Chess · History
Chaturanga in India
The earliest known ancestor of chess is chaturanga, played in India around the sixth century. Its pieces represented the four divisions of an ancient army — infantry, cavalry, elephants and chariots — fighting on an 8×8 board to capture the enemy king.
Shatranj in Persia and the Islamic world
In Persia the game became shatranj. The phrase “shāh māt” — the king is helpless — survives as “checkmate”. Scholars of the Islamic world wrote collections of problems and recorded games, and the game travelled along trade routes to the Mediterranean.
Modern chess is born in Europe
Chess reached Europe around the tenth century and was transformed in Spain and Italy in the late fifteenth century: the queen, once limited to a single diagonal step, became the strongest piece on the board, and the bishop gained its long range. The game became much faster, and castling and en passant gradually became standard.
Champions and computers
The first official world championship match was played in 1886, and the international federation FIDE was founded in Paris in 1924 to unify the rules. In 1997 a computer beat the reigning world champion in a match for the first time. Today engine analysis and online play have brought more people to chess than ever before.