Profiles Index

The Origin of Chess
Where did chess come from? The most widely accepted scenario is that chess appeared in India around 600 A.D., was adopted in Persia around 700 A.D., and was absorbed by Arab culture around 800 A.D. Just as chess is a difficult game, its origin is a difficult puzzle. We may never know the truth of its birth.

The French School of Chess (18th/19th cent.)
For nearly 100 years, from the mid-18th century to the mid-19th century, French chess players were the strongest in the world. The line from Philidor, to Deschapelles, to La Bourdonnais, to Saint-Amant, reminds us of a modern relay team, each player passing the team's baton to his successor.

Rise of the Soviet Chess Hegemony
Was the fantastic success of 20th century Soviet chess a school or a hegemony? Answers.com: 'hegemony : The predominant influence, as of a state, region, or group, over another or others'. Mikhail Botvinnik, the first Soviet World Champion, thought that it was because the U.S.S.R. treated chess as not just a pastime and not just a table game.

Birth of the FIDE World Championship
After the death of World Champion Alexander Alekhine in 1946, the World Chess Federation took on the job of building a structure for determining fairly a new World Champion and subsequent title challengers. At the same time FIDE rebuilt itself decentrally to match the first organizational steps of the qualifying cycle. The early FIDE delegates did their job well.