History Of Chess

Though many countries claim to have invented at least some form of the game of chess, popular belief maintains that the game originated in India. The present form of chess is derived form the game Chaturunga, which was played in India in the 6th Century. The Persians had a variant of the game, called Shatranj. Some scholars believe that the game actually originated from the Chinese game Xiangqi, around the 2nd century BC.

Wherever it came from, the game of chess eventually spread west across Europe and east to Japan, with many variations being created along the way. It was spread throughout the Islamic world after the Muslim conquest of Persia. Here the game retained it's Persian pieces, but the name was changed to Shatranj.

Chess eventually made its way to Russia during the 7th century. Afterwards it was introduced to the Iberian Peninsula by the Moors in the 10th century. It was described in a 13th century manuscript of illustrating many games such as chess, backgammon and other dice games.

As the game of chess was taken in by culture after culture, the names of the individual pieces and terms used in the game evolved. The word Rook comes form the Sanskrit word Rath, or possibly the Persian word Rukh, both of which mean "chariot". Some believe it was named after the mythical giant bird, Roc.

The bishop was originally called "the elephant" by the Persians, but few Europeans knew what an elephant was and the name became the Latin alfinus. The Arabic word for elephant is alfil, and it is believed that the Spanish gave it this name, which is believed to have come from the Islamic provinces of Spain. The piece had resembled an elephant's tusk, which is said to have resembled the mitre of a bishop, so the English name for the piece became "bishop".

The term "checkmate" is believed to be an English translation of the Persian word for "the king is finished", or sh.h m.t, the Persian word for king being sh.h. The queen was originally called farz.n or vizier. This entered the western forms of the game as alfferza and fers. This was later replaced by "queen".

Early European versions of the game had somewhat limited movement for some pieces. The bishop, for example, could only hop two spaces diagonally and the queen could only move one space diagonally. Pawns could not move two spaces on the first turn and there was no castling. By the 15th century, the modern rules of chess were adopted. Pawns gained that first two-space move, and en passant capturing. Bishops were now able to move across the board and the queen gained her status as the move powerful piece.