The game of Chess emerged in Spain and the rest of Southern Europe during the second half of the 15th century after evolving from a similar but much older game of Indian origin.  Today, chess is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide.  Chess is an abstract strategy game and involves no hidden information.  It is played on a chessboard with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid.  At the start, each player controls sixteen pieces.  The object of the game is to checkmate the opponent's king, whereby the king is under immediate attack and there is no way for it to escape.  Chess theory usually divides the game of chess into three phases with different sets of strategies: the opening,  the middlegame, and last the endgame.  Chess strategy is concerned with the evaluation of chess positions and with setting up goals and long-term plans for future play.  During play, players must take into account numerous factors such as the value of the pieces on the board, control of the center and centralization, the pawn structure, king safety, and the control of key squares or groups of squares. All the chess boards I could find locally were plastic, cardboard, or just tacky and cheap.  All the nice ones were more than I was willing to pay.  So I made mine from 2 1/2 inch squares of maple and oak.  I would have liked to have done the binding with purple heart and oak, but since there was no purple heart available locally I made a binding from laminated oak and maple stained carabet red. The chess pieces I ordered from the good folks at www.wholesalechess.com.