History of Chess

 

The youngest prince of 7th century Gaputa empire in India was killed in battle. To comfort their mother, his brother found a way to present the war in a colorful way; A game emerged from his idea. 

Chaturanga.

The game was based on an pre existing 8 by 8 “Ashtapador” board. He created different pieces with a single king, the fate of the king is determined by these other pieces surviving the battle. Each piece moved in a specific direction. The name of the new game was “Chaturanga” which means four divisions.

The four major divisions of the pieces were;

• Infantry (now pawn)
• Calvary (knight)
• Elephantry (Bishop)
• Chariotry (Rook)

From India it moved to the Persian empire where It was called “Shah” that is chess but literally king and also “Shah mat” which is checkmate meaning the king is helpless!

But all this is from legend 🤣🤣😂

Anyway we still have the game now as chess. From Persia to the Arabic world where it was used for poetry, art and not just tact. Through their diplomats who saw it as a description for political power and rulers who played the game, it was introduced to China and Japan where varieties were created.

In between them...

By the end of first millennium, chess was introduced to Europe. It became taught and evolved to its present form. There new terms took on the castes of the society - pawn (the least powerful), bishop...In 15th century, the previous weak adviser to the king was replaced by the queen.

It spread to other countries and international chess became a household name. Then IBM computers came and challenged world grandmasters 😂