Apr. 11, 2005 - Shaturanga
A great deal has been written about the origins of the modern Chess variants and there is still a lot of debate on the subject. The earliest clear ancestor of Chess is Shaturanga or Chaturanga which was invented by a 6th century Indian philosopher. It was a battle between four armies each under the control of a Rajah (king), two players being loosely allied against the other two and and each containing 4 corps - Infantry, Cavalry, Elephants and Boatmen. The board of 64 squares used for Shaturanga, was borrowed from an earlier game called Ashtapada, which was a race game played in Ancient India. The pieces of Shaturanga were represented viz.:
- Infantry - 4 Pawns which moved as pawns do in Chess
- Boatmen - A ship which could only move 2 squares diagonally but could jump over intervening pieces
- Cavalry - A horse which could move like a Knight in Chess
- Elephant - An elephant which could move like a Rook in Chess
- Rajah - A human figure which could move like a King in Chess
The game started with the four armies in each of the four corners, in a double row, like Chess, the four main pieces behind the four pawns. Other than the fact that it was a game for four players, the other main difference was the use of dice to decide which piece moved each turn.
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