[Music] the attacking infantry advances steadily their elephants already having broken the defensive line the King tries to retreat but enemy cavalry flanks him from the rear escaping is impossible but this isn't a real war nor is it just a game over the roughly one and a half millennia of its existence chess has been known as a tool of military strategy a metaphor for human affairs

and a benchmark of genius while our earliest records of chess are in the seventh century legend tells of the game's origins lie a century earlier supposedly when the youngest Prince of the Gupta Empire was killed in battle his brother devised a way of representing the scene to their grieving mother set on that 8x8 octopod aboard used for other popular pastimes a new game emerged with two key features

different rules for moving different types of pieces and a single King piece whose fate determined the outcome the game was originally known as chaturanga a Sanskrit word for four divisions but with its spread to Sassanid Persia it acquired its current name and terminology chess derived from cha meaning King and checkmate from Shabbat or the king is helpless after the

seventh century Islamic conquest of Persia chess was introduced to the Arab world transcending its role as a tactical simulation it eventually became a rich source of poetic imagery diplomats and courtiers use chess terms to describe political power ruling caliphs became avid players themselves and historian al masud II considered the game a testament to human free will compared to games of chance medieval trade along the Silk Road

carried the game to East and Southeast Asia where many local variants developed in China chess pieces were placed at intersections of board squares rather than inside them as in the native strategy game go the reign of mongol leader tamerlane saw an 11 by 10 board with safe squares called Citadel's and in Japanese shogi captured pieces could be used by the opposing player but it was in Europe that chess began to take on

its modern form by a thousand AD the game had become part of courtly education chess was used as an allegory for different social classes performing their proper roles and the pieces were reinterpreted in their new context at the same time the church remains suspicious of games moralists cautioned against devoting too much time to them with chess even being briefly banned in France yet the game proliferated and the

15th century saw it Co hearing into the form we know today the relatively weak piece of advisor was recast as a more powerful queen perhaps inspired by the recent surge of strong female leaders this change accelerated the game's pace and as other rules were popularized treatises analyzing common openings and ten games appeared chess theory was born with the enlightenment-era the game moved from

royal courts to coffee houses chess was now seen as an expression of creativity encouraging bold moves and dramatic plays this romantic style reached its peak in the immortal game of 1851 where Adolphe Anderson managed a checkmate after sacrificing his Queen and both rooks but the emergence of formal competitive play in the late 19th century meant that strategic calculation

would eventually Trump with dramatic flair and with the rise of international competition chess took on a new geopolitical importance during the Cold War the Soviet Union devoted great resources to cultivating chess talent dominating the championships for the rest of the century for the player who would truly upset Russian dominance was not a citizen of another country but an IBM computer called deep blue chess-playing

computers have been developed for decades but deep blues triumph of a Gary Kasparov in 1997 was the first time a machine had defeated a sitting champion today chess software is capable of consistently defeating the best human players but just like the game they've mastered these machines are products of human ingenuity and perhaps that same ingenuity will guide us out of this apparent checkmate did you know that the

treadmill was originally designed to be a torture device learn more about its dark and twisted past with this video [Music]