Chess

This time in Speak if it’s Greek we will talk about one of the most known, historic and strategic games our cultural world can offer: chess. Many people play and love it, but did you ever think about where it comes from?

There circulates a very old legend about the origin of chess. This legend says following: During the Turkish rule the sovereign Lysander from the Ottoman Empire tyrannized the Greek population. One brave Greek called Dareios wanted to show the sultan without catching his anger that he cannot rule alone and that he needs the support of the whole population to have a functioning state.

So he created a game in which the king is the most important figure, but where he is depending on all the other participants to win. He showed the game to his emperor who was very impressed about it and so he got more lenient. To thank Dareios for his wise lesson he offered him one free wish and he let teach the game all over the empire’s schools so that everybody could participate in this new knowledge. Dareios said he wanted one grain of rice on the first place of the game, then the double of it on the next place and so one. When Lysander asked his mathematicians about how much rice Dareios will get, they said, that it was too much and that the whole empire could not afford this amount of rice grains. To help his master out of this dreadful state, one of them recommended him to let Dareios count each rice grain by himself.

Today chess is very popular all over the world and regular chess world championships are held.

Do you think this story is true?