I have a theory: Chess was invented in 3000 BC. Here's why.

Chess, checkers, kickboxing, swimming, the world has no end of ancient sports.

But is chess the most ancient?

To figure the answer out, one must consider the history of human evolution, and compare it with the complexity of chess as a game.

For instance, at what point in the human timeline did people begin to compute math?

Or Logic? Two things that form the fundementals of chess.

Also, the idea of capturing and recapturing, the idea of space, and division, subtle concepts in the game of chess.

So what doe sit all mean?

At what point in the human timeline did the human race begin to show evidence of such concepts in its own activity?

Let's break it down point by point

LOGIC: From the wheel upwards, human beings marked the birth of the evolutionary concept of logic, when they began INVENTING things. (Around 3000 BC)

Capture and recapture on the chessboard, or in effect; war The earliest human wars date back to 3000 BC, if memory serves.

Division, space...when did these things matter to humanity?

Well, as far back as humanity can remember, mankind has been about pack behaviour, which is a result of division and space. 

So that is to say...the birth of the first individual civilisations, marked the concept of 'division and space' in the human timeline.

The first civilisations began in 3000 BC.

So we deduce that chess was invented in 3000 BC. 

Anyway, the basic structure of the argument is "a species that has developed civilization has the requisite tools to create a game like chess. Therefore chess existed as soon as civilizations did."

Which is of course nonsense.

um not quite.

i said something more along the lines of

chess is loosely based on certain facets of evolved society

the facets being

facet 1: the ability to think logically

facet 2: warfare

etc etc

so obviously chess must have appeared AFTER those facets appeared in the chain of evolution

(for instance chess wasnt invented around the time when mankind was a primate, for LOGIC of the sort you see in chess, didnt exist then

No doubt you'll say apes have logic, too but their logic isnt as advanced as chess logic

chess must have appeared AFTER those facets appeared

Yes, so why are you assuming chess appeared at the earliest time possible?

What we know about chess is that it slowly evolved over time from older games that were similar. This makes a lot of sense. Humans naturally make games to play, and over time the rules change to suit the interests of the players. Different regions adopt different rule sets, and the most entertaining rulesets of the most entertaining games are adopted by a society. As the game spreads to other societies, different rules are changed, and (for chess) the process continued until as recently as a few 100 years ago.

yeah fair enough

Humans were inventing things for at least 10s of thousands of years before 3000 BC.

Humans were inventing things for at least 10s of thousands of years before 3000 BC.

yeah but not all those things had exactly the same FACETS of civilisation, or hallmarks of human evolution, that chess does.

Cheese

Ceramic vessels came into use around 18,000 BCE
People were living in all parts of the world (except for the Arctic and Antarctic) by 15,000 BCE and probably much earlier than that. Cultural adaptation to such a wide range of habitats is a pretty impressive intellectual accomplishment.
Plant and animal domestication began around 11,000 BCE
The use of the wheel for transportation dates to about 4000 BCE
Earliest writing dates to around 3400 to 3100 BCE
 
Of course, chess itself reflects a stratified society with specialized roles and organized warfare. And this combination probably does start appearing around 3000 BCE. But the earliest evidence for a game that looks like chess dates to the 7th century BCE. A claim for an earlier invention needs to produce some physical or literary evidence.

Does anybody remember the story of chess? A brahmin invented it and gave it to the king or maraja' as a gift (even tho' every piece moved like a pawn the rules evolved during the centurys).

The king really liked it and granted him a wish, he asked for 1 grain of rice for the first square, 2 for the second, 4 for the third, 8 for the forth, and so on till the 64th square.

The king had a laugh and ordered to his servants to bring a few sack of rice....

the brahmin was a matematician and presented the real number that comes out.

It s a quantity so big that it would cover our planet with 2.5 meters of rice. Escluding the oceans an seas of course.

The king put him to death!!!

This story always fascinated me.

If someone didn t know I am glad i posted it

Isn't chess amazing? Whoever came up with it definitely should be considered The Grand Poobah of chess.