Centuries Old Games for Modern Life

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The precursors of chess originated in India during the Gupta empire,[1][2][3][4] where its early form in the 6th century was known as chatura%u1E45ga, which translates as "four divisions [of the military]": infantry, cavalry, elephantry, and chariotry, represented by the pieces that would evolve into the modern pawn, knight, bishop, and rook, respectively.[5] In Sassanid Persia around 600 the name became chatrang and the rules were developed further, and players started calling "Sh%u0101h!" (Persian for "King!") when attacking the opponent's king, and "Sh%u0101h m%u0101t!" (Persian for "the king is finished") when the king was attacked and could not escape from attack; these exclamations persisted in chess as it traveled to other lands thereafter.

The game was taken up by the Muslim world after the Islamic conquest of Persia, with the pieces largely retaining their Persian names; in Arabic "m%u0101t" or "m%u0101ta" %u0645%u064E%u0627%u062A%u064E means "died", "is dead". In Arabic, the game became shatranj. The Moors of North Africa rendered "shatranj" as shaterej which gave rise to the Spanish acedrex, axedrez and ajedrez; in Portuguese it became xadrez, and in Greek zatrikion, but in the rest of Europe it was replaced by versions of the Persian sh%u0101h ("king"). Thus, the game came to be called %u015Fah in Romanian, %u0161ah in Slovene, Schach in German, schaken in Dutch, shakki in Finnish, szachy in Polish, scacchi in Italian, %u0161ahs in Latvian, skak in Danish, sjakk in Norwegian, schack in Swedish, escacs in Catalan, and échecs in French (Old French eschecs); there are two theories about why this change happened:

1. From the exclamation "check" or "checkmate" as it was pronounced in various languages.
2. From the first chessmen known of in Western Europe (except Iberia and Greece) being ornamental chess kings brought in as curios by Muslim traders.

Chess spread directly from the Middle East to Russia, where chess became known as %u0448%u0430%u0445%u043C%u0430%u0442%u044B (shakhmaty, treated as a plural).

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.[6] Introduced into the Iberian Peninsula by the Moors in the 10th century, it was described in a famous 13th century manuscript covering shatranj and backgammon and dice named the Libro de los juegos.

Chess spread throughout the world and many variants of the game soon began taking shape.[7] This game was introduced to the Near East from India and became a part of the princely or courtly education of Persian nobility.[8] Buddhist pilgrims, Silk Road traders and others carried it to the Far East where it was transformed and assimilated into a game often played on the intersection of the lines of the board rather than within the squares.[7] Chaturanga reached Europe through Persia, the Byzantine empire and the expanding Arabian empire.[9] Muslims carried chess to North Africa, Sicily, and Spain by the 10th century.[7]

The game was developed extensively in Europe, and by the late 15th century, it had survived a series of prohibitions and Christian Church sanctions to almost take the shape of the modern game.[10] Modern times saw reliable reference works,[11] competitive chess tournaments[12] and exciting new variants which added to the game's popularity,[12] further bolstered by reliable timing mechanisms (first introduced in 1861), effective rules[12] and charismatic players.[13]