What sports are Indians playing in and around Tokyo : Chess

Brief History of Chess

The history of Chess goes back more than 1000 years. The game originated in northern India in the 6th century AD and spread to Persia. When the Arabs conquered Persia, chess was taken up by the Muslim world and subsequently, through the Moorish conquest of Spain, spread to Southern Europe.

In Europe, the moves of the pieces changed in the 15th century. The modern game starts with these changes. In the second half of the 19th century, modern tournament play began. Chess clocks were first used in 1883, and the first world chess championship was held in 1886. The 20th century saw advances in chess theory, and the establishment of the World Chess Federation (FIDE)

Source: http://www.usefulchess.com/others/chess-champions.html

Chess In Japan
Though countries like Russia, China and India have most chess players, Japan has limited players and popularity. The chess community in Japan is extremely small. If you have been in the community for a year, you will get to know the majority of the active players.

Chess players in Japan could be roughly categorized into the following:

• Shogi players (both professional and amateur)
• Members and former club members of strong chess clubs (mainly in elite schools, namely azabu, keio, todai, and a few others)
• Players who learned the game abroad (including foreigners)

This makes the chess community quite small and an insulated community, which restricts the population to grow. Language is a problem too. There are few Chess books written in Japanese, especially those intended for players above the intermediate level. No Dvoretsky, no Kasparov, not even Silman. It is not a coincidence that a lot of chess players in Japan either have some international experience or come from a prestigious school.

Also, it is true that Shogi players tend to think that chess is a crude and unchallenging game with too many draws in comparison to Shogi.

Said so, Japan Chess Association (JCA) is taking efforts to make chess more popular by encouraging young players to come forward. By organizing monthly open tournaments, kids and women special tournaments as well as supporting players to participate in international tournaments. http://www.jca-chess.com/ (website in Japanese only)

There are many strong players who play JCA tournaments, as well as FIDE, organized tournaments https://ratings.fide.com/topfed.phtml?ina=1&country=JPN

How come Indians stay behind as chess being the most popular sports in India. Even with limited resources chess players at Japan trying to mark their presence.

There are many chess clubs in Japan however most of them use Japanese as the language of communication hence for Indians with limited or no Japanese language proficiency limits the options to play online.

Clubs of Japan http://www.geocities.jp/chess_kawanaka/clubse.htm

There are few chess clubs like Tokyo International Chess Club -TICC (https://www.facebook.com/Tokyointernationalchessclub/) and individuals like Saurabh Ambekar (conduct classes for kids at Edogawa Seishincho) where Indians at Japan can learn and practice chess.

Visit: https://www.facebook.com/kingspawnchess/

https://tokyobilingualchessclub.jimdo.com/

There are many online chess applications with most popular https://www.chess.com/

https://www.chess.com/article/view/the-best-chess-apps

https://www.technowing.net/top-10-best-android-chess-app/

https://www.ikream.com/2018/11/5-best-chess-app-iphone-2018-25624

Did you miss the other post about what Sports Indians are playing in Japan?
You can catch up the stories here: https://indojapanpulse.com/category/sports

Leave a Reply to IndoJapanPulse