Where did chess originate? (2024)

FAQs

Where did chess originate? ›

The game of chess was born in India during the Gupta dynasty in the 6th century. Today, more than 1500 years later, it is played in 172 countries. Chess is one of India's contribution to world culture, with games played in the court of kings, to those played in villages, and now, is a professional sport.

The earliest form of the game that's now called chess can be dated back to India in the sixth century. Like the modern game, this predecessor, called chaturanga (or catur) was played on an 8x8 grid and featured pieces generally similar to those of modern chess.

chess (n.) 13c., from Old French esches "chessmen," plural of eschec "game of chess, chessboard; checkmate" (see check (n.)), from the key move of the game. Modern French still distinguishes échec "check, blow, rebuff, defeat," from plural échecs "chess."

Today we know that chess originated from the Gupta Empire (600CE), of India. However many people firmly believe that chess was played by the ancient Egyptians. But, the game we think of as chess and what the Egyptians used to play are completely different.

In the 10th century, chess reached Russia from Byzantium and from the Vikings. Around 1262, the Russian word (as a noun) for chess , shakhmaty, was introduced. In 1551, Ivan IV "the Terrible" (1530-1584) banned chess in Russia. In 1584, Ivan was preparing to play a game of chess, when he fainted suddenly and died.

The specific origins of chess are, given the game's age, difficult to accurately determine. And, while there is no one person who can be credited as the sole creator of chess, most — though not all — historians think the game originated in India.

Wilhelm Steinitz, the first world chess champion is considered the father of modern chess. He extensively analyzed various king-pawn . Wilhelm Steinitz, the first World Champion, widely considered the "father of modern chess," extensively analyzed various double king-pawn openings (beginning 1.

Perrin, the Secretary of the New York Chess Club, informed those assembled at the First American Chess Congress that he had received a letter from Johann Löwenthal, a leading English master, "suggesting the advisableness of always giving the first move in public games, to the player of the white pieces".

The terminology of modern chess has Persian etymological roots: the Persian word rukh ("rook") means chariot; the term shah mat ("checkmate") means, literally, "the king is frozen").

Kings cannot legally be on adjacent squares, but otherwise opposition (being one square away from the other king on a rank or file, or even diagonally) is one of the most important principles in the endgame, since the king taking the opposition can force the other king to give way, gaining space.

Which religion invented chess? ›

The history of chess goes back almost 1500 years. The game originated in northern India in the 6th century AD and spread to Persia. When the Arabs conquered Persia, chess was taken up by the Muslim world. Later, through the Moorish conquest of Spain, chess spread to Southern Europe.

Senet, found in Predynastic and First Dynasty burials of Egypt, c. 3500 BC and 3100 BC respectively, is the oldest board game known to have existed. Senet was pictured in a fresco painting found in Merknera's tomb (3300–2700 BC).

Although there is no evidence that Julius Caesar, Augustus, Caligula, Nero or Hadrian knew anything about chess, the later Roman emperors ruling Byzantium, which only finally fell in 1453 to the Turkish forces of Islam, certainly did play the game.

The history of chess can be traced back nearly 1,500 years to its earliest known predecessor, called chaturanga, in India; its prehistory is the subject of speculation. From India it spread to Persia, where it was modified in terms of shapes and rules and developed into Shatranj.

The oldest recorded game, found in a 10th-century manuscript, was played between a Baghdad historian, believed to be a favourite of three successive caliphs, and a pupil. Muslims brought chess to North Africa, Sicily, and Spain by the 10th century. Eastern Slavs spread it to Kievan Rus about the same time.

Chess first appeared in India about the 6th century CE. By the 10th century it had spread from Asia to the Middle East and Europe. Some regard the game chaturanga to be the precursor of modern chess because of the different piece abilities and the win condition being the capture of a singular piece (king).

Chaturanga was flourishing in northwestern India by the 7th century and is regarded as the earliest precursor of modern chess because it had two key features found in all later chess variants—different pieces had different powers (unlike checkers and go), and victory was based on one piece, the king of modern chess.

Chinese chess is older. There is no single time when either chess or xiangqi was invented: they both evolved slowly from a family of games that already existed in the 6th century CE, starting with the game of chaturanga in India or Persia.

e4 is the oldest opening move. However, we can consider this topic by using different criteria. If we date the earliest chess treatise (Göttingen manuscript) to be around 1490, the Scandinavian Defense has a good claim to be the oldest chess opening based on the first recorded game which dates 1475.