Indian chess
Encyclopedia
- This article about regional versions of chess played in India. For ancient Indian chess variants, which are believed to be predecessors of chess by some historians, see ChaturangaChaturangaChaturanga is an ancient Indian game that is presumed to be the common ancestor of the games of chess, shogi, and makruk, and related to xiangqi and janggi.Chaturanga developed in Gupta India around the 6th century...
.
Indian chess is the name given to the version of the game as played in India in the 18th and 19th centuries. Chess originated in India, and the more ancient forms are known as Chaturanga
Chaturanga
Chaturanga is an ancient Indian game that is presumed to be the common ancestor of the games of chess, shogi, and makruk, and related to xiangqi and janggi.Chaturanga developed in Gupta India around the 6th century...
, and spread to the west via Persia in the 7th Century. There are several such variations, all quite similar to modern rules
Rules of chess
The rules of chess are rules governing the play of the game of chess. While the exact origins of chess are unclear, modern rules first took form during the Middle Ages. The rules continued to be slightly modified until the early 19th century, when they reached essentially their current form. The...
, with variants regarding castling
Castling
Castling is a special move in the game of chess involving the king and either of the original rooks of the same color. It is the only move in chess in which a player moves two pieces at the same time. Castling consists of moving the king two squares towards a rook on the player's first rank, then...
, pawn promotion
Promotion (chess)
Promotion is a chess rule describing the transformation of a pawn that reaches its eighth rank into the player's choice of a queen, knight, rook, or bishop of the same color . The new piece replaces the pawn on the same square and is part of the move. Promotion is not limited to pieces that have...
, etc. These variants were popular in India until the 1960s, and are possibly still played in rural areas.
Difference from Western chess
- The kingKing (chess)In chess, the king is the most important piece. The object of the game is to trap the opponent's king so that its escape is not possible . If a player's king is threatened with capture, it is said to be in check, and the player must remove the threat of capture on the next move. If this cannot be...
is always placed at the right of the queenQueen (chess)The queen is the most powerful piece in the game of chess, able to move any number of squares vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. Each player starts the game with one queen, placed in the middle of the first rank next to the king. With the chessboard oriented correctly, the white queen starts...
(as opposed to the left for Black). - Some rules differ when only the king and pawnsPawn (chess)The pawn is the most numerous and weakest piece in the game of chess, historically representing infantry, or more particularly armed peasants or pikemen. Each player begins the game with eight pawns, one on each square of the rank immediately in front of the other pieces...
are left in play. - The two-step initial movement of a pawn is absent in Indian Chess; thus, en passantEn passantEn passant is a move in the board game of chess . It is a special pawn capture which can occur immediately after a player moves a pawn two squares forward from its starting position, and an enemy pawn could have captured it had it moved only one square forward...
is also absent. - Normal castling between rook and king is absent. The king can make a knight'sKnight (chess)The knight is a piece in the game of chess, representing a knight . It is normally represented by a horse's head and neck. Each player starts with two knights, which begin on the row closest to the player, one square from the corner...
move once in a game, which is known as Indian Castling. - On reaching the opposite end of the board, pawns promotePromotion (chess)Promotion is a chess rule describing the transformation of a pawn that reaches its eighth rank into the player's choice of a queen, knight, rook, or bishop of the same color . The new piece replaces the pawn on the same square and is part of the move. Promotion is not limited to pieces that have...
to the piece of that square.
Noted players of Indian Chess
Moheshchunder Bannerjee of BengalBengal
Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...
was a strong player whose games have been described by his partner John Cochrane. These included the following game in
Grünfeld Defense against Cochrane in 1855—some 38 years before Ernst Grünfeld
Ernst Grünfeld
----Ernst Franz Grünfeld , an Austrian grandmaster and writer specializing in opening theory, was for a brief period after the First World War one of the strongest chess players in the world....
was born. John Cochrane-Moheschunder Bannerjee, May 1855 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.e3 Bg7 5.Nf3 0-0 6.cxd5 Nxd5 7.Be2 Nxc3 8.bxc3 c5 9.0-0 cxd4 10.cxd4 Nc6 11.Bb2 Bg4 12.Rc1 Rc8 13.Ba3 Qa5 14.Qb3 Rfe8 15.Rc5 Qb6 16.Rb5 Qd8 17.Ng5 Bxe2 18.Nxf7 Na5 and White checkmate
Checkmate
Checkmate is a situation in chess in which one player's king is threatened with capture and there is no way to meet that threat. Or, simply put, the king is under direct attack and cannot avoid being captured...
s in three moves (19.Nh6+ double check
Double check
In chess, a double check is a check delivered by two pieces at the same time. In chess notation, it is often symbolized by "++".-Discussion:...
Kh8 20.Qg8+ Rxg8 21.Nf7#
Checkmate
Checkmate is a situation in chess in which one player's king is threatened with capture and there is no way to meet that threat. Or, simply put, the king is under direct attack and cannot avoid being captured...
). Bannerjee's fondness for fianchetto
Fianchetto
In chess the fianchetto is a pattern of development wherein a bishop is developed to the second rank of the adjacent knight file, the knight pawn having been moved one or two squares forward....
ed openings
Chess opening
A chess opening is the group of initial moves of a chess game. Recognized sequences of opening moves are referred to as openings as initiated by White or defenses, as created in reply by Black. There are many dozens of different openings, and hundreds of named variants. The Oxford Companion to...
were noted by Cochrane in his writings in 1884, and eventually led to the class of openings called Indian defence (Nimzo-Indian, Queen's Indian etc.).
Mir Sultan Khan
Mir Sultan Khan
Malik Mir Sultan Khan was the strongest chess master of his time from Asia. This manservant from British India traveled with Colonel Nawab Sir Umar Hayat Khan , his master, to Britain, where he took the chess world by storm...
of Punjab
Punjab (India)
Punjab ) is a state in the northwest of the Republic of India, forming part of the larger Punjab region. The state is bordered by the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh to the east, Haryana to the south and southeast and Rajasthan to the southwest as well as the Pakistani province of Punjab to the...
transitioned from Indian chess to Western rules. During a visit to England for five years, he won the British Championship
British Championship
The British Championship is the most prestigious ice hockey cup competition in the United Kingdom, and also the longest established ice hockey competition. It has been run under various formats and titles since 1930 and contested annually since 1966...
in 1929, 1932, and 1933.
Names of the pieces
In the variants in BengalBengal
Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...
, the rook is commonly called a Boat, and the bishop is called an Elephant. In the Punjab and Rajasthan
Rajasthan
Rājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...
, the bishop is called a Camel. The knight has been called a horse since chaturanga
Chaturanga
Chaturanga is an ancient Indian game that is presumed to be the common ancestor of the games of chess, shogi, and makruk, and related to xiangqi and janggi.Chaturanga developed in Gupta India around the 6th century...
times, and is attested to in the iconography of the modern knight.
- King
- Queen
- Elephant (BishopBishop (chess)A bishop is a piece in the board game of chess. Each player begins the game with two bishops. One starts between the king's knight and the king, the other between the queen's knight and the queen...
) - Horse (Knight)
- Boat (RookRook (chess)A rook is a piece in the strategy board game of chess. Formerly the piece was called the castle, tower, marquess, rector, and comes...
) - Army (PawnPawn (chess)The pawn is the most numerous and weakest piece in the game of chess, historically representing infantry, or more particularly armed peasants or pikemen. Each player begins the game with eight pawns, one on each square of the rank immediately in front of the other pieces...
)
See also
- Origins of chess
- ChaturajiChaturajiChaturaji is a four player chess-like game. It was first described in detail circa 1030 by Biruni in his India book. Originally, this was a game of chance: the pieces to be moved were decided by rolling two dice...
, four-handed version of Chaturanga - ShatranjShatranjShatranj is an old form of chess, which came to the Western world from India. Modern chess has gradually developed from this game.-Etymology and origins:...