Strange, I heard it spread from the Moors to India.
Live and learn I guess.
Who invented Chess?
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The creationist theory which is compulsory in most American schools posits that Chess was created in the USA a mere 150 years ago (despite Carbon dating of archeological remains of chess pieces going back many, many centuries). This is believed by over 70% of Americans.
The other school of thought which is taught in all other American schools is that of intelligent design - Chess was not created but rather was designed by an intelligent force ergo an American. This is believed by the remaining 28%.
Hundreds and hundreds of years ago there was a King in India who loved to play games. But he had gotten bored of the games that were present at the time and wanted a new game that was much more challenging. He commissioned a poor mathematician who lived in his kingdom to come up with a new game. After months of struggling with all kinds of ideas the mathematician came up with the game of Chaturanga. The game had two armies each lead by a King who commanded the army to defeat the other by capturing the enemy King. It was played on a simple 8x8 square board. The King loved this game so much that he offered to give the poor mathematician anything he wished for. "I would like one grain of rice for the first square of the board, two grains for the second, four grains for the third and so on doubled for each of the 64 squares of the game board" said the mathematician. "Is that all?" asked the King, "Why don't you ask for gold or silver coins instead of rice grains". "The rice should be sufficient for me." replied the mathematician. The King ordered his staff to lay down the grains of rice and soon learned that all the wealth in his kingdom would not be enough to buy the amount of rice needed on the 64th square. In fact the whole kingdoms supply of rice was exhausted before the 30th square was reached. "You have provided me with such a great game and yet I cannot fulfill your simple wish. You are indeed a genius." said the King and offered to make the mathematician his top most advisor instead.
Beast719 wrote:
The creationist theory which is compulsory in most American schools posits that Chess was created in the USA a mere 150 years ago (despite Carbon dating of archeological remains of chess pieces going back many, many centuries). This is believed by over 70% of Americans.
The other school of thought which is taught in all other American schools is that of intelligent design - Chess was not created but rather was designed by an intelligent force ergo an American. This is believed by the remaining 28%.
This is by far the best post on this I have read yet. I only wish I had written it...
May 7, 2009
0
#27
Welsh calls it Gwyddbwyll (woodwisdom) and it is Fidchell in Old Irish, Modern Irish Ficheall. These all derive from a common Celtic root. They originally refered to a different game, though. Apparently the rules were lost in antiquity, but some people have tried to revive it from what little survived.
It is шахматы (shachmatai) in Russian, which is derived from the same root as our word "checkmate." Most of the Eropean names for the game derive from this root, which means roughly "King's Death" "Shah Mat-" and derive from Persian. Chaturanga is the Sanskrit name and if memory servers means "four members." Refering to the pieces/pawns other than the king and his advisor (our queen): knight, archer, elephant (rook) and foot soldier. The old Persian word for chess was derived from the same root as the Sanskrit word, not surprising as they are linguistically closely related.
Interesting stuff. Thanks for the response. I read a book called The Chess Artist that explores some of the evolutionary journey resulting in modern chess. It is worth a look if anyone is interested in checking out more on the subject.
May 7, 2009
0
#28
Hold on... I gotta go back to post #11 by Crazychessplaya. Chuk Norris!??? Chuck friggin' Norris??!! Where the hell did that come from? That is hilarious.... when I read that and then again, now as I type it out, I am literally laughing out loud! Now THAT is some funny s#!t...... 
India - original name "chaturanga".Probably from time of Gupta empire.
From India, travelled to china - described by a chinese traveller who visited India in a book. Then travelled to middle east, africa, lastly europe. Many of the moves were different in the original form of the game (modernisation as with everything).
Nice article at :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_chess
May 8, 2009
0
#30
Beast719... that is a great reply. I love it. Like Robert said, I just wish I had written it..... but I might have to borrow it the next time someone asks me the question!
bharat_sharmaGM wrote:
Hundreds and hundreds of years ago there was a King in India who loved to play games. But he had gotten bored of the games that were present at the time and wanted a new game that was much more challenging. He commissioned a poor mathematician who lived in his kingdom to come up with a new game. After months of struggling with all kinds of ideas the mathematician came up with the game of Chaturanga. The game had two armies each lead by a King who commanded the army to defeat the other by capturing the enemy King. It was played on a simple 8x8 square board. The King loved this game so much that he offered to give the poor mathematician anything he wished for. "I would like one grain of rice for the first square of the board, two grains for the second, four grains for the third and so on doubled for each of the 64 squares of the game board" said the mathematician. "Is that all?" asked the King, "Why don't you ask for gold or silver coins instead of rice grains". "The rice should be sufficient for me." replied the mathematician. The King ordered his staff to lay down the grains of rice and soon learned that all the wealth in his kingdom would not be enough to buy the amount of rice needed on the 64th square. In fact the whole kingdoms supply of rice was exhausted before the 30th square was reached. "You have provided me with such a great game and yet I cannot fulfill your simple wish. You are indeed a genius." said the King and offered to make the mathematician his top most advisor instead.
That's a great story. Is it actually true.
God.