prize13-10, Exercise 1: Linking three events

Model answer (check the details):

Take the Lewis chessmen (12th century), London 1851 and Deep Blue (1997). The Lewis pieces show the game absorbed into medieval Christian Europe, with bishops and queens in place of elephants and counsellors. London 1851 shows the game, long after the rule changes, becoming organised: a tournament under common rules, a recognised strongest player, and soon a standard set of pieces. Deep Blue shows the same organised game becoming a testing ground for machines, in a match watched worldwide.

The thread is that each stage made the game more portable and more comparable: pieces anyone could recognise, results anyone could compare, and finally a player that could be run anywhere. A different set of three events would give a different thread; the aim is to give reasons.

Care: any consistent story with dated events and stated reasons is acceptable.