Chaturanga

Chaturanga was a strategy game developed in India, probably around the sixth century, and is one of chess's principal ancestors. It was played on an eight-by-eight board by two opposing armies, although the exact rules of its earliest forms have not survived completely.

Its name is associated with the four traditional divisions of an Indian army: infantry, cavalry, elephants, and chariots. Those roles appeared as pieces that, after centuries of transmission and cultural change, contributed to the pawn, knight, bishop, and rook.

The game traveled from India to Persia and then into the Islamic world, where shatranj developed. It later reached Europe and continued changing. Chaturanga should therefore not be pictured simply as modern chess with ancient names: it belonged to an earlier stage with weaker pieces and rules that evolved over time.