Chess's Ancient Origins: From Four-Player Chaturanga to Modern Chess

By the 7th Century CE, people in India were playing chaturanga, a game featuring pieces representing infantry, cavalry, elephants, and chariots, commanded by a king, mirroring the armies of the time. The different moves of these pieces distinguished chaturanga from other war games and are the ancestors of modern chess pieces. Chaturanga spread to Persia, evolving into shatranj, which eventually reached Europe and developed into modern chess. Early chaturanga was a four-player game with dice, significantly different from modern chess. However, it shared the 8x8 board and ultimately evolved into two-player versions like buddhidyūta.