The game ends with checkmate when one side captures the king of the opposite party. And, while the figures and the rules kept changing over centuries, the modern game of chess still draws in many ways on the same principles as when it first appeared in the Middle Ages.
The origins of chess in India
Chess is generally assumed to have first appeared in the sixth century in the Gupta Empire in India. The tale recounted in the Shahnama thus resonates well with the Indian roots of this game. The Arabic word for chess is shatranj, which originates from the Sanskrit word chaturanga or four-limbed. This denotes the four main constituents of the contemporary Indian army: infantry, cavalry, chariots, and elephants. In addition, these were led by the king and the vizier, who would have commanded the armies.
From India, chess spread alongside the Silk Roads both eastward and westward. It quickly became a popular pastime across the Islamic world. The early evidence for medieval chess sets includes both figural and abstract pieces. The pieces could also be quite sizeable: the height of the elephant-rider fig-ure of the Bibliothèque nationale or king in the game, is likely the sole remnant of a luxuriously crafted ivory chess set. It originates from ninth- or tenth-century Greater Sind, most likely Mansura or Multan, in modern-day Pakistan.
