Why did everyone play chess in the USSR, but not now?

Chess is one of the oldest board gameswhich remains popular to this day. It is believed that more than 1.5 thousand years have passed since the invention of chess, but no one knows for sure who the author is. According to one version, the game appeared in Byzantium, but it is also believed that the first chess-like games appeared on the territory of India. It is believed that this board game of medium complexity helps to develop skills in tactics, strategy and visual memory. Today, there are far fewer people who love to play chess than in the 20th century - over time, the game has lost its former popularity. In this article, we invite you to find out how about a hundred years ago chess became popular entertainment and why today this game is not as attractive as it used to be.

In Soviet times, there were many chess fans, but now it is a rarity

Content

• 1 The popularity of chess in the USSR
• 2 Soviet chess champions
• 3 How chess was played in the USSR
• 4 Why chess is no longer in vogue

The popularity of chess in the USSR

Scientists believe that chess appeared in Russiaa long time ago. Judging by historical data, even tsars Ivan the Terrible and Alexei Mikhailovich were among the fans of this game. But in those distant times, chess was still not popular - everything changed in the 20th century.

It is believed that one of the main fans of chessThen there was Vladimir Lenin. This is evidenced by the fact that he often met with famous chess players and even used terms characteristic of them in his speeches. There are also several photographs in which he is captured at the game.

Lenin plays chess

In addition to him, there were other loverschess - especially for them in 1920, the All-Russian Chess Olympiad was held. After some time, the slogan "Chess to the masses" was put forward, because the society decided to occupy the people with something intellectual. The legendary board game was perfect for this: it has clear rules, requires a minimum inventory of a board and figures, and is also interesting for people of all ages.

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Soviet chess champions

In a very short time, chess has become a hobbymillion Soviet people. Some sources say that this game has become even more popular than football. And it was commendable, because the interest in chess perfectly emphasized the high level of culture of the Soviet people. A serious hobby led to the fact that the chess players of the USSR became known all over the world. So, in 1948, Mikhail Botvinnik became the first Soviet world chess champion. Among other great chess players, it is worth highlighting Tigran Petrosyan, Lyudmila Rudenko, Olga Rubtsova and Garry Kasparov - he is generally considered the strongest chess player in history.

Soviet chess player Mikhail Botvinnik

Soviet chess player Tigran Petrosyan

Soviet chess player Ludmila Rudenko

Young Garry Kasparov

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How chess was played in the USSR

Seeing the enthusiasm among adults for chesschildren were also interested. Chess circles were opened in schools, publications published books for chess players, and corresponding faculties were opened at sports universities. The authority of the Soviet people in chess was so great that foreign chess players even learned Russian in order to read books published in the USSR in the original. For example, this was done by the eleventh world chess champion, American Bobby Fischer. But he, at least according to the Serbian publication "Chess Informant", was the strongest chess player of the 20th century.

American chess player Bobby Fischer

Since the 1950s, people who have playedchess could be found anywhere. Adults and children could play games both at home and on the street - there were even special tables for this in the parks. The game was often watched by people passing by, because everyone was interested in learning something new or assessing the level of play of others.

This photo shows especially well how popular chess was.

Interest in chess did not disappear even after the appearancecomputers, because the masters started trying to beat the machine in this game. It was very difficult to do this, because in chess there are millions of different combinations - all games are unique. The first person who was able to beat the Deep Blue chess computer was Garry Kasparov, mentioned above. He did not succeed immediately, because the computer won the first game.

Garry Kasparov vs Deep Blue Computer

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Why chess is no longer in fashion

People's interest in chess began to fade aroundin the 1990s. There were a lot of reasons for this, but mainly it was due to a change in the way of life of people and the environment in general. Many adults had more important things to do, and children got access to the first game consoles, and then computers. Of course, chess is not completely forgotten - even today there are people who are not averse to playing a game. Fortunately, there are a huge number of opportunities for this, you don’t even need a board with figures, because everyone has computers with smartphones.

However, chess became popular again after the release of the series "Queen's Move"

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It is noteworthy that in the 1800s, chess caused anxiety among parents - the children loved the game so much that they could sit on it for several hours. You can read more about this here.