There are some chess pieces of the 12th–17th centuries in the collection of Polotsk National Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve. This game appeared in the East at the beginning of our Era, but came to Europe much later. In the Middle Ages knights had to be able to play chess. In Western Europe the chess piece called "queen" appeared in accordance with the medieval cult of the Beautiful Lady. The main chess piece, which the Persians named "Shah", the eastern Slavs called "Tsar", and only in the 19th century was called "King". One of the chess pieces became known as "Bishop" in Western Europe. In Eastern Europe it was called an "Elephant".
On the territory of modern Belarus chess was very popular in the 12th–14th centuries. In the 16th-17thcenturies people of different social classes played chess: the prince, vigilantes, artisans, merchants, etc. At that time there was a new profession of artisans-bone-carvers. They made chess sets: hand-carved for the rich or carved on a lathe for common people. Wooden chess pieces were hand-made for themselves by those, who could not buy them from the artisan. Masters-turners, natives of the Belarusian land, were valued in the neighboring states. They carved ivory chess sets and boards for Ivan the Terrible and Alexey Mikhailovich.
Modern researchers differentiate chess pieces between graphic ones ("with faces") and abstract. There are more than 70 chess pieces found In Belarus, most of them - on the territory of Polotsk Land. There are 10 chess pieces found in our town: kings, a queen, a bishop, pawns, and a fragment of a chess piece. The earliest of them - the "King", made of wood in a herringbone pattern, was found in 1988 during the archaeological excavations under the direction of Sergey Tarasov. Its analogues have not yet been found on the territory of our republic.
The only chess piece "King" of the late 16th - early 17th centuries in Belarus, carved from horn, with complex patterns and traces of gold inlay is represented in the exhibition of the Museum of Local Lore. It was discovered during archaeological excavations under the direction of Sergey Tarasov in 1987. The "King" is perfectly preserved. It has three high tiers with complex ornament and the completion of a crown.
Most of the chess pieces were found in a single copy, which means that each of them represents a single game-set. Such a large number of sets shows a high chess culture of our ancestors, who belonged to different social groups, and it was possible only in a society with a high level of spiritual culture.