Wie sich schach auf der ganzen welt verbreitete
July 20 is International Chess Day, and few games are played more broadly worldwide than chess. At the last Chess Olympiad in 2022, 186 nations sent more than 1,700 players to compete. Estimates of the number of players globally usually range from 600 million to 800 million, or 10% of the world population.
But how did this game spread across the entire world? There are two ways to view this question. Thanks to PogChamps, The Queen's Gambit, Mittens, and other phenomena, chess has become very popular in recent years. You can read more about that here, here, and elsewhere.
This article instead looks at the geographical spread of chess across the world, which is a much older story. Read on and find out how an Indian game became a worldwide phenomenon.
- Chaturanga In India
- Shatranj In Persia and the Middle East
- Chess In Spain
- Further Rule Changes Throughout Europe
- Conclusion
Chaturanga In India
The oldest known game that chess evolved from is called chaturanga, which was born in India no later than the sixth century, an excellent historical place and time to become popular elsewhere through conquest and trade. It spread both west and east, evolving as it did. The westward spread through Iran, the Middle East, and Europe is how chaturanga became chess. It is only fitting that India today is one of the strongest chess countries (perhaps even the strongest) in the entire world.
