history of chess

The earliest documents referring to the origins of chess date from the early 7th century: three written in Pahlavi (Middle Persian)[7] and one in Sanskrit, the Harshacharita.[8] Of these texts, the Chatrang-namak represents one of the earliest written accounts of chess. Bozorgmehr explains that Chatrang, the Pahlavi word for chess, was introduced into Persia by 'Dewasarm, a great ruler of India' during the reign of Khosrau I.[9] By the 20th century, there was a broad consensus among historians[10][11] that chess was first played in northern India during the Gupta Empire in the 7th century.[12][13] Recently, this consensus has become the subject of greater scrutiny.[14]

The original form of chess in India was called chaturaṅga (Sanskrit: चतुरङ्ग), a Sanskrit word for army. The Gupta pieces were divided like their armies into infantry, cavalry, elephants, and chariots. Over time, these pieces became pawns, bishops, knights, and rooks. Chaturanga was played on an unmarked 8×8 board called an ashtāpada.[15] The game spread east and west along the Silk Road. The earliest evidence of chess is found in nearby Sasanian Persia around 600 AD, and is known as chatrang. Chatrang was introduced into the Islamic world after the Muslim conquest of Persia (633–51), and was named shatranj. In Spanish, "shatranj" is written as ajedrez ("al-shatranj"), in Portuguese as xadrez and in Greek as ζατρίκιον (zatrikion, derived directly from the Persian chatrang),[16] but in the rest of Europe it was replaced by versions of the Persian shāh ("king").[17]

One theory is that the name change occurred because before chess reached Europe, merchants had brought decorated kings as rare objects and with them the name shāh, which was mispronounced in various ways by Europeans.

Checkmate: The English word checkmate is a translation of the phrase shāh māt, which in Persian means "the king is out of the way". In Arabic it means "shāh is dead", but shāh is not a common Arabic word for "king" (except sometimes in chess).
Rook: In English rook. It came through Arabic from the Persian word rukh, meaning "chariot", but also meaning "cheek" (part of the face) and also a mythical bird with power called the roc.
Bishop: In English bishop. The Arabic al-fīl (from the Persian pīl) means "elephant", but in Europe and the western part of the Islamic world at that time little or nothing was known about elephants and the name of the piece came to Western Europe in the Latin form alfinus and the like, a word that meant nothing (in Spanish it evolved into the name alfil). The English name bishop is an invented renaming after its conventional shape, the mitre of a church bishop. However, in Russia the name of this piece is slon = "elephant".
Queen: In English is queen. Persian farzīn = vizia - a high official in the ancient Islamic world, similar to the vizier became Arabic firzān, it came to Europe in forms such as alfferza, fers etc. but was later replaced by "queen".
Chess came to Russia by way of the Mongols, where it was played from the beginning of the 7th century. It was introduced to Spain by the Moors in the 10th century, and is described in the famous 13th century manuscript on chess, backgammon and dice games called Libro de los juegos. Chess also traveled overland through Siberia to Alaska.

Xiang Chess is the most popular form of chess in China. The eastward migration of chess, to China and Southeast Asia, is even less documented than its westward migration, leaving it largely a matter of conjecture. The Chinese word "Xiangqi" (象棋) has been used to refer to a game since at least 569 AD, but it is unclear whether this game is directly related to chess.[18][19] The first written reference to Chinese chess appears in a book titled Xuanguailu 玄怪錄 ("Record of Mysteries and Strangeness"), dated around 800. Alternatively, some have suggested that chess arose from the similar game of Chinese chess, or at least from an ancestor of Chinese chess,[20] which had existed in China since the 2nd century BC, although this is disputed.[21] Joseph Needham and David Li are two of the many scholars who hold this theory. Ultimately, the Chinese believe that chess originated from Manchu chess, which was founded by the Qing Dynasty. However, Xiangqi seems to exhibit some intrinsic characteristics that make it easier to construct an evolutionary path from China to India/Persia than the other way around.[22]