Chess
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Chess is a board game for two players, played on a square board consisting of 64 squares arranged in an 8×8 grid. The players, referred to as "White" and "Black", each control sixteen pieces: one king
Part of a Staunton chess setLeft to right: white king, black rook, black queen, white pawn, black knight, white bishop
Setup at the start of a chess game
A child playing chess in Washington Square Park, New York City, US
Public chess tables in the Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris, France
History of chess
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The history of chess can be traced back nearly 1,500 years to its earliest known predecessor, called chaturanga, in India; its prehistory is the subject of speculation. From India it spread to Persia,
The 12th-century Lewis chessmen in the collection of the National Museum of Scotland
An illustration from a Persian manuscript "A treatise on chess". The Ambassadors from India present the Chatrang to Khosrow I Anushirwan, "Immortal Soul", King of Persia.
Krishna and Radha playing chaturanga on an 8×8 ashtāpada
These seven ivory chess pieces are the oldest known, dating to about 700 CE. The ivory came from India. They were excavated in 1977 by archaeologist Yuriy Buryakov, at Afrasiyab in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. They are housed today at the Samarkand State Museum. Photographed during a loan of the pieces to the Silk Roads Exhibition at the British Museum.