Chess Merit Badge Tips: The History Of Chess

The history of chess (as well as the history of anything) can be fun and engaging.

Below are tips to encourage scouts to explore and share the history of the game. Focusing on persons or events as well as the general history can help organize both the research and the presentation.

Explore:

Here are a few books about the history of the game:

• A History of Chess, H.J.R. Murray
• A History of Chess, Yuri Averbakh
• Birth of the Chess Queen, Marilyn Yalom
• Fried Liver and Burning Pants: Curious but True Chess Stories, Jay Stallings 

Questions you might ask:

Where were the oldest chess sets discovered and where are they located today?

Sample answer: One of the oldest chess sets discovered is the Lewis Chess Set now housed at the British Museum. The set was discovered on the Island of Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Scotland.

Who was the first world champion?

Sample answer: According to FIDE, the first world champion was Wilhelm Steinitz who defeated Johannes Zukertort in 1886.

More questions:

• Why did the chess world need a standard chess set?
• Who was the oldest world champion?
• Who was the youngest world champion?
• Who was world champion the longest?
• Who set the record for becoming the youngest chess master (or grandmaster) in the United States?

The diagram below shows the position at the end of game 6 of the Bobby Fischer vs. Boris Spassky world championship match in 1972. Fischer went on to win the match and become America’s first official world champion.

In the game below, White (Fischer) has just moved his queen to the square f4. No matter what Black does, he cannot avoid the loss of material and eventually the game. So Spassky resigned after White’s move.

Search strategies:

• Use an online search engine.
• Ask a librarian (and see if the library will order books about chess history for your research).
• Visit a chess club and ask about the history of that club.
• Visit a chess tournament and interview players about how much they know of chess history!

 

Share:

• Hold small or large group discussions.
• Make PowerPoint presentations to scouts or at school.
• Create a “quiz show.”
• Make a school bulletin board.
• Write an article about your research and submit it to ChessKid.com! 

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Note from Jerry Nash: Scout leaders and parents should know that the questions listed in these articles are meant to be used as a starting point and a guide for the type of questions and critical thinking you should be encouraging in your scouts. These questions are mere samples of the kinds of questions that could be asked. By providing a few answers within the articles, we mean to help those new to chess not feel completely overwhelmed with the information, and to help provide context to the type of knowledge that should be gained through the experience. Happy scouting, and happy chess merit badging!