Origins of the Modern Game (1000–1850)
The rules of the game began undergoing changes in Southern Europe around 1200. By 1475, several huge alterations had been made in both Italy and Spain. Pawns had gained the option to advance 2 squares on initial movement and both bishops and queens were now allowed their current movement abilities.
The queen had come to replace the previous vizier piece around the ending of the 10th century. By the 15th century, it had become the games most powerful piece. These modern rules quickly began to spread to westward (except the stalemate rule which didn’t take effect until the 19th century. Modern chess has been called Queen’s Chess, Mad Queen’s Chess, Western Chess and International Chess.
Evidence suggests that written works on the theory of how to play the game started popping up some time in the 15th century. The 1st example, The Repetición de Amores y Arte de Ajedrez (Repetition of Love and the Art of Playing Chess) by a Spanish clergyman, Luis Ramirez de Lucena, was published in 1497 in the city of Salamanca. Lucena developed ways to open the game as well as analyzing simple “endgame” phase maneuvers. Later masters such as Portugal’s Pedro Damiano, Italy’s Giovanni Leonardo Di Bona, Giulio Cesare Polerio and Gioachino Greco or Spanish bishop Ruy López de Segura continued to add to his initial work.
By the 18th and 19th centuries, the chess community had shifted away from Central Europe to the South. Countries like France produced masters who revolutionized the game. French chess master François-André Danican Philidor, a musician by profession created the strategy of using pawns in formations. In 1834, another French chess master, Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais won a famous series of matches with Irish chess master Alexander McDonnell in 1834 causing chess activity to boom throughout France. Pockets of chess play began to sprout in the coffee houses of major cities like Paris, leading into the history of chess 1945 onwards.
As the century continued, organization centered around chess began to pop up. Chess clubs, chess books and chess journals became available. Cities began setting up matches against other cities. The most famous being the London Chess Club’s match against the Edinburgh Chess Club in 1824. Challenge quizzes featuring chess became a regular section within most 19th century newspapers. In 1843, the 1st comprehensive manual on chess theory was published (von der Lasa Bilguer’s Handbuch des Schachspiels (Handbook of Chess)).