Talk:History of chess

New Section for the Computer Era?

I'd argue that the rise of chess engines warrants an entirely new section, since they have radically transformed chess in a way not seen, arguably, since castling was standardized. The cutoff date would probably be somewhere around 1987, the introduction of Chessbase, which also lines up with the reign of Kasparov, one of its early adopters and promoters.

This is further supported by the additional development of online chess, which has now overtaken over-the-board chess as the "primary" way people play it. The shortened time controls, streaming, and fast news cycle all make the modern era radically different from 1945, the start of "The Post-War Era." Right now, we have just one sentence about all this, but there should be lots of information, including the Covid Pandemic, the two chess booms caused by The Queen's Gambit and Mittens, respectively, etc. Sitbear (talk) 00:12, 20 September 2024 (UTC)

A few years ago, some stuff about the computer era was added to the History section of Chess. So it would make sense to beef up this article, as well. Bruce leverett (talk) 02:32, 20 September 2024 (UTC)

Did a lot of "beefing up." Created two headers for the Kasparov/Computer Era and the Carlsen/Online Chess Era, and added information about the rise of computer chess (including Deep Blue & Chessbase), Carlsen's dominance, the popularity of chess servers like chess.com/lichess/ICC, new chess media landscape (including Hikaru/Levy), and finally NNUE enhancements and Alphazero/Stockfish/Komodo. Needs cleaning up, but I think I got most of the important points on there. Sitbear (talk) 13:46, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 8 January 2025

Change the image of Ding Liren to that of Gukesh Dommaraju, and change the caption from "Current World Champion Ding Liren" to "Current World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju", since Ding is no longer World Champion. 2607:FEA8:E09F:2000:99CD:4A85:A8A6:B781 (talk) 00:55, 8 January 2025 (UTC)

Not done for now: Please provide the image to replace it with. Ultraodan (talk) 06:25, 8 January 2025 (UTC)

this is the image https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/28/Ding_Liren_in_2023.jpg/220px-Ding_Liren_in_2023.jpg 2607:FEA8:E09F:2000:C4E0:90D5:7889:F86D (talk) 22:58, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

it is the final image, 60/60 2607:FEA8:E09F:2000:C4E0:90D5:7889:F86D (talk) 22:58, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

That's the image in the article. What image do you want it replaced with? Ultraodan (talk) 03:12, 11 January 2025 (UTC)

Sorry for the oversight, skimmed your reply. I would like the image to be replaced with this: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f2/Gukesh_in_2024_%28cropped%29.jpg/483px-Gukesh_in_2024_%28cropped%29.jpg?20240129111658 2607:FEA8:E09F:2000:8D2F:BF67:933C:FCDB (talk) 03:49, 12 January 2025 (UTC)

 Done Ultraodan (talk) 07:23, 12 January 2025 (UTC)

Chess bans and gambling

I've learned that chess has been banned, as recently as this century (by the Taliban). Would it be a worthwhile addition to this article, or is it found elsewhere on Wikipedia? Alaney2k (talk) 13:59, 24 February 2025 (UTC)

I don't know of another article that mentions this, although I dimly remember having seen it somewhere years ago.

What reliable source are you looking at? Bruce leverett (talk) 17:26, 24 February 2025 (UTC)

I heard the ban mentioned during a CBC Radio broadcast of 'Under The Influence'. Mostly Islamic places have banned chess, but England has also. I'll see what is out there. It is somewhat trivial, but it might be interesting to readers. Alaney2k (talk) 18:56, 24 February 2025 (UTC)

This article probably doesn't qualify as a reliable source, but it's interesting. Basically no country in the world currently bans chess, nor is chess in general banned by Islam unless it's played for gambling purposes. After all, it originally spread to Europe via the Islamic world. MaxBrowne2 (talk) 07:47, 25 February 2025 (UTC)

Claims of Indian origin

India didn't exist in any form 1500 years ago, and the cited sources don't claim India is where the game originated. It's confusing to mix modern countries with ancient cultures. Chhatrapati Aurangzeb (talk) 01:44, 9 March 2025 (UTC)

At the start of the Origin section, the article cites H. J. R. Murray's book, A History of Chess, pages 26-27 and pages 51-52. In those sections of that book, Murry repeatedly refers to "India" and "N. W. India" (N. W. meaning North West), claiming that chess originated there. Of course, national boundaries and boundaries of ethnic groups were quite different then from what they are now. But Murray and our more recent sources have generally used "India" as a placeholder for the country to which the Persian manuscripts give credit for the invention of the game, and the country in which the Sanskrit manuscripts were written. Bruce leverett (talk) 02:33, 9 March 2025 (UTC)

Citations needed for early changes to the rules

The History of chess#Early changes to the rules section needs citations for several old rules: king leap, queen leap, and absolutely pinned pieces don't check the opponents king. The diagram for the last was a rather recent addition to the article. Unless the awkward diagram caption can be improved, I think it would be better to simply omit the pinned piece diagram. Quale (talk) 04:42, 26 June 2025 (UTC)

Lewis chessmen forged

Better pull these 12th century Viking pieces photo out of this history, because they obviously don't fit. ~2026-15943-24 (talk) 15:28, 13 March 2026 (UTC)

How so? Mellk (talk) 15:42, 13 March 2026 (UTC)

The pieces washed ashore on Lewis Island you believe?

More likely that the famous fraud William Lewis (self-proclaimed grandmaster who hid in the Turk chess machine when it was on tour in Europe) set up the scheme to let carve and sell the pieces to the new museum. ~2026-15943-24 (talk) 15:46, 13 March 2026 (UTC)

Also Vikings didn't play chess, read the history here, came later from Arabs in Italy and Spain. ~2026-15943-24 (talk) 15:48, 13 March 2026 (UTC)

Do you have a source that this is fraudulent? The Lewis chessmen article looks to be well-sourced. See for example this piece. It is known they played hnefatafl. Mellk (talk) 15:54, 13 March 2026 (UTC)

Happy continuation of your fairy tales then. ~2026-15943-24 (talk) 16:18, 13 March 2026 (UTC)

Your best shot is to provide sources (since we have WP:V). Otherwise, this comes across as "just trust me bro". Mellk (talk) 16:19, 13 March 2026 (UTC)

We can already ask chatGPT and it will explain why the so called first poem about chess is a nineteenth century fraud. It is just unreasonable to find these pieces all washed ashore. Anyway the picture don't fit the story, it's an anomaly there, not illustrative. ~2026-15943-24 (talk) 16:29, 13 March 2026 (UTC)

I am afraid you are going to have to do better than "ask ChatGPT", which can give very different answers, including wrong ones. Mellk (talk) 21:49, 13 March 2026 (UTC)

They didn't wash ashore, they were buried in a stone box. J S Ayer (talk) 05:47, 14 March 2026 (UTC)