Chess is a game which appeared in India in the 6th century and was called chaturanga. Pieces were similar but rules were a little bit different. At the begining of the 7th century, in Persia, it became shatranj and was adopted in Europe in the 9th century.

In 1475, the game was modified and became essentially as it is known today. These modern rules for the basic moves had been adopted in Italy and in Spain. Pawns gained the option of advancing two squares on their first move, while bishops and queens acquired their modern abilities. This made the queen the most powerful piece. The oldest preserved printed chess book, Repetición de Amores y Arte de Ajedrez (Repetition of Love and the Art of Playing Chess) by a Spanish churchman called Luis Ramirez de Lucena, was published in Salamanca in 1497 : it was the first work writen about theory.

In the 18th century the center of European chess life moved from the Southern European countries to France. Maybe, the most important French master was François-André Danican Philidor, a musician by profession, who discovered the importance of pawns for chess strategy : that is why he gave his name to a famous opening.

As the 19th century progressed, chess organization developed quickly. Many chess clubs, chess books and chess journals appeared. There were correspondence matches between cities; for example the London Chess Club played against the Edinburgh Chess Club in 1824. The first modern chess tournament was held in London in 1851 and won, surprisingly, by a German, Adolf Anderssen, relatively unknown at the time. Anderssen was hailed as the leading chess master and his brilliant, energetic attacking style became typical for the time. An American, Paul Morphy, who was an extraordinary chess prodigy, won against all important competitors, including Anderssen, during his short chess career between 1857 and 1863. Morphy's success stemmed from a combination of brilliant attacks and sound strategy; he intuitively knew how to prepare attacks.

Between the world wars, chess was revolutionized by the new theoretical school called hypermodernists like Aron Nimzowitsch and Richard Réti. They advocated controlling the center of the board with distant pieces rather than with pawns, inviting opponents to occupy the center with pawns which become objects of attack. Since the end of 19th century, the number of annually held master tournaments and matches quickly grew. In 1914, the title of chess grandmaster was first formally conferred by Tsar Nicholas II of Russia to Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Tarrasch and Marshall. This tradition was continued by the World Chess Federation (FIDE), founded in 1924 in Paris. After the death of Alekhine, a new World Champion was sought in a tournament of elite players ruled by FIDE, who have, since then, controlled the title. The winner of the 1948 tournament, a Russian, Mikhail Botvinnik, started an era of Soviet dominance in the chess world. Until the end of the Soviet Union, there was only one non-Soviet champion, American Bobby Fischer.