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History of chess

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The history of chess can be traced back nearly 1500 years, although the earliest origins are uncertain. The earliest predecessor of the game probably originated in India, before the 6th century AD; a minority of historians believe the game originated in China. From India, the game spread to Persia. When the Arabs conquered Persia, chess was taken up by the Muslim world and subsequently spread to Southern Europe. In Europe, chess evolved into roughly its current form in the 15th century.

The "Romantic Era of Chess" was the predominant chess playing style down to the 1880s.[citation needed] It was characterized by swashbuckling attacks, clever combinations, brash piece sacrifices and dynamic games.[citation needed] Winning was secondary to winning with style.[citation needed] These games were focused more on artistic expression, rather than technical mastery or long-term planning.[citation needed] The Romantic era of play was followed by the Scientific, Hypermodern, and New Dynamism eras.[1] In the second half of the 19th century, modern chess tournament play began, and the first World Chess Championship was held in 1886. The 20th century saw great leaps forward in chess theory and the establishment of the World Chess Federation (FIDE). Developments in the 21st century include use of computers for analysis, which originated in the 1970s with the first programmed chess games on the market. Online gaming appeared in the mid-1990s.

Chess remains a highly popular pastime among the general populace. A 2012 survey found that "chess players now make up one of the largest communities in the world: 605 million adults play chess regularly". Chess is played at least once a year by 12% of British people, 15% of Americans, 23% of Germans, 43% of Russians, and 70% of Indian people.[2]


Solid white.svg a b c d e f g h Solid white.svg
8 a8 b8 c8 d8 e8 f8 g8 h8 8
7 a7 b7 c7 d7 e7 f7 g7 h7 7
6 a6 b6 c6 d6 e6 f6 g6 h6 6
5 a5 b5 c5 d5 e5 f5 g5 h5 5
4 a4 b4 c4 d4 e4 f4 g4 h4 4
3 a3 b3 c3 d3 e3 f3 g3 h3 3
2 a2 b2 c2 d2 e2 f2 g2 h2 2
1 a1 b1 c1 d1 e1 f1 g1 h1 1
Solid white.svg a b c d e f g h Solid white.svg
Chaturanga starting position.[3] The kings do not face each other; the white king starts on e1 and the black king on d8.

Precursors to chess originated in India during the Gupta Empire.[4] There, its early form in the 6th century was known as chaturaṅga, which translates as "four divisions (of the military)": infantry, cavalry, elephantry, and chariotry. These forms are represented by the pieces that would evolve into the modern pawn, knight, bishop, and rook, respectively.[5] According to chess historians Gerhard Josten and Isaak Linder, "the early beginnings" of chess can be traced back to the Kushan Empire in Ancient Afghanistan, circa 50 BCE–200 CE.[6][7]

Chess was introduced to Persia from India and became a part of the princely or courtly education of Persian nobility.[8] In Sassanid Persia around 600 the name became chatrang, which subsequently evolved to shatranj, due to Arab Muslims' lack of ch and ng native sounds,[9] and the rules were developed further. Players started calling "Shāh!" (Persian for "King!") when attacking the opponent's king, and "Shāh Māt!" (Persian for "the king is helpless" – see checkmate) when the king was attacked and could not escape from attack. These exclamations persisted in chess as it traveled to other lands.





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

Chess spread throughout the world and many variants of the game soon began taking shape.[11] 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.[11][12] Chaturanga reached Europe through Persia, the Byzantine empire and the expanding Arabian empire.[13] Muslims carried chess to North Africa, Sicily, and Iberia by the 10th century.[11]

The game was developed extensively in Europe. 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.[14] Modern history saw reliable reference works,[15] competitive chess tournaments,[16] and exciting new variants. These factors added to the game's popularity,[16] further bolstered by reliable timing mechanisms (first introduced in 1861), effective rules,[16] and charismatic players.[17]


Krishna and Radha playing chaturanga on an 8×8 Ashtāpada

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.[11] 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.[9] 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.[11] Findings in the Mohenjo-daro and Harappa (2600–1500 BCE) sites of the Indus Valley Civilization show the prevalence of a board game that resembles chess.[18]

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).[19] Ashtāpada, the uncheckered 8×8 board served as the main board for playing chaturanga.[20] Other Indian boards included the 10×10 Dasapada and the 9×9 Saturankam.[20] 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.[19]

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.[21] The theory is no longer considered tenable.[22]

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).[8] The name came from a battle formation mentioned in the Indian epic Mahabharata.[11] The game chaturanga was a battle-simulation game[8] which rendered Indian military strategy of the time.[23]





In early chess the moves of the pieces were:

Original name Modern name Version Original move
king king all as now
adviser queen all one square diagonally, only
horse knight all as now
chariot rook all as now

Two Arab travelers each recorded a severe Indian chess rule against stalemate:[26]

  • A stalemated player thereby at once wins.

Iran (Persia)

The Karnamak-i Ardeshir-i Papakan, a Pahlavi epical treatise about the founder of the Sassanid Persian Empire, mentions the game of chatrang as one of the accomplishments of the legendary hero, Ardashir I, founder of the Empire.[28] The oldest recorded game in chess history is a 10th-century game played between a historian from Baghdad and a pupil.[13]


In the 11th century Shahnameh, Ferdowsi describes a Raja visiting from India who re-enacts the past battles on the chessboard.[25] A translation in English, based on the manuscripts in the British Museum, is given below:[28]





The appearance of the chess pieces had altered greatly since the times of chaturanga, with ornate pieces and chess pieces depicting animals giving way to abstract shapes.[32] This is because of a Muslim ban on the game’s lifelike pieces, as they were said to have brought upon images of idolatry.[9] The Islamic sets of later centuries followed a pattern which assigned names and abstract shapes to the chess pieces, as Islam forbids depiction of animals and human beings in art.[32] These pieces were usually made of simple clay and carved stone.[32]

East Asia


As a strategy board game played in China, chess is believed to have been derived from the Indian chaturanga.[33] Chaturanga was transformed into the game xiangqi where the pieces are placed on the intersection of the lines of the board rather than within the squares.[11] The object of the Chinese variation is similar to chaturanga, i.e. to render helpless the opponent's king, known as "general" on one side and "governor" on the other.[33] Chinese chess also borrows elements from the game of Go, which was played in China since at least the 6th century BC. Owing to the influence of Go, Chinese chess is played on the intersections of the lines on the board, rather than in the squares. The game of Xianqi is also unique in that the middle rank represents a river, and is not divided into squares.[34] Chinese chess pieces are usually flat and resemble those used in checkers, with pieces differentiated by writing their names on the flat surface.[33]

An alternative origin theory contends that chess arose from xiangqi or a predecessor thereof, existing in China since the 3rd century BC.[35] David H. Li, a retired accountant, professor of accounting and translator of ancient Chinese texts, hypothesizes that general Han Xin drew on the earlier game of Liubo to develop an early form of Chinese chess in the winter of 204–203 BC.[35] The German chess historian Peter Banaschak, however, points out that Li's main hypothesis "is based on virtually nothing." He notes that the "Xuanguai lu," authored by the Tang Dynasty minister Niu Sengru (779–847), remains the first real source on the Chinese chess variant xiangqi.[36]


A prominent variant of chess in East Asia is the game of shogi, transmitted from India to China and Korea before finally reaching Japan.[37] The three distinguishing features of shogi are:

  2. Pawns capture as they move, one square straight ahead.[37]
  3. The board is 9×9, with a second golden general (shogi name for the queen) on the other side of the king.



  • King: Noyon – Ноён – lord
  • Bishop: Temē – Тэмээ – camel
  • Knight: Morĭ – Морь – horse
  • Rook: Tereg – Тэрэг – cart

Names recorded from the 1880s by Russian sources, quoted in Murray,[19] among the Soyot people (who at the time spoke the Soyot Turkic language) include: merzé (dog), täbä (camel), ot (horse), ōl (child) and Mongolian names for the other pieces.


Chess in Mongolia is now played following standard rules.

East Siberia


Arab world

Main article: Shatranj




Early history

Shatranj made its way via the expanding Islamic Arabian empire to Europe.[13] It also spread to the Byzantine empire, where it was called zatrikion. Chess appeared in Southern Europe during the end of the first millennium, often introduced to new lands by conquering armies, such as the Norman Conquest of England.[14] Chess remained largely unpopular in Northern Europe but started gaining popularity as soon as figure pieces were introduced.[14]

In the 14th century, Timur played an enlarged variation of the game which is commonly referred to as Tamerlane Chess. This complex game involved each pawn having a particular purpose, as well as additional pieces.[38]


The social value attached to the game – seen as a prestigious pastime associated with nobility and high culture – is clear from the expensive and exquisitely made chessboards of the medieval era.[39] The popularity of chess in the Western courtly society peaked between the 12th and the 15th centuries.[40] The game found mention in the vernacular and Latin language literature throughout Europe, and many works were written on or about chess between the 12th and the 15th centuries.[40] H. J. R. Murray divides the works into three distinct parts: the didactic works e.g. Alexander of Neckham's De scaccis (approx. 1180); works of morality like Liber de moribus hominum et officiis nobilium sive super ludo scacchorum (Book of the customs of men and the duties of nobles or the Book of Chess), written by Jacobus de Cessolis; and the works related to various chess problems, written largely after 1205.[40] Chess terms, like check, were used by authors as a metaphor for various situations.[41] Chess was soon incorporated into the knightly style of life in Europe.[42] Peter Alfonsi, in his work Disciplina Clericalis, listed chess among the seven skills that a good knight must acquire.[42] Chess also became a subject of art during this period, with caskets and pendants decorated in various chess forms.[43] Queen Margaret of England's green and red chess sets – made of jasper and crystal – symbolized chess's position in royal art treasures.[41] Kings Henry I, Henry II and Richard I of England were chess patrons.[11] Other monarchs who gained similar status were Alfonso X of Castile and Ivan IV of Russia.[11]

Saint Peter Damian denounced the bishop of Florence in 1061 for playing chess even when aware of its evil effects on the society.[14] The bishop of Florence defended himself by declaring that chess involved skill and was therefore "unlike other games," and similar arguments followed in the coming centuries.[14] Two incidents in 13th century London involving men of Essex resorting to violence resulting in death as an outcome of playing chess further caused sensation and alarm.[14] The growing popularity of the game – now associated with revelry and violence – alarmed the Church.[14]

The practice of playing chess for money became so widespread during the 13th century that Louis IX of France issued an ordinance against gambling in 1254.[39] This ordinance turned out to be unenforceable and was largely neglected by the common public, and even the courtly society, which continued to enjoy the now prohibited chess tournaments uninterrupted.[39]

Shapes of pieces


By the mid-12th century, the pieces of the chess set were depicted as kings, queens, bishops, knights and men at arms.[44] Chessmen made of ivory began to appear in North-West Europe, and ornate pieces of traditional knight warriors were used as early as the mid 13th century.[45] The initially nondescript pawn had now found association with the pedes, pedinus, or the footman, which symbolized both infantry and loyal domestic service.[44]

Names of pieces

The following table provides a glimpse of the changes in names and character of chess pieces as they crossed from India through Persia to Europe:[46][47]

Sanskrit Bengali Persian Arabic Turkish Latin English Spanish Portuguese Italian French Catalan
Padati (footman/footsoldier) Shoinnya Piadeh Baidaq/Jondi Piyon Pedes/Pedinus Pawn Peón Peão Pedone/Pedina Pion Peó

The game, as played during the early Middle Ages, was slow, with many games lasting for days.[14] Some variations in rules began to change the shape of the game by 1300 AD.[48] A notable, but initially unpopular, change was the ability of the pawn to move two places in the first move instead of one.[48]

In Europe some of the pieces gradually got new names:


Early changes to the rules

a b c d e f g h
c8 black king
e7 white king
b6 black pawn
c5 black bishop
c1 white rook
7 7
6 6
5 5
4 4
3 3
2 2
1 1
a b c d e f g h
Check by pinned piece



Other sporadic variations in the rules of chess included:


Origins of the modern game

The Chess Players by Henry Fox Talbot, 1847.

The queen and bishop remained relatively weak until[14] between 1475 AD and 1500 AD, in either Spain, Portugal, France or Italy, the queen's and bishop's modern moves started and spread, making chess close to its modern form. This form of chess got such names as "Queen's Chess" or "Mad Queen Chess" (Italian alla rabiosa = "with the madwoman").[50] This led to much more value being attached to the previously minor tactic of pawn promotion.[19] Checkmate became easier and games could now be won in fewer moves.[48][51] These new rules quickly spread throughout Western Europe and in Spain,[52][53] with the exception of the rules about stalemate, which were finalized in the early 19th century.[54] The modern move of the queen may have started as an extension of its older ability to once move two squares with jump, diagonally or straight. Marilyn Yalom says that the new move of the queen started in Spain: see history of the queen.



An Italian player, Gioacchino Greco, regarded as one of the first true professionals of the game, authored an analysis of a number of composed games that illustrated two differing approaches to chess.[15] This influential work went to some extent in popularizing chess and demonstrated the many theories regarding game play and tactics.[15]

The first full work dealing with the various winning combinations was written by François-André Danican Philidor of France, regarded as the best chess player in the world for nearly 50 years, and published in the 18th century.[15] He wrote and published L'Analyse des échecs (The Analysis of Chess), an influential work which appeared in more than 100 editions.[15]



Modern competitive chess




A Russian composer, Vladimir Korolkov, authored a work entitled "Excelsior" in 1958 in which the White side wins only by making six consecutive captures by a pawn.[17] Position analysis became particularly popular in the 19th century.[17] Many leading players were also accomplished analysts, including Max Euwe, Mikhail Botvinnik, Vasily Smyslov and Jan Timman.[17] Digital clocks appeared in the 1980s.[16]


Birth of a sport (1850–1945)

The "Immortal Game", Anderssen-Kieseritzky, 1851

The first modern chess tournament was held in London in 1851 and won, surprisingly, by German Adolf Anderssen, who was relatively unknown at the time. Anderssen was hailed as the leading chess master, and his brilliant, energetic attacking style became typical for the time, although it was retrospectively regarded as strategically shallow.[59][60] Sparkling games like Anderssen's Immortal game and Evergreen Game or Morphy's Opera game were regarded as the highest possible summit of the chess art.[61]


Wilhelm Steinitz, the first World Chess Champion




Post-war era (1945 and later)






Current World Champion Magnus Carlsen





The FIDE World Chess Championship 2006 reunified the titles, when Kramnik beat the FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov and became the undisputed World Chess Champion.[75] In September 2007, Viswanathan Anand from India became the next champion by winning a championship tournament.[76] In October 2008, Anand retained his title, decisively winning the rematch against Kramnik.[77]

Rule changes





  • The 1851 London Chess tournament showed the need for time control, resulting in ability to "lose on time".
  • A player whose mobile phone rings during a game, thereby loses; but if the other player cannot win by any possible sequence of legal moves, the result is a draw.[78]

See also


  2. ^ AM. "AGON releases new chess player statistics from YouGov". Retrieved 2016-03-31. 
  3. ^ "The History Of Chess". ChessZone. Retrieved 29 March 2011. 
  6. ^ Josten, Gerhard. "Chess, a living fossil (2001)" (PDF). Initiative Group Königstein (IGK). Retrieved 2012-05-08. 
  7. ^ Isaak Linder. "Chess in old Russia (1979)". Michael Kühnle (Zürich). 
  8. ^ a b c Meri 2005: 148
  10. ^ Hooper and Whyld, 144-45 (first edition)
  13. ^ a b c Chess: Introduction to Europe (Encyclopædia Britannica 2007)
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h i Riddler 1998
  17. ^ a b c d Chess: Chess composition (Encyclopædia Britannica 2002)
  19. ^ a b c d e f g h i j A History of Chess, bottom of p.311, by H. J. R. Murray, publ. Oxford at the Clarendon Press.
  20. ^ a b Wilkins 2002: 46
  21. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica (Ninth Edition)
  22. ^ Hooper 1992: 74
  23. ^ Kulke 2004: 9
  24. ^ Wilkins 2002: 48
  25. ^ a b c Wilkinson 1943
  26. ^ A History of Chess
  27. ^ See the chess set's page on the Museum's website.
  28. ^ a b Bell 1979: 57
  29. ^ Warner & Warner 2008, p. 394-402.
  30. ^ Yalom 2004, p. 5.
  32. ^ a b c Chess: Set design (Encyclopædia Britannica 2007)
  33. ^ a b c Chinese chess (Encyclopædia Britannica 2007)
  34. ^ "The History Of Chess". ChessZone. Retrieved 11 December 2012. 
  35. ^ a b Li 1998
  36. ^ "Banaschak: A story well told is not necessarily true - being a critical assessment of David H. Li's "The Genealogy of Chess"". Retrieved 01/10/2013.  Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  37. ^ a b Shogi (Encyclopædia Britannica 2002)
  39. ^ a b c Vale 2001: 172
  40. ^ a b c Gamer 1954
  41. ^ a b Vale 2001: 177
  42. ^ a b Vale 2001: 171
  43. ^ Vale 2001: 152
  44. ^ a b Vale 2001: 173
  45. ^ Vale 2001: 151
  46. ^ Vale 2001: 174
  47. ^ Murray, H. J. R.: 1913
  50. ^ Murray (1913) p.777
  51. ^ Davidson (1981), p. 13–17
  54. ^ See History of the stalemate rule.
  55. ^ Louis Charles Mahe De La Bourdonnai. Retrieved 30 November 2006.
  57. ^ Bird, Henry Edward. Chess History and Reminiscences. Retrieved 10 December 2006
  58. ^ London Chess Club. Retrieved 30 November 2006.
  59. ^ World Title Matches and Tournaments - Chess history.
  64. ^ Kasparov (1983a)
  65. ^ Kasparov 1983b
  66. ^ Fine (1952)
  68. ^ Menchik at Retrieved 11 December 2006
  69. ^ Kasparov 2003b, 2004a, 2004b, 2006
  70. ^ a b "Chess History". Retrieved 2008-01-07. 
  71. ^ Kasparov 2003b, 2004a
  72. ^ Kasparov 2003a, 2006
  75. ^ Kramnik at Retrieved 13 December 2006
  78. ^


Encyclopædia Britannica





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