Hey my Chess Friends! I appear in this new 4-hour film series on the Culture of Chess! INFO AND DOWNLOAD AT ideasroadshow.com/chess/ WATCH THE TRAILER AT ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-zLnOklDkTGQ.html DVD FOR PURCHASE ON AMAZON www.amazon.com//dp/B0C13M1B84/
I got an interesting comment from a fellow over in India. I had to remove it because of its offensive nature -- but it raised an interesting point. The fellow insisted that chessmen had actually been found (in India) that were 5000 years old! Well, actually, there have been apparent gaming pieces found which are that old -- it's just that there's no evidence they were chessmen. Here's a good example: hyperallergic.com/80050/archeologists-uncover-5000-year-old-game-board-pieces/ In fact, many old texts and old objects seem to allude to chess, to the modern eye ... yet, unless we see a certain combination of pieces or a telling description in a text, we just don't have good evidence of chess in particular. So far, the oldest archaeological find that is clearly a set of chessmen is the finding at Afrasiab, dated to about 700 AD. history.chess.free.fr/afrasiab.htm
You are my favorite Chess channel on RU-vid. Your videos about ancient chess games have literally captured me. Haha. I am very interested in Chess now and I am working on creating my own chess variant. Thank you a lot for getting me and many other chess players and fans interested in this amazing and fascinating game. Greetings from Germany, Zera
What a wonderful comment! It is the greatest pleasure to know that my work is stirring the interest in others. Contact me any time with your further thoughts ... and chess variants! www.ancientchess.com/page/contact-form.htm
The original chess pieces, when the Chess was invented in India (and called Chaturanga) were as follows: Raja - the "king", though the term also meant "military governor" in the Gupta Empire (where the chess was invented). This was to emulate the war of two kings of ancient India, leaders of one "Akshauhini". It could move only one tile per turn, could be checked and captured. The king basically has remained the same throughout all versions of Chess once it spread out of India till today. Mantri/Senapati - this means "Minister" or "General" respectively. Indian kings, whenever they personally led battles, were always accompanied by the chief-of-staff officers, military cabinet ministers and military commanders and generals. This piece evolved into "queen" when it moved into Europe but remained "General/Minister" in India. It was much less powerful than it is today, it could move only one or two steps in each direction. Gaja - the "elephant". As everyone already knows, war elephants were a fundamental part of any Indian army and saw combat right to the last days of Indian Empire in 1857. In around 14th century India this piece turned into "Camel" (reflecting the change as elephant divisions in Indian armies were decreased)...while in Europe it was modified many times until it turned into Bishop. Similar mechanisms as Bishop with a few variations. Ashva - the "horse". This was originally representing the Imperial cavalry of the Gupta Empire. Gupta armies focused heavily on cavalry of all sorts, from heavily armoured Cataphracts to horse archers. It became the most powerful branch of their army. This is why the "Ashva" was so powerful. It became Knight in Europe but it is still marked by a horse. Ratha/Sakata - this is the "chariot". Unlike in rest of the world, Indians continued using chariots well into late antiquity. They were not used in the thick of the battles but remained a part of Imperial Gupta army. In an Akshauhini formation (the mythological Indian formation and also the original basis of Chess piece placement) chariots were in the flanks, so the Ratha/Sakata was also at the edge of the board. It became Rook in Europe, but the original Chariot piece could only move one step per turn like the king and was very weak compared to Rook. This reflects how Gupta Empire still had chariots but knew they were completely ineffective and weak by then. Pedati/Sainik - this means "infantry". This represented the basic Gupta Imperial foot soldier of 5th century India. Armed with a shield, spear, sword and some armour. As in most Indian armies, the infantry is placed in front of cavalry, in Chess and Chaturanga. Just as Gupta Empire thought about them, they are considered subordinate to cavalry in an Indian army, and this is reflected in the game. Like real Gupta infantry, they are really easily hunted down individually but can be really powerful in groups. It became Pawn in Europe but has retained the same moves and features as original. It is also known that Pawns attack only diagonally because the original Gupta Pedati/Sainik piece represented a spearman attacking through the cover of his large shield in the front, i.e. only sideways were open to attack. And thus it became a part of the game.
Thanks for adding your opinion! Check out the argumentative, nationalistic rants this question has invited, in the various comment threads of my videos. No one knows where chess was invented: it was being played and spread throughout Asia before anyone was recording it. Did legends develop? Oh yes! And they are very rich. It's a marvelous field to investigate and many imaginative, variably informed, hypotheses have been set forward. We've got a great chapter on the subject in our upcoming book, "A World of Chess: Its Development and Variations through Centuries and Civilizations," mate.
AncientChess The thing is, Iranian nationalists crowd all chess-related videos and "claim" to be originators of chess...when in fact it first developed during Gupta Empire in India as an battle-imitation board game popular among the nobility, and to teach tactics to young princes. There is a known record of an Indian ambassador to Sassanid Persia hosting a game before leaving for home, in front of the emperor, and this is how it became popular in Persia where it split into various routes. This is interesting, thank you.
Golden Phoenix No mate, it wasn't. It first mentioned in a late 4th century Indian text concerning Gupta Empire's nobility, and only arrived in Persia during reign of the second last Sassanid Emperor.
Thanks for checking in! A ready list of my videos is here: ancientchess.com/page/videos.htm The video I most want people to see now is -- ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-HY9kxRJdutw.html&feature=emb_logo
Really enjoying this! Quick note: re the Mongolian version (23:20), according to Murray, the Queen (originally, Vizier) is a Dog in Mongolian chess; though yes, it also looks like a Lion. Also: the Rook is a Cart/Wagon probably because it was originally a Chariot ("rook" or "rokh" even means chariot in Middle Persian). Now back to the video. :) ...Edit: That was fascinating, thanks for making this! I agree the Cigar Divan design is more aesthetically pleasing than the Staunton, incidentally.
Yeah, there is a mythical beast, sometimes called a 'fu dog', a mix between a dog and lion, often seen guarding Chinese restaurants. The Mongolian queen usually seems to be one of those ... and the pawns are often little ones, her offspring. And yeah, the rook in those days, also in the Chinese game, was a rook or cart. According to our research though, the word rokh did not originally mean chariot exactly. It was the ancient Persian word for 'flank', with that piece described as the general of the flank. Later of course, it simply became known as the name of that piece on the chessboard, much as it is centuries later, in English, as 'rook' with no other meaning. Much of our book is a review, update and expansion of Murray's work. AWorldofChess.com
Thank you for this video. I'm a chess lover, and it's always good to run across people like you who are totally obsessed, because we can learn so much from you!
Studying chess I learn that it is an entirely White European game. I heard a creepy mideastern guy telling us innocent kids at highschool how it was invented by his people. Young as we were we didn't know any better. But you could tell he was making a boastful point out of it because he was for some reason smirking ESPECIALLY at me in the eye as he knew I really love my folk and country even as kid. Sure enough just I suspected the infil was selling us a load of dirt. This great and BEAUTIFUL European game of chess is entirely unique in every way. From the chivalrous mediaeval checkered board, to the names and movements and looks of every single piece to the overall rules of the game to the annotation system to the uniquely European invention, and chess introduction, of the chess clock, making it the fastest and most ubiquitous game on the planet complete with great international martyr-heroes who spoke truth to power like Triple-A (Alekhine) and Bobby Fischer. So that old creep back at school can eat his sandal and clean up his own house. To say that chess came out of the mideast is like saying shogi is an Arabic/Iranian game. Thank God the truth sets us free from the devils and all their lies.
Yes, I support the idea that Chess was originated in India. It is assumed that Chess was originally a 4 player game, and the Arab travelers started playing 2 armies themselves which led to creation of all these, introduced it to the rest of the world. 'Chaturang' is in fact an Indian word which means 4 colours. One can metaphor it by 4 armies or 4 kingdoms.
Thanks for your message. We go into great detail regarding the sources of information and the historic analysis in our book ( aworldofchess.com ). A few things to note: Most sources regard the word chaturanga (later chaturang and chatrang) as originally referring to the 4 arms of the ancient Indian army (infantry, cavalry, elephants, chariots). The ancient documents indicate that the two-player game was reported about 4 centuries earlier than the 4-player game. We devote an entire chapter of our book to the long-standing speculation that the 4-player game came first. The final section of our book (it is in 7 sections) is devoted entirely to the search for the origin of chess itself. AWorldofChess.com
Oh wow, I could never have expected that so much efforts are being made to trace the history of Chess, truly appreciable. And I may also want to have a copy of your book myself, but maybe when I'll grow a little, you know, this is my dad's phone and he'll never allow me a book in times of my school😅
@@manojtodi281 It is good to hear you are getting such a curiosity in chess history in your early years. I hope you continue to learn about it -- it is a wonderful field! Even without the book, you can find many videos on my site: www.ancientchess.com/page/videos.htm
There was no queen piece in the ancient, older version from NE Iran. The piece was called a Vizier or Vazier, like a counselor. The idea of having a queen on the battlefield, would've seemed odd. It probably was a European invention.
Thanks, very important point! That piece has always been an advisor or general -- it is only when chess entered Europe that it was identified as a queen. That happened very early on, as early as the year 1000, when chess is first discussed in European literature. A very peculiar change, since it took what was originally a sybolic battlefield and looked at it more as a royal court.
Thanks for the good comment! I find the world of chess and chessmen fascinating and am always looking for that spark in other enthusiasts. Contact me any time with your thoughts. (Rick at AncientChess.com)
Thank you for this fun and informative video! I'm sharing it with my friends. By the way, have you ever looked at Jetan? In Edgar Rice Burrough's 1921 novel, "The Chessmen of Mars," the reader is introduced to Jetan, a game which culturally corresponds to Chess in our world. The book comes with a brief appendix that describes the rules, so I'm sure that it's playable. Keep up the good work!
Thanks for the comment. We'll be including that variant in our upcoming book about the evolution of chess. Of the hundreds of new variants, very few will be covered in our book -- but Jetan will be there!
Great video! I wish it is seen by all chess enthusiasts It would be great to make shorter vids about each version and the rules It's amazing how the spread of chess mirrors the spread of a language or the spread of genetic evolution
Just a few years late, but thanks for the nice video! I've recently started digging deeper into chess and other games in Europe ca 1100-1400, and this was a very good stepping stone with some new angles I hadn't thought of vefore!
I have some new ancient style sets -- check these listings www.ebay.com/sch/m.html?_ssn=rickofricks&LH_PrefLoc=&_from=R40&_trksid=p2499338.m570.l1313&_nkw=shatranj&_sacat=0
The book is out! Check out the video about the book A World of Chess: Its Development and Variations through Centuries and Civilizations ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE--k_-UbPAQvE.html
9:30 well i think it's also worth to mention that you can play CHATURANGA usigng your normal chess board and pieces BUT i would highly suggest playing with no dice (!) - it's just far better
Yeah, these games are so similar, most of them could be played with a standard modern chess set. But for me, much of the fun comes in the differences of the various sets. Even the dice -- really a different sort of game. Anyway, there are many ways to enjoy all of this.
Thanks so much man... What a fascinating insight. Your enthusiasm is infectious! The reading list at the end is very much appreciated. Best of luck with the translation... Can't wait!
Thanks for the great comment. As you know from our other videos, the new book is out ... and it's much more than a translation -- an improvement and expansion of Jean-Louis's French book in every aspect! For anyone else reading this, find info on that at aworldofchess.com
I would love to see a video where you'd comment on and explain on why the international chess have the rules they have. They seem kind of arbitrary. I wonder how someone figured out the optimal legal moves.
Thanks for the great comment! I haven't posted much in the past few years, have just been too busy with other things, mostly family. But I love making the videos and have many more in mind! I did make one video recently, a great improvement on my Chinese Chess introduction, here ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-kSL7JErRMx8.html
@@AncientChess Thats a great instructional video on Chinese chess, perhaps if I have some down time in the future, I could use your instructional video to learn the game. I feel the same way, spending quality time with family is always priority, then just have to figure out how to juggle trying to create, edit and post chess content on youtube when the kids are asleep! I'll definitely subscribe to your channel and will be looking forward to any future content! Cheers!
Thanks for the great vid! I am new to chess and l am finding I love the older figures. I have fallen in love with the Isle of Lewis set. How they were found is really great. Some day I hope to get a set. I think of Noble people sitting and playing the game. To me half the fun of chess is the set you are using.... So all in all thanks again!!
Hey Wayne, it's great to hear from you -- and to hear your enthusiasm for chessmen, which you know I share! Yes, the Lewis men are pretty much the undisputed greatest chess find of all time. Just amazing that nearly 4 complete sets of such marvelous artistic quality remained intact for so long! Check out more of my sets and videos --- and my new book!! -- on my web site AncientChess.com -- and send comments any time!
Yes! See the video on AWorldofChess.com. There has been much good response ... we've been interviewed on BBC www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csyp4j ... Thanks for asking about that!
+Joseph Taibeh Thanks, yes, we know that al-fil is 'elephant', I didn't really say what I meant clearly. The point I intended to make is that the word is used in Spanish, although it is not a Spanish word. Much as English speakers use the word 'rook' although it does not have an English meaning. Thanks ror checking out my videos -- please do send comments any time.
Thanks for your message. I think you're referring to the 'regular old chess' set I show at the beginning of the presentation (0:33). That's actually a rosewood/boxwood set I got from a company in India (where most wooden chess sets are now made), put together with a board I got from China (it came with pieces but they were so cheap looking I essentially threw them away). I have many of these boards, but just one set of chessmen left. I could sell the board and pieces for $125, but I don't have it listed right now. Let me know if you're interested. I'm not sure if it would make a really good travel set because those pieces could get chipped up rattling around in the board. If I were using it for that, I would apply lots of padding inside the box between the pieces. Contact me any time through my web site, AncientChess.com
It was undoubtedly invented in India, as was the number system, which incidently did not come into Europe from Arabia via Rome. Linguistics supports this view. Great video by the way.
Thanks for the good words! Whether one has doubt about this will depend upon what one has heard or read, also what one is inclined to take as true. Our upcoming book, A World of Chess, gives a good review of the best evidence we have found. The truth is, judging what happened over 1500 years ago, with the available evidence, is a daunting task.
Thanks! Your Nezhmetdinov video was so excellent, I'm going to have to check out all of your videos. Great meeting you! Anybody reading this -- check out Jessica Fischer's channel -- great chess history documentaries!
On a different topic, do you find the darkening/yellowing (oxidization) of the wooden chess pieces to be a general characteristic and is it an issue as a seller? Also what do you use to clean and maintain the different woods of chess pieces - cracking of ebony is often a problem I find
Thanks for your message. I haven't looked too deeply into the issues of woods aging and cracking. I know what you mean about ebony cracking. When I send out an ebony set, I try to check for such cracking (usually at the base of the piece, esp. king or queen), and replace any defective pieces. I haven't really had any sets long enough to show that yellowing that occurs, but I do have some sets that are already old and already yellowed. I think collectors mostly accept that and even value it as a sign of being an authentic antique. I really don't have a strategy for maintaining pieces, as far as coating them or oiling them ... sorry I can't be of more help in that.
I recently earned to play Makruk and it is pretty fun to play. I was able to find only two apps where I could figure out how to play it since the games were in Sanskrit. But it's very fun for me as someone who played international chess in childhood.
It is called Chaturanga because it represents four organs of a Vedic era Indian army - Infantry, Cavalry, Elephants and Chariots. This is the standard Akshauhini (अक्षौहिणी) formation.
As a huge chess fanatic(of all kinds although i suck at all forms except the western one) and a history major this is just pure gold to me. Thank you for all your FREE resources and information. I'm also a huge fan of Mahjong(the four player game), Go, and really a huge player of strategy games with old origin. The history of those games are pretty dense too.
+Daniel Alwine Thanks for the great comments! For the best listing of all my videos, go to AncientChess.com and select the 'World Chess Videos" link (big button on the left). Hours and hours of chess history and variants (how to play go too... buy you know that already!)...
+Daniel Alwine Good question. I know there are some good ones out there, also sites where you can play against others over the internet. But sorry to say I haven't been keeping up on them. Problem is I'm so darn busy collecting, presenting and selling these sets I don't get to play much! Let me know if you find anything good
I found some. Here's what I wanna do. I'm going to compile a list with links of every single chess engine I have found. They are all GPU(general public use) licenses so I'm pretty sure that you'd be able to freely post those to your website put I recommend contacting the developers first just in case. I think it would e very cool if your site featured a list of these programs . I've been doing some serious searching and let me say I have found tons of them all free with no ads. I will email you the lists and links if that's okay. Also something to note, some of these programs are written in Python or programs like it and if your running on a Windows pc it can be fairly hard to turn Python files into an exe.
+Daniel Alwine Thanks, I'd love to offer those on my web site. Please do send me the information. It will be a great addition! My email is ancientches@mail.com
It was interesting to see how this one classic game spread all over the world, with different cultures changing the game in its own way. diverse in art style, but at the same time just variants of the same game! your video made me see chess in a new light.
my friend found a very old looking leather chess set, in North Africa , Libya. the pieces are made of bronze and silver and there's some kind of map on one of the sides, I will send you the pics, please how can I communicate with you sir?
Maatiz, thanks for the message. Sounds very interesting! Please go to my website and select the 'contact' tab ... once I receive a message from you, we can communicate normally through email. I would love to see pictures of that set
You mentioned "Al fíl" from Arabic at the 1:00 minute mark. It means "The Elephant". Elephantry was a crucial part of the military in Asia and thus represented as chess pieces. I believe Spanish speakers for example call the piece Al fíl to this day.
Yeah, if you view the messages below you'll see that this has been mentioned many times. The fact is, I didn't say that well. You know, I know and all Arabic speakers know it's 'the elephant', but the point is, as you say, it is the Spanish name today, so called even by people who do not know the Arabic origins of the name (much as English speakers don't know the origin of our word 'rook') (yes, I do know that too). Anyway, thanks for commenting and please do feel invited to share your knowledge on any of my many videos ancientchess.com/page/videos.htm
@@AncientChess Thanks for the reply. I did not check the other comments before commenting myself, that's true. I just wanted to share what I know. Thank you for the lovely videos.
@@Eli4life Thanks, yeah, I just said it in a way that elicited immediate response from those who know. IT's great to have you watching these. Send comments any time! Rick AWorldofChess.com
I have a doubt on 10 min, I saw in one comment here that when it got invented at Gupta dynasty ruling there were infantry, elephant, horse, chariot, minister & king, which makes sense but here when you make the four armies front line will be infantry then at corner chariot then the horse then the elephant then only one piece remains next to the elephant, that piece is king or a minister ?
Thanks for the good comment. Do you mean the 'tafl' family of games, like hnefatafl? ... I probably won't get to that soon ... but there are many resources ... here's one on youtube: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-rwO3AN__kAw.html
We've had many comments about the origins of chess recently. In my mind, there's much more to consider than can be shot off in a RU-vid thread. Our book will come out in 2017, which should give some great points for further discussion. In the meantime, why not tell us your favorite book, video or website -- as a reference to the origin of chess?
+AncientChess AL-Fill means Elephantits the Persian Loanword in Arabic and the Origin was " Pil " in Persian languagein Arabic there is no "P" sound and its become "F" sound from old mettle Persian writing system (Pahlavi) and " Al- " in Arabic language is Definite article like "The" in English
Thanks for filling in this important point of historic language transfer! It is understood that the game was taken by the Arabs from Persia, and indeed much of the nomenclature was also taken. In the same way, Chatrang became Shatranj, since Arabic had "Sh" instead of "Ch".
Exactly.In Arabic also no "Ch" and hard "G" soundAnd interesting the word elephant in modern Persian (actually the eastern dialect of middle Persian) is "Fiil" today the Persian language called Farsi (Parsi = Persian)this word is also came into the Arabic before the Islamic conquest of PersiaYou can find the word Al-Fil in old Arabic text. For example The surah 105 of Qur'an actually named "Al-Fil"
Check this link, it's what I have listed now.... www.ebay.com/sch/m.html?_ssn=rickofricks&LH_PrefLoc=&_from=R40&_trksid=p2499338.m570.l1313.TR12.TRC2.A0.H0.Xchinese.TRS0&_nkw=chinese&_sacat=0
I just wonder, is there any evidence or theory that there was chess like game which was played on circle shaped board or triangle shaped board, anything except square shaped board. That would be interesting.
I've played chess for years and known about Chinese chess for a few years and go same with Japanese chess im looking fowerd for the book you are working on translating can you post a video about it when it comes out?
It makes so much sense in modern chess that the pawns can only move forward (or diagonally forward), because kings could command their soldiers never to retreat.
+PlanetRockJesus Actually, Pawn originally represents the 5th century Indian imperial infantry of the Gupta Empire. Gupta infantry had huge shields that they placed in front, so they could attack sideways from that cover. This got into the game as the Pedati/Sainik (original name of Pawn) could only attack diagonally. Secondly, Gupta Empire always placed infantry in the front of cavalry. This was because Gupta cavalry would prevent and block the infantry from fleeing, sometimes even killing their own soldiers for cowardice if situation was dire. The infantry only allowed to move forward and retreat was not allowed. THIS is why the soldier can only move forward, just like the Gupta imperial infantry. It has nothing to do with European kings though.
Now for the most part the standard international chess is played in India. I wonder if anyone has recently seen any variation in the game still using older Indian traditions
AncientChess It is amazing. I kept thinking, "This is the personal chess set of Napoleon, the man I read about in history class. He personally moved and touched those pieces! I wonder if his fingerprints are still on them." The board was so close I could practically touch it. It was under glass case of course. lol
I assume you mean this 4-handed game that I showed you. Here's a link to a page about how that's played www.chessvariants.com/historic.dir/chaturang4.html
Can you subtitle your videos to Spanish? I would like them to be shorter and show the six pieces online and always in the order King, Dame, Bishop, Horse, Tower and Pawn, going from left to right of the image. I can not understand what you are saying because I do not speak any English. I'm using google translator. Luck. Thanks for your tutorials. It would also be good to try an optimal place to focus and do not work so much to the automatic focus, because when you move from behind the camera does not know what to do.
Ian Spike sends a message that the Philippines was not colonized by the Arabs -- thanks Ian, sorry to give bad or incomplete information! It was only in the southern area, the Sulu archipelago, extending into Mindanao that the Arab influence took hold. This southern part of the Philippines maintains a cultural distinction, sometimes source of political friction, today.
I was looking at some of these videos, about how to play some of those board games. I was initially looking for the Chinese jungle game, Chinese Chess and Japanese Chess. I see that there certainly are a large amount of chess variants, especially in the Orient. I never knew about ones like Korean Chess, Burmese Chess, and Thai Chess. It can also get quite complex learning how to play them. I'm not a chess fan, and was just looking for interest sake, at those various chess variants. There are no doubt many (western) chess masters who wouldn't want to play those other chess variants, but would just want to know how they are played. That is because of wanting to focus on western chess and continue perfecting their game. I see incidentally that there is also a section on 3-D Chess from Star Trek. I would otherwise have mentioned it.
AncientChess one question is still nagging in the back of my head though, why is draughts part of the chess family while the tafl games aren’t? Draughts is just alquerque plus chess but the tafl games are basically an evolution of chess so shouldn’t they be part of the chess family? To me the tafl games just seem like a descendant of ludus latronculorum which to me seems like a descendant to courier chess, I mean the timeline works and the rules and looks of the games seem to fit as well, so why isn’t tafl considered chess? Also, I like your videos, they are super interesting and informative. Sorry for this comment being so long.
@@harsinsinquin4032 Good questions! Games related to alquerque are very old, some dating back to 3000 BC! But the modern look of the draughts 'checkers' games didn't appear until around 1100, when the game concept was adapted with backgammon pieces played on a chessboard. The tafl games are also much older than chess, played for many centuries in Scandanavia before chess came along. I am just beginning to learn about the history of that one, but I believe it was as you suggest, from Roman games. Chess seems to be a relatively new concept, only about 1500 years old, begun somewhere in central Asia. While games of pawns and games of king and pawns had already been around for centuries, chess carved out its own territory with the advent of different piece types with their individual moves. Yes -- they are all related... and it's fascinating -- and mysterious! We put all the knowledge we had of chess into our book ( aworldofchess.com ) -- but we're still learning!
AncientChess I made mistake, courier chess came after ludus latronculorum meaning that it is more likely that courier chess evolved from ludus not the other way around, in retrospect that does make more sense.
@@harsinsinquin4032 Yeah, courier chess is well within the chess lineage... appeared around 1200 through 1800, mostly in and around Germany. (I have a web site about that one, with a "history" tab courierchess.com .) It is the first game that I made an elaborate reproduction of.
Your channel makes it very clear that you have more than a few Chess sets in your house. Do you have a favourite version of Chess? (European, Xiangqi, Janggi, etc.)
Oh yes, I have many, many chess sets ... all these you see in the video and many more. I'm a bit of a fanatic. I do have European, xiangqi, janggi ... etc ... What is your favorite?
That's right, you break it you replace it ... and your replacement last another five hundred years ... or maybe at least two hundred. You have to love that chess tradition!
+singhbackONtrack This very interesting and the first time I have heard that interpretation. The literature is overwhelming in ascribing the word to the Sanskrit Chaturanga, meaning '4 arms' and indicating the 4 branches of the military. I would be very interested to hear more about that search in the historic etemology. 4 colors...
+singhbackONtrack Chaturang means four organs, you are completely wrong. It represents the mythical "Akshauhini" formation of Vedic Indian armies, composed of four main parts - infantry, cavalry, elephants and chariots.
+AncientChess Chaturang is also called, after obvious change in language and time, 'Chaurang' which means four limbs or organs but also a square. see the connection for ''square". Chaurang also means a small sqaured table where nobles sit or place their feet. Its a Marathi word(Maharashtra, India). So chaturang could basically mean a squared table where the King commands.
Sagar Jagdale Nope, Chaturanga represents the "four organs" of a Vedic era army which is what the original Gupta Empire chess represented in the first place.
Ya true. I just wanted to mention it also means both a square and a squared table. I don't know if this has any significance, but thought it might be related.
thats really interesting thanks. i loved a game of chess growing up, its interesting the rules reflected the political climate of the area, makes it all the more special and makes me wonder what a modern set would look like if the game had the same importance now in culture.
Tipping the board indeed! Thanks for the great comment on chess and the culture that surrounds it. Chess is having a pretty good moment these days, with major championships available to view online, and with an increase of chess classes and clubs in schools. But yes, it would be interesting to consider chess as a modern political/military struggle ... I know a few people have come up with very interesting ideas
Alfil is the name of the bishop in Spanish. It doesn't really mean anything, it's just the name of the piece. I heard it comes from an Arabic or Persian word for elephant.
Yes, that's what I meant to convey. It does come from al-fil, Arabic, meaning "the elephant." It has no other particular meaning in Spanish. (as 'rook' has no particular meaning in English (except the name of a bird, which is mere coincidence)). As chess spread through Europe, no one knew exactly what to make of the word for that piece, and many things were invented. For instance 'al-fil' became 'alfiere' in Italian, meaning 'standard bearer', and 'le fol' in French which meant 'the fool' -- the meaning is preserved in modern French, 'fou'. It became a longstanding point for cross-cultural creativity.
Rick Knowlton For me it’s more fascinating because I am an Indian & a Muslim too 🙂 hope to see more knowledgable videos from you about Shutranj in future SUBSCRIBED 👍🏻😊
@@RaeesUnboxingwala Thanks, it's good to hear from you. I have not made many videos lately, however, I hope to make many more in the future, and I have a long list of those already available. Contact me any time if you wish through my web site www.ancientchess.com/page/videos.htm
Rick Knowlton yes I checked out your channel, it’s 8 years old, and you upload around 5 videos in a year, but quality beats quantity dude 😉 and sure, if I need to contact you or but anything in future then I’ll contact you via your website, seems like you run a Chess shop
