The history of chess: from India's chaturanga to world champions
Chess began in India as chaturanga — how it reached Persia and Europe, what "checkmate" means, and India's stars from Anand to Gukesh, Humpy and Divya.
Rohit Tandon · 18 October 2026 · 4 min read
Today hundreds of millions of people play chess, but few know that the game was born in India. The history of chess is about one and a half thousand years old, and it began with a game called "chaturanga". Here is how the game travelled from India to the world, and how India has once again become a chess superpower.
Chaturanga: the ancestor of chess
According to historians, "chaturanga" was played in India in the Gupta period, around the sixth century CE. In Sanskrit chaturanga means "having four limbs" — the four divisions of an ancient army: foot soldiers, cavalry, elephants and chariots. These four divisions can still be seen in today's pieces: the pawn, the knight, the elephant (an old form of the bishop) and the chariot (today's rook). There was also the king and his minister, who later became the "vizier" and, in Europe, the "queen".
From India to the world
| Period | Where | Name of the game |
|---|---|---|
| Around the 6th century | India | Chaturanga |
| 7th century | Persia (Iran) | Chatrang, then shatranj |
| 8th–9th centuries | The Arab world | Shatranj |
| Around the 10th century | Spain and Europe | Chess |
| Late 15th century | Europe | The queen gets her powerful move — modern chess |
In Persian "shah" means king. When the king is attacked, the call is "shah" (check), and "shah mat" means "the king is helpless". The English word "checkmate" comes from this Persian phrase.
Did you know? According to an old legend, the inventor of chess asked the king for a simple reward: one grain of wheat on the first square of the board, two on the second, four on the third — doubling on every square. The total for 64 squares comes to more than 1.8 × 1019 grains — more wheat than the whole world grows in hundreds of years.
India's chess stars
- Viswanathan Anand: became India's first grandmaster in 1988 and was world champion five times (2000, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012).
- D. Gukesh: beat Ding Liren in Singapore on 12 December 2024 to become, at 18, the youngest undisputed world champion.
- Koneru Humpy: women's world rapid champion in 2019 and 2024.
- Divya Deshmukh: won the FIDE Women's World Cup in 2025 at the age of 19 and became a grandmaster.
- R. Praggnanandhaa: runner-up at the 2023 FIDE World Cup.
A double gold at the Chess Olympiad
At the 2024 Chess Olympiad in Budapest, Hungary, India made history by winning gold in both the open and the women's sections. Before that, in 2022, India had hosted the Chess Olympiad at Mamallapuram near Chennai. India today has more than 80 grandmasters, and most of the new stars have come from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal.
The pieces and the board
A chessboard has 8 × 8, or 64, squares, and each player starts with 16 pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights and eight pawns. The aim of the game is to put the opponent's king in a position where no move can save it — that is checkmate. The player with the white pieces always makes the first move.
The benefits of playing chess
- It builds the habit of concentrating and thinking ahead.
- It teaches patience and how to take winning and losing calmly.
- It improves memory and problem-solving.
Key points
- Chess was born in India as "chaturanga".
- Chaturanga means the four limbs of an army: infantry, cavalry, elephants and chariots.
- "Checkmate" comes from the Persian "shah mat".
- Viswanathan Anand is India's first grandmaster.
- D. Gukesh became the youngest world champion in 2024.
Frequently asked questions
Where was chess invented?
In India, where a game called "chaturanga" was played in the Gupta period.
Who was India's first grandmaster?
Viswanathan Anand, who became a grandmaster in 1988.
More players: Chess personalities · Interesting facts · History questions.
Sources
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