The history is more than interesting, because for some reason we never ask ourselves—or are never told—that before chess there were many earlier versions. I will only mention one of them, called Chaturanga, where the interesting part is that there were elephants, horses, and more horses! Well, not exactly. In reality, they were war chariots, the predecessors of the Rook, which explains why they are able to move the way they do. The elephants are the predecessors of the bishops (from the Arabic al-fil (الفيل), meaning “elephant”), although we tend to think of them as “bishops.” Instead of a queen, there was a Minister, with very limited mobility. This made the other pieces much more important. In Chaturanga there is no check, and there is also a version of the game for four players played on the same 8×8 board.

As a designer, I know the challenge involved in designing a chess set. The best-known one is the Staunton set, named after the chess master who was one of the first to use a design attributed to Nathaniel Cook. Technically, once you know the rules of Chaturanga, you can play it perfectly well on a modern chessboard.

Besides inviting you to play it, I should mention that I have begun redesigning a set of pieces that I found on Alain Truong’s blog, which is believed to date from the 11th century or earlier, from the Samanid city of Nishapur. And it is turning out rather well—hardly surprising, considering they started doing this so long ago.

Ah, I almost forgot. Here are the rules for four-player Chaturanga.

originally posted on February 24, 2025