2013, Carlsen defeated GM Viswanathan Anand to win the world chess championship. And he's a fashion model. https://www.chess.com/article/view/the-10-most-important-moments-in-chess-history -
Present Chess
Chess in 2023 has grown in popularity because a lot more people are making content about chess YouTubers and sports players are talking about it. So it has grown a lot since the beginning of chess creation.