To the best of our knowledge, the history of chess started out in Northern India about 1500 years ago, where it was called chaturanga.
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There’re allegations that it actually started in China, perhaps as long as 3000 years ago. So perhaps chaturanga was really an Indian version of some long lost Chinese board game. There’s no way to know for sure.
We do know that chauranga became a two-handed game called shatanj, which is the Arabic word. It spread from India to Persia and Arabia and by the 9th century it reached Europe. Europe changed some of the pieces to fit European culture — and voila, chess as we know it today.
However, what’s not widely know is that shatanj didn’t disappear — it not only spread to Europe and became chess, it spread throughout Asia and became:
Shiang K’i (Chinese Chess)
Sho-gi (Japanese Chess or The General’s Game)
Changgi — Korean Chess
Sittuyin (Burmese Chess)
Mak-ruk (Siamese Chess)
Xiangqi (or Xiang Qi or Hsiang-Ch`i or Shiang K’i or Jeuhng Keih) is a popular game in China and Southeast Asia.
It translates as the “Elephant Game.” The “qi” syllable refers not to childish pursuits, but to strategy games, one of China’s four traditional arts. Obviously, the ancient Chinese also regarded their form of chess as mind training for war.
The Xiangqi board is consists of ten horizontal lines and nine vertical lines. The two sides are separated by sort of no man’s land called a river. Each side of the board contains a palace with a cross connecting its four corner points.
Like chess, Xiangqi is won by checkmating your opponent’s king. It has a rooks, knights, elephants instead of bishops and pawns. Also 2 Mandarins and 2 cannons.
Around 900 to 1100, the game crossed over to Japan. Shogi in its present form was played in Japan by the 16th century, and there are many variations.
Again, you must checkmate your opponent’s king. The board is similar to chess except it’s all one color. Pieces include pawn, rook and bishop — but also a Gold General, Silver General and Lance.
Also, after you capture pieces from your opponent you can return them to the board as your own.
Changgi (or Jangki or Tjyang Keui) is played in Korea. Board is similar to Chinese Chess, only there’s no river and the pieces are set in the intersections of lines rather than within the squares the lines form.
Sittuyin arrived in Burma close behind its play in India, in the 700s. Within a few hundred years it was a fashionable court game.
It was seen in quite a religious light — as symboling the battle between good and evil. The pieces were modeled after characters in the Hindu classic the Ramayana.
It’s an unusual variation in that players get to choose how to arrange their pieces at the beginning of the game, although still behind the pawns.
Vladimir Kramnik has played Mak-ruk, the Thai version of chess, and praises it.
The board is 8 X 8 squares. There is a space between the row of pawns and the row of other pieces. There is no castling.
The Cambodian version of chess is almost the same as Mak-ruk.
Other Asian variations include:
Hiashatar – Mongolian chess
Shatar — also Mongolian
c 2006 by Richard Stooker
Read more about the world’s greatest game at Richard’s History of Chess blog
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