Chaturanga reached Europe through Persia, the Byzantine Empire and the expanding Arabian empire.

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. This game was introduced to the Near East from India and became a part of the princely or courtly education of Persian nobility. Chess spread throughout the world and many variants of the game soon took shape.

The words for 'chess' in Old Persian and Arabic are “Chatrang” and “shatranj” respectively - terms derived from chaturaṅga in Sanskrit, which literally means an army of four divisions or four corps. Both the Persians and Arabs ascribe the origins of the game of Chess to the Indians. In any case, don’t worry, I am not going to start teaching Hindi to you, but instead want to take you to the days when the Royal Game Chess was born.Ĭhaturanga and Shatranj: The precursors of chess originated in India during the Gupta dynasty (c. In the last world chess championship between Vishy Anand and Magnus Carlsen you may have seen some of my articles in the Hindi language, appended to the reports, though many of you might most likely did not understand Hindi! Perhaps the dual-language text (Hindi & English) below will help you.

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Origin of piece names in chess