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The origins of chess is one of the most controversial areas of board gaming history. Countries which, at one time or the other, have been associated with invention of chess include China, India, Egypt, Greece, Assyria, Persia, Arabia, Ireland and Uzbekistan.
The bulk of the controversy surrounding the origins of chess mainly springs from two competing historical theories. First, one historical theory assumes our historical record to be essentially accurate. Second, a competing theory suggests that ancient Roman conquerors (with help perhaps from ancient India or Kushans) plundered specialized knowledge from ancient Egypt and revised the historical record so as to claim ancient Egyptian advances as their own. For purposes of this article, this will be termed the "revisionist" theory. Proponents of this theory assert it to be the only logical conclusion remaining to explain some extraordinary ancient Egyptian feats, such as the Great Pyramid of Giza and all those historical/archaeological puzzles posed at Charlemagne's Elephant (http://www.historybookshop.com/articles/commentary/charlemagne-elephant-ht.asp).
While it is generally thought that chess originated from the Indian game Chaturanga from around 1400 years ago, the evidence for this theory has long been recognized as weak, primarily because no physical evidence of the ancient Indian game to date has been excavated.
Revisionists claim that this lack of physical evidence exposes Chaturanga as an apparent hoax, a game existing in idea only (as nothing more than a mere story) rather than physical fact. Compounding their claim are actual Chaturanga-looking pieces (elephant pieces) which have been discovered and date prior to the 6th century A.D. (See The first Persian, Arab and Russian chessmen (http://history.chess.free.fr/first-persian-russian.htm).) Chess-like games, so it seems, may have been played centuries before having allegedly been invented in India.
The main claim for an Egyptian origin of chess is the ancient image found in the tomb of Egyptian Queen Nefertari (1295-1255 BC) which shows her reaching over what appears to be a game of 10 playing pieces on a 4 x 7 board design. The board suggested in this image includes, like Xiàngqí, a large block of blank space in its middle between the two players. See About The History Of Chess (http://www.charlatanchess.com/eng8e.htm).
If Nefertari's image represents an original version of Xiàngqí, it would be our earliest indication of figurine-type playing pieces on a battle game played without dice. Nevertheless, both the ancient Board Game (http://www.gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca//Archive/Brumbaugh/index.html) of Knossos (the design of which includes a ditch) and ancient Chinese Liubo (or Liu po) predate Nefertari's "game" by a couple centuries, as both are circa 1500 BC (ref. Lin, Chinese Chess (https://www.schachversand.de/detail/buecher/5985.html), 1991). However, the Knossos board likely represents a race-like game rather than a battle game, and Liubo, though a battle game, was played with dice.
Interestingly, we have also evidence of two additional ancient Egyptian battle-like board games played without dice. Particularly, Plato attributes Egypt as the origin of petteia, played in the 5th to 4th centuries BC, but nothing more is known about the game. (See reference page 261 at Greek Board Games (http://www.gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca//Archive/Austin/index.html).) Another such ancient Egyptian game was seega (idem, pp. 270-271). Yet another described by Plato is the ancient Greek battle game poleis, a "fight between two cities" (idem, pp. 263-265). Note too that literary sources indicate Xiàngqí may have been played as early as the 4th century BC. See chess in early literature.
Other battle-like board games played in antiquity without dice include the ancient Chinese game of Go, still popular even today. Although the origins of Go may extend as far back as 2300 BC (ref. Encyclopædia Britannica (http://www.britannica.com/ebc/article?tocId=9365731&query=go%20board%20game&ct=)) substantial supporting evidence dates no earlier than the 3rd century BC. Finally, Varro (Marcus Terentius) is credited with having documented our earliest record (1st century BC) of the Roman battle game, latrunculi. His original Latin prose is posted at Varro: Lingua Latina X (http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/varro.ll10.html), II, par. 20.
Seemingly, many ancient chess sets were destroyed over the centuries, perhaps in an attempt to "refine" the historical record. Luckily however modern excavations conducted since the 1970s have turned up chess pieces dating as far back as the 2nd century CE. See timeline of chess.
Again, although the existing evidence is weak, it is commonly speculated that the game entered Persia during the reign of Khusraw I Nûshîrwân (531-578 CE).
Among other early literary evidence for chess is a middle-Persian epic Karnamak-i-Artakhshatr-i-Papakan which mentions its hero as being skilled at chess. This work is dated with some reserve, however, at 600 CE: The work could have been composed as early as 260 CE and as late as 1000 CE. The earliest evidence which we can date with some certainty is in early Arabic chess literature dating from the early 9th century CE.
Many of the early works on chess gave a legendary history of the invention of chess, often associating it with Nard (a game of the Tables variety like Backgammon). However, only limited credence can be given to these. Even as early as the tenth century Zakaria Yahya commented on the chess myths, "It is said to have been played by Aristotle, by Yafet Ibn Nuh (Japhet son of Noah), by Sam ben Nuh (Shem), by Solomon for the loss of his son, and even by Adam when he grieved for Abel." In one case the invention of chess was attributed to Moses (by the rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra 1130 CE).
As a final point of reference, the oldest figurine known to date is a piece dating as far back as the Middle Acheulean period (500,000 to 300,000 BC) in the northern African country of Morocco. See figurine.
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Other Theories for the origin of chess
India
- Cox-Forbes theory - Chess originated from four-handed chaturanga
- Shahnama theory - Chess as a replacement for war
- Educational theory - Chess designed to teach a prince tactics
- Son's death theory - Chess designed to explain a son's death to mother
Ireland
The main claim for Irish origin is the claim that 2 chess tables were bequested in the will (http://www.kinsella.org/history/cathair.htm) of Cathair Mor who died in 153 CE. The Celtic game of fidchell is believed to be a battle game (as opposed to a hunt game like tafl or brandub) like chess, and possibly a descendant of the Roman game ludus latrunculorum.
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