Republic of the Philippines

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Taculing Campus, (034)707-7469, Sum-ag Campus,(034) 704-5843,
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PE 03 – INDIVIDUAL/DUAL SPORTS/GAMES
Adapted from: Soltis, A. (23, March 2020). Chess. Retrieved from
https://www.britannica.com/topic/chess#ref80426
INSTRUCTOR: CHRIS JOHN A. MARTIR, LPT

MODULE 1: CHESS (Nature and background of the game/sport)

Week 1-2 (October 5-17, 2020)

This module discusses the history of the game/sport chess and how it is played. We will learn how chess was
shaped from the time it was created until today. We will also study the objective of the game and how it is
played.
Learning Objectives:
At the end of this module I can…
 recognize the origin/history of Chess.
 describe the objective of the game Chess.
 distinguish the types of chess pieces and its corresponding movement.
 apply the basic knowledge about chess in practicing/playing the game.
Worksheet 1:
Directions: Please fill-up the LINK table below with learning intentions.

L I N K
(List everything you (Inquire about what you (Now we are going to (What do you know
know) want to know) take notes) now?)

©Kendra Alston

Week 1

Chess is one of the oldest and most popular board

games, played by two opponents on a checkered
board with specially designed pieces of contrasting
colors, commonly white and black. White moves
first, after which, the players alternate turns in
accordance with fixed rules, each player attempting
to force the opponent’s principal piece, the King,
into checkmate—a position where it is unable to
avoid capture.

Figure 1: Position of chessmen at the beginning of a game.

Image retrieved from www.thechesswebsite.com

I. History of Chess

i. Ancient precursors and related games

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The origin of chess remains a matter of controversy.
There is no credible evidence that chess existed in a
form approaching the modern game before the 6th
century CE. Game pieces found
in Russia, China, India, Central Asia, Pakistan, and
elsewhere that have been determined to be older
than that are now regarded as coming from earlier
distantly related board games, often
involving dice and sometimes using playing boards
of 100 or more squares.

One of those earlier games was a war game

called chaturanga, a Sanskrit name for a battle
formation mentioned in the Indian
epic Mahabharata. Chaturanga was flourishing in Figure 3. The position of Chinese chess pieces at the beginning of a
game.
northwestern India by the 7th century and is Image retrieved from www.britannica.com/sports/Chinese-chess
regarded as the earliest precursor of modern chess
because it had two key features found in all later
chess variants—different pieces had different
ii. Introduction to Europe
powers (unlike checkers and go), and victory was
based on one piece, the king of modern chess.
A form of chaturanga or shatranj made its way to
Europe by way of Persia, the Byzantine Empire,
and, perhaps most important of all, the expanding
Arabian empire. The oldest recorded game, found in
10th-century manuscript, was played between a
Baghdad historian, believed to be a favorite of three
successive caliphs, and a pupil.

Muslims brought chess to North Africa, Sicily, and

Spain by the 10th century. Eastern Slavs spread it to
Kievan Rus about the same time.
The Vikings carried the game as far as Iceland and
England and are believed responsible for the most
famous collection of chessmen, 78 walrus-ivory
pieces of various sets that were found on the Isle of
Figure 2. The initial configuration for a game of chaturanga. Lewis in the Outer Hebrides in 1831 and date from
the 11th or 12th century.
Image retrieved from www.chess.com/terms/chaturanga

How chaturanga evolved is unclear. Some Chess and dice games were periodically banned by
historians say chaturanga, perhaps played with dice kings and religious leaders. For example,
on a 64-square board, gradually transformed King Louis IX forbade the game in France in 1254.
into shatranj (or chatrang), a two-player game However, the game’s popularity was helped by its
popular in northern India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, social cachet: a chess set was often associated with
and southern parts of Central Asia after 600 CE. wealth, knowledge, and power. It was a favourite of
Kings Henry I, Henry II, John, and Richard I of
The game spread to the east, north, and west, taking England, of Philip II and Alfonso X (the Wise) of
on sharply different characteristics. In the East, Spain, and of Ivan IV (the Terrible) of Russia. It
carried by Buddhist pilgrims, Silk Road traders, and was known as the royal game as early as the 15th
others, it was transformed into a game with century.
inscribed disks that were often placed on the
intersection of the lines of the board rather than
iii. Standardization of rules
within the squares. About 750 CE chess reached
China, and by the 11th century it had come
to Japan and Korea. Chinese chess, the most Chess made its greatest progress after two crucial
popular version of the Eastern game, has 9 files and rule changes that became popular after 1475. Under
10 ranks as well as a boundary—the river, between the new rules the counselor underwent a sex change
the 5th and 6th ranks—that limits access to the and gained vastly increased mobility to become the
enemy camp and makes the game slower than its most powerful piece on the board—the
Western cousin. modern queen. This and the increased value of

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pawn promotion added a dynamic new element to Nathaniel Cook. After it was patented in 1849, the
chess. Also, the chaturanga piece called the design was endorsed by Howard Staunton, then the
elephant, which had been limited to a two-square world’s best player; because of Staunton’s extensive
diagonal jump in shatranj, became the bishop, more promotion, it subsequently became known as the
than doubling its range. Staunton pattern. Only sets based on the Staunton
design are allowed in international competition
today.

Figure 5. The Staunton Chess Set.

Image retrieved from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staunton_chess_set
Figure 4. A game of shatranj.

Image retrieved from www.britannica.com/topics/shatranj

The last two major changes in the rules—castling

and the en passant capture—took longer to win
acceptance. Both rules were known in the 15th
century but had limited usage until the 18th century.
Minor variations in other rules continued until the
late 19th century; for example, it was not acceptable
in many parts of Europe as late as the mid-19th
century to promote a pawn to a queen if a player
still had the original queen.

iv. Set design

The simple design of pieces before

600 CE gradually led to figurative sets depicting
animals, warriors, and noblemen. But Muslim sets
of the 9th–12th centuries were often
nonrepresentational and made of simple clay or
carved stone following the Islamic prohibition of
images of living creatures. The return to simpler,
symbolic shatranj pieces is believed to have spurred
the game’s popularity by making sets easier to make
and by redirecting the players’ attention from the
intricate pieces to the game itself.

Playing boards, which had monochromatic squares

in the Muslim world, began to have alternating
black and white, or red and white, squares by
1000 CE and were often made of fine wood
or marble. Peter I (the Great) of Russia had special
campaign boards made of soft leather that he carried
during military efforts.

The standard for modern sets was established about

1835 with a simple design by an Englishman,

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 v. World Championship and FIDE tournaments as part of a general encouragement of
the game. The 1924 women’s championship of
The popularity of chess has for the past two Leningrad was the first women’s tournament
centuries been closely tied to competition, usually sponsored by any government. Massive events,
in the form of two-player matches, for the title of larger than anything open to either sex in the West,
world champion. The title was an unofficial one followed; nearly 5,000 women took part in the
until 1886, but widespread spectator interest in the preliminary sections of the 1936 Soviet women’s
game began more than 50 years earlier. The first championship, for example.
major international event was a series of six
matches held in 1834 between the leading French The Women’s World Championship has been
and British players, Louis-Charles de la decided by matches or elimination match
Bourdonnais of Paris and Alexander McDonnell of tournaments organized by FIDE since 1953.
London, which ended with Bourdonnais’s victory.
For the first time, a major chess event was reported FIDE established separate titles of International
extensively in newspapers and analyzed in books. Woman Master in 1950 and International Woman
Grandmaster in 1977.
Due to controversies that the past rules imposed,
representatives of 15 countries met in Paris in 1924 In the 1990s a series of men-versus-women events
to organize the first permanent international chess were organized as the difference in playing strength
federation, known as FIDE, its narrowed.
French acronym for Fédération Internationale des Activity 1:
Échecs. From then on, this has been the governing
body of international chess competitions. 1. Make a timeline on how the game chess was
created and shaped from its origins until
FIDE also took over the Women’s World today.
Championship and biennial Olympiad team 2. What makes chess different from other
championships, which originated in the 1920s. In games/sports?
addition, the federation developed new 3. “In the 1990s a series of men-versus-women
championship titles, particularly for junior players events were organized as the difference in
in various age groups. It also created a system for playing strength narrowed.” What is the
recognizing top players by arithmetic rating and by implication of this and how can you relate
titles based on tournament performance. The this event to present? Are men and women
highest title, after World Champion, is International given equal opportunities? Support your
Grandmaster, of whom there are now more than 500 answer.
in the world.

vi. Women in chess

II. Object of the Game
Separation of the sexes in chess dates from about
1500 with the introduction of the queen. Chess When a player moves a piece to a square on which
became a much faster, more exciting game and, it attacks the enemy king—that is, a square from
thus, came to be perceived as a more masculine which it could capture the king if the king is not
pursuit. Women were often barred from the shielded or moved—the king is said to be in check.
The game is won when one king is in check and
coffeehouses and taverns where chess clubs
cannot avoid capture on the next move; this is
developed in the 19th century. However, women called checkmate. A game also can end when a
players achieved distinction separately from men by player, believing the situation to be hopeless,
the middle of the century. The first chess clubs acknowledges defeat by resigning.
specifically for women were organized in the
Netherlands in 1847. The first chess book written There are three possible results in chess: win, lose,
by a woman, The ABC of Chess, by “A Lady” (H.I. or draw. There are six ways a draw can come about:
(1) by mutual consent, (2) when neither player has
Cooke), appeared in England in 1860 and went into
enough pieces to deliver checkmate, (3) when one
10 editions. The first women’s tournament was player can check the enemy king endlessly
sponsored in 1884 by the Sussex Chess Association. (perpetual check), (4) when a player who is not in
check has no legal move (stalemate), (5) when an
Women’s chess received a major boost when identical position occurs three times with the same
the Soviet Union endorsed separate women’s player having the right to move, and (6) when no

4
Figure 13.
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Image retrieved from www.ichess.net/blog/castling-chess-complete-
piece has
Image retrieved
guide frombeen captured and no pawn has been
www.thechesswebsite.com/chess-pieces
moved within a period of 50 moves.

In competitive events, a victory is scored as one

point, a draw as half a point, and a loss as no points.

III. Chess Pieces and Movements

The board represents a battlefield in which two

armies fight to capture each other’s king. A player’s
army consists of 16 pieces that begin play on the
two ranks closest to that player. There are six
different types of pieces: king, rook, bishop, queen,
knight, and pawn; the pieces are distinguished by
appearance and by how they move. The players
alternate moves, White going first.

i. King
White’s king begins the game on e1. Black’s king is
opposite at e8. Each king can move one square in
any direction; e.g., White’s king can move from e1
to d1, d2, e2, f2, or f1.

Figure 6. The King can move one square at any direction.

Image retrieved from www.thechesswebsite.com/chess-pieces

ii. The Rook

Each player has two rooks (formerly also known as

castles), which begin the game on the corner
squares a1 and h1 for White, a8 and h8 for Black. A
rook can move vertically or horizontally to any
unobstructed square along the file or rank on which
it is placed.

Figure 7. The rook can move vertically or horizontally any number

of squares without jumping over another piece.
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Image retrieved from www.thechesswebsite.com/chess-pieces