full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Alex Gendler: A brief history of chess

Unscramble the Blue Letters


But it was in Europe that chess began to take on its moerdn form. By 1000 AD, the game had become part of courtly education. Chess was used as an allegory for different siocal classes performing their proper roles, and the pieces were re-interpreted in their new context. At the same time, the Church remained suspicious of gmaes. Moralists cautioned against devoting too much time to them, with ceshs even being briefly banned in France.

Yet the game preteraiflod, and the 15th century saw it cohering into the form we know today. The relatively weak piece of advisor was recast as the more powerful queen– perhaps ipienrsd by the recent surge of strong female leaders. This change accelerated the game’s pace, and as other rules were popularized, treatises aanlnyizg common openings and endgames appreead. Chess theory was born.

Open Cloze


But it was in Europe that chess began to take on its ______ form. By 1000 AD, the game had become part of courtly education. Chess was used as an allegory for different ______ classes performing their proper roles, and the pieces were re-interpreted in their new context. At the same time, the Church remained suspicious of _____. Moralists cautioned against devoting too much time to them, with _____ even being briefly banned in France.

Yet the game ____________, and the 15th century saw it cohering into the form we know today. The relatively weak piece of advisor was recast as the more powerful queen– perhaps ________ by the recent surge of strong female leaders. This change accelerated the game’s pace, and as other rules were popularized, treatises _________ common openings and endgames ________. Chess theory was born.

Solution


  1. proliferated
  2. appeared
  3. inspired
  4. games
  5. chess
  6. modern
  7. analyzing
  8. social

Original Text


But it was in Europe that chess began to take on its modern form. By 1000 AD, the game had become part of courtly education. Chess was used as an allegory for different social classes performing their proper roles, and the pieces were re-interpreted in their new context. At the same time, the Church remained suspicious of games. Moralists cautioned against devoting too much time to them, with chess even being briefly banned in France.

Yet the game proliferated, and the 15th century saw it cohering into the form we know today. The relatively weak piece of advisor was recast as the more powerful queen– perhaps inspired by the recent surge of strong female leaders. This change accelerated the game’s pace, and as other rules were popularized, treatises analyzing common openings and endgames appeared. Chess theory was born.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations




Important Words


  1. accelerated
  2. ad
  3. advisor
  4. allegory
  5. analyzing
  6. appeared
  7. banned
  8. began
  9. born
  10. briefly
  11. cautioned
  12. century
  13. change
  14. chess
  15. church
  16. classes
  17. cohering
  18. common
  19. context
  20. courtly
  21. devoting
  22. education
  23. endgames
  24. europe
  25. female
  26. form
  27. france
  28. game
  29. games
  30. inspired
  31. leaders
  32. modern
  33. moralists
  34. openings
  35. pace
  36. part
  37. performing
  38. piece
  39. pieces
  40. popularized
  41. powerful
  42. proliferated
  43. proper
  44. recast
  45. remained
  46. roles
  47. rules
  48. social
  49. strong
  50. surge
  51. suspicious
  52. theory
  53. time
  54. today
  55. treatises
  56. weak