ABSTRACT
Chess is frequently perceived to be a silent and courteous, even chivalrous, game. The emergence of the game of chess stretches back at least to seventh-century India and it is considered to have been known throughout Europe since the eleventh century. In this chapter, the author will answer this question based on results from several years of playing at two different online chess sites. During this time he have made participant observations focusing on differences between face-to-face chess and online chess, and he draw on the same basic differences between face-to-face and persona-to-persona interaction that was established. Chess has a firm identity but has also changed over time and been sensitive to cultural and societal influences. Chess, regarded as a game, is commonly described as being wholly dependent on the skill of the players and as lacking the luck element that exists in many other games.
