India-the originator of chess
Guess who's back.......back again.... Mystery's back with a new blog so,
Hello Blunderer's welcome again today in this blog I will talk about India and chess history of India at first many of us know about India one of the best country in the world with historical background and also we will talk about how chess developed from time to time so let's dive into history of India.
Table of Content
1) About India
2) Chess history of India & Chaturanga
5) Conclusion
India is the country famous for its rich cultural heritage, historical monuments like Taj Mahal, diverse cuisine, vibrant festivals and spiritual destinations etc. It is the 7th largest country by area and the most populous country in the world 🌎 🌍. From 1858 to 1947 India was ruled by Britishers in 1947 India got its independence in 1947. It is said that India is the country which has given many things to all the nations like spices, medical aids, chess and many more also most hated subject maths and many more. Many of the people most of them foreign think that India is not a better country or not suitable or not favorable it is just a narrative set by people. One study shows that a median of 34% of people think that India isn't favorable. But they don't know what the real India is like. So just visit India and you will experience something you haven't experienced. It's also said that India is not for beginners.
Chess history of India & Chaturanga
Chess was first played in India during the period of "Gupta Dynasty" in 6th century nearly 1500 years ago at that time it was known as Chaturanga meaning (four division of military) from India it got spread to Persia and then got spread to Europe which we will talk about in part 2 of next blog about chess evolution. Let's talk about Chaturanga, it was played on an 8x8 chessboard called Ashtapada.
This was ashtapada 8x8 checkered board with special markings in which chaturanga was played. The meaning of these special markings is unknown till today theories tells that these markings are not related to chaturanga but were drawn because of tradition.Ashtapada itself wasn't chess the grid became useful for further development of chess, over time ashtapada became associated with chaturanga and through evolution it got associated with chess. Ashtapada represents the ancient Indian tradition of board games. Ashtapada developed not only chess but also other board games such as Pachisi.
Rules of Chaturanga White moves first and the aim is to checkmate raja (king) or reduce the opponent's position by leaving only raja (king) and the raja not facing each other, the white raja starts on E1 and the black raja on d8.
| Images | Names |
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raja (king) |
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Mantri (minister), Ferz(early form of queen) |
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Ratha (Rook) |
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Gaja (bishop) |
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Asva(horse or knight) |
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Sainiki (foot soldier of infantry pawn) |
Raja: (king) Raja use to move 1 step in each direction just like in modern chess. Fun fact: There was no castling in chaturanga.
Mantri : moves one step diagonally in any direction.
Ratha : moves the same as rook in chess horizontally and vertically in any number of unoccupied spaces.
Gaja : moves in any direction by jumping 2 squares.
Sainiki : moves as same as pawn in chess but without double step.
Additional rules - 1) If stalemate occurs in any condition then it will be a win for stalemated player this rule was seen in some variants of medieval chess from England around 1600. As per some sources it was told that stalemate didn't occur as the king was moved and then captured by opponent so by this we can say that in early chess king can be captured.
2) If only the king remains (i.e. every piece of the opponent is captured but not the king), then it's a victory for the opponent.
As per sources playing Chaturanga was like part of learning the battles it was arranged like army,infantry,elephant chariots it was a better way to win battles using tactics at that time.The game could be played in 2 player varient and 4 player varient in 4 player varient each player one of four division of army and played with dice to determine which piece has to be moved.
Later Chaturanga spread to Persia where it was called as Shatranj.
Chaturanga pieces we can see how beautifully they are made and are handcrafted.
So Shatranj seems to be derived from the word Chaturanga, suggesting that both the game and it's name came from India, during the reign of King Sassanid Khosrau.
(531-579) during his reign an Indian king (possibly Maukhari dynasty king of Kannauj) gave him a chess set with 16 pieces of Emrald and 16 pieces of Ruby (green against red), all this is mentioned in Ferdowsi's Shahnama.
The rules of Chaturanga as seen in India has enormous variations. But all involve four branches of army the horse (knight) the elephant (bishop) the chariot (rook) and the foot soldier (pawn) played on 8x8 checkered board. Shatranj also adapted much the same rules as Chaturanga and also all the piece structure but it was played not on 8x8 board but on 10x11 board.
In chaturanga the king could be captured and therefore the games ends there but in shatranj there were some new rules in Persian shatranj (700-800) there was a new idea when warning the king if is under attack (check in modern chess game) this was done to avoid early end of game.
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Shah(King) |
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Kerz |
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Rukh(Rook) |
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Elephant or Elfil |
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Asb(horse or knight) |
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Piyadeh (soldier or pawn) |
Shah:- moves like king a in chess
Ferz:- moves exactly one square diagonally which makes it rather a weak piece.
Rukh:-moves like rook in chess .
Elfil:- moves exactly 2 squares diagonally.
ASB:- moves like knight in chess
Piyadeh :- moves and takes like pawn in chess but doesn't move two steps forward on the first move and when it reaches 8th rank it can be only be promoted to ferz
This was called as Mujannah-Mashaikhi opening. In this opening players tried to reach this position.
Due to slow development of pieces in Shatranj the order of moves was not very important. Instead, the player aimed to reach a certain position, mostly ignoring the opponent's play.
This is called as Dilaram problem (10th century) Persian chess master composed many Shatranj problem such problems where called as Mansuba meaning position or arrangement. Mansubat were composed in such a way that victory could be achieved as a sequence of chess. One's king was threatened by immediate checkmate.
In the above position or mansuba (Dilaram's problem), black threatens mate in one by Ra2#, Ra8# or by Rb4#, but white can eventually win here with two rook sacrifices
1) Rh8 rook sacrifice, black takes rook with king2) Bf5, then king moves to Kg8
3)Rh-8 then king moves to h8 again 4)Ng7 then black moves to g8. 5)Nh6 is mate.
Note- in 2nd move Bf5 is possible as Alfil moves two squares diagonally jumping over intermediate piece and jumps on white knight and gives discovered check with second rook Bf5+. It is said that the white player bet (i.e. risked) his wife Dilaram on a chess game and there his wife appealed: "Sacrifice your two rooks, not me".
Conclusion
So on this note I end my blog here. I hope you liked it, if so feel free to comment your thoughts and give more suggestions so that the blog can be improved. Thanks for being here till the end. Special thanks to @VOB96 and @KindCuteGorilla for the hyperlink part. Thank you all for reading and stay tuned for the next part it will be about further chess development or you can say part 2 of this blog.
Thank you.
