History of Chess

The invention of Chess has been attributed to the Indians both by the Persian people and by the Arabs who later conquered Persia.[2] Abu al-Hasan 'Alī al-Mas'ūdī, an Arab historian, provided scholarly details of the game as it was played in India and elsewhere.[2] He details the use of chess as a tool for warfare strategy, mathematical calculations, gambling and even its vague association with astronomy.[2] Mas'ūdī notes that Ivory in India was chiefly used for the production of chess and backgammon pieces used by the Indians, and asserts that the game was introduced from India along with the book Kelileh va Demneh during the reign of emperor Nushirwan.[2]

The Persian poet Firdausi also points to India regarding the invention of Chess, which he credits to King Gav, an Indian king, who re-enacts the past battles on the chessboard.[2]

It is also thought that the game originated in India because the Persian word for chess, shatranj, is derived from the Sanskrit chaturanga, which translates as "four divisions of the military", infantry, cavalry, elephants and chariots, represented respectively by pawn, knight, bishop and rook.


As a strategy board game played in China, chess is believed to have been derived from the Indian Chaturanga.[3] The object of the Chinese variation is similar to Chaturanga, i.e. to capture the opponent's king, sometimes known as general.[3]
The first reference to chess in literature appears in Persia and dates around the 5th century AD[4] Karnamag-i Artaxshir-i Papakan. The earliest unambiguous reference in India appears to date from about 625 AD. The earliest documented chess pieces also date to the 7th century. By about 800 the game reached China and was known, with modifications, as Xiangqi. Shatranj was taken up by the Muslim world after the Islamic conquest of Persia, with the pieces largely retaining their Persian names. In Spanish "shatranj" was rendered as ajedrez, in Portuguese as xadrez, in Turkish as satranc and in Greek as zatrikion, but in the rest of Europe it was replaced by versions of the Persian shāh ("king").

The game reached Western Europe and Russia by at least three routes, the earliest being in the 9th century. By the year 1000 it had spread throughout Europe.[5] Introduced into the Iberian Peninsula by the Moors in the 10th century, it was described in a famous 13th century manuscript covering shatranj, backgammon, and dice named the Libro de los juegos.[6]