.p03 0 025 042
.p04 0 265 042
.p02 0 025 152
.p01 0 265 152
.c
.fg
Chaturanga

.h28
the first chess
.n


.c
A small number of
literary references seem
to confirm the existence of
chess by the beginning of the
seventh century. Islamic accounts,
beginning in the ninth century,
and Indian accounts from much
later appear to indicate that
chess was invented in India.
Chess scholars have made a
plausible reconstruction of this
ancient Indian game of chess,
.c
         known as ;
.si
chaturanga.
.n


        The word;
.si
 chaturanga;
.si
 is
.c
Sanskrit and means four-
limbed.  This term was first
used to describe ancient Indian
armies that were considered
four-limbed for having corps of
horses (cavalry), elephants,
chariots, and footsoldiers. The
.c
     pieces of a ;
.si
chaturanga ;
.si
set
.c
represented these four elements of
an army.  A rajah and his minister
were included on the board to
command these forces.
.gu102 048 01 010
.n


.c
The power of move of each piece
was determined by the relative
power of the army corp that it
represented. For instance, a chariot
can move to many more squares than
an elephant or a footsoldier. The way
a piece moves also suggests the
manner in which its corp moved.
A chariot moves in straight lines.
A horse's (knight's) move might
symbolize the way a rider attacks
from a horse, forward to left or
right but not straight ahead.
.n


.c
The movements of the rajah,
minister, horse, chariot, and
footsoldier appear to have been
fixed early in the development of
.c
.si
     chaturanga.;
.si
  The move of the
.c
elephant is less certain. At least
three different elephant moves were
.c
 tried in;
.si
 chaturanga.;
.si
  The two square
.c
diagonal leaping move was probably
the first tried, and it is the one
that passed west to become the
standard move until it was replaced
by the move of the modern bishop.
.n


.c
.go080 013 170 142 armies:art/hyde.clip
.h19
.gb080 013 140 014
.m000 170
.h28
.fg
 Elephant from Hyde
.n


.c
H.J.R. Murray believed that
the Indians may have felt the
two square diagonal move an
inadequate representation of the
elephant's worth in the Indian
army.   As a result, the Indians
tried different elephant moves in
an attempt to find a better
representation.  One Arabic author,
al-Adli, wrote that the Indians
played with an elephant that leapt
two squares in either a vertical
or horizontal direction.
.gu070 078 02 010
.n


.c
Al-Adli's elephant could
move to twice as many
squares as the diagonal leaping
elephant. Al-Adli also wrote that
the elephant was placed on the
corners of the board and the
chariots were placed in the normal
elephant spot next to the rajah and
minister.  Another Islamic author,
al-Beruni, described an elephant
that had the powers of the
minister with an additional
forward move.
.n


.c
Al-Beruni's elephant could
reach every square on the board.
H.J.R. Murray wrote that its five-
fold move fit well with the Indian
idea that the elephant was a five-
limbed animal, the trunk counting as
a hand.  Murray also noted that this
move was tried later than the other
two elephant moves and that it was
associated with Buddhist areas of
India.  The disappearance of the
move may have been associated with
the overthrow of Buddhism in India. 
.gu294 148 03 010
.n


.fg
.c
notes
.gr049
.ft
.c


 1 Murray, ;
.su
History of Chess;
.su
, p.42.

 2 ;
.su
Ibid.;
.su
, p.60.

 3 ;
.su
Ibid.