Chess is ancient history

Chess has developed a circular logic.A recent Press article about a local man's invention of a new, round chess board evokes a sense of irony. For a game requiring a linear strategy - anticipating an opponent's next several moves based upon your own - it's not entirely rational. The queen is the only piece which can move omnidirectionally, as if in a circle. She is the piece with the most power; she always was. That's amazing coming from a time when women, even queens, were easily dispensable.

No one knows exactly who invented chess or when, but the earliest documented games occurred around 600 A.D. in Persia. Around that time, historians say, chess was also played in India and, some say, in China. The words of chess - or Chatrang (Persia) Shatranj (India) - such as shah (king), rukh (rook), and asp (horse) are both Farsi/Persian and Indian.I've always wondered about the etymology of the word, "rook." Actually, it's rukh. A rukh was a chariot in ancient Persian. The modern piece looks like a mini-tower, an adaptation by the Europeans to represent a castle. The ancient piece was shaped like a jagged-topped trapezoid, a little closer to a rough outline of a chariot.

While there are slight differences, old chess was similar to the version we now play. When the Arab Moors invaded Persia in the eighth century, the Persians taught them chess. The invading Moors then took it to Spain and from Spain it spread throughout Europe.As a result the six pieces represent a snapshot of medieval life. The pawns are the serfs, the slaves, the laborers. Considered chattel, they do most of the work, sacrifice, and die unprotected as war rages around them. The knights closely protect those of rank (king and queen). The bishop, not one of the original chess pieces, was introduced by the European Christians so high-ranking church leaders had a presence close to the crowns.

In chess and sometimes in life, the queen reigned, if at the precarious peril of her lower-ranking king's whim. After all, if you don't protect your king, you can still lose the game. Sholeh Patrick is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network who always looks out for her smoothly crowned king. Contact her at sholehjo@hotmail.com

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