00:01:15.033 --> 00:01:16.066
As long as there have been

00:01:16.066 --> 00:01:21.066
human societies of any form–and likely
well before that–games

00:01:21.066 --> 00:01:25.233
have played a hugely significant role
in how people interact with each other,

00:01:25.800 --> 00:01:29.366
and more generally how we live our lives.

00:01:30.566 --> 00:01:33.533
Wherever we've looked: from ancient Egypt

00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:36.333
to Mesopotamia, to China,

00:01:37.033 --> 00:01:39.800
to India, to sub-Saharan Africa,

00:01:40.433 --> 00:01:42.866
to pre-Colombian America,

00:01:42.866 --> 00:01:45.566
we find evidence of people playing games.

00:01:46.900 --> 00:01:49.900
That we play,
then, is a well-established fact.

00:01:50.600 --> 00:01:54.600
Why exactly we do so,
and what it all means, however,

00:01:55.033 --> 00:01:59.100
is something else
entirely–a question that has preoccupied

00:01:59.100 --> 00:02:02.233
some of history's most original
and penetrating thinkers.

00:02:03.533 --> 00:02:07.233
Both Plato and Aristotle
specifically addressed the issue of play,

00:02:07.633 --> 00:02:09.633
but from quite different standpoints.

00:02:10.500 --> 00:02:15.733
Plato examined the broader societal
benefits of play, while Aristotle

00:02:15.733 --> 00:02:19.300
focused on its biological causes
and effects on the individual,

00:02:20.366 --> 00:02:23.700
setting the stage for a 2500 year
ping-pong game

00:02:23.700 --> 00:02:27.300
between community and individualistic
interpretations of play.

00:02:28.500 --> 00:02:33.266
In his Republic, Plato stressed
that teachers could much more effectively

00:02:33.266 --> 00:02:36.700
illustrate key concepts
by engaging students through play

00:02:37.366 --> 00:02:42.333
rather than through rote memorization
or repetition, a pedagogical approach

00:02:42.333 --> 00:02:47.400
that, some 2400 years later, has become
fashionably known as “gamification”.

00:02:48.433 --> 00:02:53.600
More generally still, Plato's dialogues
are filled with implicit and explicit

00:02:53.600 --> 00:02:57.966
endorsements of how a playful spirit
is integral to a well-functioning society,

00:02:59.033 --> 00:03:02.600
through music, drama, religious festivals,

00:03:03.133 --> 00:03:05.900
and witty, thought provoking banter
with one's friends.

00:03:07.266 --> 00:03:10.600
For Aristotle, on the other hand,
indulging in play

00:03:10.600 --> 00:03:13.300
served a clear, functional purpose
for the individual:

00:03:13.833 --> 00:03:17.866
a way to cleanse ourselves from
the accumulated stresses of daily life

00:03:18.066 --> 00:03:23.133
so as to refresh us and make us better
able to concentrate on higher things.

00:03:24.466 --> 00:03:26.633
By the latter part of the 18th century,

00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:30.900
the individual impact of play became
integrated within the budding movement

00:03:30.900 --> 00:03:34.500
of Romanticism,
with the German playwright, poet

00:03:34.833 --> 00:03:36.266
and philosopher Friedrich

00:03:36.266 --> 00:03:39.933
Schiller argued that humans possess
a certain “play drive”

00:03:40.066 --> 00:03:43.800
that mediates between our physical needs
and our rational desires,

00:03:44.300 --> 00:03:46.400
which, when properly harnessed,

00:03:46.800 --> 00:03:49.400
enables us to produce
elevating works of art.

00:03:50.366 --> 00:03:55.100
As he famously put it, “Man only plays
when he is in the fullest sense

00:03:55.100 --> 00:03:59.433
of the word a human being.” “And
he is only fully a human being

00:03:59.933 --> 00:04:01.300
when he plays.”

00:04:03.900 --> 00:04:07.133
140 years later, in the 1930s,

00:04:07.600 --> 00:04:10.866
theories of play tacked
back to the community level once again,

00:04:11.366 --> 00:04:15.833
when the Dutch cultural historian
Johan Huizinga mapped out the complex

00:04:15.833 --> 00:04:21.566
interaction of play and culture
in his groundbreaking work, Homo Ludens.

00:04:21.566 --> 00:04:25.766
Play, Huizinga noted, was universal.

00:04:26.266 --> 00:04:29.033
So universal, in fact,
that it could be seen

00:04:29.033 --> 00:04:32.400
throughout
the entire animal world as well.

00:04:32.400 --> 00:04:36.233
But simply calling our need to play “an
instinct” in and of itself

00:04:36.833 --> 00:04:38.466
reveals nothing.

00:04:38.466 --> 00:04:43.266
Far better instead to spend our time
trying to understand what play actually is

00:04:44.100 --> 00:04:46.766
and what effect it produces on societies.

00:04:47.666 --> 00:04:49.866
And when we do that, he tells us,

00:04:50.500 --> 00:04:53.700
we discover that the key
defining characteristics of play

00:04:53.833 --> 00:04:57.433
are its freedom -
we play simply because we want to,

00:04:57.600 --> 00:05:01.000
because we're freely seeking out
something fun to do -

00:05:01.000 --> 00:05:06.000
and that all genuine play occurs
outside of real life

00:05:06.533 --> 00:05:09.600
in clearly designated
domains of time and space,

00:05:09.900 --> 00:05:14.566
according to its own internal order,
its own rules of the game.

00:05:15.566 --> 00:05:16.100
Well,

00:05:16.100 --> 00:05:18.466
so much for how we can characterize play.

00:05:19.133 --> 00:05:21.600
What about its broader cultural impact?

00:05:22.766 --> 00:05:25.600
Here is where Huizinga makes his boldest
conclusion.

00:05:26.266 --> 00:05:31.066
It's not simply that all cultures happen
to contain play and games, he says.

00:05:31.666 --> 00:05:35.766
It's that everything we typically view
as cultural in our societies,

00:05:36.400 --> 00:05:40.833
from storytelling
to ritualized performance to the creation

00:05:40.833 --> 00:05:45.600
of great works of art, naturally developed
from our primeval urge to play.

00:05:45.600 --> 00:05:46.133
Our play

00:05:47.533 --> 00:05:50.766
instinct,
in other words, precedes culture.

00:05:51.733 --> 00:05:54.833
It's the primordial force
that makes all cultural

00:05:54.833 --> 00:05:57.200
flowering possible in the first place.

00:05:58.700 --> 00:06:01.666
As we've seen, Johan Huizinga was hardly

00:06:01.666 --> 00:06:05.133
the first person to seriously investigate
the human desire to play,

00:06:05.866 --> 00:06:08.166
but he was unquestionably
the one who came to

00:06:08.166 --> 00:06:11.000
the strongest conclusion
about its cultural impact.

00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:15.333
“For many years,”
he writes in the foreword to Homo Ludens,

00:06:15.766 --> 00:06:19.433
“the conviction has grown upon me
that civilization arises

00:06:19.433 --> 00:06:21.966
and unfolds in and as play.”

00:06:22.800 --> 00:06:25.733
Which is why
he then goes on to explicitly insist

00:06:25.733 --> 00:06:30.033
that the book's subtitle should be “A
study of the play element of culture”

00:06:30.566 --> 00:06:33.333
instead of what so many were determined
to call the lectures it was based on,

00:06:33.333 --> 00:06:37.166
“A study of the play element in culture”.

00:06:38.200 --> 00:06:41.100
“It was
not my object to define the place of play

00:06:41.100 --> 00:06:43.833
among all the other
manifestations of culture,”

00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:46.933
he explains with understandable
exasperation, “but

00:06:46.933 --> 00:06:50.733
rather to ascertain
how far culture itself bears

00:06:50.733 --> 00:06:55.300
the character of play.” Well,
unfortunately,

00:06:55.566 --> 00:06:58.800
his English translator and publisher
had the last word on that one,

00:06:59.700 --> 00:07:02.933
perversely producing
a pivotal work of cultural history

00:07:03.333 --> 00:07:08.066
whose subtitle is in direct opposition
to the expressed intention of its author.

00:07:09.266 --> 00:07:12.366
But despite all of that, Huizinga’s
profound

00:07:12.366 --> 00:07:15.733
insights into the fascinating link
between play and culture

00:07:16.233 --> 00:07:19.866
remains the conceptual touchstone
almost a century later.

00:07:20.566 --> 00:07:22.900
Because whether or not you agree
with his argument

00:07:22.900 --> 00:07:26.366
that our need for play lurks
behind all cultural accomplishments,

00:07:27.300 --> 00:07:30.766
it's undeniable
that there's an extremely strong overlap

00:07:30.766 --> 00:07:34.966
between play and culture;
and that a close examination

00:07:34.966 --> 00:07:38.700
of the particular games we play,
and how they've changed over time,

00:07:39.400 --> 00:07:44.433
will shed uniquely valuable
light on who we are and what we believe.

00:07:52.733 --> 00:07:53.433
And what better

00:07:53.433 --> 00:07:55.533
game to use to explore that link

00:07:56.666 --> 00:08:01.000
than chess, an activity
whose powerful cultural presence

00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:05.133
has been continuously felt
for over 1500 years across

00:08:05.133 --> 00:08:08.300
an extraordinarily broad
range of different times and places.

00:08:10.933 --> 00:08:13.866
There are dozens of intriguing
chess-related myths.

00:08:13.866 --> 00:08:16.933
In Part Two, we’ll highlight

00:08:16.933 --> 00:08:19.766
a famous sixth-century Middle Persian text

00:08:20.066 --> 00:08:24.166
describing how a wise adviser
to the Sasanian King triumphantly

00:08:24.166 --> 00:08:27.733
saved him from having to pay tribute
to a competing Indian ruler

00:08:27.966 --> 00:08:30.900
by miraculously deciphering
how to play the game

00:08:31.466 --> 00:08:34.200
from merely examining the pieces.

00:08:34.200 --> 00:08:36.666
And as we'll see in Part Three,

00:08:36.666 --> 00:08:38.700
roughly a thousand years after that,

00:08:39.233 --> 00:08:43.733
the Italian poet Marco Girolamo Vida
explicitly linked chess

00:08:43.733 --> 00:08:48.266
to Greco-Roman mythology
by writing a poem called Scacchia Ludus

00:08:48.833 --> 00:08:52.166
about a chess game
between Mercury and Apollo.

00:08:53.500 --> 00:08:55.800
After the contest, we're told,

00:08:55.800 --> 00:09:00.333
the victorious Mercury
“espied, a lovely nymph named Scacchis,”

00:09:00.866 --> 00:09:03.900
and after having “taken her
to his embrace,

00:09:04.200 --> 00:09:09.233
then rewarded her for her virtue lost
by teaching her the game of chess,

00:09:09.633 --> 00:09:11.733
which was subsequently
named in her honor.”

00:09:12.666 --> 00:09:16.500
It's not at all clear to what
extent Vida’s unfortunate nymph felt

00:09:16.500 --> 00:09:20.300
that becoming the patron
saint of chess was sufficient compensation

00:09:20.300 --> 00:09:25.600
for Mercury's actions, but 235 years
later, the British philologist,

00:09:25.600 --> 00:09:29.466
Sir William Jones, put her much more
in charge of her own destiny,.

00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:34.800
Now renamed Caissa,
she begins the poem steadfastly rejecting

00:09:34.800 --> 00:09:40.133
the advances of Mars, the God of War,
but eventually succumbs to his entreaties

00:09:40.366 --> 00:09:42.900
after he teaches her the wonders of chess.

00:09:43.933 --> 00:09:46.200
And then there are the other,
only slightly

00:09:46.200 --> 00:09:48.833
more believable, tales of how chess began.

00:09:49.700 --> 00:09:54.166
The ninth century geographer and historian
Al-Ya’qubi describes

00:09:54.166 --> 00:09:56.900
how the game was invented
in order to gently apprise

00:09:56.900 --> 00:10:00.633
an Indian queen
that her son died in a rebellion.

00:10:00.633 --> 00:10:04.600
While a similar tale is told a century
or so later by Ferdowsi

00:10:04.800 --> 00:10:07.200
in his great Persian epic, the Shahnama,

00:10:07.900 --> 00:10:11.366
or Book of Kings, where chess is claimed

00:10:11.366 --> 00:10:14.633
to have been created
as a means to tactfully inform the Queen

00:10:14.633 --> 00:10:19.266
how it came to pass that one of her sons
died through waging war against the other.

00:10:21.200 --> 00:10:23.733
Throughout the centuries,

00:10:23.733 --> 00:10:26.600
some have ascribed
the invention of the game to Alexander

00:10:26.600 --> 00:10:30.900
the Great or various ancient Greek heroes
fighting at Troy.

00:10:31.666 --> 00:10:35.633
But revealingly, the vast
majority of the Persian and Muslim

00:10:35.633 --> 00:10:40.400
founding myths straightforwardly relate
how chess was invented in India,

00:10:41.066 --> 00:10:43.400
with the standard
name of the Indian inventor

00:10:43.533 --> 00:10:46.566
being a particularly wise philosopher
named Sissa,

00:10:47.200 --> 00:10:51.566
who, when asked by his grateful king
what he wants in return for developing

00:10:51.566 --> 00:10:56.833
such a marvelous game, politely replied
that all he desired was the total grains

00:10:56.833 --> 00:11:01.200
of wheat on a chessboard, after starting
at one corner with a single grain

00:11:01.533 --> 00:11:04.233
and doubling the number
on each successive square.

00:11:05.300 --> 00:11:09.400
The king is delighted by such a seemingly
paltry compensation request,

00:11:09.966 --> 00:11:12.300
but is profoundly taken aback

00:11:12.300 --> 00:11:15.333
when he discovers that the total of this
geometric progression

00:11:16.000 --> 00:11:20.400
is the astoundingly large number of two
to the power 64 minus one,

00:11:21.666 --> 00:11:22.533
far greater

00:11:22.533 --> 00:11:25.100
than anything
remotely possible in his kingdom

00:11:25.733 --> 00:11:28.166
or any kingdom on earth, for that matter.

00:11:29.400 --> 00:11:32.700
Meanwhile,
as the chess origin legends developed,

00:11:33.400 --> 00:11:36.566
serious scholars
increasingly began to turn their attention

00:11:36.566 --> 00:11:39.166
to separating the fact
from the accumulated fiction.

00:11:40.333 --> 00:11:42.266
In 1694,

00:11:42.266 --> 00:11:46.366
the English orientalist Thomas
Hyde wrote the first history of chess,

00:11:47.033 --> 00:11:49.933
in which he maintained
that the game originated in India,

00:11:50.666 --> 00:11:52.666
a claim
which has stood up to the present day.

00:11:53.633 --> 00:11:57.233
Various other histories followed,
but it was only in the latter

00:11:57.233 --> 00:12:01.200
part of the 19th century
that major advances in our understanding

00:12:01.200 --> 00:12:04.400
of the history of the game occurred
through the efforts of two people

00:12:05.000 --> 00:12:09.700
:the Dutch historian Antonius
van der Linde and the German diplomat,

00:12:10.100 --> 00:12:14.600
chess master and tournament
organizer Baron von der Lasa.

00:12:15.600 --> 00:12:16.933
In addition to directly

00:12:16.933 --> 00:12:20.000
influencing our knowledge of the game's
history through their writings,

00:12:20.400 --> 00:12:24.466
both van der Linde and von der
Lasa played a powerful indirect

00:12:24.466 --> 00:12:27.766
role on the development
of our historical cultural understanding

00:12:28.333 --> 00:12:32.266
by encouraging Harold Murray
to write his 1913 masterwork,

00:12:32.800 --> 00:12:35.800
A History of Chess - an extraordinarily

00:12:35.800 --> 00:12:38.833
comprehensive work of scholarship.

00:12:38.833 --> 00:12:42.433
Anyone interested in the history of chess
today will find that

00:12:42.733 --> 00:12:46.133
whatever her starting point,
a medieval fable,

00:12:46.900 --> 00:12:49.133
an Arabic chess puzzle,

00:12:49.133 --> 00:12:51.400
an Asian chess-like game,

00:12:51.400 --> 00:12:53.533
or hundreds of other possible topics,

00:12:54.600 --> 00:12:57.666
it doesn't take long to trace the idea
in question back

00:12:57.666 --> 00:13:01.766
to something that Murray highlighted
in A History of Chess long ago.

00:13:03.300 --> 00:13:05.866
Well over a century after its publication,

00:13:06.366 --> 00:13:09.000
all chess roads still lead to Murray.

00:13:09.833 --> 00:13:12.233
And if they don't, you should be very

00:13:12.233 --> 00:13:13.700
skeptical indeed.

00:13:26.000 --> 00:13:27.000
Before we turn to

00:13:27.000 --> 00:13:30.800
examine what chess is
and what makes it so unique,

00:13:30.800 --> 00:13:34.000
it's worth spending some time
clarifying what it isn't.

00:13:34.833 --> 00:13:38.133
Because the truth is that,
while chess is clearly one of the world's

00:13:38.133 --> 00:13:42.466
most recognizable games,
with virtually anyone randomly encountered

00:13:42.466 --> 00:13:46.200
on the planet able to identify it
and describe its basic rules,

00:13:46.933 --> 00:13:50.133
nowadays
it's also burdened by the greatest number

00:13:50.133 --> 00:13:53.266
of popular misconceptions
and false stereotypes imaginable,

00:13:53.933 --> 00:13:56.366
making it essential
to set the story straight

00:13:56.533 --> 00:13:59.000
before going any further.

00:13:59.400 --> 00:14:01.533
The first point that needs to be clarified

00:14:01.533 --> 00:14:04.200
is simply how to set up
the game to begin play.

00:14:04.800 --> 00:14:09.333
The pieces are arranged
in symmetrical fashion, facing each other.

00:14:09.933 --> 00:14:13.666
On the back
ranks are the major pieces: two rooks,

00:14:13.966 --> 00:14:17.166
two knights, two bishops,
a king and a queen.

00:14:17.600 --> 00:14:20.200
While in front of all of them
are the eight pawns.

00:14:21.000 --> 00:14:23.033
Now, you probably already knew that,

00:14:23.333 --> 00:14:27.666
but there are two added subtleties here
that must also be explicitly mentioned.

00:14:28.200 --> 00:14:30.466
The queen starts off on her own color,

00:14:30.800 --> 00:14:33.866
white queen on the white square
and black queen on the black square.

00:14:34.500 --> 00:14:38.666
And the board must be oriented
so that the square facing the extreme

00:14:38.666 --> 00:14:42.800
left-hand side of each player is dark,
while the one furthest to the right

00:14:42.933 --> 00:14:43.966
is white.

00:14:44.400 --> 00:14:46.533
Well, you might have known that too,

00:14:46.533 --> 00:14:50.833
but if so, that would make you
relatively unique by Hollywood standards,

00:14:51.266 --> 00:14:54.133
because even the most casual of chess
players will tell you

00:14:54.133 --> 00:14:58.800
that whenever they see a chess scene
in a film or on TV, there's an odds-on

00:14:58.800 --> 00:15:02.800
chance that the initial setup of the board
and pieces will be backwards,

00:15:03.900 --> 00:15:04.733
roughly the chess

00:15:04.733 --> 00:15:07.833
equivalent of slam dunking a volleyball.

00:15:07.900 --> 00:15:10.800
I think that's probably what irritates
the chess player the most:

00:15:11.200 --> 00:15:13.933
when you see, like,
all those people who are trying to

00:15:14.400 --> 00:15:19.500
to propose something about how smart they
are by being associated with chess.

00:15:19.500 --> 00:15:22.500
And then the board is not even set up
correctly.

00:15:22.700 --> 00:15:24.966
So you can easily
see that they don't play chess

00:15:24.966 --> 00:15:26.633
or they have never played it before.

00:15:26.633 --> 00:15:30.966
And when that happens in the movies,

00:15:30.966 --> 00:15:34.233
it’s incredible, actually,
because the budgets

00:15:34.233 --> 00:15:36.900
there are millions of dollars,

00:15:37.366 --> 00:15:40.733
and still...

00:15:41.033 --> 00:15:46.333
I mean, they can have an actor training
at boxing or dancing for a half year

00:15:46.766 --> 00:15:49.800
to prepare for a role,
but they can't get the board right?

00:15:51.600 --> 00:15:52.766
How is it possible? Honestly?

00:15:52.766 --> 00:15:58.233
I's pretty hard
to trust a filmmaker’s vision that “chess

00:15:58.233 --> 00:16:02.100
is the perfect metaphor to represent
the dramatic tension in my scene”,

00:16:02.666 --> 00:16:07.466
when it's abundantly obvious that he has
no idea of what chess actually is.

00:16:08.566 --> 00:16:09.533
Instead,

00:16:09.533 --> 00:16:12.533
what he's invoking is Hollywood Chess,

00:16:13.233 --> 00:16:16.700
something that bears little
to no resemblance to the real thing.

00:16:17.900 --> 00:16:21.700
In Hollywood
Chess, games typically end with one player

00:16:21.700 --> 00:16:24.833
gravely tipping over his king
to acknowledge defeat,

00:16:25.833 --> 00:16:27.966
while victory always comes through

00:16:27.966 --> 00:16:31.866
one sudden move
producing checkmate, with the loser

00:16:32.266 --> 00:16:35.533
never able to see it coming.

00:16:38.400 --> 00:16:41.000
Checkmate.

00:16:51.433 --> 00:16:54.133
Checkmate.

00:16:55.766 --> 00:16:59.700
Checkmate.

00:16:59.700 --> 00:17:03.600
Checkmate.

00:17:03.600 --> 00:17:07.533
Check,

00:17:07.533 --> 00:17:12.366
mate.

00:17:12.366 --> 00:17:13.033
Check,

00:17:13.933 --> 00:17:16.033
mate.

00:17:20.333 --> 00:17:23.000
Checkmate.

00:17:25.933 --> 00:17:30.566
Check and mate.

00:17:30.566 --> 00:17:32.000
Mate.

00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:37.333
There you are:

00:17:37.566 --> 00:17:40.733
checkmate.

00:17:40.733 --> 00:17:43.333
That's checkmate.

00:17:45.866 --> 00:17:49.200
Check, mate and mate, mate.

00:17:51.500 --> 00:17:53.533
Checkmate?

00:17:53.533 --> 00:17:56.233
That’s checkmate, isn’t it?

00:18:00.100 --> 00:18:01.366
Checkmate.

00:18:02.233 --> 00:18:03.500
Oh, come on.

00:18:03.500 --> 00:18:07.933
- come a little closer,
take a look at that there: check mate.

00:18:11.900 --> 00:18:12.800
Checkmate.

00:18:13.300 --> 00:18:15.933
You see, when you make a move
out of frustration or anger,

00:18:15.933 --> 00:18:18.933
it always ends in a catastrophe.

00:18:20.800 --> 00:18:22.200
Well, you’re going to need a miracle
now, Reverend, because checkmate.

00:18:22.200 --> 00:18:25.366
Everyone gets check and makes think.

00:18:29.433 --> 00:18:30.400
Checkmate.

00:18:31.366 --> 00:18:33.600
Wait a minute. Wait a minute.
Wait a minute.

00:18:33.600 --> 00:18:36.000
Wait a minute.. This is not checkmate.

00:18:36.300 --> 00:18:37.366
See you tomorrow, pop.

00:18:37.733 --> 00:18:45.433
Just hold on: this is not checkmate.

00:18:47.000 --> 00:18:49.333
Checkmate.

00:18:49.633 --> 00:18:52.500
What? Checkmate. Where were we?

00:18:53.000 --> 00:18:54.066
Oh, that's right.

00:18:54.200 --> 00:18:54.966
Checkmate.

00:18:56.533 --> 00:18:57.066
Oh my God!

00:18:57.066 --> 00:18:59.200
After this move, the game will be over.

00:19:00.833 --> 00:19:01.900
Checkmate.

00:19:02.666 --> 00:19:04.700
Just as I predicted.

00:19:04.700 --> 00:19:06.100
Checkmate, Herb.

00:19:06.100 --> 00:19:08.866
How does he do it? Not again.

00:19:08.866 --> 00:19:11.000
Even the great Humphrey Bogart,

00:19:11.000 --> 00:19:15.000
who actually was an accomplished
chess player, and obviously knew

00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:17.866
much better, was forced to participate

00:19:18.100 --> 00:19:19.600
in Hollywood Chess.

00:19:22.833 --> 00:19:25.633
I think I've got you father.

00:19:27.033 --> 00:19:29.566
Not yet.

00:19:29.833 --> 00:19:30.500
Mate.

00:19:34.800 --> 00:19:35.400
What drives

00:19:35.400 --> 00:19:38.700
chess players crazy about all of this
isn't that sudden.

00:19:38.700 --> 00:19:41.666
flashes of insight
never happen over the chessboard.

00:19:42.500 --> 00:19:44.000
They certainly do.

00:19:44.000 --> 00:19:47.233
And the most famous games in history
are typically famous for

00:19:47.233 --> 00:19:48.566
precisely that reason.

00:19:49.800 --> 00:19:53.266
But achieving something
genuinely impressive only happens when

00:19:53.266 --> 00:19:57.833
you're facing a highly-skilled opponent
who could easily parry an ordinary attack.

00:19:58.533 --> 00:20:01.500
Not some oblivious novice
who can't see checkmate

00:20:01.500 --> 00:20:03.600
coming on the very next move.

00:20:05.333 --> 00:20:07.600
There are all kinds of misconceptions

00:20:07.600 --> 00:20:10.800
and tropes that I find repellent
when I see them

00:20:11.966 --> 00:20:14.266
presented in the media.

00:20:14.266 --> 00:20:15.900
One is when

00:20:16.300 --> 00:20:18.866
a good player can be

00:20:18.866 --> 00:20:21.866
startled and lose in two moves
from the beginning of the game.

00:20:22.633 --> 00:20:23.333
That's absurd.

00:20:23.333 --> 00:20:26.333
I remember one episode from the Columbo

00:20:26.333 --> 00:20:30.566
television series,
where Laurence Harvey plays

00:20:31.466 --> 00:20:34.000
the world's best chess player,
essentially,

00:20:34.500 --> 00:20:37.200
and he's giving an exhibition

00:20:37.766 --> 00:20:41.866
and he loses in two moves to a novice

00:20:42.300 --> 00:20:46.600
because he's so distracted
by the questioning of Columbo.

00:20:47.266 --> 00:20:49.266
It's just impossible. It can not happen.

00:20:50.300 --> 00:20:52.366
You could be virtually dead
and it would not happen.

00:20:53.100 --> 00:20:56.900
But perhaps the most pernicious
of all Hollywood chess stereotypes

00:20:57.100 --> 00:21:01.366
is the one that even several expert chess
players have been keen to perpetuate:

00:21:02.066 --> 00:21:06.966
that in order to be a great chess player,
you have to be some sort of genius.

00:21:07.933 --> 00:21:08.600
I think

00:21:08.600 --> 00:21:11.400
the biggest misconception
about top level chess players

00:21:11.400 --> 00:21:15.800
is that they are naturally intelligent
across all domains.

00:21:15.800 --> 00:21:18.933
Chess players are a little bit
more intelligent

00:21:18.933 --> 00:21:22.700
than than the average person - perhaps,
although it hasn't been proven.

00:21:23.000 --> 00:21:26.666
But quite often chess players are asked
questions in interviews

00:21:27.000 --> 00:21:30.666
or in media appearances
about other matters in the world.

00:21:31.266 --> 00:21:34.433
Our expertise in chess
does not translate to other domains,

00:21:34.433 --> 00:21:37.533
and it certainly shouldn't be taken
that way.

00:21:37.533 --> 00:21:40.200
People consider, “OK, so you play chess.

00:21:40.766 --> 00:21:44.700
This is not something
that we as ordinary people could do

00:21:44.700 --> 00:21:48.533
because this is a kind of sport,
a kind of mind game that is only suitable

00:21:48.533 --> 00:21:52.600
for gifted people,
for the smartest people among the world.

00:21:52.633 --> 00:21:56.000
So they think, Oh, no, no, no, it's
not the thing I would like to try.

00:21:56.033 --> 00:21:58.400
It's not for me.
I don't think I'm smart enough.

00:21:58.400 --> 00:22:01.333
I've heard a lot of expressions like this.

00:22:01.566 --> 00:22:05.266
And also that since chess players
are considered to be the most gifted

00:22:05.266 --> 00:22:08.600
and genius people among the world,
they can naturally apply

00:22:08.600 --> 00:22:11.400
their skills into different aspects.

00:22:11.900 --> 00:22:17.233
But personally, as a chess player,
I do not agree with such statements.

00:22:18.500 --> 00:22:18.833
I would

00:22:18.833 --> 00:22:23.166
say two of the biggest misconceptions
about chess that unfortunately

00:22:24.333 --> 00:22:28.500
probably hold it back, or at least did
hold it back, I believe, for the previous

00:22:28.500 --> 00:22:32.466
generations, is that, one:
you have to be a genius to play chess

00:22:33.400 --> 00:22:36.766
- that only geniuses can become great
chess players, in fact.

00:22:37.300 --> 00:22:40.066
And so,
whether that contributes to the stereotype

00:22:40.066 --> 00:22:43.833
that someone is antisocial
or a savant in nature,

00:22:43.833 --> 00:22:47.766
and so while they may excel
at one particular niche activity,

00:22:48.066 --> 00:22:50.866
there are other aspects of their character
that are clearly suffering.

00:22:50.866 --> 00:22:53.733
That's kind of what you're always saying
to someone, even if you don't break down

00:22:53.733 --> 00:22:55.933
that detail - that’s
sort of what you're saying.

00:22:55.933 --> 00:22:59.700
And I think that unfortunately for chess,
that becomes a barrier to entry,

00:22:59.700 --> 00:23:00.100
because if

00:23:00.100 --> 00:23:04.133
someone loses their first chess game,
their initial feeling about themselves,

00:23:04.133 --> 00:23:07.333
whether they say it or not, is
that, I'm not smart enough to play chess.

00:23:08.066 --> 00:23:10.000
Chess is not for me.

00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:12.966
The main stereotype
that I find really frustrating is

00:23:12.966 --> 00:23:17.333
that chess is just for geeks, and that you
have to be super-smart to play the game.

00:23:17.733 --> 00:23:21.300
And I find that
this is actually very debilitating,

00:23:21.566 --> 00:23:24.833
although the whole idea that
you have to be smart is very flattering,

00:23:25.200 --> 00:23:26.866
it prevents a lot of people

00:23:26.866 --> 00:23:29.833
from actually picking up the pieces
and getting to play.

00:23:30.700 --> 00:23:33.333
It's possible
to imagine that future filmmakers

00:23:33.333 --> 00:23:35.900
will one day
learn how to set up the pieces properly.

00:23:36.433 --> 00:23:39.566
It's even remotely conceivable
that they'll do away

00:23:39.566 --> 00:23:43.600
with tipping kings and unexpected
one move checkmates.

00:23:43.600 --> 00:23:46.866
But it's pretty hard to envision a day
when they're willing to abandon

00:23:46.866 --> 00:23:51.333
the knee jerk image of chess
players as natural geniuses.

00:23:54.500 --> 00:23:56.000
What really struck me

00:23:56.000 --> 00:23:59.766
about The Queen's Gambit
was that it wasn't at all about chess.

00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:00.866
It's not about a game.

00:24:00.866 --> 00:24:03.033
It's about the cost of genius.

00:24:04.433 --> 00:24:07.666
Ah, yes: the cost of genius.

00:24:08.266 --> 00:24:12.333
And who better than Hollywood
to get to the bottom of that vexing issue?

00:24:12.733 --> 00:24:14.933
Well,
at least they set up the board, right.

00:24:16.000 --> 00:24:19.200
The point, of course, is obviously not
the chess

00:24:19.200 --> 00:24:22.600
players are unintelligent
or the talent doesn't exist.

00:24:23.233 --> 00:24:27.100
But simply that, like pretty well
any activity we know of,

00:24:27.833 --> 00:24:31.600
the single most defining characteristic
of any great chess player

00:24:32.166 --> 00:24:34.866
is the steely determination to work very,

00:24:35.100 --> 00:24:37.166
very hard to improve.

00:24:38.133 --> 00:24:40.633
And an essential
part of the story of chess

00:24:41.066 --> 00:24:44.633
is that this improvement
has been occurring for many centuries

00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:48.300
as our cumulative understanding
of the game steadily evolves.

00:24:48.866 --> 00:24:53.500
Today's experts are much, much better
than those who played 100 years ago;

00:24:53.833 --> 00:24:57.000
and they, in turn, were vastly superior

00:24:57.000 --> 00:24:59.566
to those who came 100 years before them.

00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:01.366
It's not that players today

00:25:01.366 --> 00:25:04.800
are all geniuses
and their predecessors had mediocre minds.

00:25:05.466 --> 00:25:08.900
It's that we've been systematically
learning from their experiences,

00:25:09.233 --> 00:25:12.633
developing a deeper and deeper
understanding of what works on

00:25:12.633 --> 00:25:16.300
the chessboard and how to appropriately
defend against it.

00:25:16.933 --> 00:25:19.000
And if you deny that,

00:25:19.000 --> 00:25:23.233
if you maintain that someone can just roll
out of bed, stumble upon her talent

00:25:23.233 --> 00:25:27.733
and become a world champion chess player
because of her natural genius, then

00:25:27.733 --> 00:25:31.800
you've missed perhaps the most important
aspect of the real story of chess,

00:25:33.266 --> 00:25:35.733
which among other things,

00:25:35.733 --> 00:25:38.366
can be particularly frustrating
for those who are trying

00:25:38.366 --> 00:25:40.400
to teach us the game.

00:25:41.400 --> 00:25:43.200
They think it’s easy.

00:25:44.100 --> 00:25:45.900
And there is always

00:25:45.900 --> 00:25:49.900
a shortcut to do things;
and that is really frustrating.

00:25:50.100 --> 00:25:52.366
If I knew one,
I would have become a grandmaster earlier;

00:25:52.800 --> 00:25:54.300
and I am a very talented chess player.

00:25:54.300 --> 00:25:56.400
I mean, I know
my talent in chess is really high.

00:25:57.600 --> 00:25:59.766
And if I knew better,
I would have done better.

00:26:00.400 --> 00:26:02.400
So it's like everything else, you know?

00:26:02.400 --> 00:26:04.900
It takes hard work, perseverance, and,
you know,

00:26:04.900 --> 00:26:07.266
if you want to be something extraordinary,
it comes down to practice.

00:26:07.700 --> 00:26:09.433
Everyone can learn to play chess.

00:26:09.433 --> 00:26:11.933
The rules are pretty easy. It's
very straightforward.

00:26:11.966 --> 00:26:13.600
Everyone can learn to play chess,

00:26:13.600 --> 00:26:16.200
but to get good at chess,
it all comes down to practice.

00:26:16.833 --> 00:26:19.833
So much for the obvious false stereotypes.

00:26:20.400 --> 00:26:24.066
Hopefully from now on,
when you think of chess, laughable

00:26:24.066 --> 00:26:27.866
images of sudden checkmates
triumphantly announced by geniuses

00:26:28.700 --> 00:26:32.166
will be replaced with visions
of a subtle, sophisticated game

00:26:32.166 --> 00:26:35.900
that's been rigorously studied
for centuries, as evidenced

00:26:35.900 --> 00:26:39.300
by the hundreds of highly detailed popular
chess books out there

00:26:39.900 --> 00:26:42.433
for players of all levels.

00:26:42.433 --> 00:26:45.533
But as we turn our attention
to the question of appreciating

00:26:45.533 --> 00:26:49.333
what exactly
distinguishes chess from other games,

00:26:49.333 --> 00:26:53.866
what makes it special,
additional misconceptions naturally arise.

00:26:54.900 --> 00:26:57.633
For many people,
the first thing that comes to mind

00:26:57.633 --> 00:27:01.266
when they think of chess is
that it's a very old war game,

00:27:02.533 --> 00:27:05.033
while others stress
that its uniqueness lies in

00:27:05.033 --> 00:27:09.066
being a contest of pure strategy,
with no luck involved.

00:27:09.066 --> 00:27:12.166
Others still, point to the fact
that what primarily

00:27:12.166 --> 00:27:16.200
distinguishes chess from other games
is its enormous complexity.

00:27:17.300 --> 00:27:19.500
Unlike Hollywood Chess,

00:27:19.500 --> 00:27:21.933
all of these characteristics
are actually true.

00:27:22.566 --> 00:27:25.100
The origins of chess are clearly grounded

00:27:25.100 --> 00:27:27.933
in ancient Indian military formations.

00:27:28.500 --> 00:27:31.766
Chess has typically been played as a game
with no random element -

00:27:32.533 --> 00:27:35.166
although intriguingly, not always -

00:27:36.300 --> 00:27:38.266
and the number of possible combinations

00:27:38.266 --> 00:27:40.633
associated with almost any chess position

00:27:41.400 --> 00:27:43.566
is usually staggeringly large.

00:27:44.566 --> 00:27:48.766
But none of that actually makes it unique,
as there are many other

00:27:48.766 --> 00:27:52.900
completely different types of games
that share one or more of these features.

00:27:53.666 --> 00:27:56.700
In particular,
the game of Go has all of them.

00:27:57.400 --> 00:28:02.366
It has no random element, historical roots
in military strategy and tactics

00:28:02.366 --> 00:28:05.500
that are widely believed
to be more than twice as old as chess,

00:28:06.600 --> 00:28:10.766
and it turns out to have a level of
combinatorial complexity of possible games

00:28:10.766 --> 00:28:16.200
and positions that is, many, many orders
of magnitude larger than chess.

00:28:17.233 --> 00:28:18.133
Some of that's clearly

00:28:18.133 --> 00:28:22.266
the case that chess is a very old,
highly complex,

00:28:22.266 --> 00:28:26.733
pure strategy game
derived from ancient warrior traditions,

00:28:27.033 --> 00:28:30.066
none of those features are responsible
for its uniqueness.

00:28:31.400 --> 00:28:36.266
If we want to understand what makes
chess chess, in other words, what

00:28:36.266 --> 00:28:38.766
profoundly separates it from other games,

00:28:39.700 --> 00:28:42.266
we have to look elsewhere.

00:28:53.733 --> 00:28:55.866
What makes chess truly unique

00:28:55.866 --> 00:28:58.400
- what makes chess chess -

00:28:59.733 --> 00:29:02.800
is that, unlike virtually every other game

00:29:02.800 --> 00:29:05.500
before it and most after,

00:29:06.600 --> 00:29:11.266
chess requires its players
to simultaneously manipulate a wide range

00:29:11.266 --> 00:29:16.500
of different pieces with very different
functions, movements and values

00:29:17.366 --> 00:29:19.900
towards one overarching end.

00:29:22.966 --> 00:29:24.533
This key feature

00:29:24.533 --> 00:29:28.266
naturally gives rise
to a wide range of tactical strikes,

00:29:28.566 --> 00:29:31.666
such as forks -
where one pieces is attacking

00:29:31.666 --> 00:29:35.000
two or more simultaneously - and pins,

00:29:35.533 --> 00:29:38.066
where an opponent's
piece is held in place,

00:29:38.300 --> 00:29:42.000
and thereby severely compromised
and subject to being attacked,

00:29:42.533 --> 00:29:46.033
either because moving it out of danger
is simply illegal,

00:29:46.300 --> 00:29:50.100
or because the consequences of doing
so would be even worse

00:29:50.100 --> 00:29:51.633
than losing the piece itself.

00:29:53.000 --> 00:29:57.666
These tactics work because the perceived values
of the pieces under attack

00:29:58.000 --> 00:30:00.466
are different
from the ones attacking them.

00:30:00.833 --> 00:30:05.266
The prospect of your opponent forking
your rook and queen is an alarming one

00:30:05.566 --> 00:30:08.100
because both the queen and the rook

00:30:08.333 --> 00:30:11.800
are generally viewed
as being more important than a knight.

00:30:12.300 --> 00:30:16.500
While watching your pinned
knight fall to a pawn is painful to bear

00:30:16.800 --> 00:30:18.900
precisely because, in most cases,

00:30:18.900 --> 00:30:22.233
a knight is considered
to be more valuable than a pawn.

00:30:23.000 --> 00:30:26.166
It's no consolation
that the attacking knight or pawn

00:30:26.166 --> 00:30:29.133
can eventually be captured
at the end of the exchange

00:30:29.533 --> 00:30:33.033
because when the dust settles,
you'll be on the short end.

00:30:33.700 --> 00:30:37.466
You might have captured the same number
of pieces as your opponent did,

00:30:37.600 --> 00:30:42.700
but the total value of what you gained
is less than what you lost.

00:30:43.966 --> 00:30:45.066
If all the pieces

00:30:45.066 --> 00:30:48.300
were the same,
none of this would make any sense at all,

00:30:48.866 --> 00:30:51.933
and virtually
all of the tactical aspects of chess

00:30:52.200 --> 00:30:53.766
would promptly disappear.

00:30:55.200 --> 00:30:59.166
Forks and pins represent
the basic building blocks of the chess

00:30:59.166 --> 00:31:04.466
tactical toolkit, as they usually concern
only one or two pieces at a time.

00:31:05.033 --> 00:31:07.066
But as players develop their skills,

00:31:07.500 --> 00:31:11.033
they learn to involve more
and more material in their attacks,

00:31:11.533 --> 00:31:16.433
combining the impact of different pieces
through a series of increasingly complex

00:31:16.433 --> 00:31:20.500
interactions, all the while
being acutely aware of the fact

00:31:20.633 --> 00:31:25.366
that their opponent is plotting very hard
to do precisely the same thing to them,

00:31:25.833 --> 00:31:29.500
leading any good chess player to spend
just as much time on evaluating defense

00:31:29.500 --> 00:31:32.566
as offense.

00:31:33.466 --> 00:31:36.500
But however important
it is to be continually assessing

00:31:36.500 --> 00:31:40.633
tactical opportunities
for both you and your opponent, even

00:31:40.666 --> 00:31:44.900
that is only one part
of being a successful chess player.

00:31:46.133 --> 00:31:49.500
Because, while
whittling away your adversary's forces

00:31:49.500 --> 00:31:53.966
is usually a good way to achieve victory,
it isn't always.

00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:57.400
Sometimes the best way to proceed

00:31:57.766 --> 00:32:01.866
is by ignoring material considerations
and instead

00:32:02.233 --> 00:32:05.400
finding a way to enable the pieces
you do have

00:32:05.400 --> 00:32:09.333
to be as dynamic
and productive as possible.

00:32:10.700 --> 00:32:14.300
Sometimes, in fact,
the most effective course of action

00:32:14.300 --> 00:32:18.300
involves willfully sacrificing
one of your high-valued pieces

00:32:18.466 --> 00:32:20.966
in order to clear a direct path
to victory.

00:32:21.800 --> 00:32:24.133
Depending on the circumstances,

00:32:24.133 --> 00:32:27.100
depending on the specific subtleties
of the given position,

00:32:27.766 --> 00:32:30.433
any of your pieces - even your queen -

00:32:31.066 --> 00:32:33.400
is most definitely expendable.

00:32:35.233 --> 00:32:37.866
Here's a classic illustration
of this essential point

00:32:38.033 --> 00:32:40.200
from the so-called Game of the Century,

00:32:40.766 --> 00:32:44.766
the famous 1956 encounter
at New York City's Marshall Chess Club

00:32:45.133 --> 00:32:48.466
between the 13 year old Bobby
Fischer, playing Black,

00:32:49.066 --> 00:32:52.900
against Donald Byrne,
winner of the 1953 U.S.

00:32:52.900 --> 00:32:54.766
Open Championship.

00:32:54.766 --> 00:32:57.000
After 16 and a half moves,

00:32:57.000 --> 00:33:00.700
the two sides appear roughly balanced
with each possessing

00:33:00.700 --> 00:33:05.300
a queen,
two rooks, two bishops and a knight.

00:33:05.300 --> 00:33:06.533
But at the moment,

00:33:06.533 --> 00:33:10.333
Black appears to have some serious
difficulties, with both his knight

00:33:10.333 --> 00:33:14.200
and queen being simultaneously
attacked by White's forces,

00:33:14.200 --> 00:33:17.433
seemingly leaving him little choice
but to lose his knight

00:33:17.433 --> 00:33:20.700
in order to move his vastly
more powerful queen to safety.

00:33:21.500 --> 00:33:23.733
But it's here
where the young Bobby Fischer played

00:33:23.733 --> 00:33:26.600
one of the more memorable moves
in the history of chess,

00:33:27.300 --> 00:33:31.200
having long before seen that,
because of the particular circumstances

00:33:31.200 --> 00:33:35.066
of the situation,
a coordinated attack with his rooks,

00:33:35.333 --> 00:33:39.266
knight and bishops
would prove to be much more deadly.

00:33:40.566 --> 00:33:42.533
He didn't, in short, actually

00:33:42.533 --> 00:33:46.833
need his queen here,
so he sacrificed it, instead

00:33:46.833 --> 00:33:50.433
repositioning his white-squared bishop
to devastating effect.

00:33:51.033 --> 00:33:53.200
And when Byrne took the bait,

00:33:53.200 --> 00:33:56.366
picking up Fischer's queen for what
at first looked like next to nothing, the

00:33:56.366 --> 00:33:56.700
roof fell in.

00:33:59.400 --> 00:34:00.033
And here's an

00:34:00.033 --> 00:34:04.433
instructive example of a sacrifice
that didn't happen, from a celebrated game

00:34:04.433 --> 00:34:07.700
between Garry Kasparov and Vesselin
Topalov.

00:34:08.366 --> 00:34:10.700
Kasparov, as it happens, had

00:34:10.700 --> 00:34:13.833
just famously sacrificed
a rook on his previous move,

00:34:14.300 --> 00:34:17.266
and now he checks the black king
with his other -

00:34:17.266 --> 00:34:20.166
which at first glance
looks completely crazy,

00:34:20.566 --> 00:34:23.666
as it seems like he's
just throwing it away to Black's queen.

00:34:24.266 --> 00:34:26.733
But look what happens
if the Queen gobbles it up.

00:34:27.300 --> 00:34:32.400
Kasparov will then capture the pawn on d4
with his queen and check the black king.

00:34:32.700 --> 00:34:35.666
And since the black queen
has moved away to eat the rock,

00:34:36.000 --> 00:34:39.066
no pieces can effectively block the check

00:34:39.766 --> 00:34:44.666
and the black king is forced to move
to its one available square on b8.

00:34:45.033 --> 00:34:48.500
But as soon as it does so, Kasparov will
then move his queen

00:34:48.500 --> 00:34:51.100
to b6 and check the king again.

00:34:51.700 --> 00:34:56.566
And now the king has nowhere to go,
and Black's only recourse

00:34:56.566 --> 00:35:00.166
is to block to check
with either his queen or his bishop.

00:35:00.633 --> 00:35:04.433
But whichever option he chooses,
Kasparov will easily

00:35:04.433 --> 00:35:07.100
engineer checkmate one or two moves later.

00:35:07.900 --> 00:35:10.366
Kasparov's seemingly precarious placed

00:35:10.366 --> 00:35:13.166
rook, then is actually rock-solid

00:35:13.400 --> 00:35:16.733
because capturing
it turns out to be suicide for Black.

00:35:17.533 --> 00:35:20.533
Topalov,
being one of the best players in the world

00:35:20.533 --> 00:35:21.966
and not a Hollywood actor

00:35:21.966 --> 00:35:25.966
keen to demonstrate his ability
to look shocked by a sudden mate, saw

00:35:25.966 --> 00:35:30.533
all of this immediately and rejected
the poisoned rook, as Kasparov,

00:35:30.800 --> 00:35:34.500
one of the greatest players in
chess history, surely knew that he would.

00:35:34.833 --> 00:35:39.133
But the upshot was that Kasparov had
now managed to place his lone remaining

00:35:39.133 --> 00:35:42.400
rook in an extremely aggressive
and attacking position

00:35:42.400 --> 00:35:45.433
that could dangerously interact
with his other pieces.

00:35:45.700 --> 00:35:49.866
Topalov,
meanwhile, battled on valiantly - almost,

00:35:50.100 --> 00:35:53.600
but never quite escaping
- eventually succumbing

00:35:53.600 --> 00:35:57.966
in another 20 fascinating moves,
after having done his part

00:35:58.233 --> 00:36:01.500
to create one of the greatest
games in chess history.

00:36:02.900 --> 00:36:03.733
What makes chess

00:36:03.733 --> 00:36:07.733
special then, isn't
just the fact that it uses an array

00:36:07.733 --> 00:36:11.100
of different types of pieces that need
to be coordinated with each other.

00:36:11.866 --> 00:36:14.400
It's that each piece is constantly,

00:36:14.833 --> 00:36:17.966
ever so subtly, changing its value

00:36:18.200 --> 00:36:21.300
depending on its position
with respect to all the others.

00:36:22.200 --> 00:36:27.633
And it's precisely this highly nuanced,
constantly shifting, dance of individual

00:36:27.633 --> 00:36:32.400
pieces and overall positions
that gives chess its unique,

00:36:32.600 --> 00:36:34.266
aesthetic appeal.

00:36:40.166 --> 00:36:42.866
There are various things that go into
what makes chess an art.

00:36:43.333 --> 00:36:45.933
One of the key things is economy of means:

00:36:46.433 --> 00:36:49.000
being able to do more with less.

00:36:50.366 --> 00:36:53.733
That makes a set of chess ideas
more artful, more aesthetic.

00:36:54.166 --> 00:36:56.900
The usual guideline
for the chess player is simplicity:

00:36:57.166 --> 00:37:00.366
getting so much more,
or achieving so much more, with less.

00:37:00.500 --> 00:37:05.600
That's the key aspect of chess art -
and some of the ways the pieces synergize

00:37:05.600 --> 00:37:08.866
to work together in remarkable ways.

00:37:09.666 --> 00:37:12.900
Generally, the most beautiful made
is considered to be a smothered mate given

00:37:12.900 --> 00:37:17.333
by a knight, where the king doesn't
even have a possible move,

00:37:17.533 --> 00:37:20.633
legal or illegal:
it's smothered by various forces.

00:37:21.133 --> 00:37:24.366
The most famous game of all time
was The Opera Game,

00:37:24.700 --> 00:37:27.866
played in 1858 by Paul Morphy,

00:37:28.266 --> 00:37:30.966
the first player who understood
the general principles

00:37:30.966 --> 00:37:31.700
of a chess position, how to play chess. .

00:37:32.866 --> 00:37:33.166
You need

00:37:33.166 --> 00:37:37.233
pieces working together,
and when you can accomplish much more

00:37:37.233 --> 00:37:40.500
with very little force,
it makes something more beautiful.

00:37:41.000 --> 00:37:45.466
At the end of The Opera Game, Paul Morphy
has used every single one of his pieces.

00:37:45.866 --> 00:37:47.400
He has only two left.

00:37:47.400 --> 00:37:49.933
The other side is
well ahead, has much more material.

00:37:50.366 --> 00:37:54.366
And yet Morphy has overcome
the forces of nature with two remaining

00:37:54.366 --> 00:37:58.633
pieces, and has forced a picturesque
and brilliant checkmate.

00:37:59.100 --> 00:38:03.666
When people see that final position,
and the charming way it came about,

00:38:04.800 --> 00:38:07.400
you just cannot help
but sense the beauty of the game.

00:38:08.066 --> 00:38:11.400
And one of the more intriguing aspects
about the beauty of chess

00:38:11.833 --> 00:38:15.100
is that it can be appreciated at almost
any age.

00:38:15.600 --> 00:38:18.733
Indeed, virtually all chess experts became

00:38:18.733 --> 00:38:22.500
captivated by the game
when they were children.

00:38:22.500 --> 00:38:26.600
I've always tended to like films,
and obviously James Bond was, you know,

00:38:26.866 --> 00:38:29.100
I always watched the James Bond films
when I was a kid.

00:38:29.700 --> 00:38:32.133
And one time I was watching the film
From Russia With Love.

00:38:32.700 --> 00:38:36.633
The opening scene stars
this character Kronsteen.

00:38:36.900 --> 00:38:38.833
The position in the film

00:38:38.833 --> 00:38:43.033
was based on the famous game
between Boris Spassky and David Bronstein;

00:38:44.166 --> 00:38:47.066
and White
plays the move knight takes bishop,

00:38:48.100 --> 00:38:52.033
with a discovered check to the king;

00:38:52.166 --> 00:38:53.400
now apparently the best move

00:38:53.400 --> 00:38:56.400
is something like knight to e6,
but in the film, obviously

00:38:56.800 --> 00:38:59.133
they don't have the time
to go into the finer details

00:38:59.133 --> 00:39:02.233
of the variations
ofwhat Black should have done.

00:39:03.000 --> 00:39:06.900
So Black in the film plays
this move carelessly: king to a7.

00:39:06.900 --> 00:39:10.333
And Kronsteen plays the move queen to e4.

00:39:10.333 --> 00:39:14.400
And Black resigned,
because of his really beautiful idea

00:39:14.400 --> 00:39:17.566
that if you go back with the king -
so there is a

00:39:17.566 --> 00:39:19.666
check to the king and he has to

00:39:19.766 --> 00:39:22.333
go back to h8,
then White destroys the black

00:39:22.400 --> 00:39:25.566
defensive setup with the move rook takes
the knight at f8.

00:39:26.133 --> 00:39:27.966
Black has to take the piece.

00:39:27.966 --> 00:39:30.233
He can't move the king
because he'll be moving into check.

00:39:30.233 --> 00:39:34.633
But whichever way he takes the piece,
there's this move, knight to g6.

00:39:35.666 --> 00:39:36.400
And when you come up,

00:39:36.400 --> 00:39:39.633
the king I take on f8.

00:39:40.166 --> 00:39:45.033
So when I saw this variation, queen to e4,
I remember

00:39:45.033 --> 00:39:47.733
it just having a huge impression on me
at the time.

00:39:48.800 --> 00:39:50.933
I think it was at that moment
that I fell in love with chess -

00:39:50.933 --> 00:39:53.966
so this would have probably been around
about when I was about nine or ten.

00:39:54.600 --> 00:39:58.000
Intriguingly,
the very thing that makes chess chess

00:39:58.366 --> 00:40:00.700
and gives it its beauty on the board,

00:40:01.233 --> 00:40:04.633
the complex coordination
of different pieces in ingenious

00:40:04.633 --> 00:40:10.300
and artful ways, is also directly
responsible for its uniquely significant

00:40:10.600 --> 00:40:13.266
cultural impact over the ages.

00:40:14.200 --> 00:40:17.566
I think the main the main innovation,
the main

00:40:18.633 --> 00:40:22.466
innovative element that chess introduced
into the world of board games

00:40:22.866 --> 00:40:25.666
is the differentiated gaming pieces.

00:40:25.900 --> 00:40:28.766
And this idea, together

00:40:29.233 --> 00:40:31.333
with a predilection

00:40:31.800 --> 00:40:36.833
in Western societies
since Greek and Roman times

00:40:37.200 --> 00:40:39.766
for images, produced

00:40:40.500 --> 00:40:43.966
this imagery or iconography of chess.

00:40:44.433 --> 00:40:48.533
And of course these differentiated
gaming pieces,

00:40:48.533 --> 00:40:53.266
they offer a lot of possibilities
to tell stories.

00:40:54.433 --> 00:40:56.633
And the stories that spring from chess,

00:40:56.966 --> 00:41:01.433
as we shall soon see, encompass
almost every realm of human

00:41:01.433 --> 00:41:04.933
inquiry imaginable,
from political allegories

00:41:05.266 --> 00:41:09.866
to medieval romances
to linguistic metaphors, to theories

00:41:09.866 --> 00:41:13.766
of the nature
of perception, computation, cognition

00:41:14.000 --> 00:41:17.066
and a good deal more besides,.

00:41:17.066 --> 00:41:21.133
Who could have possibly imagined
that one game had the power

00:41:21.133 --> 00:41:25.000
to launch us
in so many fascinating directions?

00:41:32.066 --> 00:41:35.466
We've seen how chess’
defining characteristic of integrating

00:41:35.466 --> 00:41:40.266
different types of pieces into a larger
synthetic whole is intimately related

00:41:40.266 --> 00:41:45.466
to both the game's intrinsic appeal
and its deep socio -ultural impact

00:41:45.566 --> 00:41:48.033
throughout
so many different times and places.

00:41:48.600 --> 00:41:51.400
But there's one additional consequence
of this key feature

00:41:51.400 --> 00:41:55.533
that's often overlooked,
but is nonetheless hugely significant:

00:41:56.033 --> 00:41:59.966
the astounding degree of variability
associated with the game.

00:42:04.833 --> 00:42:06.900
Chess, so far as we can tell,

00:42:07.500 --> 00:42:11.500
was invented in India
roughly 1500 years ago;

00:42:11.500 --> 00:42:16.100
and the standard history people relate,
and the one we’ll naturally be focused on

00:42:16.133 --> 00:42:21.400
in what follows, concerns the transmission
and evolution of the game from India

00:42:21.666 --> 00:42:24.233
to Persia to the Islamic world

00:42:24.766 --> 00:42:26.900
to medieval Europe to the present day.

00:42:27.933 --> 00:42:30.266
That is certainly not wrong.

00:42:30.266 --> 00:42:32.700
But it's hardly
the only story worth mentioning.

00:42:33.433 --> 00:42:36.800
In particular, chess also spread eastward

00:42:37.600 --> 00:42:39.733
to China, Myanmar,

00:42:40.100 --> 00:42:43.133
Thailand and Cambodia, Korea,

00:42:43.733 --> 00:42:45.833
Japan and more,

00:42:46.233 --> 00:42:49.900
producing a world filled
with many different versions of chess,

00:42:50.266 --> 00:42:53.166
all sharing the same vital distinguishing

00:42:53.166 --> 00:42:58.500
feature of what makes chess chess:the
coordination of different pieces

00:42:58.500 --> 00:43:02.800
that have different movements and
different values towards a common goal.

00:43:04.166 --> 00:43:08.466
All of these chess-like games contain
at least some pieces that don't exist in

00:43:08.466 --> 00:43:12.900
standard chess, some of which are limited
to particular regions of the board.

00:43:13.600 --> 00:43:16.933
In standard chess,
only the pawn can be promoted

00:43:16.933 --> 00:43:20.366
upon reaching the last row,
while some of these games

00:43:20.366 --> 00:43:23.766
allow the promotion of different pieces
in different ways

00:43:23.933 --> 00:43:27.866
at different places,
and others don't allow promotion at all.

00:43:28.833 --> 00:43:29.800
Even the boards and

00:43:29.800 --> 00:43:32.133
basic modes of play differ significantly.

00:43:32.800 --> 00:43:35.633
Some use the standard 8x8 chess board

00:43:35.966 --> 00:43:40.233
and place their pieces on the squares,
just as in international chess.

00:43:40.800 --> 00:43:44.600
Others use boards of different shapes,
while still others

00:43:44.600 --> 00:43:48.300
place pieces not on the squares,
but at the vertices.

00:43:49.233 --> 00:43:51.866
Why such an outstanding
amount of diversity?

00:43:52.366 --> 00:43:55.100
Well, nobody knows for certain, of course,

00:43:55.500 --> 00:43:58.266
but it seems reasonable
to conclude that a game

00:43:58.266 --> 00:44:02.000
which explicitly involves the interaction
of different types of pieces

00:44:02.433 --> 00:44:05.900
is particularly prone
to reflecting cultural distinctiveness.

00:44:06.733 --> 00:44:10.400
For games with identical pieces
that all move in the same way,

00:44:11.133 --> 00:44:15.066
it's fairly unlikely that play would vary
substantially over time in place:

00:44:15.600 --> 00:44:18.066
you either play them or you don't.

00:44:18.966 --> 00:44:21.900
But once you're dealing with a collection
of different pieces

00:44:21.900 --> 00:44:25.833
with distinct movements, it's easy
to imagine that people will start

00:44:25.833 --> 00:44:29.733
suggesting that they be slightly
adjusted to more strongly resonate it

00:44:29.733 --> 00:44:32.966
with their local interests and values,
eventually

00:44:32.966 --> 00:44:35.500
changing the very nature
of the game itself.

00:44:36.033 --> 00:44:38.133
Which has certainly been the case
for chess.

00:44:38.433 --> 00:44:39.600
The game has witnessed

00:44:39.600 --> 00:44:44.066
hundreds of major and minor variations
over its long history.

00:44:44.366 --> 00:44:48.633
Indeed, if there's one common feature
throughout the history of chess, it's

00:44:48.633 --> 00:44:51.933
that it's constantly changing - a point
all too often

00:44:51.933 --> 00:44:55.800
ignored by those who are keen to minimize
its inherent diversity

00:44:55.933 --> 00:44:59.866
and regard the chess landscape
as consisting of one true game

00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:02.733
and a large number of so-called variants.

00:45:04.766 --> 00:45:08.500
When you think of the game of chess,
you think of a game just like this.

00:45:09.366 --> 00:45:11.866
It's got standardized pieces,

00:45:11.866 --> 00:45:15.966
well-known,
same shapes, same rules, played

00:45:15.966 --> 00:45:20.400
the same all over the world, high level
tournaments, different countries.

00:45:21.966 --> 00:45:23.833
But this game

00:45:23.833 --> 00:45:26.366
is just one blossoming

00:45:26.866 --> 00:45:30.300
of one branch of a family tree

00:45:30.300 --> 00:45:34.033
of related games that are played

00:45:34.466 --> 00:45:37.933
differently and have been played
differently all over the world.

00:45:38.300 --> 00:45:41.700
And each one of those games
is chess in its own right.

00:45:42.666 --> 00:45:47.100
Over the centuries, chess has been played
on boards of all different shapes, sizes

00:45:47.100 --> 00:45:51.733
and designs with a wide range of pieces,
having different values,

00:45:51.733 --> 00:45:54.600
different functions
and movements on the board.

00:45:55.800 --> 00:45:58.233
As chess traveled to new lands
and communities,

00:45:59.033 --> 00:46:02.966
developing into different forms
was not the exception.

00:46:02.966 --> 00:46:05.533
It was the rule.

00:46:06.166 --> 00:46:08.433
If you're used to the international game,

00:46:09.366 --> 00:46:12.300
you may not even recognize
these other games as chess at all.

00:46:13.366 --> 00:46:15.800
They may have different types of pieces,

00:46:15.833 --> 00:46:18.066
either
somewhat different or very different.

00:46:18.066 --> 00:46:20.733
The configurations and the patterns
on the board are different.

00:46:21.766 --> 00:46:22.566
But if you

00:46:22.566 --> 00:46:25.633
watch people play them
and get a little bit of insight,

00:46:25.633 --> 00:46:31.000
you'll see very quickly that it's
the same core chess concept: differently

00:46:31.000 --> 00:46:33.533
moving pieces, coordinating each other

00:46:34.433 --> 00:46:37.800
to checkmate the opponent.

00:46:37.800 --> 00:46:39.833
Let's take a look at these different forms

00:46:39.833 --> 00:46:40.800
we have here.

00:46:44.300 --> 00:46:46.500
The game of xiangqi

00:46:47.100 --> 00:46:49.300
is the Chinese chess.

00:46:50.533 --> 00:46:53.433
The word is generally translated as “the

00:46:53.433 --> 00:46:57.300
elephant game”,
and it's played all over China.

00:46:57.866 --> 00:47:00.000
It's also popular in Vietnam.

00:47:00.133 --> 00:47:05.000
It's popular in Malaysia, and it's
continuing to spread around the world.

00:47:06.300 --> 00:47:08.366
The pieces are these round discs

00:47:08.366 --> 00:47:11.500
with characters inscribed on them.

00:47:11.500 --> 00:47:13.833
They move on the intersections

00:47:15.266 --> 00:47:17.533
rather than on the squares.

00:47:18.466 --> 00:47:21.566
It's a different convention,
but it's the same

00:47:21.566 --> 00:47:25.033
logic and movement.

00:47:25.666 --> 00:47:29.666
Each player begins with 16 pieces,
and the playing surface

00:47:29.666 --> 00:47:33.700
consists of nine by ten lines
with a prominent river in the middle.

00:47:34.466 --> 00:47:37.300
There's a specially marked palace
on each side of the board.

00:47:37.866 --> 00:47:41.266
Many of the xiangqi pieces
correspond closely to equivalent

00:47:41.266 --> 00:47:45.166
pieces
in ancient India, Persia or Islamic chess.

00:47:45.533 --> 00:47:47.866
But there are significant differences too.

00:47:48.400 --> 00:47:51.800
A powerful piece
since xiangqi is the cannon or catapult,

00:47:52.066 --> 00:47:55.833
which must jump over an intervening piece
in order to make a capture.

00:47:56.600 --> 00:48:00.566
This allows a sort of reverse pin,
in which an interceding piece

00:48:00.900 --> 00:48:04.500
activates the cannon's capture
rather than blocking it.

00:48:05.866 --> 00:48:06.700
Also, several

00:48:06.700 --> 00:48:09.100
pieces are limited
to a particular part of the board.

00:48:09.800 --> 00:48:14.000
The general or governor - that’s
the xiangqi equivalent of the king,

00:48:14.400 --> 00:48:18.066
and his advisers,
are confined to their respective palaces.

00:48:18.466 --> 00:48:22.066
And the elephants are not allowed
to cross over the river.

00:48:22.100 --> 00:48:24.533
They stay on their side of the border.

00:48:24.533 --> 00:48:27.300
Soldiers are the xiangqi
equivalent of pawns.

00:48:28.000 --> 00:48:31.966
When they cross the river,
they get a greater freedom of movement.

00:48:32.166 --> 00:48:34.500
But they do not get promoted.

00:48:34.966 --> 00:48:37.100
Play begins with a much more open,

00:48:37.133 --> 00:48:40.100
less defended, array
than in international chess.

00:48:40.600 --> 00:48:44.533
This allows aggressive attacks
and invasions to begin at once,

00:48:44.900 --> 00:48:47.700
making the game
a dynamic challenge from the very start.

00:48:53.400 --> 00:48:56.700
Shogi is extremely popular all over Japan.

00:48:57.600 --> 00:49:00.233
It has a fully developed system
of tournaments,

00:49:01.166 --> 00:49:06.400
ratings of players and very high level
professionals at the top.

00:49:07.300 --> 00:49:12.133
It's played on a nine by nine
board, rectangular in shape,

00:49:12.666 --> 00:49:15.633
and each player starts with 20 pieces.

00:49:16.100 --> 00:49:19.933
They're distinguished from each other
by their printed kanji characters.

00:49:20.666 --> 00:49:25.200
All pieces are the same color,
so you have to tell which side

00:49:25.200 --> 00:49:30.000
they're on by the way, they're pointin:
the point points toward the opponent.

00:49:31.100 --> 00:49:31.866
The way the pieces

00:49:31.866 --> 00:49:35.066
move on the board
have some clear similarities to the pieces

00:49:35.066 --> 00:49:38.900
in international chess and a few moves
that are easy enough to learn.

00:49:39.566 --> 00:49:43.400
But shogi has two major differences
in the way it is played.

00:49:44.400 --> 00:49:48.766
In international chess,
only the pawn is promoted.

00:49:48.766 --> 00:49:51.966
When it reaches the final row, it becomes
a queen, bishop, knight or rook.

00:49:52.900 --> 00:49:56.533
But in shogi, most pieces can be promoted

00:49:56.533 --> 00:49:59.666
as they pass through a much larger
promotion zone.

00:50:00.233 --> 00:50:03.666
But they only promote
to the particular value of piece

00:50:03.833 --> 00:50:08.133
that is printed on the reverse side
as they flip over.

00:50:08.800 --> 00:50:12.633
The second major structural difference
between shogi and international chess

00:50:13.166 --> 00:50:16.400
is that in shogi, players can re-use

00:50:16.400 --> 00:50:19.000
the pieces they capture as their own.

00:50:19.866 --> 00:50:23.000
They drop them back onto the board
in a subsequent turn.

00:50:23.400 --> 00:50:27.333
And with these pieces in play,
all the pieces are in play,

00:50:27.333 --> 00:50:30.766
either on the board
or waiting to jump into the fray.

00:50:31.400 --> 00:50:34.866
The game never winds down
into a cleared out endgame

00:50:34.866 --> 00:50:37.533
that's so common in standard chess.

00:50:38.100 --> 00:50:41.433
Shogi remains dense with possibilities
from beginning

00:50:41.433 --> 00:50:45.333
to end, very rarely ending in a draw.

00:50:47.133 --> 00:50:47.700
This unique

00:50:47.700 --> 00:50:52.766
feature of shogi, dropping captured pieces
back into play, has made its way into

00:50:52.766 --> 00:50:56.766
international chess circles
with popular variants such as bughouse

00:50:57.000 --> 00:50:58.500
and crazyhouse.

00:51:01.766 --> 00:51:04.866
Korean chess, janggi,

00:51:04.866 --> 00:51:08.366
looks so much like Chinese chess,
you might mistake one for the other.

00:51:08.766 --> 00:51:13.400
But this game broke off from the lineage
of Chinese chess centuries ago,

00:51:13.766 --> 00:51:18.633
and there are many differences, making it
a very different game in actual play.

00:51:19.333 --> 00:51:21.266
The pieces are a different shape.

00:51:21.266 --> 00:51:22.133
They're octagonal

00:51:22.133 --> 00:51:26.566
and there are different sizes,
indicating different categories of pieces.

00:51:27.000 --> 00:51:30.166
There's no river in the center,
so there are none of those

00:51:30.500 --> 00:51:34.400
river-related limitations
or changes in this game.

00:51:35.000 --> 00:51:37.433
There are different moves as well,
very important.

00:51:38.066 --> 00:51:41.733
The soldier
(the pawn equivalent) is able to move

00:51:42.300 --> 00:51:44.933
in more directions
from the very beginning -

00:51:44.933 --> 00:51:47.733
none of that promotion
over the river as in Chinese chess.

00:51:49.033 --> 00:51:50.366
The cannon has

00:51:50.366 --> 00:51:53.266
very different moves
regarding leaping over other pieces.

00:51:54.300 --> 00:51:56.400
The elephant has a very unusual move,

00:51:56.400 --> 00:51:58.766
almost never seen in any kind of chess.

00:51:59.966 --> 00:52:02.333
And there are many other conventions

00:52:02.333 --> 00:52:05.633
that make this game seem

00:52:06.500 --> 00:52:08.466
almost idiosyncratic,

00:52:08.466 --> 00:52:12.000
but give it a rich, unique flavor

00:52:12.366 --> 00:52:17.766
and often make the games last
for a long time, as one side endeavors

00:52:17.766 --> 00:52:23.100
to gradually change the balance of power
without exchanging

00:52:23.100 --> 00:52:26.500
too many pieces off the board
and allowing some sort of an easy draw.

00:52:30.333 --> 00:52:33.000
Thailand and Cambodia
share a chess tradition.

00:52:34.133 --> 00:52:36.966
The game is known as makruk in Thailand

00:52:36.966 --> 00:52:39.700
and ouk chatrang in Cambodia.

00:52:40.366 --> 00:52:42.533
The sets have slightly different styles.

00:52:42.566 --> 00:52:44.700
This happens to be a Cambodian set.

00:52:45.500 --> 00:52:49.433
And the lineup of the pieces
well, you see, it's not too foreign.

00:52:49.866 --> 00:52:54.400
The pieces here move like rooks; horses
move like knights.

00:52:54.700 --> 00:52:56.733
The pawns move like pawns.

00:52:57.200 --> 00:52:58.833
The king moves like the king,

00:52:58.833 --> 00:53:01.500
so all those are familiar
to the international player.

00:53:02.066 --> 00:53:07.500
The bishop and queen pieces, the nobleman
and seed in the Thai term or post

00:53:07.500 --> 00:53:12.166
and young lady in the Cambodian words,
only move to one adjacent square.

00:53:12.300 --> 00:53:17.700
The seed or young lady moves one square
diagonally, while the nobleman or post

00:53:17.933 --> 00:53:22.066
takes one step
diagonally or one step directly forward.

00:53:23.133 --> 00:53:24.500
The pawns, known as

00:53:24.500 --> 00:53:28.500
cowries or fish,
actually start on the third row,

00:53:28.800 --> 00:53:31.800
so they quickly confront each other,
drawing up

00:53:31.800 --> 00:53:34.300
battle lines into an intricate standoff.

00:53:34.866 --> 00:53:36.200
Each player then endeavors

00:53:36.200 --> 00:53:39.800
to breach the central divide
in the most advantageous way.

00:53:40.100 --> 00:53:43.000
And then the familiar battle of chess

00:53:43.000 --> 00:53:45.000
calculations ensues.

00:53:46.266 --> 00:53:49.933
Many more forms of chess are actively
played still throughout the world.

00:53:50.566 --> 00:53:55.533
But these five are the most
well-established and the most popular.

00:53:56.166 --> 00:53:58.700
They're played by millions of people.

00:53:58.700 --> 00:54:01.033
Next time
you think about chess in the world,

00:54:02.233 --> 00:54:04.433
think about these as well.

00:54:07.000 --> 00:54:09.633
A detailed appreciation
of the story of chess

00:54:09.633 --> 00:54:13.466
then turns out to be much broader
than most of us realize,

00:54:13.733 --> 00:54:17.933
with games like xiangqi, makruk, janggi

00:54:18.200 --> 00:54:22.033
and shogi as fully fledged
members of the chess family.

00:54:22.833 --> 00:54:25.966
Once more Harold Murray set
the standard here,

00:54:26.433 --> 00:54:30.966
devoting substantial amounts
of A History of Chess to the game's

00:54:30.966 --> 00:54:35.433
many different versions played
around the world, both past and present.

00:54:36.000 --> 00:54:40.233
And yet, despite all of that
standard, international chess,

00:54:40.833 --> 00:54:43.000
or just plain chess to most of us,

00:54:43.533 --> 00:54:46.800
is profoundly different
from any other chess-like game -

00:54:47.300 --> 00:54:51.300
not so much in terms of its
inherent appeal, which is clearly a matter

00:54:51.300 --> 00:54:55.133
of personal taste and experience -
but in terms of its broad

00:54:55.200 --> 00:54:59.233
social impact
and overwhelming internationalism.

00:54:59.966 --> 00:55:02.233
Unlike any other version of the game,

00:55:02.800 --> 00:55:06.600
the popularity
and cultural influence of standard chess

00:55:06.766 --> 00:55:09.800
has been nothing
short of breathtakingly global,

00:55:10.333 --> 00:55:14.966
consistently both reflecting and shaping
beliefs and values

00:55:15.133 --> 00:55:18.733
throughout an enormously wide
range of human societies

00:55:19.066 --> 00:55:21.500
for the better part of one
and a half millennia.

00:55:22.200 --> 00:55:26.333
It's simply a remarkable story;
and one that deserves a

00:55:26.333 --> 00:55:27.966
particularly close look.