The game of chess is not just for kings. Chess - one of the oldest games in the world. During ages people
used to
play it for fun or for passing time. Sometimes chess would be used, as a kind of fight to decide which one of two rivals is the right candidate to marry the lady. The most of everything chess is the game of Kings’. Queen Bona and King of England Henry VIII loved this game. The Russian Tsar Catherine and French Queen Margot didn’t despise of it too. The name ‘chess’ says that this game has got a manorial origin. ‘Shah’ means same as ‘Lord’ in Persian. India is a real motherland of chess. The first chess game was mentioned in the VI century. But it is still unknown when the game had been created as well as the name of its inventor. From India chess came to Persia, then to Arabic countries. There are no doubts that chess came from the East. Persians wrote the first handbook about how to play chess. Arabians organized pioneer chess tournaments. The first European country to become acquainted with this exotic and very intellectual game was Spain. Chess became very trendy and started its journey all over Europe. The game was known as a King’s game. We don’t know if the reason was that at first kings were passionate to this or because the object of this game is to get the opposition’s king into checkmate. Medieval chess was known everywhere in Europe. The chess tournaments took place in many kings and prince’s palaces. The knights started to fight on the chessboard instead of on the field. The game became more and more popular and lost its exclusiveness.
Polish King Kazimierz the Great even set rules to prevent using chess as a gamblers game. This proves that people started to make bets when playing chess. Scandinavians even tested their character against rivals in competition to decide who marries the rich lady. Checkmate trousers for men became very trendy at this time. Renaissance fell in love with chess too. Promoting humanism and believing in the greatness of the human brain, 16th century adored intellectual and exquisite amusements. This suited chess perfectly. People didn’t just play chess, they also wrote about it, such as ‘Sccacchia ludus’ by Vida or ‘Chess’ by Kochanowski. Through the ages the game managed to collect an increasing number of funs. In the 18th century chess became one of the most favourite pastimes for the French. It was very likely to meet real masters of chess in the heart of Paris-famous ‘Café de Regence’. The Game of Kings was very popular in Poland too. The oldest chess, which had been discovered in Sandomierz, is 900 years old! Kings and townsmen, famous and ordinary people, men and women used to play chess. Polish Queen Marie used to play chess in her spare time as well as writers: Kochanowski and Mickiewicz and great polish painter Matejko liked playing chess from time to time too.
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