The First AdaptationChaturanga was the first version of chess made in India, many historians believe that it is the foundation of modern chess. Chaturanga was very popular in 600 AD. It became the first board game that had different pieces that moved in different patterns, but the pieces didn't move in the same patterns as modern chess pieces. Chaturanga had many purposes, and playing was only one of them.
It was used for military purposes, war simulations, gambling, mathematics, and even astronomy. The first version of Chaturanga was a 4-person game played with 1 die (Chaturanga means four-handed game). Later, a new version of Chaturanga was developed that turned into a game that looked more like chess. The board had no colored squares and the black king and queen switched positions compared to modern chess. India introduced Persia to the game of Chaturanga around 1000 AD. The Persians called it Chatarang, but the 'ch' and the 'g' were foreign letters to some Persians, so they renamed the game Shatranj. To Eastern AsiaChaturanga spread to countries in East Asia
around 960-1300 AD including China, Japan, and Mongolia. China learned about Chaturanga and made it their own game called Xiangqi. Xiangqi was a mixture of go(another Chinese game) and Chaturanga. Xiangqi is still played today. The Japanese then made a new game called Shogi. Shogi was played on a 9x9 board with 2 queens. The pawns took as they moved (meaning the didn't capture diagonally), and the pieces that were taken were reused. EuropeanisationWhen the Arabs conquered the Persians, chess was accepted by the Muslim world and spread to southern Europe and the Byzantine Empire(east roman empire). In Byzantine, shatranj(see the first adaptation) was known as Zatrikion. Zatrikion had similar rules to Shatranj, but the board wasn't. Chess was a strategic game of war, and in return, war introduced chess to many nations in the world.
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