Author: Omer Farooq/Hyderabad
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: November 10, 2002
Chess, the game of mind and intellect,
was a gift of India to the world in the late 6th or early 7th century,
a noted historian and respected researcher on the board games said here
Saturday.
Prof R Vasantha of History in Sri
Krishnadevaraya University, Anantapur and a member of Association of Game-boards
Research Germany said what is today known as chess was, in fact, an evolved
form of Chaturanga or Asthapada, a four headed race game played in Kushana
period during 2nd century BC to 4th century AD.
Speaking on "Origin and Genesis
of Chess" in the SalarJung Museum, Prof Vasantha, drawing heavily from
Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian literary sources as well as archeological
evidences, said the theory that chess had its origin in China was being
increasingly questioned all over the world, specially in Europe.
It was from India that chess went
first to Iran and Arab and through the Muslim conquests of Europe, it went
to the European continent.
The earliest references to the game
were in the epic romances written in old Persian around 600/625 AD describing
Chatrang or Shatranj as an Indian invention brought to Shah's court.
In China the first indisputable
sources appeared only around 800 AD. "The King of Kanauj had sent the game
of chess to the court of Sasanian King Kusrau I Anshirvan (531-579)," she
said.
