When and Where was chess invented? Who invented chess?

The reason that chess is called chess comes from the name of the original game.

Chaturanga is Sanskrit for "four forces" which describes the four main parts of the army: pawns (infantry), Knights (horses), Bishops (elephants), and Rooks (chariots).

After the game became popular in the Persian and Arabic world, the name "chaturanga" morphed to "shatranj," which means something like "King Game." In Farsi (Persian) "shah" means king, similar to Arabic "sheikh."

And it's here that we get the name of the game. Both "chess" and "check" derive from the Farsi "shah" meaning King. (When we say "check" we're saying, "Hello, watch out, your King is attacked!")

The word "checkmate" comes from the Farsi "shah mat" which means approximately "the King is defeated." And in Russian the game is called "Shakhmaty" or "the Game of Checkmate," which might explain to a degree why Russians are so good at chess. Their name for the game IS the name of the game!

@hydrophilic, I recently got a quote=

"We don’t really know how the game was invented, though there are suspicions. As soon as we discover the culprits, we’ll let you know."-Bruce Pandolfini

#11
Shah is check
Mat is Mate
Not Shah Mat

@biscuitfiend You beat me to it! Nice explanation!

@KeithDenning Only by a few minutes. And I had forgotten the meaning of the original chaturanga, and how that was adopted/adapted into the Persian, or properly Farsi, name - a worthwhile addition!

The Demon King Ravana had invented Chaturanga and taught his wife to play it. But was defeated by Ram.

The french made chess what it is today. A few hundred years ago the french took an unfinished product, a lump of wood if you will, and turned it into the piece of art we're all playing today. Then they marketed it and established it in the cultured world. The french did all ze heavy lifting eh. Et voila!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeB-1F-UKO0

I literally don't care where, who,how, when and why chess was invented.It doesn't really matter.Also, there's some controversy as to where it was really invented.It is not certain as to where it originated.For that matter, when did the people develop modern day chess, surely chess wasn't the same as it is now compared to when it was first invented.

Honestly, I don't care.I enjoy playing the game as it is right now.

Apparently #19 literally doesn't care. There are answers to some of those questions, but he doesn't care, he literally doesn't care.

Chat, he literally doesn't even care.