The precursors of chess originated inIndiaduring theGupta Empire,where its early form in the 6th century was known aschaturaga, which translates as "four divisions (of the military)":infantry,cavalry,elephantry, andchariotry, represented by the pieces that would evolve into the modern pawn, knight, bishop, and rook, respectively.Chess was introduced to Persia from India and became a part of the princely or courtly education ofPersiannobility.InSassanid Persiaaround 600 the name becamechatrang, which subsequently evolved toshatranj, and the rules were developed further. Players started calling "Shh!" (Persian for "King!") when attacking the opponent's king, and "Shh Mt!" (Persian for "the king is helpless")when the king was attacked and could not escape from attack. These exclamations persisted in chess as it traveled to other lands.The game was taken up by theMuslim worldafter theIslamic conquest of Persia, with the pieces largely keeping their Persian names. TheMoorsofNorth Africarendered Persian "shatranj" asshaerej, which gave rise to theSpanishacedrex,axedrezandajedrez; inPortugueseit becamexadrez, and inGreekzatrikion, but in the rest of Europe it was replaced by versions of the Persianshh("king"). Thus, the game came to be calledludus scacchorumorscacc(h)iinLatin,scacchiinItalian,escacsinCatalan,checsinFrench(Old Frencheschecs);schakeninDutch,SchachinGerman,szachyinPolish,ahsinLatvian,skakinDanish,sjakkinNorwegian,schackinSwedish,akkiinFinnish,ahinSouth Slavic languages,sakkinHungarianandahinRomanian; there are two theories about why this change happened:1. From the exclamation "check" or "checkmate" as it was pronounced in various languages.2. From the first chessmen known of in Western Europe (exceptIberiaand Greece) being ornamental chess kings brought in as curios by Muslim traders.The Mongols call the gameshatar, and in Ethiopia it is calledsenterej, both evidently derived fromshatranj.Chess spread directly from theMiddle Eastto Russia, where chess became known as (shakhmaty, treated as a plural).The game reached Western Europe and Russia by at least three routes, the earliest being in the 9th century. By the year 1000 it had spread throughout Europe.Introduced into theIberian Peninsulaby theMoorsin the 10th century, it was described in a famous 13th century manuscript covering shatranj,backgammonanddicenamed theLibro de los juegos.Chess spread throughout the world and many variants of the game soon began taking shape.Buddhistpilgrims,Silk Roadtraders and others carried it to theFar Eastwhere it was transformed and assimilated into a game often played on the intersection of the lines of the board rather than within the squares.Chaturanga reachedEuropethrough Persia, theByzantine empireand the expandingArabian empire.Muslimscarried chess toNorth Africa,Sicily, andIberiaby the 10th century.The game was developed extensively in Europe, and by the late 15th century, it had survived a series of prohibitions andChristian Churchsanctions to almost take the shape of the modern game.Modern historysaw reliable reference works,competitive chess tournamentsand exciting new variants which added to the game's popularity,further bolstered by reliable timing mechanisms (first introduced in 1861), effective rulesand charismatic players.The precursors of chess originated inIndiaduring theGupta Empire,where its early form in the 6th century was known aschaturaga, which translates as "four divisions (of the military)":infantry,cavalry,elephantry, andchariotry, represented by the pieces that would evolve into the modern pawn, knight, bishop, and rook, respectively.Chess was introduced to Persia from India and became a part of the princely or courtly education ofPersiannobility.InSassanid Persiaaround 600 the name becamechatrang, which subsequently evolved toshatranj, and the rules were developed further. Players started calling "Shh!" (Persian for "King!") when attacking the opponent's king, and "Shh Mt!" (Persian for "the king is helpless")when the king was attacked and could not escape from attack. These exclamations persisted in chess as it traveled to other lands.The game was taken up by theMuslim worldafter theIslamic conquest of Persia, with the pieces largely keeping their Persian names. TheMoorsofNorth Africarendered Persian "shatranj" asshaerej, which gave rise to theSpanishacedrex,axedrezandajedrez; inPortugueseit becamexadrez, and inGreekzatrikion, but in the rest of Europe it was replaced by versions of the Persianshh("king"). Thus, the game came to be calledludus scacchorumorscacc(h)iinLatin,scacchiinItalian,escacsinCatalan,checsinFrench(Old Frencheschecs);schakeninDutch,SchachinGerman,szachyinPolish,ahsinLatvian,skakinDanish,sjakkinNorwegian,schackinSwedish,akkiinFinnish,ahinSouth Slavic languages,sakkinHungarianandahinRomanian; there are two theories about why this change happened:1. From the exclamation "check" or "checkmate" as it was pronounced in various languages.2. From the first chessmen known of in Western Europe (exceptIberiaand Greece) being ornamental chess kings brought in as curios by Muslim traders.The Mongols call the gameshatar, and in Ethiopia it is calledsenterej, both evidently derived fromshatranj.Chess spread directly from theMiddle Eastto Russia, where chess became known as (shakhmaty, treated as a plural).The game reached Western Europe and Russia by at least three routes, the earliest being in the 9th century. By the year 1000 it had spread throughout Europe.Introduced into theIberian Peninsulaby theMoorsin the 10th century, it was described in a famous 13th century manuscript covering shatranj,backgammonanddicenamed theLibro de los juegos.Chess spread throughout the world and many variants of the game soon began taking shape.Buddhistpilgrims,Silk Roadtraders and others carried it to theFar Eastwhere it was transformed and assimilated into a game often played on the intersection of the lines of the board rather than within the squares.Chaturanga reachedEuropethrough Persia, theByzantine empireand the expandingArabian empire.Muslimscarried chess toNorth Africa,Sicily, andIberiaby the 10th century.The game was developed extensively in Europe, and by the late 15th century, it had survived a series of prohibitions andChristian Churchsanctions to almost take the shape of the modern game.Modern historysaw reliable reference works,competitive chess tournamentsand exciting new variants which added to the game's popularity,further bolstered by reliable timing mechanisms (first introduced in 1861), effective rulesand charismatic players.

India

KrishnaandRadhaplayingchaturangaon an 8x8 AshtpadaThe earliest precursor of modern chess is a game calledchaturanga, which flourished in India by the 6th century, and is the earliest known game to have two essential features found in all later chess variations different pieces having different powers (which was not the case withcheckersandgo), and victory depending on the fate of one piece, the king of modern chess.[9]Other game pieces (speculatively called "chess pieces") uncovered inarchaeologicalfindings are considered as coming from other, distantly related, board games, which may have had boards of 100 squares or more.Findings in theMohenjo-daroandHarappa(26001500 BCE) sites of theIndus Valley Civilizationshow the prevalence of a board game that resembles chess.Chess was designed for anashtpada(Sanskritfor "having eight feet", i.e. an 8x8 squared board), which may have been used earlier for abackgammon-type race game (perhaps related to a dice-driven race game still played in south India where the track starts at the middle of a side and spirals in to the center).Ashtpada, the uncheckered 88 board served as the main board for playingChaturanga.Other Indian boards included the 1010Dasapadaand the 99Saturankam.Traditional Indian chessboards often have X markings on some or all of squares a1 a4 a5 a8 d1 d4 d5 d8 e1 e4 e5 e8 h1 h4 h5 h8: these may have been "safe squares" where capturing was not allowed in a dice-driven backgammon-type race game played on theashtpadabefore chess was invented.TheCox-Forbes theory, started in the late 19th century, mainly from the works of Captain Hiram Cox and Duncan Forbes, proposed that the four-handed gamechaturajiwas the original form of chaturanga.[19]Other scholars dispute this and say that the two-handed form was the first.InSanskrit, "chaturanga" () literally means "having four limbs (or parts)" and inepic poetryoften means "army" (the four parts are elephants, chariots, horsemen, foot soldiers).The name came from a battle formation mentioned in the Indian epicMahabharata.The game Chaturanga was a battle simulation gamewhich rendered Indian military strategy of the time.Some people formerly played chess using adieto decide which piece to move. There was an unproven theory that chess started as this dice-chess and that the gambling and dice aspects of the game were removed because ofHindureligious objections.Scholars in areas to which the game subsequently spread, for example the ArabAbu al-Hasan 'Al al-Mas'd, detailed the Indian use of chess as a tool formilitary strategy,mathematics,gamblingand even its vague association withastronomy.Mas'd notes thativoryin India was chiefly used for the production of chess andbackgammonpieces, and asserts that the game was introduced to Persia from India, along with the bookKelileh va Demneh,during the reign of emperorNushirwan.In some variants, a win was by checkmate, or bystalemate, or by "bare king" (taking all of an opponent's pieces except the king).In some parts of India the pieces in the places of the Rook, Knight and Bishop were renamed by words meaning (in this order) Boat, Horse, and Elephant, or Elephant, Horse, and Camel, but keeping the same moves.In early chess the moves of the pieces were: King: as now. Queen: one square diagonally, only. Bishop: In the version that went into Persia: two squares diagonally (no more or less), but could jump over a piece between In a version sometimes found in India in former times: two squares sideways or front-and-back (no more or less), but could jump over a piece between. In versions found in Southeast Asia: one square diagonally, or one square forwards. Knight: as now. Rook: as now. Pawn: one square forwards (not two), capturing one square diagonally forward; promoted to queen only.Two Arab travelers each recorded a severe Indian chess rule againststalemate[24]: A stalemated player thereby at once wins. A stalemated king can take one of the enemy pieces that would check the king if the king moves.Iran (Persia) Iranianshatranjset, glazedfritware, 12th century.New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.[25] Persianmanuscript from the 14th century describing how an ambassador from India brought chess to the Persian court. Shams-e-Tabrzas portrayed in a 1500 painting in a page of a copy ofRumi's poem dedicated to Shams.TheKarnamak-i Ardeshir-i Papakan, aPahlaviepical treatise about the founder of theSassanidPersian Empire, mentions the game ofchatrangas one of the accomplishments of the legendary hero,Ardashir I, founder of the Empire.The oldest recorded game in chess history is a 10th century game played between a historian fromBaghdadand a pupil.A manuscript explaining the rules of the game called "Matikan-i-chatrang" (the book of chess) inMiddle Persianor Pahlavi still exists[citation needed].In the 11th centuryShahnameh,Ferdowsidescribes aRajavisiting from India who re-enacts the past battles on the chessboard.A translation inEnglish, based on the manuscripts in theBritish Museum, is given below:One day an ambassador from the king ofHindarrived at the Persian court ofChosroes, and after an oriental exchange of courtesies, the ambassador produced rich presents from his sovereign and amongst them was an elaborate board with curiously carved pieces of ebony and ivory. He then issued a challenge:"Oh great king, fetch your wise men and let them solve the mysteries of this game. If they succeed my master the king of Hind will pay tribute as an overlord, but if they fail it will be proof that the Persians are of lower intellect and we shall demand tribute from Iran."The courtiers were shown the board, and after a day and a night in deep thought one of them,Bozorgmehr, solved the mystery and was richly rewarded by his delighted sovereign.(Edward Laskersuggested that Bozorgmehr likely found the rules by bribing the Indian envoys.)TheShahnamehgoes on to offer an apocryphal account of the origins of the game of chess in the story of Talhand and Gav, two half-brothers who vie for the throne of Hind (India). They meet in battle and Talhand dies on his elephant without a wound. Believing that Gav had killed Talhand, their mother is distraught. Gav tells his mother that Talhand did not die by the hands of him or his men, but she does not understand how this could be. So the sages of the court invent the game of chess, detailing the pieces and how they move, to show the mother of the princes how the battle unfolded and how Talhand died of fatigue when surrounded by his enemies.The poem uses the Persian term "Shh mt" (check mate) to describe the fate of Talhand.The appearance of the chess pieces had altered greatly since the times of chaturanga, with ornate pieces and chess pieces depicting animals giving way to abstract shapes.TheIslamicsets of later centuries followed a pattern which assigned names and abstract shapes to the chess pieces, asIslamforbids depiction of animals and human beings in art.These pieces were usually made of simple clay and carved stone.East AsiaChinaAs a strategy board game played inChina, chess is believed to have been derived from the Indian Chaturanga.Chaturanga was transformed and assimilated into the gamexiangqiwhere the pieces are placed on the intersection of the lines of the board rather than within the squares.The object of the Chinese variation is similar to Chaturanga, i.e. to render helpless the opponent's king, sometimes known asgeneral.Chinese chess also borrows elements from the game ofGo, which was played inChinasince at least the 6th century BC. Owing to the influence of Go, Chinese chess is played on the intersections of the lines on the board, rather than in the squares. Chinese chess pieces are usually flat and resemble those used incheckers, with pieces differentiated by writing their names on the flat surface.An alternative origin theory contends that chess arose fromXiangqior a predecessor thereof, existing inChinasince the 2nd century BC.David H. Li, a retired accountant, professor of accounting and translator of ancient Chinese texts, hypothesizes that generalHan Xindrew on the earlier game ofLiuboto develop an early form of Chinese chess in the winter of 204203 BC.The German chess historian Peter Banaschak, however, points out that Li's main hypothesis "is based on virtually nothing". He notes that the "Xuanguai lu," authored by theTang DynastyministerNiu Sengru(779847), remains the first real source on the Chinese chess variant xiangqi.