Origin(s) and Evolution of Chess

The quest of Chess origin is an exciting riddle. Chess is now played all over the world. "International" Chess was finalized in Europe and it was the Arabs who brought the medieval game in Europe. The Arabs borrowed this game from the Persians who had named it Chatrang. This game was also known in the Ganges valley in India where it was known as Chaturanga.

Beyond the familiar "international" European Chess, played with Staunton pieces over a checkered board, there are also different Chess in Asia especially in China, Japan and South-East Asia. All of them, Asian or European, present common characteristics which can not be coincidental: they do belong to the same family.

Two versions are of the greatest antiquity: Indo-persian Chatrang-chaturanga and Chinese Xiangqi.

WHY ARE THESE TWO GAMES SO SIMILAR ? WHAT IS THE EXPLANATION OF THEIR DIFFERENCES ?

Which one was the ancestor?

Where was Chess invented?

• The origin (or origins) of Chess

• An exhaustive comparison of Persian Chatrang and Chinese Xiangqi

• Presentation of ancient and (maybe) related games: Liubo, Ashtapada.

• The mysterious Prasena of the Chinese Buddhist monk Fazang.

• Persians who named it Chatrang.

• Chess in Arabian lands, Shatranj has come.

• Indian Four-Handed Chaturanga is not the oldest Chess ancestor !

• European Chess in Middle Age

• Wrong rules? European medieval Chess according to Michel Pastoureau

• The birth of modern Queen and Bishops in Valencia

• Scacchia Ludus, a Latin Chess poem composed by M.H.Vida in 1513, and its translation into English

• Official rules of European Chess , also called International chess for many.