Geography of Chess by Bill Wall

Chess (the European form) most likely originated in India around 600 AD in the upper basin of the Ganges. It was called chaturanga in the Sanskrit language. Some historians thank that chess originated in central India. Others place the source in the west of the peninsula. One source thinks it originated in the east of India, perhaps even Ceylon. Chess traveled farther in less time than any other game in history.

Chess crossed the border from western India into the adjacent Persian Empire around 700 AD. The game was then called chatrang with little change in the rules. By 800 AD, chess found its way in the Arab world in Asia Minor, and was called shatranj (sometimes called shitranj).

In 220 AD, Artaxerxes of Persia founded the Empire of the Sassaniads. One of his descendants was Chosroes I, who ruled from 531 to 579. It may be this period that a form of chess was brought from India into Persia. The traditional story is that the Hindu embassy included chess as one of their gifts to the Persian court during the reign of Chosroes.

The first unmistakable reference to chess is in Harschacharita (Deeds of Harsa) by the Indian court poet Bana Bhatta (595-655), written between 625 AD and 640 AD. The Harschacharita is the earliest attempt at historical romance in Indian literature. The passage that mentions chess is “only ashtapadas (game board) teach the positions of the chaturanga.”

No authentic chess pieces earlier than the 7th century AD have been identified.

Chess reached Persia around 625 AD. Chess is mentioned in a Persian romance called the Karnamak (Karnamak-i-Artakshatr-i-Papakan), written in the 8th century (some sources say that it was written in 600 AD). This is a story of the exploits of Artaxerxes (Ardashir), the son of Papak, the founder of the Sasanian dynasty, who ruled over Persia from 226 AD to 241 AD. The name by which chess is designated in this work is chatrang in the Middle Persian (Pahlawi) language. The passage stated that Artakhshir was skilled in ball-play, horsemanship, chatrang, and hunting.

After the Arabian conquest, 638-651, the game was renamed shatranj, a word which later found its way back to India as sitringee, a type of checkered carpet.

During the reign of Chosroes, a series of writings was collected. Many items were added in the next three centuries. The collection became the basis for the epic poem, Shahnameh (Shahnama – Book of Kings), written by Abu’l-Qasim Mansur Firdawsi (935-1020) in 1011. Chess is mentioned in it and referred to as shatranj. The original chess pieces in India (and Persia) were red and green (rubies and emeralds). Fidawsi replaced the description of jewelled chessmen by pieces of ivory and teak (white and black). Firdawasi describes an ambassador from the Raja of India visiting the Persian king Nushirwan, bringing him gifts from Kanuj (Kunyakubya), India. The gifts included an expensive chess board and chess pieces.

The Muslems received the game and its vocabulary from Persia. The Encyclopedia of Islam states that chess is a Persian source and that Iran acquired the game from India. The Arabs first learned chess during their invasion of Persia. They learned chatrang in Persia and, because of language difficulties, had to pronounce it as shatranj in Arabic. They used most of the Persian terms.

The oldest clearly recognizable chess (chatrang) pieces have been excavated in Afrasiab (Samarkand), in Uzbekistan. These are seven ivory pieces (king, visir, elephant, two kniths, chariot, and pawn) dated around 7601AD (because a coin so dated belonged to the same layer).

By 800 AD, chess spread to Egypt and was called sutrenj as the game was spread by conquering Moslems around North Africa. In 1005, chess was banned in Egypt by al-Hakim. He ordered that all the chess sets be burned.

Chess finally entered Europe through the Spanish peninsula after 711. The Moors crossed Gibralter in 711, and chess may have arrived soon after that date. However, there are no writings by Arabs that mention chess until 850 AD. Around 820, chess was thought to have been introduced in Cordoba, Spain, by Ziriab (Abul Hassan Ali ben Nafi). He was a Persian musician who lived in Baghdad. Mohammed I, Emir of Cordoba from 852 to 886, was a passionate chess player.

In Spanish and Castilian, the game is called ajadrez. In Portuguese, it is called xadres. Both names are adaptations of the Arabic name of shatranj. The Spanish j and the Portuguese x are pronounced sh. The Spanish designation for the bishop is alfil, from the Arabic words al fil, meaning “the elephant.”

Chess reached Sicily by the Islamic conquerors around the 9th century. The Saracens conquered Sicily by 878 AD. An early Sicilian image of chess can be seen in the Normans’ Palatine Chapel in Palermo, Sicily. Completed in 1140, it shows a painting of two men in turbans playing chess.

The first chess pieces known in Europe are the Mozarab chess pieces, dated at the end of the 9^th century or the beginning of the 10 century. The pieces were found in the San Genadio, Leon, Spain and now kept at the monastery of Santiago de Penalba in Leon, Spain.

The earliest known literary account of chess and the earliest reference to chess in a western document is found in the Einsiedeln Verses. It was written in the 10^th century in the monastery at Einsiedeln, Switzerland. It is a 98-line poem describing chess.

By 1000 AD, chess was widely known throughout Europe.

Europe’s first reference to chess is found in Spain. The will of Ermengaud I, Count of Uregel (Urgel) in Catalona, written on July 28, 1008, mentions his chessmen to be delivered to the convent of St. Giles upon his death (he died on September 1, 1010 in battle near Cordova).

Chess may have been brought to Britain around 1013 with the Danish invasion. Canute (995-1035), King of Denmark and England, was playing chess around 1030 AD. It was said that he learned chess while on a pilgrimage to Rome. William the Conqueror (1027-1087) was said to have been a chessplayer. The Normans named their financial department exchequer after the chess board, which was used as a counting device or abacus. The first British reference to chess, a Latin poem, was written in 1180 by a Winchester monk.

Chess made it to Italy in 1300, and was called scacchi. Muslim sailors from Africa crossed into Marseilles and Italy and introduced Europeans to chess.

Chess (zatrikion) made its appearance in Byzantine Greek around the first quarter of the 7th century. Around 802, Nicephorus, Byzantine emperor from 802 to 811, mentioned chess (zatrikion) in his writings.

Zatrikion is a Hellenized word of chatrang (not shatranj), indicating its Moslem source. The present Greek skaki is an Italian source. Zatrikion as a word is unknown in classical Greek. The Greek alphabet had no letter or combination of letters capable of expressing the sound of the Persian ch-. The word zatrikion came into Greek first in accounts of travel to Persia, or in descriptions of Persian life.

In the 12th century, Princess Anna Comnena (died in 1148) wrote Alexiad, a biography of her father, Emperor Alexius Comnena (died in 1118). In the 12th book of the Alexiad, she mentions him playing chess. “He had certain familiar friends with whom he played zatrikion, a game that was dixcovered in the luxury of the Assyrians, and was brought to us.” The modern Greek word for chess is skaki.

Some historians think that chess was introduced to Europe through the Crusades. But chess was introduced into Europe in the 11th century and the First Crusade participants returned to Europe in the middle of the 12th century. However, the Crusades led to the growth of cities, and chess always thrived best in and around cities. It was said that King Richard I (1157-1199) learned chess while on a crusade.

Byzantine chess may have been a source of some Russian knowledge of the game through the trade route of the Dnieper. Byzantine Christians carried the game through the Balkans.

The Byzantine emperors liked to have Scandinavian guards, and every year, some Norsemen traveled back and forth from Scandinavia to Constantinople. Chess may have traveled to Scandinavia this way.

The beginning of the 13th century saw the Latin or Western Emperors established in Constantinople. They must have known about chess in Western Europe by then. The Latins called chess scacum. Constantinople fell in 1453. The last outposts of independent Christianity in Asia Minor fell in 1461. After that, the Greek word zatrikion disappeared. It was replaced by Turkish chess, santratz. Turkish chess then gave way to the Western name of chess, and it became skaki.

The Vikings carried chess from the Baltic before 1200 and probably introduced the game to Iceland and parts of Russia. The Icelandic St. Olaf’s Saga, contains a chess reference. It was written in 1230.

France acquired the game from both Italian and Spanish sources, and called it echecs around 1400. The French word for the bishop was the Arabic noun, fil (elephant), which became fol, and presently fou, the current name of the bishop. The first French reference to chess, around 1097, was by Fouche de Chartes and Robert de St. Remi, who mentioned chess as a pastime. The French Carolingian epic, Song of Roland, mentions chess. It was written around 1100.

From France, chess made it to Northern Germany and was called schach. The earliest reference of chess in the German literature was the Latin epic Ruodlieb, written around 1050.

Southern Germany got its chess (schach) from Italy.

Chess made it to Britian via France (as well as Norway and Denmark), and was called chess by 1400. The oldest known complete chess set, the Lewis chessmen, is dated around 1150. These are 93 walrus-ivory carved pieces found on the Isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Scotland. The pieces were probably brought from Norway.

Chess was introduced in Poland around 1100.

From Germany, chess made it to Scandinavia and Russia in the 1500s. Russia received chess from Germany, Byzantium, and Siberia. The Russian word for chess, shahmatny, was introduced around 1262.

The first written reference of chess in Hungary occurred around 1330.

Chess was carried across the Atlantic during the discovery period. Spanish ad Portuguese travelers brought it to South America, while English ships carried it to North America, Australia, and the islands of Asia and the South Seas.

Chess was brought to Peru around 1530. The Inca emperor Atahualpa (1500-1533) was taught how to play chess by his Spanish guards before he was killed in 1533.

In 1641, the first reference to chess in America was found in a history of the Dutch settlers by Esther Singleton.

The first recorded chess activity in Canada was in 1759. General Sir John Hale and General Wolfe played chess during the taking of Quebec in 1759.

Chess crossed the eastern and northeastern part of India and became tseungki (siang ki or xiangqi - elephant game) in China around 800 AD. Chess was probably taken to China by Buddhists who traveled abroad to further their religion. Chess probably followed the Burma Road or Kyber Pass, the main trade routes between China and India. Most likely, caravans from China or the Caspian Sea brought trade items to India and came back with the game of chess. The Karakorum pass, north of Kashmir, leads to the west Chinese province of Sinkiang, and the most likely path for chess. The Chinese call chess ‘the Game of the Elephant’ and say they got it from India. The modified game of tsuengki is played on a 9x9 board. The pieces are fashioned like checkers.

The earliest certain reference to Chinese chess occurs in the Huan Kwai Lu (Book of Marvels), written at the close of the 8th century.

The Malay, Tibetan, and Mongol game of chess are played on a board of 8x8 squares. The Chinese and Korean game of chess is played on an 8x8 board, but the pieces are played on the lines, not the squares. The Japanese game is played on a 9x9 board.

Chinese chess made it to Korea around 1000 AD and was called tiangku (tjyang keui). The similarity between the nomenclature of chess in China and chess in Korea suggests that the Korean game came from China.

Chess probably made it to Japan from Korea around 1100, and was called shogi (the Chinese word siang is pronounced sho in Japanese). Korea was on the regular trade route path between China and Japan. Some sources say that shogi came directly from China, and not Korea. Shogi (the Generals’ game), as a word, is probably a Japanese word of the Chinese tseungki. In shogi, a 9x9 board is used. Also, the men are arranged in three rows instead of two, and there is no elephant.

The oldest shogi piece is dated 1059, found in the Kofukuji at Nara, Japan.

The game later made it to Mongolia and called shatara.

Chess crossed the southeastern part of India and became chitareen around 800 AD. Chess spread through Burma (chess was called chitareen or sittuyin in Burma) into the Malay Peninsula. Chess was called makruk in Siamese. Makruk seems to be a loan word adopted from a neighboring language.

Chess was called chator in Borneo, reaching the end of the peninsula in 1400. Chess traveled in saddle bags of the Buddhists as they converted the people in southeast Asia. Chess (chator) was in Java in 1500.

Chess crossed the northern part of India over the mountains north of the Indus river and slowly made it into Siberia several hundred years later. Chess could have been introduced into Russia in the 9th century through the Caspian-Volga trade route.

.

In Tibet, the game was called chandaraki. The name is derived from chaturanga. They obtained their knowledge of chess direct from India. The present game is identical with that played by the Mongol triibes of the North.

The Rusian name for rook is lodya, meaning “ship.” This indicates that chess in Russia has an east-Asiatic origin as the piece was never called a ship in western Asia. It is regularly called a ship in the Malay Peninsula and eastern parts of India. In eastern India, the rook was a ship, and its Sanskrit word was roka.

However, the Russian designation of the queen, ferz, is an Arabic origin. The Russian game is much closer to the Hindu than to the Chinese form. The original Russian (Siberan) names for the pieces, except the ferz, were all translations of the Sanskrit. Mongol conquests opened Siberia to Persian influences. Ferz is the Arabic word for the Persian word farzin, so Russian chess migrated after the Arabic conquest of Iran in the 7th century. The Mongols probably spread this form of Persian/Arabic chess to central Asia at the time of their conquests in the 13th century. The Mongols called the rook terghe, which means “wagon or cart.”

Neither the Russuian name for chess, nor the pieces of the Russian game, show any trace of European origin. Chess may have been introduced into Russia by the Mongols or Tatars, who overran the country from 1200 to 1400. Chess could also have been introduced into Russia from the Serbs and Bulgars around 1200. Early Russian references condemn the game. From 1100, chess was condemned by the Eastern Church, which may have influenced the lack of chess in Russia during this period. Chess is referenced as shakhmate, a name that is Persian or Arabic shah mat (checkmate).

Chess could have reached Russia in the trade route from the mouth of the Volga to Baghdad as early as 1150.

Chess was probably introduced to Tasmania in the early 1800s.

Chess did not appear in Madagascar and the Philippines until the 20th century.

Chess was being played in Antarctica in the 1950s by Russian scientists.

Chess was launched into space in June, 1970 on board Soyuz IX. The cosmonauts were able to play chess on a magnetic board. A chess computer was on board the space station Mir.