“A king in India died and left an only son named Gav, still an infant. Then the citizens wanted a king who was already old, wise and vigorous, and they elected the brother of the dead man, named May. As soon as he was made king, May married the dowager queen, and had a son by her, who was named Talhend. Gav and Talhend grew up together, and when one of them asked his mother privately which of them would reign, she promised him only the kingdom, so it happened that each of the two, keeping to that promise of his mother, grew up with the persuasion of being one day the king. Having therefore reached the age of reign, an obstinate dispute arose between them, since no one wanted to give in, and each one had his partisans and advisers. At length they came to arms, and after a desperate struggle Talhend lay slain in the field. The miserable mother was inconsolable and blamed the death of her brother on the survivor Gav, who could not in any way persuade her that all the misfortune was the fault of fate and not of him. Finally, after consulting with the wise men of his kingdom, one day they brought him a square wooden tablet with the image of the battlefield, with the pits traced in defense of the army. On that table were arrayed two armies in wood and ivory, led by their kings, with horses and elephants and ministers. Advancing the two armies according to their established moves, they fought, and one of their kings, in the end, had to succumb. Bringing the wonderful game to the inconsolable mother, she, playing, also came to understand that, fighting two kings, one must certainly succumb. So she spent the whole days and nights attending to that game, which represented the fate of her two children, grieving and crying, until, exhausted by watching and fasting, she died. This is the origin of the game of chess».
This excerpt from the Persian epic Shahnameh (Book of Kings) is the earliest known mention of the origin of chess. According to its author, the poet Firdūsī, the game originated in the 6th century following a dispute over the throne of India. Gav, accused of killing his brother Talhand, recreated the battle using ivory pieces representing the four combat units of the army: infantry, cavalry, elephants and chariots.
Whether the legend told by Firdūsī is true or not, it is known that chess originated from the game he described, chaturanga, whose name means "four divisions" in reference to the four pieces that symbolize the units of the Indian army, which correspond to the current pawns (infantry), horses (cavalry), bishops (elephants) and rooks (chariots) of the game of chess.
But many other games such as Japanese shogi, Chinese xiangqi and Thai makruk derive from chess.
