A quick look the history of chess

The history of chess goes back almost 1500 years. The game originated in northern India in the 6th century AD and spread to Persia. When the Arabs conquered Persia, chess was taken up by the Muslim world and subsequently, through the Moorish conquest of Spain, spread to Southern Europe.

According to legend, chess was invented by Grand Vizier Sissa Ben Dahir, and given as a gift to King Shirham of India.

Chess, as we know it today, was born out of the Indian game chaturanga before the 600s AD. The game spread throughout Asia and Europe over the coming centuries and eventually evolved into what we know as chess around the 16th century. One of the first masters of the game was a Spanish priest named Ruy Lopez

The earliest form of the game that's now called chess can be dated back to India in the sixth century. Like the modern game, this predecessor, called chaturanga (or catur) was played on an 8x8 grid and featured pieces generally similar to those of modern chess.

Chaturanga was the old name of chess. Chaturanga was flourishing in northwestern India by the 7th century and is regarded as the earliest precursor of modern chess because it had two key features found in all later chess variants—different pieces had different powers (unlike checkers and go), and victory was based on one piece, the king of modern chess.

The name 'Chess' comes from a French word. The original 6th century Sanskrit word for Chess was 'Chaturanga' meaning 'Four arms" (of the military). The Persians then adopted the name 'Shah', meaning 'King' (a corruption of the term 'Shah Maat' - 'the King' is frozen' - is where we get 'Checkmate' from)