How Chess Started
“Let’s keep the horse man here” “and move the foot men here” the Indians said as they were discussing there war plan… on the original chess board.
The earliest history and origins of chess is surrounded by legends, myths and fairy tales that speak of the magical powers hidden in the game. It’s a very interesting game. It’s at least 1500 years old! And people still play it daily. The original chess board was used for war plans! Yes it did, on an even more original chess board called Chaturanga.
Chaturanga is almost just like chess. Both chess and Chaturanga are set up just like an old Indian army would be set up for battle. There is also a Chinese chess (foundation unknown). Chaturanga started by Indians setting up there army for a war, but then they changed it into a game, a game of chance by rolling a dice which enables you to move your pieces in different ways. And there have been different games of chaturanga, like one that you start off in the corners of the board, or one that uses 10 pieces, or one that you play with four players. What I’m trying to say is that chatarunga is the only game that people have taken and made their own game out of it. But no one has done that with chess…yet.
Spreading east, Chaturanga went through China, Korea, and Japan. After the Islamic conquests, then chaturanga made its way to Persia were they called it by two names: chaturang: Persian name, and Shatranj: Arabic name. Chaturanga traveled to Europe by the spread of Islam Sicily and the Moorish invasion. Trade routes through Europe made it spread more through the continent and throughout Russia. By the 10th century it developed so many types and games it turned to the game we know it today Chess!
Modern day chess is very different then back then we play fairly, friendly, do tournaments, and competitions. You might play chess just as good as anybody else, but the people that never believe they’ll be great chess players, become famous chess players. Like Wiswanathan Anand he started as a kid and now he is the best chess player in the world! Chess now a day is all over the place. From New York, to Washington to Alaska! It’s amazing how fast it spread. Chess today is widely spread. And know they have chess boards like: Mario and Luigi chess, family guy chess, and don’t fret chess. If you really think about it, chess today and all over the world and even back in the days is all the same. Chess is all related!
I think this revolution with chess is amazing. That a game with a dice and 10 pieces turned into what we know today, chess, Chess would never be here without churanga, WE might not be here if chaturanga wasn’t made; so then the Indians would die out and we wouldn’t be here. Maybe our intelligence wouldn’t be as strong as it is. So that’s why I think chess and how it started is so important.
so next time you play a chess game or set it up, think about what history it’s been through and how it’s made, and most of all how it started.
