Chaturanga. An ancestor of chess, and other national chess-related games.

Chaturanga is an ancient Indian game which is presumed to be the common ancestor of chess, xiangqi, shogi, janggi and makruk. It has been played since at least the seventh century A.D., and is popularly believed to be the oldest chess-like game. Chaturanga is the direct ancestor of shatranj which was the form that brought chess to medieval Europe. Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... A chess table is a table with a chessboard painted or engraved on it. ... Xiangqi (Chinese: 象棋; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: hsiang-chi; (  listen)), is a two-player Chinese game in a family of strategic board games of which Western chess, Japanese shogi, and the more similar Korean janggi are also members. ... Shogi (将棋 shōgi) is one of a family of strategic board games of which chess and xiangqi are also members, which derive from the 6th century Indian game of chaturanga or a close relative thereof. ... Janggi (Korean hangul: 장기; hanja: 將棋; revised: janggi; McCune-Reischauer: changgi) is one of a family of strategic board games of which Western chess, Japanese shogi, and the more similar Chinese xiangqi are also members. ... Makruk, starting position. ... Shatranj. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ...

Rules

Chaturanga was played on a 8x8 uncheckered board, called Ashtāpada. The board had some special markers, the meaning of which is unknown today. These markers were not related to chaturanga, but were drawn on the board only by tradition. Some historians have conjectured that the Ashtāpada was also used for some old race-type dice game where these markers had a meaning.

Ashtapada. Chaturanga was played on uncheckered 8x8 board, sometimes with special markers.

The exact rules of the game are not known, however chess historians believe that the game had the same or very similar rules to Shatranj. There is however uncertainty about move of the elephant, the precursor of the Bishops in modern chess. Three different moves are described in ancient literature: Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Shatranj. ... A bishop (♗♝) is a piece in the board game of chess. ...

• Two squares in any diagonal direction, jumping over one square, as the Alfil in Shatranj. The same move is used for the Boat in a four-handed version of Chaturanga, Chaturaji. This is likeliest its oldest move. The Elephant in Xiangqi (Chinese chess) has the similar move, but without jumping.
• One square forward or one square in any diagonal direction (think of the four legs and trunk of the elephant). This is the same move as the Silver General in Shogi. In Makruk (Thai chess) and Sittuyin (Burmese chess) the elephant moves in the same way. This move was described ca. 1030 by Biruni in his India book.
• In any orthogonal direction jumping over one square. A piece with such a move is called a Dabbābah in some chess variants. This move was described by the Arabic chess master al-Adli ca. 840 in his (partly lost) chess work. (The Arabic word dabbābah in former times meant a covered siege engine for attacking walled fortifications, and nowadays means "army tank").

Al-Adli also mentions two further difference to Shatranj: Shatranj. ... Chaturaji, starting position. ... Xiangqi (Chinese: 象棋; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: hsiang-chi; (  listen)), is a two-player Chinese game in a family of strategic board games of which Western chess, Japanese shogi, and the more similar Korean janggi are also members. ... Shogi (将棋 shōgi) is one of a family of strategic board games of which chess and xiangqi are also members, which derive from the 6th century Indian game of chaturanga or a close relative thereof. ... Makruk, starting position. ... Sittuyin, initial position. ... Biruni commemorated on a Soviet stamp for his millennial anniversary. ... In mathematics, orthogonal is synonymous with perpendicular when used as a simple adjective that is not part of any longer phrase with a standard definition. ... A siege engine is a device that is designed to break or circumvent city walls and other fortifications in siege warfare. ...

• Stalemate was a win for a stalemated player. This rule seems to be quite illogical, however it appeared again in some medieval chess variations in England ca. 1600. According to some resources, there was no stalemate, though this is improbable.
• The player, who is first to bare the opponent's king (captures all the pieces except the king), wins. In Shatranj this is also a win, but only in the case that the opponent cannot bare the player's king on the next move in return.

Stalemate is a situation in chess where the player whose turn it is to move has no legal moves but is not in check. ...

History

"Chaturanga sena" stands for fourfold military: Infantry, Cavalry, Archers and the elephant riders. In Sanskrit, "Chaturanga" literally means "having four limbs or parts" and in epic poetry often means "army". The game was also known under the name "BuddhiBala" or literally "power of the brain". The Sanskrit language (Skt. ... The epic is a broadly defined genre of poetry, and one of the major forms of narrative literature. ... Army (from French armée) can, in some countries, refer to any armed force. ...

Chaturanga is based on the fivefold divisions of the ancient Indian army:-

• Infantry represented by a line of advancing pawns.
• The King and his advisor or general in the center.
• Thundering war elephants near the center of the army. Later, this rather weak piece was thought not to be a suitable representation for the power of the real elephant in war in India; this caused a change of move and of name, and often in India nowadays the Rook is called the Elephant and the Bishop is called the Camel.
• Mounted cavalry represented by the horse with a move that facilitated flanking. This became the Knight with the distinctive move that marks a game as a likely descendant of Chaturanga.
• Chariots on the wings which move quickly but linearly and became the Rook in Europe, but a ship as chess moved north into Russia.

Infantry of the 36th Ulster Division, in the First World War Infantry are soldiers who fight primarily on foot, mainly with small arms and operate within organized military units. ... General is a high military rank, used by nearly every country in the world. ... Indian war elephant, relief at Mathura, 2nd century BC War elephants were important, although not widespread, weapons in ancient military history. ... A rook (borrowed from Persian رخ rokh) is a piece in the strategy board game of chess. ... A bishop (♗♝) is a piece in the board game of chess. ... Species Camelus bactrianus Camelus dromedarius A camel is either of the two species of large even-toed ungulate in the genus Camelus, the Dromedary (Single hump) and the Bactrian Camel (Double hump). ... Italian cavalry officers practice their horsemanship in 1904 outside Rome. ... Binomial name Equus caballus Linnaeus, 1758 The Horse (Equus caballus) is a sizeable ungulate mammal, one of the ten modern species of the genus Equus. ... A flank is the side of either a horse or a military unit. ... The knight moves in an L shape. ... Chariot was the name of a WW2 naval weapon, the British manned torpedo. ... A rook (borrowed from Persian رخ rokh) is a piece in the strategy board game of chess. ... Italian ship-rigged vessel Amerigo Vespucci in New York Harbor, 1976 A ship is a large, sea-going watercraft, sometimes with multiple decks. ...

See also

• Origins of chess
• Chaturaji, four-handed version of Chaturanga

Persian youth playing chess with two suitors Illustration to the Haft Awrang of Jami, in the story A Father Advises his Son About Love Freer and Sackler Galleries, The Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. The origins of chess is one of the most controversial areas of board gaming history. ... Chaturaji, starting position. ...

References

• A History of Chess, H.J.R. Murray (1913), ISBN 0936317019.
• The Encyclopedia of Chess Variants, D.B. Pritchard (1994), ISBN 0952414201.

Harold James Ruthven Murray (June 24, 1868 - May 16, 1955) born in Peckham Rye, London, son of James Murray (editor of the Oxford English Dictionary), the eldest of eleven children, was most prominent as a chess historian. ...

External links

• Chaturanga, from Chess Variants