Shatranj

Shatranj (Arabic: شطرنج, pronounced [ʃaˈtˤrandʒ]; from Middle Persian: چترنگ, chatrang) is an old form of chess, as played in the Sasanian Empire.

[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 incident, originally referred to in the Mâdayân î chatrang (c. 620 AD), is also mentioned in Ferdowsi's Shahnama (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.

Persian shatranj (c. 700–800) introduced the idea of warning that the king was under attack (announcing check in modern terminology).

[citation needed] 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.

In modern descriptions of shatranj, the names king, rook, knight and pawn are commonly used for shah, rukh, faras, and baidaq.

[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.

The mentions of chess in Kar-Namag i Ardashir i Pabagan and Khosrow and ridag are simply conventional and may easily represent late Sasanian or even post-Sasanian redactions.

[17] During the Islamic Golden Age, many works on shatranj were written, recording for the first time the analysis of opening moves, game problems, the knight's tour, and many more subjects common in modern chess books.

[5] The earliest listing of works on chess is in the Fihrist, a general bibliography produced in 377 AH (988 AD) by Ibn al-Nadim.

[citation needed] During the reign of the Arab caliphs, shatranj players of highest class were called aliyat or grandees.

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.

For example, as-Suli gives piece values in dirhem, the currency in use in his time:[5] Persian chess masters composed many shatranj problems.