Open cloze
For questions 1-8, read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only one word in each gap.
Chess is usually said to have originated in northern India around the sixth century, though the game 1. played there would barely be recognisable to us today. Over the following centuries it spread westward through Persia and the Arab world, changing as it 2. so. Pieces were renamed, rules were adjusted, and the pace of play varied enormously from one region to another. It was not 3. the late fifteenth century, in southern Europe, that the queen acquired her modern powers. Previously she had been 4. of the weakest pieces on the board, able to move only one square diagonally. The change transformed the game almost overnight, making it faster and more aggressive, and players who had learned the older version found 5. having to rethink their strategy entirely. Some historians have suggested that the new rule reflected the influence of powerful female rulers of the period; the evidence for this, 6., is largely circumstantial. What is clear is that chess has never stood still for 7.. Even now, players argue over 8. or not the game is being spoiled by computers that can calculate millions of positions per second.