Origin year places a game in the year its rules were first fixed in writing. Wikipedia notes rugby football's "rules were first put down in written (codified) form in 1845," even though students had already been playing an informal version "since at least the early 1820s." Browsing by origin year separates when a game's rules were formalized from when it was actually first played.
Facts
Comparison
Era of Origin Defining CharacteristicChess spread throughout the world and many variants of the game soon began taking shape. 2 20th century
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Sources
1. Wikipedia: Chaturanga
WikipediaChaturanga, Origin sectionQuote, Chaturanga, Origin section
The earliest clear reference comes from north India from the Gupta Empire, dating from the sixth century AD.
2. Wikipedia: History of chess
WikipediaHistory of chess, Origin sectionQuote, History of chess, Origin section
Chess spread throughout the world and many variants of the game soon began taking shape
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What Actually Holds The Chess Family Together
Frequently Asked Questions
What separates the Chess-Family War Games category from Modern Conquest and War Games?
The dividing line is historical lineage: chess-family games descend from or parallel Chaturanga, while modern conquest games like Risk have no such lineage.
Chess-Family War Games covers the chess family proper, games of differentiated armies descended from or parallel to the historical game of Chaturanga, including Chess, Xiangqi, Janggi and Shogi, where each piece has its own rank and movement rule. Modern Conquest and War Games instead covers 20th-century commercial games such as Diplomacy, Risk and Stratego that have no traditional chess-family lineage, so the dividing line is historical lineage rather than theme.