Every year on July 20, International Chess Day is celebrated to honour the founding of the Federation Internationale des Echecs, also known as FIDES, in the year 1924. Since ancient times Chess has been a popular game and has been played around the world. ‘With the time Chess game and its rules are evolving. As per reports, Chess became a game of class and only upper class were able to afford this game in a long way. However, the merchandise class later went on to introduce this game to the rest of the people while travelling around the world.

World Chess Day history:

In the fifth century, chess was invented in India. It was called “Chaturanga” at the time. Chess is one of the most ancient games of the period. This game was then spread to Persia. When the Arabs invaded Persia, Chess became an important part of the Muslim population’s life and from there it spread to Southern Europe. Chess evolved in its current form in Europe during the 15th century. And by the late 15th century, it took the shape of a modern game. And beginning on July 20, 1966, the International Chess Day began to celebrate FIDE’s establishment.

CELEBRATION:

World Chess Day, celebrated around the world, is now also recognised by the United Nations. According to reports, UNESCO proposed the idea to celebrate this day as the International Chess Day, and it has been marked as such since 1966 after it was established by FIDE. However, plenty of professional chess players around the world already celebrate the day. A survey published on FIDE reveals that a surprisingly stable 70% of the adult population has played chess at some point during their lives. In countries as diverse as the US, UK, Germany, Russia and India, this number holds approximately the same amount.

CHESS RULES:

The ultimate aim in the chess game is to deliver a checkmate – trapping your opponent´s king. The term checkmate is an alteration of the Persian phrase “Shah Mat”, meaning literally, “the King is ambushed”, and not “the King is dead”, that is a common misconception.

The chessboard is made up of eight rows and eight columns for a total of 64 squares of alternating colors. Each square of the chessboard is identified with a unique pair of a letter and a number. The vertical files are labeled a through h, from White´s left (i.e. the queen side) to White´s right. Similarly, the horizontal ranks are numbered from 1 to 8, starting from the one nearest White´s side of the board. Each square of the board, then, is uniquely identified by its file letter and rank number. In the initial position setup, the light queen is positioned on a light square and the dark queen is situated on a dark square. The diagram below shows how the pieces should be initially situated.

Chess moves:

• King can move exactly one square horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. At most once in every game, each king is allowed to make a special move, known as castling.
• Queen can move any number of vacant squares diagonally, horizontally, or vertically.
• Rook can move any number of vacant squares vertically or horizontally. It also is moved while castling.
• Bishop can move any number of vacant squares in any diagonal direction.
• Knight can move one square along any rank or file and then at an angle. The knight´s movement can also be viewed as an “L” or “7″ laid out at any horizontal or vertical angle.
• Pawns can move forward one square, if that square is unoccupied. If it has not yet moved, the pawn has the option of moving two squares forward provided both squares in front of the pawn are unoccupied. A pawn cannot move backward. Pawns are the only pieces that capture differently from how they move. They can capture an enemy piece on either of the two spaces adjacent to the space in front of them (i.e., the two squares diagonally in front of them) but cannot move to these spaces if they are vacant. The pawn is also involved in the two special moves en passant and promotion.

Castling:

Castling is the only time in the chess game when more than one piece moves during a turn. This chess move has been invented in the 1500´s to help speeding up the game and improving balance of the offense and defense. During the castling, the king moves two squares towards the rook he intends to castle with, and the rook moves to the square through which the king passed.

Castling is only permissible if all of the following conditions hold:

• Neither king nor rook involved in castling may have moved from the original position
• There must be no pieces between the king and the rook

The king may not currently be in check, nor may the king pass through or end up in a square that is under attack by an enemy piece (though the rook is permitted to be under attack and to pass over an attacked square)

En Passant:

En Passant may only occur when a pawn is moved two squares on its initial movement. When this happens, the opposing player has the option to take the moved pawn “en passant” as if it had only moved one square. This option, though, only stays open for one move. The En Passant move was developed after pawns were allowed to move more than one square on their initial move. The idea behind this rule was to retain restrictions imposed by slow movement, while at the same time speeding up the game.

Pawn promotion:

If a pawn reaches the opponent´s edge of the table, it will be promoted – the pawn may be converted to a queen, rook, bishop or knight, as the player desires. The choice is not limited to previously captured pieces. Thus its´ theoretically possible having up to nine queens or up to ten rooks, bishops, or knights if all pawns are promoted.

First of all, One of the oldest games that is still in existence and is very popular so it tells how humans used to think back then and what’s the difference now.Earlier it was used to make war strategies . Now it enhances your problem solving capabilities. Nowadays whatever we do, whatever place we work in, the most important thing required to grow is the problem solving skills.

Chess improves the logical part of the brain. Every time you learn a new move, a new neuron is developed in your brain, which increases the size and capability of your brain’s neural network thus making your brain fast. So, in simple terms a person playing chess from his childhood will be grown up into a smarted person who will be good with logic, remembering stuffs and numbers.