“Chess is everything — art, science, and sport.”

— Anatoly Carpov

Chess: Tis only a game, right? Despite what someone may think, chess has a long history and has been studied over the last millennium by scholars in various disciplines, such as psychology, sociology, game studies (ludology), history, gender studies, literary studies, mathematics, neuroscience, philosophy, and computer science, to name a few. Chess, therefore, demonstrates how games are not “just games,” as we may think of them, but are significant activities that reflect life and the human condition and show how the medieval period still affects us today.

Chess is typically a two-player game, originating sometime before 600AD from northern India. It is played on a 64 square board that is checkered with 32 dark and 32 light squares. Two sets of 16 pieces, one set dark and the other light, are placed on opposite ends of the board. One player moves the dark pieces while the other moves the light, with the player moving the light pieces going first, each trying to “checkmate” the opposing player’s king piece.

“The nature of chess has been often debated in the literature. It is frequently presented not only as a game, but also as a sport (because of its competitive element), an art (because of the beautiful combinations it allows) and a science (because of the systematic way it is studied).”

— Fernand Gobet, The Pyschology of Chess

From the medieval period until now, chess has generally been seen by several cultures as a game of political, cultural, moral, and educational importance. Chess was a game that reflected the art of war during the Middle Ages yet also was the pastime of courtly lovers. British historian Richard Eales explains that medieval Spanish knights were expected to be skilled in chess in order to be considered a good knight, and the Chinese, according to game theorist Roger Caillois, considered chess, painting, music, calligraphy, and checkers among the most important arts that scholars should practice. Regarding chess today, a psychological study by Kristine Tanajyan, Nelli Melkonyan, and Sirarpi Movsisyan, published by Khachatur Abovyan Armenian State Pedagogical University in 2021, concluded after studying the role of chess in schoolchildren’s thinking that “the involvement of chess in education was an essential step” and is of “great importance” in the development of the Republic of Armenia. Sociologist Gary Alan Fine goes so far as to conclude in 2015 his book Players and Pawns: How Chess Builds Community and Culture that the world and the chessboard share similar functions and features.

Chess, therefore, endures to intrigue and puzzle us, being a hallmark in popular media, such as The Queen’s Gambit, and seriously analyzed in academia, revealing how it plays with us in ways that move within and beyond “checkmate”.