Chess is a two player strategy board game played on an eight by eight grid, in which each player commands sixteen pieces with distinct powers of movement and aims to checkmate the opposing king. The game descends from chaturanga, documented in northern India by around the sixth or seventh century AD, from which it spread west into Persia as shatranj and then into the Islamic world and medieval Europe. The modern rules, including the powerful queen and long range bishop moves that replaced weaker earlier pieces, emerged in southern Europe, most likely Spain, in the late fifteenth century. H.J.R. Murray 1913 A History of Chess remains the foundational academic study of this lineage, though it has been refined by later scholarship on the game earliest Indian sources.
Facts
Disputed
Origin YearChaturanga, chess earliest documented ancestor, is attested in northern Indian sources by around the sixth or seventh century AD, but the game likely existed in some form before the surviving textual evidence, and the exact date and place of its invention are not settled by historians. Originating Region Game TypeBoard game, abstract strategy 2 Governing BodyFederation Internationale des Echecs (FIDE), the international governing body for chess, founded in Paris in 1924. 2 Classification
Player Count Sport
Game Type (category) Game Type (category) Connections
Ancestor Of
Source Capablanca chess (Wikipedia)
Source Chess with Different Armies (Wikipedia)
Source Circe chess (Wikipedia)
Source Cylinder chess (Wikipedia)
Source Fortress Chess (Wikipedia)
Source Grand Chess (Wikipedia)
Source Monster Chess (Wikipedia)
Associated With
Tafl games were played across Scandinavia, the British Isles and other Norse-influenced regions from at least the early medieval period until being displaced in popularity by chess, per the tafl-games entity's own record.
Derived From
Chess descends from chaturanga by way of Persian shatranj; the mainstream academic view, though exact dates and some transmission details across the Persian and early European period remain debated.
Source A History of ChessH.J.R. Murray
Featured In
Source The Oxford Companion to ChessDavid Hooper and Kenneth Whyld
Long-Form Articles
Played By
Source The Oxford Companion to ChessDavid Hooper and Kenneth Whyld
In the Other Atlases
- Also in Geography Atlas: Asia, found in there.
- Also in Home, Crafts and Hobbies Atlas: Chess, the same subject.
- Also in Mathematics Atlas: Game Theory, discusses this subject there.
Sources
1. A History of Chess
H.J.R. Murray, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1913Preface
The aim of this work is threefold: to present as complete a record as is possible of the varieties of chess which exist or have existed in different parts of the world; to investigate the ultimate origin of these games and the circumstances of the invention of chess.
entity record, description lead (player-count)
Chess is a two player strategy board game played on an eight by eight grid, in which each player commands sixteen pieces with distinct powers of movement and aims to checkmate the opposing king. The game descends from chaturanga, documented in northern India by around the sixth or seventh century AD, from which it spread west into Persia as shatranj and then into the Islamic world and me
- Derived From: Chaturanga
2. The Oxford Companion to Chess
David Hooper and Kenneth Whyld, Oxford University Press, 1992
Wikipedia: World Chess Championship
WikipediaHistory section (FIDE era)Quote, History section (FIDE era)
On 20 July 1924 the participants at the Paris tournament founded FIDE as a kind of players' union.
Capablanca chess (Wikipedia)
Ancestor Of: Capablanca chess, Lead, first sentenceQuote, Ancestor Of: Capablanca chess, Lead, first sentence
is a family of over twenty Western chess variants which incorporate two new pieces
Grand Chess (Wikipedia)
Ancestor Of: Grand Chess, Lead sentenceQuote, Ancestor Of: Grand Chess, Lead sentence
Grand Chess is a large-board chess variant invented by Dutch games designer Christian Freeling in 1984
Cylinder chess (Wikipedia)
Ancestor Of: Cylinder chess, Lead sentenceQuote, Ancestor Of: Cylinder chess, Lead sentence
Cylinder chess is a chess variant
Circe chess (Wikipedia)
Ancestor Of: Circe chess, Lead sentenceQuote, Ancestor Of: Circe chess, Lead sentence
Circe chess is a chess variant in which captured pieces return to their starting positions as soon as they are captured
Chess with Different Armies (Wikipedia)
Ancestor Of: Chess with different armies, Lead sectionQuote, Ancestor Of: Chess with different armies, Lead section
two sides use different sets of fairy pieces
Fortress Chess (Wikipedia)
Ancestor Of: Fortress chess, Lead sectionQuote, Ancestor Of: Fortress chess, Lead section
a four-player chess variant played in teams of two
Monster Chess (Wikipedia)
Ancestor Of: Monster chess, Lead sectionQuote, Ancestor Of: Monster chess, Lead section
White side has only a king and four pawns to fight against all the pieces of the Black side
Essays About This Entity (1 essay)
What Actually Holds The Chess Family Together
Chess: cited for its own documented descent from Chaturanga through Persia and the Islamic world.
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