The Lewis Chessmen, found on Scotland’s Outer Hebrides in 1831, date to roughly the 12th century A.D. Photo from the British Museum / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain.
Modern-day chess traces its origins to the ancient Indian game of Chaturanga, whose Sanskrit name refers to the “four limbs” of the Gupta Empire’s army: infantry, cavalry, chariots and war elephants. First recorded around the sixth century A.D., but presumably played prior to this period, Chaturanga pitted four players, each assuming the role of an imperial military arm, against each other. Pieces moved in patterns similar to those seen in modern chess, according to Donovan’s It’s All a Game. Infantry, for instance, marched forward and captured diagonally like pawns, while cavalry traveled in L-shapes like knights. Unlike today’s game, however, Chaturanga involved an element of chance, with players casting sticks to determine pieces’ movement.
During the mid-sixth century, Indian merchants introduced a revised two-player version of Chaturanga to Persia’s Sasanian Empire, where it was quickly transformed into the improved game of Shatranj. (Declaring “check” and “checkmate” stems from the Persian practice of saying “shah mat” when an opponent’s shah, or king, was cornered.) When Arabic armies conquered the Sasanian Empire in the mid-seventh century, the game further evolved, its pieces assuming an abstract shape in compliance with Islam’s ban on figurative images.
Chess arrived in Europe by way of Arabic-held territories in Spain and the Iberian Peninsula. A Swiss monastery manuscript dated to the 990s contains the earliest known literary reference to the game, which rapidly gained popularity across the continent. By the end of the 12th century, chess was a staple everywhere from France to Germany, Scandinavia and Scotland, all of which followed a slightly different set of rules.
Per Donovan, the “most radical change of all” was the emergence of the queen as chess’ most powerful player during the 15th and 16th centuries. The shift was far from random. Instead, it reflected the previously unheard of rise of empowered female monarchs. Isabella I of Castile led her armies against the Moorish occupiers of Granada, while her granddaughter, Mary I, became the first woman to rule England in her own right. Other prominent female royals of the period included Catherine de Medici, Elizabeth I, Marguerite of Navarre and Marie de Guise.