The game of chess has long reigned over the various board games available for play. Where other games might be more specifically located in individual countries, ethnic groups or cultures, chess has enjoyed an unusually diverse and widespread dissemination, being accorded respect in various places which are otherwise hugely different from each other. One can study the cultural effect which playing the game of chess has exercised on cultures throughout the world from a variety of perspectives, but one aspect of this subject that may prove particularly interesting for students and players of chess is the subject of how it underwent a gradual evolution from very early forms of the game to modern day styles. In the course of this process, different versions of the game of chess have moved across parts of the world over long periods of history, where it has served various purposes and been interpreted in various ways by the cultures at hand.