Chess is said to have originated in India. In fact Indian emperors are said to have played this sport called shatranj for their amusement. The game is played on a board with 64 squares with an equal number of light and dark squares. There are in fact an equal number of light (white) and dark (black) pieces - 16 apiece that combat each other to snare the opponents king. It must be said that chess is the game where women’s liberation was expressed at the earliest time since the Queen is by far the most important piece on the board. She has the highest mobility and the most lethal moves. The King on the other hand is quite a coward, always hiding behind castled fortifications, and never venturing out alone without a pawn consort. The aim of the game is to checkmate the king but there are situations in which the game ends in a draw, either through mutual consent, through repetition of moves three times or as a result of stalemate (which is a situation in which there is no advantage to either player through which a result can be achieved).
There are scenarios where the pawn can travel to the other end of the board and be promoted to a piece of the player’s choice. This is more often than not, for obvious reasons, a Queen.
There is no age limit in chess either lower or upper. Children of 5 can compete with adults of 70. All it requires is practice and patience. There exist several variants of chess like blindfold (in which, as the name suggests the players are blindfolded) and blitz (speed chess) which generate a great deal of spectator interest.
India has emerged as a strong contender in chess over recent years and produced a number of Grandmasters. The strongest players on an average hail from Russia, and this country has produced a number of world champions.
Computers have made a strong foray into the chess world. In fact nowadays a chess program on a Pentium computer can easily humble even a Grandmaster. There is talk that very soon a child’s chess game on his toy will defeat the best human player.
Chess however still retains some of the old world charm and its followers have not dwindled substantially over time. It remains to be seen whether with the advent of more powerful computers Chess will become a solved problem.