The Spanish word for chess, ajedrez, comes from the Arabic word (al) shat-ranj, from the Persian word, chatrang, from the Sanskrit word. The Latin word can be traced back to the Arabic (شَاه)and Persian (شَاه) name of the chess king, shah. The Italian word is scacchi can be traced through the Latin word scaci and the Vulgar Latin scaccus. The Old French word was eschecs, the plural of eschec, meaning check (king). Chess is a corrupted form of checks, i.e., kings. Some sources mention that Echec came from the corruption of the world Shiek, the Arabian word signifying King or Lord, but this does not seem to be true. The word chess, the name of the game in most European languages comes from the 13th century Old French eschés. The plural of check was scaci in Latin, scachs in Catalan, scacchi in Italian, escas in Provencal, eschecs in Middle French, échecs in Modern French, esches in Anglo-French, and chess in English. The Latin word for check was scac, scacus, scaeum. In the South Slavic languages, it became šah. A similar game to chess was known as ludus latrunculorum, latrunculi, or latrines. In Latin, the game became ludis scaccorum (game of checks or game of kings) or scacc(h)i.
Anna wrote that her father, Emperor Alexis, played zatrikion with his friends.įor the rest of Europe, shatranj was replaced by versions of the Persian word shah (king). The word Zatrikion occurs for the first time in the Alexiad by Anna Comnena, written in the beginning of the 12th century. It was then Hellenised into Zatrakion or Zatrikion. The Greek alphabet had no letter or combination of letters capable of expressing the sound of the Persian ch-, so the nearest letter with that sound was z. In Greek, chatrang became zatrikion, the Byzantine or Neo-Hellenic term for chess. In old Castilian, the Arabic ash-shatranj became acedrex. In Portuguese, the word shaterej became xadrez, pronounced she-dres. The Moors were on Spanish soil until 1492. The Moors also brought a game called el-quirkat, an early ancestor to checkers. Spain was the first country in Western Europe into which chess entered. In 711 AD, the Moors led a militaristic campaign against Spain and brought with them their game of shaterej onto the Iberian Peninsula. In North Africa (mostly Morocco), the Moors converted the Persian word ash-shatranj and shatranj into shaterej, which gave rise to the Spanish acedrex, axedrez, and finally, ajedrez (formerly pronounced ashedres, now a-khe-dreth). The Arabs did not have the ch or ng sound, so the ch became sh and the ng became nj. Chatrang existed for about 200 years.Ĭhatrang subsequently evolved to shatranj in Arab speaking countries. The pieces became shah (king), frazen (general), pil (elephant), asp (horse) rox (officer on a chariot), and payadag (soldiers).
In Middle Persian written in the Pahlavi script, the name became chatrang. The pieces in chaturanga were rajah (king), mantri (counselor), gaja (elephant), asva (horse), ratha (chariot) or roka (boat), and padati (infantryman).Ĭhaturanga was introduced to Persia around 600 AD. Originally, the board had no alternating light and dark squares. The game was played in Western India on a board made up of 64 squares, 8 rows by 8 columns. These forms are represented by the pieces that would evolve into the modern bishop, knight, rook, and pawn. The four members of the Indian army were elephants, horses, chariots, and foot soldiers. “Chatur” (चतुर्थ) is Sanskrit for four and “anga” (अङ्ग) means arms or limbs. The original word for “chess” is the 6th century Sanskrit (primary liturgical language of Hinduism) word chaturanga (चतुरङ्ग), which translates to “four arms” and pronounced Chat-u-ranga.