Originally posted by rooktakesqueenI'm not sure that most people would say China. Northern India and Persia (now Iran) are the two places where the game most likely originated.
does anyone know for a fact where chess came from, most people would say china, but india seems to have a claim?
The Rook takes its name from the Persian 'rukh' meaning chariot and the term 'checkmate' is likely a corruption of the Persian 'shah mat' ( the King is done for).
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I believe a lot of games contributed to it, and definitely the first games that look a little like chess emerged in India, and later China. The first game that you'd be able to go back in time and immediately be fairly good at, just based on your modern chess knowledge, might be shatranj from Persia. The knights, rooks, and kings moved exactly like they do now...but the equialent to the bishop could only move two squares diagonally (and jumped to that square, like the knight), the "queen" could only move one square diagonally, there was no castling, and pawns only moved one square.
So I think India is where chess-like games began (though some have said China), and Persia is where a game you'd immediately identify as chess (though slightly different) first sprang up.