India · 2026-10-17 · 2 min read

Chess was born in India: the story of chaturanga

Long before the computer, chess started as an Indian war game with four parts of an army.

Most historians agree that chess began in India around the 6th century, as a game called chaturanga. The word means "four limbs", the four parts of an ancient Indian army: infantry, cavalry, elephants and chariots.

You can still see them on the board. The infantry became the pawns, the cavalry became the knight, the elephant became the bishop (in some languages the bishop is still called "elephant") and the chariot became the rook.

From India the game travelled to Persia, where it was called shatranj, and then to the Arab world and Europe. On the way the pieces changed: the queen became the strongest piece only about 500 years ago.

So when you play a game today, you are playing a very old Indian invention. It is no accident that India is again one of the strongest chess nations in the world.