Chess in China - Early History

Early History

Chess in its current form was developed in medieval to early modern Europe where in the 19th century modern tournament play began, and the first world chess championship was held. The most accepted view is that the direct ancestor of the game, shatranj, was transmitted by the Muslims via Persia from ancient India, where it was known as chaturanga. Chaturanga is assumed to have also spread eastward to China, under the name of xiangqi ("elephant game"). According to the chess historian Harold Murray, the earliest certain reference to xiangqi in Chinese sources dates to 762 AD (earlier passages containing the character xiang, which has several different meanings, cannot be proven to refer to elephant chess).