On ChessSetHeaven.com we have talked about the history of chess quite a lot. We have talked about chess set pieces came about and how the game developed. But even the humble chessboard from your best chess set has a history and it revolves largely around its mathematical significance.
The story goes that an inventor or the creator of chess in ancient India (it depends which story you listen to) presented his idea to the king. The king was delighted and asked what reward the inventor wanted.
The man was very clever and, after a little thought, he asked that the king take his best chess set and board and place one grain of wheat on the first square, two on the second, four on the third and so on, doubling the quantity on each successive square.
The king thought this was a feeble request and asked his ministers to go away and sort this out for him. After a week the ministers came back and said it could not be done as the reward was far too high. The king was a little miffed that he had been outsmarted and cut off the inventor's head.
The answer is of course, on the last square of the chessboard there would need to be 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 grains of wheat - or so I am told.
There are many versions of this story but whatever the original setting, this is the first, and perhaps most famous, connection of the chessboard with mathematics.
The nature of the chessboard design has meant it has been used as a calculating tool for centuries.
If you look up at the top of a column in the north transept of Winchester cathedral in the United Kingdom, you might be lucky to glimpse a small carving of a man holding a chess board, looking as if he wants to play with his chess set pieces.
In reality this carving shows a man using the chessboard as a calculating tool. This was quite common in Medieval Europe and the board represented a sort of flat abacus.
The use of a chess or chequer board in this way is still reflected in the name of the highest financial official in the land - the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Centuries ago the nation's finances were calculated on a chequer board and so this important calculator became forever connected to the post.
So next time you pull out you best chess set for a game, you may reflect on the significance of even the board you play upon.
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