Chess is a massively popular strategy game played by millions around the world. According to estimates made by the United Nations, almost 605 million people play the game regularly.
Several board games rule the charts for some time and slowly make their way into obscurity. But such is not the case with chess. It has stood the test of time and has remained a favorite of many of the global population.
When was chess most popular? No one can say that for sure. Since the game has a fluid background, drawing a concrete ‘history of chess timeline’ is also a near-impossible exercise.
Who Invented Chess?
When dealing with a question such as – ‘Who invented chess?’ finding a straightforward answer can be very difficult. This is because historians and chess observers alike believe that chess most likely has multiple inventors. So, this makes the query – ‘Who invented chess?’ all the harder to answer.
The common consensus is that chess originated in India, where it was once known as ‘chaturanga’. The earliest mention of chess dates back to the eighth century AD when it came up in a Sanskrit treatise in India.
Another chess player and researcher grappling with chess history named Ricardo Calvo had propounded a theory that pointed towards chess’s origins in Iran. He claimed ancient Persian texts talked about chess even before it appeared in Indian literature.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica has posited that no extant evidence suggests the presence of a game that can be identified as an older version of modern chess before the sixth century AD.
Therefore, while considering who invented chess, the best plausible answer would be that it has no single inventor. In other words, more than one entity or culture contributed to the formation and subsequent development of this most brilliant strategy board game.
