From chaturanga to today
Nobody knows exactly how and when the game began. Here is roughly where the sources begin. The whole story is in the history of chess.
| When | What |
|---|---|
| The 6th century | Chaturanga probably already existed, in northern India. |
| Around 600 (the date is uncertain) | Persian texts mention the game as chatrang. |
| Around 625–645 | The earliest reliable source: the Indian writer Bana mentions chaturanga in a text about King Harsha. |
| The 7th century | The Arabs conquer Persia, and the game is now called shatranj. |
| The 10th century | The game reaches Europe through Spain and Sicily. |
| 1475–1500 | In Spain the queen and the bishop get their modern moves. |
| 1851 | The first international tournament, in London. |
| 1886 | The first official world championship match. |
| 1924 | FIDE, the world chess federation, is founded in Paris. |
Today's game is younger
For its first thousand years the game was slow. The queen's ancestor, the adviser, moved only one square diagonally. Then the queen got her modern moves, and games became quicker and more dangerous.
Not everything changed at once. What stalemate counted as varied for a long time, and only in the 19th century did it become a fixed rule that stalemate is a draw. Today's rules are under the rules of chess and the queen.
The word chess
Chess goes back to the Persian shah, king, and checkmate to shāh māt, which roughly means that the king is helpless.
Sources
- Wikipedia: History of chess; Chaturanga; Stalemate
- Wikipedia (Swedish): Schack
- World History Encyclopedia: The History of Chess
- Michael Mark: The Beginnings of Chess, in Ancient Board Games in Perspective (2007)
- This site's page on the history of chess and its sources
The facts on this page come from the sources above and, where possible, were checked across several sources. Where the sources disagree, we say less or say what each one says. A number that is an estimate says whose it is, and a counted number comes with its date.
Updated November 9, 2026