India
The earliest precursor of modern chess is a game called chaturanga, which flourished in India by
the 6th century, and is the earliest known game to have two essential features found in all later
chess variations—different pieces having different powers (which was not the case with checkers and
Go), and victory depending on the fate of one piece, the king of modern chess.The original chess
board was mathematically revolutionary, as reported by the infamous Wheat and chessboard
problem. A common theory is that India’s development of the board, and chess, was likely due to
India’s mathematical enlightenment involving the creation of the number zero.Other game pieces
(speculatively called "chess pieces") uncovered in archaeological findings are considered as coming
from other, distantly related board games, which may have had boards of 100 squares or more.
Chess was designed for an ashtāpada (Sanskrit for "having eight feet", i.e. an 8×8 squared board),
which may have been used earlier for a backgammon-type race game (perhaps related to a dice-
driven race game still played in south India where the track starts at the middle of a side and
spirals into the center).[Ashtāpada, the uncheckered 8×8 board served as the main board for
playing chaturanga.Other Indian boards included the 10×10 Dasapada and the 9×9
Saturankam.Traditional Indian chessboards often have X markings on some or all of squares a1 a4
a5 a8 d1 d4 d5 d8 e1 e4 e5 e8 h1 h4 h5 h8: these may have been "safe squares" where capturing was
not allowed in a dice-driven backgammon-type race game played on the ashtāpada before chess was
invented.
The Cox-Forbes theory, proposed in the late 18th century by Hiram Cox, and later developed by
Duncan Forbes, asserted that the four-handed game chaturaji was the original form of chaturanga.
The theory is no longer considered tenable.
In Sanskrit, "chaturanga" (चतुरङ्ग) literally means "having four limbs (or parts)" and in epic poetry
often means "army" (the four parts are elephants, chariots, horsemen, foot soldiers). The name
came from a battle formation mentioned in the Indian epic Mahabharata. The game chaturanga
was a battle-simulation game[6] which rendered Indian military strategy of the time.
Some people formerly played chess using a die to decide which piece to move. There was an
unproven theory that chess started as this dice-chess and that the gambling and dice aspects of the
game were removed because of Hindu religious objections.
Scholars in areas to which the game subsequently spread, for example the Arab Abu al-Hasan 'Alī
al-Mas'ūdī, detailed the Indian use of chess as a tool for military strategy, mathematics, gambling
and even its vague association with astronomy. Mas'ūdī notes that ivory in India was chiefly
used for the production of chess and backgammon pieces, and asserts that the game was introduced
to Persia from India, along with the book Kelileh va Demneh, during the reign of emperor
Nushirwan.
In some variants, a win was by checkmate, or by stalemate, or by "bare king" (taking all of an
opponent's pieces except the king).
In some parts of India the pieces in the places of the rook, knight and bishop were renamed by
words meaning (in this order) Boat, Horse, and Elephant, or Elephant, Horse, and Camel, but
keeping the same moves
The earliest precursor of modern chess is a game called chaturanga, which flourished in India by
the 6th century, and is the earliest known game to have two essential features found in all later
chess variations—different pieces having different powers (which was not the case with checkers and
Go), and victory depending on the fate of one piece, the king of modern chess.The original chess
board was mathematically revolutionary, as reported by the infamous Wheat and chessboard
problem. A common theory is that India’s development of the board, and chess, was likely due to
India’s mathematical enlightenment involving the creation of the number zero.Other game pieces
(speculatively called "chess pieces") uncovered in archaeological findings are considered as coming
from other, distantly related board games, which may have had boards of 100 squares or more.
Chess was designed for an ashtāpada (Sanskrit for "having eight feet", i.e. an 8×8 squared board),
which may have been used earlier for a backgammon-type race game (perhaps related to a dice-
driven race game still played in south India where the track starts at the middle of a side and
spirals into the center).[Ashtāpada, the uncheckered 8×8 board served as the main board for
playing chaturanga.Other Indian boards included the 10×10 Dasapada and the 9×9
Saturankam.Traditional Indian chessboards often have X markings on some or all of squares a1 a4
a5 a8 d1 d4 d5 d8 e1 e4 e5 e8 h1 h4 h5 h8: these may have been "safe squares" where capturing was
not allowed in a dice-driven backgammon-type race game played on the ashtāpada before chess was
invented.
The Cox-Forbes theory, proposed in the late 18th century by Hiram Cox, and later developed by
Duncan Forbes, asserted that the four-handed game chaturaji was the original form of chaturanga.
The theory is no longer considered tenable.
In Sanskrit, "chaturanga" (चतुरङ्ग) literally means "having four limbs (or parts)" and in epic poetry
often means "army" (the four parts are elephants, chariots, horsemen, foot soldiers). The name
came from a battle formation mentioned in the Indian epic Mahabharata. The game chaturanga
was a battle-simulation game[6] which rendered Indian military strategy of the time.
Some people formerly played chess using a die to decide which piece to move. There was an
unproven theory that chess started as this dice-chess and that the gambling and dice aspects of the
game were removed because of Hindu religious objections.
Scholars in areas to which the game subsequently spread, for example the Arab Abu al-Hasan 'Alī
al-Mas'ūdī, detailed the Indian use of chess as a tool for military strategy, mathematics, gambling
and even its vague association with astronomy. Mas'ūdī notes that ivory in India was chiefly
used for the production of chess and backgammon pieces, and asserts that the game was introduced
to Persia from India, along with the book Kelileh va Demneh, during the reign of emperor
Nushirwan.
In some variants, a win was by checkmate, or by stalemate, or by "bare king" (taking all of an
opponent's pieces except the king).
In some parts of India the pieces in the places of the rook, knight and bishop were renamed by
words meaning (in this order) Boat, Horse, and Elephant, or Elephant, Horse, and Camel, but
keeping the same moves
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