Voice 1
Welcome to Spotlight. I'm Adam Navis.
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And I'm Ruby Jones. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
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There is a war that has gone on for a thousand years. Two sides fight for control. Two armies face off on a battle field. Sacrifices are made and lives are destroyed. Yet, this is not a bloody battle. This war is only a game. It is the game of chess.
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Today's Spotlight is on chess. Chess is a game that has become more than just a game. It has become a way to understand life. Kings have used it to understand war. Teachers used chess to tell stories. Religious leaders used it to teach right and wrong. Experts have used chess to study the human brain, language, mathematics, and computers. How did this 1500 year-old game ever do all this?
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A chess board consists of 64 squares, one black, then one white. These black and white squares fill the playing area. One player uses black pieces, the other uses white. Each player has eight pawns, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, and one queen. Then there is the most important piece, the king.
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The goal of chess is to capture the opposite player's king. Players do this by moving the pieces around on the board. Each piece moves differently. For example, rooks move up or down, or side-to-side. Bishops move at an angle. The queen combines the movement of the bishop and the rook. Yet, you do not need to understand how to play chess to understand its place in the world.
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No one person invented chess. Around the year 600, people traded goods between the Middle East, India, and Asia. This area was the centre of learning, culture, and thinking. As people travelled for business they brought along chess to pass the time.
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Over time, people travelled longer distances. Countries traded with or invaded other countries. And the game of chess went along. Chess came to Europe during the year 822. By the year 1000, chess had appeared in Switzerland, Germany, and Italy. Wherever it appeared, it quickly became popular.
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However, during this time, there were no single set of rules. The game was basically the same, but each country had small differences in how it should be played. It was only around the year 1500 that the rules become what they are today.
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Why is chess so popular? Part of the reason is because there is almost a limitless number of possible games. Joshua Leo will do a little mathematics and explain this idea:
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There are so many possible chess games because of a mathematical formula called a geometric progression. Let me explain: when each person moves a piece, this is one turn. At the beginning of the game, each player can choose 1 of 20 moves. This means that after each player has moved there are 400 possible board positions. But on the second move things get really wild. For the second turn there are over 70,000 possibilities. For turn three there are 9 million. And by only turn four, there are over 300 billion possible board positions. That is the effect of a geometric progression.
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But chess is not limited to mathematics. It can teach how to win and how to lose. It can show how to be social. Chess can help a person concentrate better. It improves memory. It can also help people to think creatively about how to solve problems.
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The unlimited nature of chess makes it popular. However it also gives chess its dark side. From its earliest days, chess captured people's minds. One story from India tells of young men risking fingers on the result of a game. When they would lose they would stand up, cut off a finger, sit down, and play another game.
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Over chess's long history many great chess players have gone insane. In the nineteen fifties, Paul Morphy became one of the best chess players in the world. But suddenly he stopped playing chess and started to believe that people were secretly watching him. At the end of his life he walked alone, talking to voices in his head.
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Several years later, a man named Wilhelm Steinitz developed a new chess theory. He studied every small detail of the game. This affected his mind. He even spent time in a metal institution. There, he claimed to have played chess against God, whom he defeated.
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Other chess masters have similar stories. In 1901, Johannes Minckwitz threw himself under a train. In 1926, Mexico's Carlos Torre had to stop playing because of a mental breakdown. Chess master Aron Nimzowitsch would wear his sleeping clothes to chess games.
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The scientist Albert Einstein knew about the power of chess. He said:
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"Chess holds its master in its own limits. It ties the mind and the brain so that the inner freedom of the very strongest must suffer."
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Despite these stories, chess is still growing in popularity. This is partly because of the Internet. On-line chess groups make it easy to play chess whenever you wish. You can find people who are at a similar skill level. And if you do not know how to play, there are resources that can teach you.
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David Shenk is the author of "The Immortal Game: A History of Chess." He writes about how chess has become a normal part of life:
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"When people hear that chess is being used in schools they find it not at all strange. But this is a 6th century war game! Its rules have not changed for more than 500 years. But it gives a poor American in the 21st century a better understanding of his own problems and how to fix them."
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Chess does not belong to any one country. It began in India, Iran, and China. It travelled to Russia and Europe. It made its way to North and South America. In each place, it was shaped and changed by the culture. Currently, the top players come from all around the world: Russia, Ukraine, China, Israel, Azerbaijan, and Germany. Maybe the next chess grandmaster will come from your country. Maybe it will be you.
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