Shatranj

Shatranj is an early form of chess played in the Sasanian Empire, representing one of the direct historical ancestors of the modern game. According to tradition the game reached the Persian court as a gift during the reign of Khosrau I, who ruled from 531 to 579, having originated earlier in India; Middle Persian texts referencing the game date to around 620 AD. Shatranj is played by two competitors on an eight by eight board with sixteen pieces per side, and its army of pieces was organized to represent four traditional divisions of an Indian military force: cavalry, elephants, chariots and infantry. The game combined strategic planning with tactical maneuvering in ways that shaped chess theory and literature for many centuries after its own decline, and its piece movements and structure differ from modern chess in several respects that chess historians still study today for what they reveal about the game's evolution across Persian, Arab and eventually European culture.