Timeline of chess[ edit ]

This is a timeline of chess.

Early history

Main article: Origins of chess

  • 6th century - alleged inception (in northwest India) of Chaturanga
    the chess variant popularly recognized as having spawned "Western" chess, a theory that modern scholars now view with reserve. See origins of chess.
  • 600 CE - A reference in the Karnamuk-i-Artakhshatr-i-Papakan is the earliest surviving literary evidence of "Western" Chess.
  • ca. 720 CE - Chess is brought to the Muslim world.
  • ca. 840 CE - Earliest surviving chess problems by Caliph Billah of Baghdad.
  • ca. 900 CE - Entry on Chess in the Chinese work Huan Kwai Lu (´Book of Marvels´).
  • 997 CE - Versus de scachis is the earliest known work mentioning chess in Christian Western Europe.
  • 1008 - Mention of chess in the will of Count Uregel, another early reference.
  • 10th century - As-Suli writes Kitab Ash-Shatranj, the earliest known work to take a scientific approach to chess strategy.
  • late 10th century - Dark and light squares are introduced on a chessboard.
  • 1173 - Earliest recorded use of algebraic notation.
  • late 13th century - Pawns can now move two ranks on first move.
  • late 14th century - The en passant rule is introduced.
  • 1422 - A manuscript from Kraków sets the rule that stalemate is a draw.
  • 1471 - The Gottingen manuscript is the first book to deal solely with chess.
  • 1474 - William Caxton publishes The Game and Playe of Chesse, the first chess book in English.
  • 1497 - Lucena publishes the first European work on chess openings.
  • 1561 - Ruy López coins the word gambit to describe opening sacrifices.
  • 1690 - Openings are now systematically classified by the Traite de Lausanne.

Modern history



  • 1744 - Philidor plays two opponents blindfolded in Paris.
  • 1763 - William Jones invents Caissa, the chess muse.
  • 1769 - Baron Wolfgang von Kempelen builds the Mechanical Turk.
  • 1783 - Philidor plays as many as three games simultaneously without seeing the board.
  • 1802 - Earliest known American chess book, Chess Made Easy, by J. Humphreys.
  • 1813 - The Liverpool Mercury prints the world earliest chess column.
  • 1824 - Earliest known British correspondence match, London-Edinburgh.
  • 1830 - Earliest recorded instance of a modern female chess player (an American from Philadelphia).
  • 1834 - Earliest recorded international challenge match: McDonnell (Ireland) v de la Bourdonnais (France) at the Westminster Chess Club, London.
  • 1840 - Postal stamps with chess motifs begin to appear.
  • 1845 - Telegraph is used to transmit moves in a match between London and Portsmouth.
  • 1846 - Deutsche Schachzeitung is the first German chess magazine.
  • 1848 - Earliest known instance of a game played between blind players.
  • 1849 - Staunton set created by Nathaniel Cook.
  • 1852 - Sandglasses are first used to time a game.
  • 1857 - First American Chess Congress, won by Morphy.
  • 1857 - The UK Chess Association is formed.
  • 1861 - Games can now be played via transoceanic cables (Dublin-Liverpool).
  • 1867 - Mechanical clocks are introduced in tournament play.
  • 1870 - Earliest recorded tournament in Germany (Baden-Baden).
  • 1871 - Durand publishes the first book on endgames.
  • 1873 - The Sonneborn-Berger system is first used in a tournament.
  • 1877 - Formation of the Deutsche Schachbund.
  • 1883 - Invention of the Forsyth notation.
  • 1886 - First official match for the champion title between Steinitz and Zukertort.
  • 1888 - First international correspondence tournament.
  • 1888 - USA Championship starts.
  • 1894 - Emmanuel Lasker defeats Steinitz in a world championship match.
  • 1895 - Grand International Chess Congress at Hastings, England
  • 1899 - Chess clocks now have timeout flags.
  • 1902 - First radio chess match by two American ships.
  • 1905 - British national championship for women starts.
  • 1910 - Capablanca is the first to win a major tournament (in New York) with a 100% score.
  • 1911 - The first simultaneous display with more than 100 participants.
  • 1913 - Publication of Harold Murray´s monumental book A History of Chess.
  • 1913 - The grasshopper is the first fairy piece invented, having its origin in the Renaissance "leaping queen".
  • 1919 - Capablanca plays a simul in the House of Commons against 39 players.
  • 1921 - British correspondence championship starts.
  • 1924 - Establishment of FIDE.
  • 1924 - Staunton set officially adopted by FIDE.
  • 1927 - First official Chess Olympiad in London.
  • 1935 - Alekhine loses his champion title to Max Euwe.
  • 1937 - A record for simultaneous blindfold play against 34 opponents.
  • 1946 - Reigning world champion Alexander Alekhine dies in Portugal, leaving his title up for grabs in a six-player tournament organised by FIDE.
  • 1949 - Claude Shannon speculates on how computers might play chess.
  • 1950 - Candidates tournaments start.
  • 1951 - Chess World Junior Championship starts.
  • 1952 - Soviet Union begins their string of Olympiad victories in Helsinki.
  • 1977 - Nona Gaprindashvili wins the men´s tournament at Lone Pine.
  • 1993 - Garry Kasparov and Nigel Short break from FIDE to play their world championship match, forming the Professional Chess Association
  • 1996 - Deep Blue beats Kasparov in the first game won by a chess-playing computer against a reigning world champion under normal chess tournament conditions.
  • 2000 - Garry Kasparov loses his title to Vladimir Kramnik


categories: myChess-Wiki | Chess history | Timeline of chess
article No 827 / last change on 2005-06-30, 10:30pm

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