On December 12, India witnessed a second that might be etched in historical past. Grandmaster Gukesh Dommaraju turned the youngest-ever Chess champion. His triumph got here after an intense 14th-round battle, the place he defeated reigning champion Ding Liren. As social media erupted with celebrations and congratulatory messages, one remark reverberated throughout platforms: the crown was returning to the birthplace of chess.
This narrative is way from new. A 1929 report within the British Chess Journal, cited in Daniel King’s e-book Sultan Khan, referred to as India “the normal birthplace of chess.” Indian chessmaster Pravin Thipsay, displays upon his youth as he says, “Once I performed within the second Nationwide Junior in Calcutta, chess was in all places — on the streets, within the bustling nukkads. You didn’t want an invite to hitch; you merely sat down and performed. In the event you misplaced, you bought up and walked away. Chess was all the time a recreation for everybody.”
As Thipsay put it, “Within the phrases of one of many best chessmasters of all time, Siegbert Tarrasch, ‘Chess, like love, like music, has the ability to make males glad.’”
Archaeological excavations have revealed that among the many many achievements of the city civilisations of Mohenjodaro and Harappa, flourishing round 5,000 years in the past within the fertile Indus Valley (now in modern-day Pakistan), had been recreation items utilized in actions akin to what we now name board video games. Curiously, these items could possibly be performed on numerous surfaces, together with straight on the bottom.
The earliest identified point out of a board recreation in Indian literature seems in Harshacharita, a biography of King Harsha written by Bāṇa round 625 CE. The textual content states, “Solely ashtapadas train the positions of the chaturanga,” linking chaturanga, the Sanskrit time period for “4 limbs” (chatur for 4 and anga for limb) to ashtapada, an historical recreation which was performed on an 8×8 board.
In keeping with Averbakh, the evolution of chess probably adopted a collection of levels. It started with ashtapada. Over time, easy recreation items had been changed by miniature chariots, and the sport shifted to a military-themed format centered on battles involving these chariots. This finally led to Chaturanga, which launched the 4 arms of a military — chariots, cavalry, elephants, and infantry — and remodeled right into a formalised technique recreation. The sport additional advanced right into a two-player contest with a vital rule: capturing the opponent’s ruler was essential to win. Lastly, using cube was eradicated, making the sport totally skill-based.
Different texts, just like the epic Mahabharata, describe cube video games the place characters corresponding to Nala and Yudhishthira gamble away their kingdoms. “One of many greatest misconceptions about chess,” says Thipsay, “was its affiliation with playing, which led to its prohibition in elements of North India. In actuality, it was a strategic warfare recreation, designed to show navy ways to princes and kings.”
By the tenth century, Arabic historian al-Mas’udi documented chess in India, describing elaborate items and the excessive stakes of wagering wealth — and even limbs — throughout video games.
British chess historian HJR Murray, in his pioneering work A Historical past of Chess, explains that the sport was first adopted by the Persians, handed on to the Muslim world, and finally launched to Christian Europe. Chatrang, or Shatrang because it was referred to as in Persia, was thus a modified model of the chaturanga. Persian and Arabic traditions additionally credit score India because the birthplace of chess.
Curiously, American author David Shenk, in The Immortal Recreation: A Historical past of Chess, means that chess could have even originated as an older import from China. He argues that the sport probably advanced alongside the Silk Street, which facilitated not solely the trade of products corresponding to cinnamon, pepper, and silk but in addition cultural practices and pastimes. Nevertheless, chaturanga and chatrang marked a departure from earlier board video games within the area, as “these video games contained no cube or different devices of likelihood,” Shenk notes.
Comparable video games proceed to be performed throughout Asia, together with the Burmese sittnyin, the Malay chator, the Tibetan chandaraki, the Chinese language siang ok’i, the Korean tjyang keui, and the Japanese sho-gi.
The renaissance of Chess
The second half of the fifteenth century was a transformative interval, marked by the invention of printing and the daybreak of the age of geographical discoveries. This period sparked a surge of curiosity in historical past, science, and artwork, paving the best way for the Renaissance in Western Europe. It was additionally the time when chess underwent a major reform, notably enhancing the motion of the bishop and, extra importantly, the queen.
The rule adjustments remodeled chess into a way more dynamic and complicated recreation, making it extra participating. Murray observes, “It’s fairly doable that the reform of chess saved the sport.” Shenk provides, “Whether or not by chance or design, the Renaissance itself was mirrored within the new, extra participating format of the sport, which rapidly turned the common normal. Fashionable chess was born.”
Students corresponding to Averbakh concur that the brand new guidelines had been probably invented in Spain. Spanish historian Ricardo Calvo recognized a gaggle of younger poets from Valencia who wrote the Scachs d’Amor (Chess of Love), the primary identified description of the revamped recreation. In Spain, the sport turned generally known as “ajedrez de la dama.”
Within the Indian context, too, the folks recreation of chess underwent a speedy transformation. After the 1857 rebellion, the British authorities took direct management changing the East India Firm. By the mid-Eighties, hundreds of Indians had earned levels, all taught in English and influenced by British political beliefs. “A by-product of this growth was that Western chess turned extra widespread – at the very least amongst this educated class of Indians,” observes Daniel King.
From round 1850, chess books started to be printed in numerous Indian languages corresponding to Marathi, Bengali, Urdu, and Hindi. In the meantime, the primary Indian newspapers, beginning in 1833, usually featured chess columns, serving to to additional cement European chess guidelines.
The contrasting tempos of Japanese and Western chess are symbolised within the 1977 movie Shatranj Ke Khilari by Satyajit Ray. Set in 1856, the movie makes use of chess to symbolize the conflict between India’s contemplative outdated methods and the British colonial rule’s quicker, pragmatic method. In a single scene, the chess gamers Meer and Mirza are interrupted by a customer, Nandlal:
Nandlal: I see you’re enjoying the Indian means
Meer: What different means?
Nandlal: The British means.
Mirza: Don’t say the [East India] Firm’s taken over chess, too.
In 1878, Calcutta hosted the primary recorded round-robin chess match in India, the place British and Indian gamers competed. “There may be additionally the legend of Moheschunder Bannerjee, a Bengali chess grasp, famend for his distinctive talent,” added Thipsay.
By the early twentieth century, tournaments following Western chess guidelines had been turning into extra widespread.
As nationwide consciousness grew, Indians started organising their very own tournaments, with the primary ‘All-India’ occasion held on the Beaman Chess Membership in Bombay in 1909. A key milestone got here in 1924 when Vinayak Kashinath Khadilkar turned the primary Indian to compete within the British Chess Championship. Regardless of dropping his first 4 video games, Khadilkar went on to defeat notable opponents, together with RHV Scott, the 1920 British champion. His efficiency, regardless of early setbacks, was a significant achievement for Indian chess on the worldwide stage.
Sultan Khan & Fatima: Pioneers of Indian Chess in Europe
Born in 1905 right into a poor Muslim household within the village of Mitha Tiwana (now in Pakistan), Sultan Khan’s chess journey started at age 9. He realized the sport from his father. The model he performed was distinct from the Western variant, that includes Indian guidelines and native variations.
In 1925, the Maharaja of Patiala, Sir Bhupinder Singh, hosted an annual chess match at his palace in Chail, close to Shimla. This occasion was pivotal for Indian chess. Borislav Kostic, a well known Yugoslav grasp, participated, and the efficiency of Indian gamers like N.R. Joshi and Kishan Lal Sarda in opposition to him indicated that Indian gamers had been prepared for worldwide competitors. This led Sultan Khan’s patron, Sir Umar Hayat Khan, to rent Lal as a coach.
Colonel Nawab Malik Sir Umar Hayat Khan, an avid chess participant and the landowner of Mitha Tiwana, recognised Sultan Khan’s expertise when Sultan approached him searching for work. Khan welcomed him into his family, educated him in Western chess, supported him financially, and facilitated his journey to Europe. As Daniel King asserts, “Sultan Khan can be unknown within the West, and even exterior the Punjab, if it weren’t for his patron – and grasp.”
Sultan Khan’s first recorded match end result got here in 1926 on the YMCA Championship in Shimla, the place he triumphed. In 1929, Khan arrived in London, marking the beginning of his worldwide journey. On the time, José Raúl Capablanca, one of many best Cuban-born chess gamers, was within the midst of his reign. Below Sir Umar’s patronage, Khan confronted Capablanca in a high-profile match. Though Khan faltered within the opening, he emerged victorious.
Khan’s victory within the London Gambit Match, held later in June of that 12 months, additional solidified his popularity. On account of his restricted English, a sure Mr Bosworth Smith spoke on his behalf, stating, “This victory is a good achieve for India, and it opens the door for all members of the Empire.”
By 1932, Sultan Khan was not the one member of Sir Umar’s family making waves within the chess world. 18-year-old Miss Fatima, the youngest participant of the match, created a stir. Raised in strict purdah, Fatima moved to England with Sir Umar and commenced enjoying chess. Whereas Sultan Khan had already made his mark, Fatima added an intriguing ingredient to the British chess scene.
Nevertheless, with the demise of Sir Umar, Sultan Khan’s engagement with aggressive chess in Europe turned inconceivable. He lacked the means to assist himself or make the journey again overseas. Furthermore, after World Struggle II, Europe lay in financial ruins. “The Empire that Khan had conquered on the chessboard was disappearing,” notes King. “First India and Pakistan, after which colonies everywhere in the world had been pragmatically granted independence by the no-longer-mighty mom nation.”
A brand new period of chess
Sultan Khan’s return to India and subsequent fade from the highlight coincided with a nation transferring towards Independence and Partition. In these turbulent occasions, as Daniel King suggests, chess was pushed to the background.
Khan and Fatima had been, nevertheless, not the one gamers from the subcontinent to make their mark in chess. Following their instance, many aspiring gamers travelled to Britain to compete in worldwide occasions. Amongst them had been Niaz Murshed, Dibyendu Barua, Pravin Thipsay, Krishnan Sasikiran, Surya Sekhar Ganguly, Pentala Harikrishna, and, in fact, Viswanathan Anand and others.
Indian chess continued to realize prominence. Rani Hamid gained the Girls’ title a number of occasions within the Nineteen Eighties and Nineties, whereas gamers like Bhagyashree Sathe, Vasanti Khadilkar, and Humpy Koneru made their very own affect. Within the 2000s, Ramachandran Ramesh and Abhijit Kunte triumphed within the Open Championship. Nevertheless, this success finally led to a change: by 2003, the British Chess Federation restricted the match to British and Irish residents.
“The desi (indigenous) type of chess is extra advanced, and this mastery typically permits Indian gamers to excel on the worldwide stage,” says Thipsay.
Daniel King argues that for about 25 years, from the late Nineteen Seventies to 2003, British chess tournaments served as a proving floor for a lot of gamers from the subcontinent. This era performed a vital function in India’s rise as one of many world’s prime chess-playing nations.
In 2000, Viswanathan Anand turned FIDE World Chess Champion, and by 2007, he was the undisputed World Champion, efficiently defending his title a number of occasions earlier than dropping it to Magnus Carlsen in 2013.
“Not too long ago, chess has gained important consideration, pushed not solely by the achievements of Indian gamers but in addition by the worldwide reputation of the Netflix drama The Queen’s Gambit,” says Aradhya Garg, Worldwide Grasp in chess, in an interview with indianexpress.com. He provides, “India’s pipeline in girls’s chess can be spectacular, with the nation profitable gold in each the lads’s and girls’s classes on the 2024 Chess Olympiad.”
Whereas Anand, and the present era of Indian gamers have surpassed Sultan Khan’s achievements, the latter’s sensible profession stays important. At his peak, Sultan Khan was a formidable opponent, drawing with Alekhine in 1931 and defeating the likes of Capablanca, Flohr, and Rubinstein.
In a couple of centuries, related tales could also be written about Gukesh Dommaraju.
Additional Studying
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A Historical past of Chess: From Chaturanga to the Current Day by Yuri Averbakh
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A Historical past of Chess by H.J.R. Murray
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Sultan Khan by Daniel King
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The Immortal Recreation: A Historical past of Chess by David Shenk
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Chess: The Historical past of a Recreation by R. G. Eales
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