Today we celebrate one of the world's most popular games, chess! International Chess Day has been celebrated annually on July 20th since 1966. Chess appeared in India in the 6th century, which makes it one of the oldest board games in the world. This strategy board game is also known as “royal game” as it used to be popular among the nobility. Kings and queens played chess because it helped them develop strategic thinking, which was important for making political and military moves.
Apart from chess spreading around the world, another major step in its history was the creation of a computer system that can play this strategy game. Deep Blue was the first computer system to win a chess match against a world champion. Deep Blue won against Garry Kasparov in 1997 and this victory is known as a milestone in the history of artificial intelligence. Chess can be used as mental training and it owes its worldwide popularity to several benefits such as improving memory, focus, and problem solving skills, boosting creativity and self-awareness as well as protecting against dementia.