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Shatranj

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Shatranj also called Nagari , is an abugida alphabet of India and Nepal...

: ) is an old form of chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

, which came to the Western world from India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. Modern chess

Chess

has gradually developed from this game.

Etymology and origins

The word shatranj is derived from the Sanskrit

Sanskrit

Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...

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...

(catuḥ="four", anga="arm"). In Middle Persian

Middle Persian

Middle Persian , indigenously known as "Pârsig" sometimes referred to as Pahlavi or Pehlevi, is the Middle Iranian language/ethnolect of Southwestern Iran that during Sassanid times became a prestige dialect and so came to be spoken in other regions as well. Middle Persian is classified as a...

the word appears as chatrang, with the 'u' lost due to syncope and the 'a' lost to apocope

Apocope

In phonology, apocope is the loss of one or more sounds from the end of a word, and especially the loss of an unstressed vowel.-Historical sound change:...

, e.g., in the title of the text Mâdayân î chatrang ("Book of Chess") from the 7th century AD. In Persian folk etymology, the word is sometimes re-bracketed

Rebracketing

Rebracketing is a common process in historical linguistics where a word originally derived from one source is broken down or bracketed into a different set of factors...

as sad ("hundred") + ranj ("worries"), which might appear quite meaningful to players. The word was adapted into Arabic as shatranj, and then into the Portuguese

Portuguese language

Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...

xadrez, Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

ajedrez, and Greek ζατρίκιον; but English chess and check come via French échecs (Old French

Old French

Old French was the Romance dialect continuum spoken in territories that span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from the 9th century to the 14th century...

eschecs) from Persian شَاه (shāh = "king").

The game came to Persia from India

India

in the early centuries of the Christian Era (Common Era). The earliest Persian reference to shatranj is found in the Middle Persian

Middle Persian

book Karnamak-i Artaxshir-i Papakan
Karnamak-i Artaxshir-i Papakan
The Kārnāmag-ī Ardaxšīr-ī Pābagān or Book of the Deeds of Ardashir, Son of Papag, is a mythological Middle Persian tale written in the Sassanid period ....

, which was written between the 3rd and 7th centuries AD (Common Era). This ancient Persian text refers to Shah Ardashir I

Ardashir I

Ardashir I was the founder of the Sassanid Empire, was ruler of Istakhr , subsequently Fars Province , and finally "King of Kings of Sassanid Empire " with the overthrow of the Parthian Empire...

, who ruled from 224–241, as a master of the game:
However, Karnamak contains many fables and legends, and this only establishes the popularity of chatrang at the time of its composition.
During the reign of the later Sassanid king Khosrau I

Khosrau I

Khosrau I , also known as Anushiravan the Just or Anushirawan the Just Khosrau I (also called Chosroes I in classical sources, most commonly known in Persian as Anushirvan or Anushirwan, Persian: انوشيروان meaning the immortal soul), also known as Anushiravan the Just or Anushirawan the Just...

(531–579), a gift from an Indian king (possibly a Maukhari Dynasty king of Kannauj

Kannauj

Kannauj , also spelt Kanauj, is a city, administrative headquarters and a municipal board or Nagar Palika Parishad in Kannauj district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The city's name is traditionally derived from the term Kanyakubja . Kannauj is an ancient city, in earlier times the capital...

) included a chess game with sixteen pieces of emerald

Emerald

Emerald is a variety of the mineral beryl colored green by trace amounts of chromium and sometimes vanadium. Beryl has a hardness of 7.5–8 on the 10 point Mohs scale of mineral hardness...

and sixteen of ruby

Ruby

A ruby is a pink to blood-red colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum . The red color is caused mainly by the presence of the element chromium. Its name comes from ruber, Latin for red. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called sapphires...

(green vs. red). The game came with a challenge which was successfully resolved by Khosrau's courtiers. This incident, originally referred to in
the Mâdayân î chatrang (c. 620 AD), is also mentioned in Firdausi's Shahnama (c. 1010 AD).

The rules of Chaturanga seen in India today have enormous variation, but all involve four branches (angas) of the army: the horse, the elephant (bishop), the chariot (rook) and the foot-soldier (pawn), played on a 8x8 board. Shatranj adapted much of the same rules as Chaturanga, and also the basic 16 piece structure. There is also a larger 10x11 board derivate; the 14th century Tamerlane chess

Tamerlane Chess

Tamerlane chess is a strategic board game related to chess and derived from shatranj. It was developed in Persia during the reign of Timur, also called Tamerlane . Some sources attribute the game's invention to Timur, but this is by no means certain...

, or Shatranj Kamil (perfect chess), with a slighly different piece structure.

In some later variants the darker squares were engraved. The game spread Westwards after the Islamic conquest of Persia

Islamic conquest of Persia

The Muslim conquest of Persia led to the end of the Sassanid Empire in 644, the fall of Sassanid dynasty in 651 and the eventual decline of the Zoroastrian religion in Persia...

and achieved great popularity and a considerable body of literature on game tactics and strategy was produced from the 8th c. onwards.

With the spread of Islam, chess diffused into the Maghreb

Maghreb

The Maghreb is the region of Northwest Africa, west of Egypt. It includes five countries: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Mauritania and the disputed territory of Western Sahara...

and then to Andalusian

Al-Andalus

Al-Andalus was the Arabic name given to a nation and territorial region also commonly referred to as Moorish Iberia. The name describes parts of the Iberian Peninsula and Septimania governed by Muslims , at various times in the period between 711 and 1492, although the territorial boundaries...

Spain. During the Islamic conquest of India

Islamic empires in India

Beginning in the 12th century, several Islamic states were established in the Indian subcontinentin the course of a gradual Muslim conquest in the Indian subcontinent....

(c.12th c.), some forms came back to India as well, as evidenced in the N. Indian term māt (mate, derivaative from Persian

Persian language

Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...

māt) or the Bengali

Bengali language

Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...

borey (pawn, presumed der. Arabic

Arabic language

Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

baidaq). Over the following centuries, chess became popular in Europe eventually giving rise to modern chess.

Rules

Shatranj pieces
	Shah (King King (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... )
	Fers or Wazīr (Counsellor)
	Rukh (Chariot or Rook Rook (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... )
	"Pīl" in Persian and "al-Fīl" in Arabic (Elephant)
	Asb (Horse in Persian) or Knight Knight (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...
	Sarbaz (piyadeh) (Pawn Pawn (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... )

The initial setup in shatranj was essentially the same as in modern chess. However the position of the white shah (king), on the right or left side was not fixed. Either the arrangement as in modern chess or as shown on the diagram above were possible. In either case, however, the white and black shāh would be on the same file (but not always in modern India). The game was played with these pieces:

Shāh (king) moves like the king in chess
King (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...

.
Fers (counsellor
Councillor
A councillor or councilor is a member of a local government council, such as a city council.Often in the United States, the title is councilman or councilwoman.-United Kingdom:...

; also spelled ferz; Arabic firz, from Persian فرزين farzīn ; also called Wazīr) moves exactly one square diagonally, which makes it a rather weak piece. It was renamed "queen
Queen (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...

" in Europe. Even today, the word for the queen piece is ферзь (ferz) in Russian, vezér in Hungarian and "vazīr" in Persian. It has analogues to the guards in xiangqi
Xiangqi
Xiangqi is a two-player Chinese board game in the same family as Western chess, chaturanga, shogi, Indian chess and janggi. The present-day form of Xiangqi originated in China and is therefore commonly called Chinese chess in English. Xiangqi is one of the most popular board games in China...

and Gold Generals in shogi
Shogi
, also known as Japanese chess, is a two-player board game in the same family as Western chess, chaturanga, and Chinese Xiangqi, and is the most popular of a family of chess variants native to Japan...

.
Rukh (chariot
Chariot
The chariot is a type of horse carriage used in both peace and war as the chief vehicle of many ancient peoples. Ox carts, proto-chariots, were built by the Proto-Indo-Europeans and also built in Mesopotamia as early as 3000 BC. The original horse chariot was a fast, light, open, two wheeled...

; from Persian رخ rokh) moves like the rook
Rook (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...

in chess.
Pīl, Alfil, Aufin, and similar (elephant; from Persian پيل pīl; al- is the Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

for "the") moves exactly two squares diagonally, jumping over the square between. Each Pīl could reach only one-eighth of the squares on the board, and because their circuits were disjoint, they could never capture one another. This piece might have had a different move sometimes in 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...

, where the piece is also called "elephant". The Pīl was replaced by the bishop
Bishop (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...

in modern chess. Even today, the word for the bishop piece is alfil in Spanish, alfiere in Italian, "fīl" in Persian and слон (which means elephant) in Russian. The elephant piece survives in xiangqi
Xiangqi
Xiangqi is a two-player Chinese board game in the same family as Western chess, chaturanga, shogi, Indian chess and janggi. The present-day form of Xiangqi originated in China and is therefore commonly called Chinese chess in English. Xiangqi is one of the most popular board games in China...

with the limitations that the elephant in xiangqi cannot jump over an intervening piece and is restricted to the owner's half of the board. In janggi
Janggi
Janggi , sometimes called Korean chess, is a strategic board game popular in Korea. It derived from Xiangqi , which itself is thought to be a descendent of the Indian chess game Chaturanga...

, its movement was changed to become a slightly further-reaching version of the horse.
Faras (horse, from Arabic; Persian اسپ asp) moves like the knight
Knight (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...

in chess.
Baidaq (from Arabic بيدق from Persian پياده piyāda, foot-soldier, by adapting the Persian word as Arabic bayādiq, which was treated as a broken plural
Broken plural
In linguistics, a broken plural is an irregular plural form of a noun or adjective found in the Semitic languages and other Afroasiatic languages such as Berber. Broken plurals are formed by changing the pattern of consonants and vowels inside the singular form...

from which was extracted an apparent singular baidaq) moves and captures like the pawns
Pawn (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...

in chess, but not moving two squares on the first move. When they reach the eighth rank, baidaqs are promoted, but only to fers.

Pieces are shown on the diagrams and recorded in the notation using the equivalent modern symbols, as in the table above. In modern descriptions of shatranj, the names king, rook, knight and pawn are commonly used for shah, rukh, faras, and baidaq.

There were also other differences compared to modern chess: 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...

was not allowed (it was invented much later). Stalemating

Stalemate

Stalemate is a situation in chess where the player whose turn it is to move is not in check but has no legal moves. A stalemate ends the game in a draw. Stalemate is covered in the rules of chess....

the opposing king resulted in a win for the player delivering stalemate. Capturing all one's opponent's pieces apart from the king (baring the king) was a win, unless your opponent could capture your last piece on his or her next move, then in most parts of the Islamic world it was a draw, but in Medina

Medina

Medina , or ; also transliterated as Madinah, or madinat al-nabi "the city of the prophet") is a city in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia, and serves as the capital of the Al Madinah Province. It is the second holiest city in Islam, and the burial place of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, and...

it was a win.

Early Arabic shatranj literature

During the Golden Age

Islamic Golden Age

During the Islamic Golden Age philosophers, scientists and engineers of the Islamic world contributed enormously to technology and culture, both by preserving earlier traditions and by adding their own inventions and innovations...

of Arabic

Arabic language

Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

, many works on shatranj were written, recording for the first time the analysis of opening games

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...

, chess problem

Chess problem

A chess problem, also called a chess composition, is a puzzle set by somebody using chess pieces on a chess board, that presents the solver with a particular task to be achieved. For instance, a position might be given with the instruction that White is to move first, and checkmate Black in two...

s, the knight's tour

Knight's tour

The knight's tour is a mathematical problem involving a knight on a chessboard. The knight is placed on the empty board and, moving according to the rules of chess, must visit each square exactly once. A knight's tour is called a closed tour if the knight ends on a square attacking the square from...

, and many more subjects common in modern chess books. Many of these manuscripts are missing, but their content is known due to compilation work done by the later authors.

The earliest listing of works on chess is in the Fihrist, a general bibliography

Bibliography

Bibliography , as a practice, is the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology...

produced in 377 AH (988 CE

Common Era

Common Era ,abbreviated as CE, is an alternative designation for the calendar era originally introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century, traditionally identified with Anno Domini .Dates before the year 1 CE are indicated by the usage of BCE, short for Before the Common Era Common Era...

) by Ibn al-Nadim

Ibn al-Nadim

Abu'l-Faraj Muhammad bin Is'hāq al-Nadim , whose father was known as al-Warrāq was a Shia Muslim scholar and bibliographer. Some scholars regard him as a Persian, but this is not certain. He is famous as the author of the Kitāb al-Fihrist...

. It includes an entire section on the topic of chess, listing:

Al-Adli's Kitab ash-shatranj ('Book of chess')
Ar-Razi's Latif fi'sh-shatranj ('Elegance in chess')
As-Suli's Kitab ash-shatranj (two volumes)
Al-Lajlaj's Kitab mansubat ash-shatranj ('Book of chess-positions or problems')
B. Aliqlidisi's Kitab majmu'fi mansubat ash-shatranj ('Collection of chess problems')

There is a passage referring to chess in a work said to be by Hasan, a philosopher from Basra

Basra

Basra is the capital of Basra Governorate, in southern Iraq near Kuwait and Iran. It had an estimated population of two million as of 2009...

who died in 728 CE. However the attribution of authorship is dubious.

Player classification

Al-Adli as well as as-Suli introduced classifications of players by their playing strength. Both of them specify 5 classes of players:

Aliyat (or aliya), grandees
Mutaqaribat, proximes - players who could win 2-4 games out of 10 in the match against grandee. They received odds of a pawn from grandee (better players g-, a- or h-pawn, weaker ones d- or e-pawn).
Third class - players who received odds of a fers from grandee.
Fourth class - received odds of a knight.
Fifth class - received odds of a rook.

To determine his or her class, a player would play a series or match with a player of a known class without odds. If he won 7 or more games out of 10, he belonged to a higher class.

Famous players

During the reign of the Arab

Arab

Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...

caliph

Caliph

The Caliph is the head of state in a Caliphate, and the title for the ruler of the Islamic Ummah, an Islamic community ruled by the Shari'ah. It is a transcribed version of the Arabic word which means "successor" or "representative"...

s, shatranj players of highest class were called aliyat or grandees. There were only a very few players in this category. The most well known of them were:

Jabir al-Kufi, Rabrab and Abun-Naam were three aliyat players during the rule of caliph al-Ma'mun
Al-Ma'mun
Abū Jaʿfar Abdullāh al-Māʾmūn ibn Harūn was an Abbasid caliph who reigned from 813 until his death in 833...

.
Al-Adli was the strongest player during the rule of caliph al-Wathiq
Al-Wathiq
Al-Wathiq ibn Mutasim was an Abbasid caliph who reigned from 842 until 847 AD .-Biography:...

. At this time he was the only player in aliyat category.
Ar-Razi in 847 won a match against an already old al-Adli in the presence of caliph al-Mutawakkil
Al-Mutawakkil
Al-Mutawakkil ʻAlā Allāh Jaʻfar ibn al-Muʻtasim was an Abbasid caliph who reigned in Samarra from 847 until 861...

and so become a player of aliyat category.
As-Suli
Abu-Bakr Muhammad ben Yahya as-Suli
Abu Bakr Muhammad bin Yahya al-Suli was a nadim of successive Abbasid caliphs. He was noted for his poetry and scholarship and wrote a chronicle called Akhbar al-Radi wa'l-Muttaqi, detailing the reigns of the caliphs al-Radi and al-Muttaqi...

was the strongest player during the reign of caliph al-Muktafi
Al-Muktafi
Al-Muktafi was the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad from 902 to 908. He was the son of the previous Caliph, al-Mu'tadid, by a Turkish slave-girl. In command of ar Raqqah at the time of his father's death, he at once returned to the Capital, where he became a favorite of the people for his generosity,...

. Ar-Razi was already dead and there were no players of comparable strength before as-Suli appeared on the scene. In the presence of al-Muktafi he easily won a match against a certain al-Mawardi and thus proved that he was the best player of that time. As-Suli considered Rabrab and ar-Razi as the greatest of his predecessors.
Al-Lajlaj was a pupil of as-Suli and also a great shatranj master of his time.

Openings

Openings in shatranj were usually called tabbiyyaتَبِّيّة (pl. tabbiyyaat),تَبِيّات which can be translated as battle array. Due to slow piece development in shatranj, the exact sequence of moves was relatively unimportant. Instead players aimed to reach a specific position, tabiya, mostly ignoring the play of their opponent.

The works of al-Adli and as-Suli contain collections of tabiyat. Tabiyat were usually given as position on a half-board with some comments about them. The concrete sequence of moves to reach them was not specified. In his book Al-Lajlaj analyzed some tabiya in detail. He started his analysis from some given opening, for example "Double Mujannah" or "Mujannah - Mashaikhi", and then continued up to move 40., giving numerous variations.

Piece values

Both al-Adli and as-Suli provided estimation of piece values in their books on shatranj. They used a monetary system to specify piece values. For example, as-Suli gives piece values in dirhem

Dirham

Dirham or dirhem is a unit of currency in several Arab or Berber nations, and formerly the related unit of mass in the Ottoman Empire and Persian states...

, the currency in use in his time:

Piece	Value
Rook	1 dirhem
Knight	2/3 dirhem
Fers	1/3 - 3/8 dirhem
Alfil	1/4 dirhem
Central pawn (d-, or e-pawn)	1/4 dirhem
Knight's or Alfil's pawn (b-, c-, f-, or g-pawn)	1/6 - 1/5 dirhem
Rook's pawn (a- or h-pawn)	1/8 dirhem

As-Suli also believed that the b-pawn was better than the f-pawn and King's side Alfil (on the c-file) was better than Queen's side one (on the f-file). Furthemore, an Alfil on the c-file was better than the d-pawn and the Alfil on the f-file was better than an e-pawn.

Mansubat

Persian chess masters composed many shatranj problems

Chess problem

. Such shatranj problems were called mansūba (pl. mansūbāt). This word can be translated from Arabic as arrangement, position or situation. Mansubat were typically composed in such a way that a win could be achieved as a sequence of checks. One's own king was usually threatened by immediate checkmate.

One of the most famous Mansuba is the Dilaram Problem shown at the right. Black threatens immediate checkmate by 1...Ra2 or Ra8.
However, white can win with a two-rook sacrifice:

1. Rh8+ Kxh8; 2. Bf5+ Kg8; 3. Rh8+ Kxh8; 4. g7+ Kg8; 5. Nh6#. or

1. Rh8+ Kxh8; 2. Bf5+ Rh2; 3. Rxh2+ Kg8; 4. Rh8+ Kxh8; 5. g7+ Kg8; 6. Nh6#.

Note that the Alfil (bishop) moves two squares diagonally, jumping over intermediate pieces; this allows it to jump over the white knight to deliver the discovered check

Discovered attack

In chess, a discovered attack is an attack revealed when one piece moves out of the way of another. Discovered attacks can be extremely powerful, as the piece moved can make a threat independently of the piece it reveals. Like many chess tactics, they succeed because the opponent is unable to meet...

from the second rook with 2.Bf5+. It was said that a nobleman wagered

Gambling

Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...

(playing white) his wife Dilārām on a chess game, and this position arose, and she appealed "Sacrifice your two Rooks, and not me."

External links

Shatranj, the medieval Arabian Chess by Jean-Louis Cazaux.
Shatranj by Hans L. Bodlaender
The Time of Shatranj and the Aliyat by Miguel Villa.
ICC Shatranj rules

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.