Have a great day.

Who is powerful on the 64 square-board, King or Queen?

In a male dominated society, isn’t it curious enough to see Her Majesty standing all powerful on the chessboard, protecting the King.

Legend has it that the Queen underwent a ‘sex change’ in England several years after she started a life on the chess board as Firzan or wise man----the male  confidant  of  the king---with a mobility of one square in a diagonal  direction.

As it was seen standing next to the king it was assumed it represented a queen.

Before that in certain parts of the world, including India and Cambodia, the chess piece was known as Minister with its movement limited and similar in scope to that of the King.

The purpose of Firzan or Minister was to remain near the king and to protect him. The design of this chess piece was the same as that of the king, but smaller in size.

However, during the 15^th century certain changes to the rules of chess were implemented, and Her Majesty obtained extra powers that revolutionized battles on the chessboard.

And the queen’s power compared to those chessmen – Bishops, Knights and Rooks---on the 64 square-board remained awesome till date.

The third piece of chess, which the English call Bishop, the French Fool, the Spanish Alfarez, the Italians Alfiere Segeand or standard bearer, the Germans Messenger and Elephant in India and Burma, now Myanmar, was another major beneficiary of the New Chess,  greatly extending the range of its influence.

Bishop, previously a weak piece only able to jump over one square diagonally, was earlier based on the units of the Indian army in the ancient game of Chaturanga, represented by a battle elephant, dressed in armour and ridden by a mahout armed with  spears.

In Arabia the elephant, as a chess piece, was produced in an abstract form, carved like a dome with two small tusk-like protrusions near the top, and called by the Arabic term for an elephant, “Al-Fil”.

 When the “Al-Fil” of the chess board came to Europe, where there was no knowledge of elephants, in the Middle Ages, gradually the name was replaced by appropriate alternatives, dependent on the interpretation of differing countries.

The Knight is the one piece that has undergone no radical change since the game began.

The earliest known knight is a Chaturanga piece from a group of seventh/eighth century A.D. Aphrosiab chessmen. An ivory carving of a rider on a horse, he carries a shield in his left hand and a sword in his right, together with a scabbard and arrows.

By the 9^th century the Arabic knight, called “Faras”, had obtained a simplified symbolic form of a dome with a triangular protrusion to represent a horse’s head. This was the shape that became familiar to feudal Christendom.

In England the “Faras” was eventually renamed “Knight”, in France “Cavalier”, in Germany “Springer” and in Spain “Cabaloo”.        

          By the 14^th century the Islamic form of chess knight had been replaced by a carved horse’s head.

The name “Rukh”, meaning chariot, is mentioned in “Chatrang Namak”, the earliest Persian manuscript to allude to Chaturanga, in around the 7^th century A.D. It mentions that Chaturanga is a war game based on the four divisions of the Indian army, one division being made up of Rukhs.   

Historically, war chariots, as used for ancient battles, had been discarded as a part of the Asian army by the 5^thcentury. This has led to speculation that as a Rukh is included as a piece in Chaturanga, that the game itself may have evolved during this period.

          In Arabian chess the piece retained the name Rukh while the shape of the chess piece took on a symbolic, simplified shape of a rider in a chariot.

          Surprisingly in Europe only England maintained the name Rook, and even here it is also known as a Castle. In France it became a “Tour”, and in Germany a “Turm”, both words meaning castle or tower.

         The origin of this term is interesting. In 1527, Vida, Bishop of Alba, published his “Scacchia Ludus”, a marathon poem on a game of chess played between Apollo and Mercury in the presence of the other gods. Here he describes the rooks as warring towers borne on the backs of elephants.

         These descriptions of the pieces were taken up by the chess players of Western Europe. The elephant and castle thus became the standard chess piece to represent the rook in decorative chess sets.

          In playing sets, it was reduced to a more practical size, and so became just a castle tower. And that is how the rook turned in to the castle.

          The weakest units on the board are pawns, which has represented foot soldiers throughout the history of the game. But their ability to achieve promotion when reaching the last rank of the board endows them with a potential that demands respect.

          The earliest pawns discovered were seen kneeling on their right knees, holding shields in their left hands and short swords in their right.

          In the Middle Ages, Christian monks tried to identify the pawns as tradesmen, suggesting a different trade for each one.

         The first pawn was known as a farm hand, the second, a smithy, the third, a draper, the fourth, a merchant, the fifth, a physician, the sixth, a taverner, the seventh, a constable, the eighth, a gambler.

             However, these identities did not generally catch on, and pawns are still associated with the infantry.

         The King, the tallest piece on the board, is paradoxically both the strongest and the weakest of the pieces.

          He is no feudal king, leading his army in to battle, trained as well as any of his knights to gain honour or death in the midst of combat. This is rather an ancient Indian emperor, a “Shahanshah” or king of kings, worthy of the utmost respect, to be worshipped and protected.

         It is his generals who see to war, and fight the battles for the greater glory of the Empire. For, if the Shahanshah is captured, all is lost.

         Hardly able to defend himself, only being able to move on square at a time, the king nevertheless has immense status, as the game can only be won if the king is captured.

         It is this concept that makes chess such a unique game. It is amazing that this idea, derived from the culture of an ancient civilization some two thousand years ago, has survived unchanged. Since that time, no other intellectual game has been as successful or popular.

         When chess became popular in the Islam civilization a design involving geometric carved chess pieces was used.

          In Europe, from the 14^thcentury, chess sets for play began to be turned in bone, wood and ivory. The pieces obtained an upright appearance, similar to present day conventional sets in which the king is always the tallest piece.

         ---------------------