Trace the storied history of the game of chess, from its origins in 7th century India to the computer software we use today.
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The attacking infantry advances, their elephants already having broken the defensive line. The king tries to retreat, but the enemy flanks him from the rear. Escape is impossible. This isn’t a real war— nor is it just a game. Over the 1,500 years of its existence, chess has been known as a military strategy tool, a metaphor for human affairs and a measure of genius. Alex Gendler shares its history.
Lesson by Alex Gendler, directed by Remus \u0026 Kiki.
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Content
7.23 -> The attacking infantry advances steadily,
10.82 -> their elephants already having
broken the defensive line.
14.98 -> The king tries to retreat, but enemy
cavalry flanks him from the rear.
19.99 -> Escape is impossible.
23.01 -> But this isn’t a real war–
25.2 -> nor is it just a game.
27.25 -> Over the roughly one-and-a-half millennia
of its existence,
32 -> chess has been known as a tool
of military strategy,
35.897 -> a metaphor for human affairs,
and a benchmark of genius.
41.497 -> While our earliest records of chess
are in the 7th century,
45.376 -> legend tells that the game’s origins
lie a century earlier.
50.076 -> Supposedly, when the youngest prince
of the Gupta Empire was killed in battle,
55.696 -> his brother devised a way of representing
the scene to their grieving mother.
60.622 -> Set on the 8x8 ashtapada board used for
other popular pastimes,
66.801 -> a new game emerged with two key features:
70.894 -> different rules for moving
different types of pieces,
74.319 -> and a single king piece whose fate
determined the outcome.
79.179 -> The game was originally
known as chaturanga–
83.283 -> a Sanskrit word for "four divisions."
86.344 -> But with its spread to Sassanid Persia,
88.894 -> it acquired its current name
and terminology–
91.774 -> "chess," derived from "shah," meaning
king, and “checkmate” from "shah mat,"
98.804 -> or “the king is helpless.”
101.744 -> After the 7th century Islamic conquest
of Persia,
105.534 -> chess was introduced to the Arab world.
108.184 -> Transcending its role as a
tactical simulation,
111.304 -> it eventually became a rich source
of poetic imagery.
114.984 -> Diplomats and courtiers used chess terms
to describe political power.
120.154 -> Ruling caliphs became avid
players themselves.
123.765 -> And historian al-Mas’udi considered the
game a testament to human free will
129.115 -> compared to games of chance.
131.679 -> Medieval trade along the Silk Road carried
the game to East and Southeast Asia,
137.289 -> where many local variants developed.
140.316 -> In China, chess pieces were placed at
intersections of board squares
144.776 -> rather than inside them, as in the native
strategy game Go.
149.496 -> The reign of Mongol leader Tamerlane saw
an 11x10 board
154.408 -> with safe squares called citadels.
157.428 -> And in Japanese shogi, captured pieces
could be used by the opposing player.
163.188 -> But it was in Europe that chess began to
take on its modern form.
167.518 -> By 1000 AD, the game had become part
of courtly education.
172.512 -> Chess was used as an allegory
174.762 -> for different social classes performing
their proper roles,
178.572 -> and the pieces were re-interpreted
in their new context.
182.439 -> At the same time, the Church remained
suspicious of games.
186.949 -> Moralists cautioned against devoting
too much time to them,
190.713 -> with chess even being briefly
banned in France.
194.643 -> Yet the game proliferated,
196.673 -> and the 15th century saw it cohering into
the form we know today.
201.603 -> The relatively weak piece of advisor was
recast as the more powerful queen–
207.195 -> perhaps inspired by the recent surge
of strong female leaders.
211.952 -> This change accelerated the game’s pace,
214.723 -> and as other rules were popularized,
216.953 -> treatises analyzing common openings
and endgames appeared.
221.663 -> Chess theory was born.
224.646 -> With the Enlightenment era, the game
moved from royal courts to coffeehouses.
229.986 -> Chess was now seen as an expression
of creativity,
233.796 -> encouraging bold moves and dramatic plays.
237.376 -> This "Romantic" style reached its peak
in the Immortal Game of 1851,
243.796 -> where Adolf Anderssen managed a checkmate
247.078 -> after sacrificing his queen
and both rooks.
251.408 -> But the emergence of formal competitive
play in the late 19th century
255.963 -> meant that strategic calculation would
eventually trump dramatic flair.
261.157 -> And with the rise of international
competition,
263.585 -> chess took on a new
geopolitical importance.
267.495 -> During the Cold War,
268.745 -> the Soviet Union devoted great resources
to cultivating chess talent,
273.585 -> dominating the championships for the rest
of the century.
277.457 -> But the player who would truly upset
Russian dominance
280.907 -> was not a citizen of another country
283.347 -> but an IBM computer called Deep Blue.
287.697 -> Chess-playing computers had been
developed for decades,
290.862 -> but Deep Blue’s triumph
over Garry Kasparov in 1997
295.465 -> was the first time a machine
had defeated a sitting champion.
300.484 -> Today, chess software is capable of
consistently defeating
304.799 -> the best human players.
306.639 -> But just like the game they’ve mastered,
308.759 -> these machines are products
of human ingenuity.
312.149 -> And perhaps that same ingenuity will guide
us out of this apparent checkmate.
