The Afrasiab finds include seven chess pieces. Samarkand is on the trade route between China and the Mediterranean (the Silk Road), and so it is a logical place for a trader to store some of his precious goods. p15 p58 Samarkand is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world, and at times it has been one of the greatest cities of Central Asia. ![]() In 1977 the Uzbekistan Academy of Archaeology conducted a dig at Afrasiab, near Samarkand. The earliest chessmen found are the Afrasiab collection. The limited number of ways to win changed what players needed to win in the endgame many endgames which could be won with the old rules now were drawn. ![]() This became a matter for discussion in the early 20th century. Originally, this was not seen as a problem, but as technique improved, so did the number of draws. p228 The game can now only be won by mate or resignation by one of the players. The relative values of the pieces are changed. The slow development in the openings was replaced by gambits and rapid attacks. These changes made most of the older chess culture obsolete. It can only be understood as an attempt to improve the game as a sport. p328 Indeed, the change from a limited counsellor to an unlimited queen cannot be understood as part of the original war-game. It is such a huge change that one French commentator called the new game eschés de la dame enragée (~ the mad queen's game), and the Italians called the game schacci alla rabioso (~furious chess). Full-ranging movement of the queen, along diagonals and ranks & files, is the real mark of modern chess.This right was sometimes extended to a new queen made by promoting a pawn. An early addition to her movement: an initial move of two squares with jump, diagonally.Its movement was more limited than the king, for it could move one square only on the diagonals. This had been a piece called the firzān, from the Persian word for a counsellor. King jumping once, to make it quicker to put the king safe in a corner.This led to the en passant rule: a pawn placed so that it could have captured the enemy pawn if it had moved one square forward was allowed to capture it on the passed square. Pawn moving two squares in its first move.The effect was to make the start of the game run faster, and get the opposing pieces in contact sooner. ![]() Its Latin name alfinus was reinterpreted various ways.Ībout 500 years after chess first reached Europe, after some smaller experiments, there were big changes in the way the pieces moved.
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