History and origins of chess

Chess is one of the oldest games in modern history. In fact, no matter which school of thought you belong to, early versions of the game date back to ancient Asian civilizations.  

There are typically two of these schools of thought regarding the history and origins of chess, though only one prevails as the commonly accepted beginning. Though it is likely we will never know for sure, they are both great stories about the possible origins of the world’s favorite game.

Origins from Xiangqi

There is a small population who argue that chess is an offshoot of a game called xiangqi, which originated in China around the fourth or fifth century. This game, which is remarkably similar to chess, pits two opposing colored armies against each other on an 8X8 game board.

Of course, the objective was to kill the opposing army’s king while protecting your own, and was intended to develop military strategies.

Origins from India

The more commonly accepted theory, though, regarding the history and origins of chess, is that is based on a game that came about in India in the sixth century. Historians maintain that the legend suggests the King of India was growing bored of the present pastimes he had at his disposal.

The facts get a little fuzzy here as some stories say that he commissioned a mathematician, while others suggest it was an independent act by a young man. Regardless, at this point, a young man created a game he called Chaturanga in order to appease the King’s boredom. Similar to the game we know as chess, the objective of Chaturanga was to strategically contrive an army over a board of sixty-four squares in order to kill the opposing army’s king.

The legend goes on to say that the king wanted to reward the young inventor and was taken aback by his reply. The genius inventor asked for one piece of grain of rice for the first space of the board, and then double the amount of grain on each consecutive piece until all the spaces were full.

The type of grain is another of those fuzzy details. The king was confused and assured the lad that he could take money or jewels, but the boy insisted on the grain, and when the kind attempted to fulfill this request, he discovered just what kind of genius this boy really was, for he did not have enough grain his entire kingdom to fill the final square!

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