4 Strange and interesting chess facts。

                                                                     4 Strange and interesting chess facts

Today, chess has a reputation as a game for Western intellectuals. But it has a long and colorful history, and everyone from poor people to Kings has tried it.

Unsurprisingly, a lot has happened to chess over time. Here is a collection of strange, interesting or simply interesting facts about chess.

1/ The game of chess originated more than 1,000 years ago

Chess is an old game -- very, very old. In fact, the current historical consensus is that it originated somewhere in India about 1,300 years ago.

Chess has its roots more or less directly in a game called chaturanga played in India in the 7th century. This early game had cavalry, elephants, and chariots instead of soldiers, horses, and elephants, and was used as a training simulator for military commanders.

The oldest writing about chess also comes from this period. Meanwhile, the oldest chess pieces found in modern Uzbekistan are made of ivory and date back to around 760 AD.

2/ Modern chess was born in Spain

Although chess evolved from chaturanga, this ancient game is not quite the same as chess as we know it. But modern chess is not a young man either - even the rules we know are 800 years old.

Before arriving in Spain, chess travelled through the Middle East and North Africa from India. There, the rules evolved around 1200, bringing them very close to the chess we play today.

3/ The title of the second book printed in English is Chess

Chess has been a popular game throughout history. It was so popular that a second book printed in English referenced it.

English printer William Caxton translated the Games of Chess and Chessboard from French and printed them in 1474. However, despite its name, the book doesn't actually have much to do with gaming; Rather, it is a political treatise that describes social classes as different pawns.

But it does show that politics has been compared to a game of chess for hundreds of years.

4/ There are more possibilities in a chess game than there are atoms in the universe

In a chess match, you can make countless possible moves. This huge variability means that the number of potentially unique chess games you can play is absolutely staggering.

People smarter than us have calculated that there are probably 10 to the 111 to the 123 kinds of chess you can play. Meanwhile, the number of atoms in the observable universe ranges from 10 to the power of 78 to 10 to the power of 82.