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Shatranj (Arabic:شطرنج,pronounced[ʃaˈtˤrandʒ]; fromMiddle Persian:چترنگ,chatrang) is an old form ofchess, as played in theSasanian Empire. Its origins lie in the South Asian game ofchaturanga.[1] Modernchess gradually developed from this game, as it was introduced to Europe by contacts in MuslimAl-Andalus (modern Spain) and inSicily in the 10th century. In modernPersian, the term is also used as the translation of chess.[2]
The name of the game in adjoining countries appears to be derived from chaturanga - chatrang in Persian, shatranj in Arabic, Chanderaki in Tibetan are examples. This suggests that the game, as well as its name, came from India. Also, as will appear, it was believed in Persia that the game arrived there from India.[3] The Persian wordshatranj ultimately derives fromSanskrit (Sanskrit:चतुरङ्ग;caturaṅga) (catuḥ: "four";anga: "arm"), referring to the game of the same name:Chaturanga. InMiddle Persian the word appears aschatrang, with the 'u' lost due tosyncope and the 'a' lost toapocope, such as in the title of the textMâdayân î chatrang ("Book of Chess") from the 7th centuryAD.
TheKar-Namag i Ardashir i Pabagan refers toArdashir I as a master of the game: "By the help of Providence, Ardeshir became more victorious and warlike than all, on the polo and the riding-ground, at Chatrang and Vine-Artakhshir,[a] and in several other arts."[4] However,Karnamak contains many fables and legends, and this only establishes the popularity of chatrang at the time of its composition.[5]
![Indian ambassador, probably sent by the Maukhari King Śarvavarman of Kannauj, introducing chess to the Persian court of Khosrow I.[6][7]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aA_treatise_on_chess_2.jpg)
During the reign of the laterSassanid kingKhosrau I (531–579), a gift from an Indian king (possibly aMaukhari Dynasty king ofKannauj)[8] included a chess game with sixteen pieces ofemerald and sixteen ofruby (green vs. red).[5] The game came with a challenge which was successfully resolved by Khosrau's courtiers. This incident, originally referred to in theMâdayân î chatrang (c. 620 AD), is also mentioned inFerdowsi'sShahnama (c. 1010).
The rules of chaturanga seen in India today have enormous variation, but all involve four branches (angas) of the army: the horse (knight), the elephant (bishop), the chariot (rook) and the foot soldier (pawn), played on an 8×8 board. Shatranj adapted much of the same rules as chaturanga, and also the basic 16-piece structure. There is also a larger 10×11 board derivative; the 14th-centuryTamerlane chess, orshatranj kamil (perfect chess), with a slightly different piece structure.[citation needed]
In some later variants the darker squares were engraved. The game spread Westwards after theIslamic conquest of Persia and a considerable body of literature on game tactics and strategy was produced from the 8th century onwards.[citation needed]
In early Indian chaturanga (c. 500–700), the king could becaptured and this ended the game. Persian shatranj (c. 700–800) introduced the idea of warning that the king was under attack (announcingcheck in modern terminology). This was done to avoid the early and accidental end of a game. Later the Persians added the additional rule that a king could not be moved into check or left in check. As a result, the king could not be captured,[9] andcheckmate was the only decisive way of ending a game.[10]
With the spread of Islam, chess diffused into theMaghreb and then toAndalusian Spain. During theIslamic conquest of India (c. 12th century), some forms came back to India as well, as evidenced in the North Indian termmāt (mate, derivative fromPersianmāt) or theBengaliborey (pawn, presumed derived from theArabicbaidaq).[11] Over the following centuries, chess became popular in Europe, eventually giving rise to modern chess.[citation needed]
 | a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | |
| 8 |  |  |  |  |  | | | | 8 |
| 7 |  | | | | | | | | 7 |
| 6 |  | | | | | | | | 6 |
| 5 | | | | | | | | | 5 |
| 4 | | | | | | | | | 4 |
| 3 | | | | | | | | | 3 |
| 2 |  | | | | | | | | 2 |
| 1 |  |  |  |  |  | | | | 1 |
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | |
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 in the diagram were possible. In either case, the white and black shāh would be on the same file. The game was played with these pieces:
| Shatranj pieces | |
|---|---|
| shah (king) |
 | ferz or wazir (counselor orferz) |
| rukh (rook) |
| pīl, or "alfil" in Arabic (elephant oralfil) |
| asb or faras (horse orknight) |
 | sarbaz / piyadeh, or "baydaq" in Arabic (soldier, infantryman orpawn) |
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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. However, the ferz and alfil are sometimes treated as distinct, and given their own symbols. Specific ferz and alfil symbols have been provisionally accepted for a future version ofUnicode.[12][13]
There were also other differences compared to modern chess:Castling was not allowed (it was invented much later).Stalemating 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 the opponent could capture the last piece on their next move, which was considered a draw in most places in the Islamic world (except forMedina, where it was a win).[5]
The possible movements of the main shatranj pieces, excluding that of the king and pawn, are complementary to one another, and without any omission or redundancy occupy all available squares with respect to the central position of a 5x5 grid, as shown in the figure to the right.[14]
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Three books written inPahlavi,Kar-Namag i Ardashir i Pabagan,Khosrow and ridag, andWizārišn ī čhatrang ("Treatise on Chess"), also known as theChatrang Nama ("Book of Chess"), all mentionchatrang. InKār-nāmak it is said that Ardashīr "with the help of the gods became more victorious and experienced than all others in polo, horsemanship, chess, backgammon, and other arts," and in the small treatise onKhosrow and ridag, the latter declares that he is superior to his comrades in chess, backgammon, andhašt pāy.Bozorgmehr, the author ofWizārišn ī čhatrang, describes how the game of chess was sent as a test toKhosrow I (r. 531–79) by the "king of the Hindus Dēvsarm" with the envoy Takhtarītūs and how the test was answered by the vizier Bozorgmehr, who in his turn invented the gameBackgammon as a test for the Hindus. These three Middle Persian sources do not give any certain indication of the date when chess was introduced into Persia. The mentions of chess inKar-Namag i Ardashir i Pabagan andKhosrow and ridag are simply conventional and may easily represent late Sasanian or even post-Sasanian redactions.[15] According toTouraj Daryaee,Kar-Namag i Ardashir i Pabagan is from 6th century.[16]Wizārišn ī čhatrang was written in the 6th century.[17]
During theIslamic Golden Age, many works on shatranj were written, recording for the first time the analysis ofopening moves,game problems, theknight's tour, 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.[5]
The earliest listing of works on chess is in theFihrist, a generalbibliography produced in 377AH (988 AD) byIbn al-Nadim.[18][19] It includes an entire section on the topic of chess, listing:
There is a passage referring to chess in a work said to be byal-Hasan al-Basri, a philosopher fromBasra who died in 728 AD.[citation needed] The attribution of authorship is dubious, however.
Al-Adli as well as As-Suli introduced classifications of players by their playing strength. Both of them specify five classes of players:
To determine a player's class, a series or match would be undertaken with a player of a known class without odds. If the player won 7 or more games out of 10, he belonged to a higher class.[citation needed]
During the reign of theArabcaliphs, shatranj players of highest class were calledaliyat or grandees.[5] There were only a few players in this category including:
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | |
| 8 | | | | | | | | | 8 |
| 7 | | | | | | | | | 7 |
| 6 | | | | | | | | | 6 |
| 5 | | | | | | | | | 5 |
| 4 | | | | | | | | | 4 |
| 3 | | | | | | | | | 3 |
| 2 | | | | | | | | | 2 |
| 1 | | | | | | | | | 1 |
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | |
Openings in shatranj were usually calledtaʿbīyaتَعبِيّة (pl. taʿbīyāt),تَعبِيّات in Arabic, 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.[citation needed]
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 indirhem, the currency in use in his time:[5]
| Piece | Value | Shape of piece sometimes found |
|---|---|---|
 king | 2 | seat, representing a throne |
| rook | 5 | rectangular block with V-shaped cut in top, representing a chariot |
| knight | 3 | cone with beak-shaped sideways projection at top |
| ferz | 2 | seat, smaller than king, depicting a smaller throne |
 alfil | 2 | cone with notch cut in top |
| pawn | 1 | small cone, or sometimes a dome |
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | |
| 8 | | | | | | | | | 8 |
| 7 | | | | | | | | | 7 |
| 6 | | | | | | | | | 6 |
| 5 | | | | | | | | | 5 |
| 4 | | | | | | | | | 4 |
| 3 | | | | | | | | | 3 |
| 2 | | | | | | | | | 2 |
| 1 | | | | | | | | | 1 |
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | |
Persian chess masters composed manyshatranj problems. Such shatranj problems were calledmanṣūbaمَنصوبة (pl.manṣūbāt),منصوبات. 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.[citation needed]
One Mansuba is theDilaram Problem. Black threatens immediate checkmate by 1...Ra2#, Ra8#, or either Rb4#. But White can win with a two-rook sacrifice:
Note that thealfil (♗) moves two squares diagonally, jumping over intermediate pieces; this allows it to jump over the white knight to deliver thediscovered check from the second rook with 2.Bf5+. It was said that a nobleman (playing White) wagered his wife Dilārām on a chess game and this position arose. She appealed "Sacrifice your two Rooks, and not me."[20]
Bibliography
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