Timeline of chess

This is a timeline of chess.

Early history

Further information: Origins of chess

• 6th century AD - The game Chaturanga probably evolved into its current form around this time.
• ca. 600 - The Karnamuk-i-Artakhshatr-i-Papakan contains references to the Persian game of Shatranj, the direct ancestor of modern Chess. Shatranj was initially called "Chatrang" in Persian (named after the Indian version), which was later renamed to Shatranj.
• ca. 720 AD - Chess spreads across the Islamic world from Persia.
• ca. 840 AD - Earliest surviving chess problems by Caliph Billah of Baghdad.
• ca. 900 AD - Entry on Chess in the Chinese work Huan Kwai Lu ('Book of Marvels').
• 997 AD - 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 - François-André Danican 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 chess match, London-Edinburgh.
• 1830 - Earliest recorded instance of a modern female chess player.
• 1834 - Earliest recorded international challenge match: Alexander McDonnell (Ireland) v Louis 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.
• 1851 - First international tournament (in London), won by Adolf Anderssen.
• 1852 - Sandglasses are first used to time a game.
• 1857 - First American Chess Congress, won by Paul Morphy.
• 1857 - The UK Chess Association is formed.
• 1861 - Games can now be played via transoceanic cables (Dublin-Liverpool).
• 1867 - Mechanical Game clock are introduced in tournament play.
• 1870 - Earliest recorded tournament in Germany (Baden-Baden).
• 1871 - Durand publishes the first book on endgames.
• 1873 - The Neustadtl score 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 Wilhelm Steinitz and Johannes Zukertort.
• 1888 - First international correspondence tournament.
• 1888 - USA Championship starts.
• 1894 - Emmanuel Lasker defeats Wilhelm Steinitz in a world championship match.
• 1895 - Hastings 1895 chess tournament 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 - José Raúl 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 Fédération Internationale des Échecs.
• 1924 - Staunton set officially adopted by FIDE.
• 1927 - First official Chess Olympiad in London.
• 1935 - Alexander 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 Tournament start.
• 1951 - World Junior Chess Championship starts.
• 1952 - Soviet Union begins their string of Olympiad victories in Helsinki.
• 1972 - Bobby Fischer beats Boris Spassky for the World Championship, in the process giving Chess an unprecedented level of publicity.
• 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 Garry 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.

See also

• Origins of chess