The rules of early chess...

By the way, early chess is Chaturanga. The early rules are not fully known. Nobody knows how old the game is. Estimates say it originated 6th century AD in India. There are no confirmed rules. It is hardly known how pieces moved. Chaturanga was played 4 player or 2 player. Chaturanga has variants such as Shatranj and Shogi. In fact, modern chess is a variant of Chaturanga. All Chaturanga variants came after Chaturanga was invented. The queen only moved one square diagonally in Chaturanga. The bishops moves has so many variations. Most agree that bishop moved 2 squares and could jump over pieces. Pawns moved regularly but they could not move 2 squares on their first move. There were also different rules for promotions. No promotions on the king square. When a pawn reaches the last row, it becomes the piece which started there. For example, if a pawn ends up where the other sides queen started, the pawn becomes a queen of it's color.

Online, you can play Chaturanga, which is considered the earliest form of chess. In my next blog, we will talk about 4 player Chaturanga.