War Games

Question: What modern board game can trace its origins to an ancient Indian military game called chaturanga?

Answer: Chess

While its origins can’t be traced to any individual, most historians agree that chess evolved from a sixth-century Indian game called chaturanga. Although the rules and game pieces evolved through the centuries, chaturanga was a board game whose name means “four limbs,” a reference to the four divisions of India’s army—the infantry, cavalry, elephantry, and chariotry. The pieces in chaturanga moved in the same way as today’s pawns, knights, bishops, and rooks to trap or capture an opponent’s king.

From India, the game spread westward along trade routes into Persia (modern-day Iran), where the phrase “shah mat,” which is Persian for “the king is dead,” or “the king is defeated” was introduced. We know shah mat better as “checkmate” and shah as “check.” After Persia, there was a slight hold-up before chess spread to the Islamic world.

The game may have withered on the vine since Muslim authorities strictly forbade games of chance. But after close scrutiny, they realized chess requires only skill and there is no luck involved whatsoever. Because Islam discouraged figurative imagery, however, chess pieces in many Muslim regions took the shape of abstract geometric forms instead of carved human or animal figures (this design influence still appears in some modern chess sets). But aside from that small concession, the game itself gained such prestige that the caliph elite began employing chess masters—known as aliyat—to compete against and learn from.

The next big move for chess—Europe

Like many things they brought to the west, the Moors introduced chess to Spain and Sicily in the 10th century. The game then rapidly spread through the rest of the continent and soon became medieval Europe’s favorite pastime. It’s no coincidence that the chess pieces—knights, rooks, bishops, and pawns—were introduced at this time. The game still reflected military strategies to conquer territory in the Middle Ages, but now the pieces themselves better reflected European society during feudal times. The most powerful pieces, of course, were the king and queen with a caste system of others below them. The majority of pieces were the lowly pawns, representing the peasant class.

As the game continued to spread throughout Europe and into Russia, several rules changed. In 1280, Spain introduced the innovation of allowing pawns to advance two squares on their first move instead of one. Another allowed the king to jump once to give players an opportunity to move him to a safe position more quickly (which eventually led to modern-day “castling”). The biggest change may have been a power grab by the queen. In early chess, the queen could move only one square diagonally, making it one of the weakest pieces. But all of a sudden in the late 1400s, the queen became the most powerful piece on the board. Some historians think there is a connection between this change and the rise of influential female monarchs in Europe like Isabella I of Castile. By 1500, pretty much all the rule changes put in place would be recognizable in today’s gameplay—but one more early 18th-century incident has to be mentioned even in the briefest overview of the history of chess ...

Long before Deep Blue, there was the Mechanical Turk

The chess world was shocked when a supercomputer built by IBM called Deep Blue managed to beat Gary Kasparov, arguably the best player who ever lived, over six games in the late 1990s. Well, two centuries before the computer age, Hungarian inventor Wolfgang von Kepelon created a machine that could also play chess—and this one never lost a match. Dubbed the “Mechanical Turk” or just “The Turk,” the contraption featured a large wooden cabinet with visible elaborate gears attached to a mannequin in flowing Ottoman robes. The Turk traveled throughout Europe and America, consistently beating chess opponents of all skill levels.

The secret was that “The Turk” was no machine at all. It was all an elaborate hoax that had a very real human chess master hidden inside the wooden cabinet who made his moves with levers and a clever magnetic board. But the hoax wasn’t uncovered for nearly 84 years, during which time “The Turk” beat all comers including the likes of Benjamin Franklin and Napoleon Bonaparte.

By the way, technology has advanced so rapidly since the computer that defeated Kasparov in 1997 that today’s smartphones are significantly more powerful than “Deep Blue.” Mobile apps like Stockfish can play chess at a level that far exceeds the strength of any human player in history.

More fascinating facts about the origins of chess

• Good luck memorizing them all—According to the U.S. Chess Federation, there are an estimated 169 octillion ways to play (that’s 169 followed by 27 zeros).
• That’s a lot of bread—One popular chess legend has the game’s inventor asking the king for a seemingly humble reward. All he requests from the king is one grain of wheat on the first board square, two on the second, four on the third until the board is filled. The king agrees, not realizing he would owe the inventor 18 quintillion grains by the 64th square, which would bankrupt the entire kingdom. Apparently, the king had lots of subjects, but math wasn’t one of them.
• The long and short of it—A game of chess can be over anywhere from a few seconds to close to 24 hours. The extremely short games occur with the movement of two or three pieces, resulting in something called a “fool’s mate.” On the other extreme, one game of tournament chess took more than 20 hours to complete—and ended in a draw. (By the way, an example of that “fool’s mate” is when White plays f3 [or f4] followed by g4, allowing the Black Queen to deliver checkmate on h4.)
• An instant bestseller—The second book ever to go to print in the English language was The Game and Playe of Chesse, written and published by English printer William Caxton in 1470 (the first was Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye).
• Don’t let the bishop catch you—When priests were forbidden to play chess in the 12th century, in order to not to get caught and quickly hide the evidence, they invented folding chessboards.
• You still have to do your homework—In June 2021, American chess player Abhimanyu became the youngest grandmaster in history, breaking a 19-year record held by Ukraine’s Sergey Karjkin. Abhimanyu was just 12 years, 4 months, and 25 days old.
• I have to cram for my chess final—To foster critical thinking, Armenia became the first country in the world to introduce chess as a mandatory subject in elementary schools in 2011. All children aged 6 to 8 receive two hours of chess lessons per week.
• Chess set hall of fame—The most admired and iconic chess sets in history are known as the “Dubrovnik Chessmen.” Designed for the 1950 Chess Olympiad in Dubrovnik by artist Pero Poček, the sets broke away from traditional Western chess aesthetics and eliminated religious symbols in favor of pieces that emphasized playability and elegance. Handcrafted in limited numbers, Bobby Fischer famously declared it the finest chess set he had ever played with, cementing its place in chess history.
• Political pawns—During the Cold War, the Soviet Union invested heavily in chess education, producing generations of grandmasters, and turning the game into a symbol of intellectual superiority. Up until the breakup of the Soviet Union, world championship matches carried geopolitical tension far beyond the game itself.
• Love the job; hate all the moving around—Italian cities like Venice and Marostica grew famous for their “living chess” performances, where human actors dressed as chess pieces would reenact matches in public squares.
• The Dark Knight—In “blindfold chess” players do not see the pieces and have to memorize their positions. For centuries, this form of chess was considered a skill only prodigies had, but today the best players are able to play multiple blindfold games simultaneously.
• Really, I let you win—Chess is one of the few sports/activities where children can compete with adults. Polish born chess grandmaster Samuel Reshevsky (1911-1992) learned to play chess at the age of four. By the time he turned eight, he was easily winning against accomplished adult players in simultaneous games.

See how ancient Hindu ingenuity shaped modern India—and beyond—during Heart of India.