The Origins of Chess

Chess, A Game of Ashtapada -
A cosmological and architectural approach

Prof. (Mrs.) Rangachar Vasantha
(From The I.G.K. "Yellow Book" 2001)

The game of chess which was being played in the ancient India as well as in the present times, is one of the board games has its origin linked genetically to secret magical and religious rituals in those times. In this paper, I would like to put forth possible cosmological and architectural approaches to the game of chess or the game of ashtapada.

A cosmos by definition presuppose an ordered universe. Cosmology is the study of the law and intelligence inherent in this ordered universe. There is an inner as well as an outer way of studying cosmology. The outer embraces sensible observation and the inner is expression of cosmological laws within one’s own structure. The goal of spiritual disciplines is to unite the inner and outer, the greater and smaller into an inseparable integrity. The language of the archetype laws, which unite the inner and outer cosmos, is that of pattern and in particular number pattern. The game of chess is associated with the number pattern and thus to cosmology. It has always been the inquisitiveness of a human mind to probe into the mysterious world around him and its influence on himself. This led to the discovery of the several fields of knowledge. One such field is the predictive science, which includes astrology, futurology, Numerology etc. this probing tendency is reflected on all human activities and day-to-day life style including the recreational activities, which perhaps led to invention of several games and sports. Chess is one such board game, which may be related to the planetary movements and their influence on human being.

Hindus strongly believe that the nine planets influence all objects of the material world. Each of these planets is associated with a unique number and the mystic power, and the unique number is represented by a symbol. These geometrical patterns are obtained from a matrix array of the basic nine numbers. This square matrix array known as the Vedic square is the basis of a whole mathematical system, which contained a numerical model of the universe.

A note on chess and board games with special reference to the museums of South India Dice and square board found at Sannthi, a Buddhist site belonging to 1st - 2nd cent. AD

Game boards, pieces, and dices mural paintings preserved in Sri Jayachamarajendra art gallery, Mysore, early 18th century.

Chess collection from Salar Jung Museum, Hyderabad (collection ranges from 14th - 19th century and belongs to different regions)

The Probable root of chess

Chess was genetically linked to magical and religious rituals, which have been known in India from ancient times. Chess and other board games were derived from, and the moves of the pieces are being closely related to the movements of the celestial bodies and their numerical symbolism. By joining those cells that show the same number certain geometrical diagrams are obtained which "represent to ourselves our real life relationships and experiences". These diagrams are linked to board games in so far as every move of a piece results in similar geometrical patterns. At the same time the interrelationship between these patterns is, also helpful in deciding the "compatibility" between different persons.

The interpretation of the board game represented in the Barhut relief

Here the sculpture depicts four men squatting in pairs on opposite sides of a board of 6x6 squares. Besides this, we find a board consisting of 6 squares engraved with dissimilar patterns, a little away from the main board, apart from a single rectangular piece lying close to the board.

The topography of the board suggests that it is scratched on the ground without any cross-cut squares and the players distributed on the opposite sides of the board in pairs and are playing with some play materials (pawns) depicted as dots on the board. Since the board consists of even number of square grids, the game ought to have been played with a dice and the players move their individual pawns and try to checkmate the pawns of the opposite player. Probably, the four players sitting in pairs on opposite sides of the board might have started the game from the four corners of the board, each player moving his pawns towards his opponent on the opposite side. The two players on each side possibly played as partners in the game. We may also observe the six pieces board might have served as a “score board” with each pair of players marking their score on one of the two pieces on a definite side and the total score of the partners marked on the rest of the two squares, adjoining them. The single piece, in rectangular shape might have served as a dice with four sides, marked with the numbers of points related to each movement of the pawn. The movements might have been horizontal, vertical or diagonal ear-marked for each pawn, and the exit being a checkmate. (Conquering)

Deciphering the Games invented by the Raja of Mysore

Tricks, Puzzles and Number patterns have tested the intellect of the mathematicians for thousands of years. Mathematics owes many interesting problems to the game of chess.

The strange move of the knight in chess makes the operations particularly fascinating. Knight is allowed to occupy any unoccupied space on the board, which is two column and one row or two rows and one column away from the cell he is in, regardless of whether or not the intervening cells are occupied.

The attempt to cover all the squares of the Chess board with a knight’s move, without going over the same square a second time, is, perhaps, is as old as the invention of game itself.

Leonard Euler (1701-1783), a great mathematician, had worked out on the knight’s tour and developed several solutions to this problem some of which are closed solutions to the re-entry problem and some are open solutions.

Krishna Raja Wodeyar III, (1794-1868) the Maharaja of Mysore, viewed this horse movement on a square board in a different perspective. His main intention was to develop acrostics (chitra kavyas) through horse movement (aswagati). He did not choose always movements, which corresponds to tours covering all the cells. His ingenuity lies in the fact that he chose such movements which depict a schematic designs or geometrical shapes and in all such movements one gets a closed solution to the re-entry provided the uncovered cells are ignored.

The Raja of Mysore has invented many ingenious combinations of the movements of horse. Indeed it would be curious to see a collection of knight’s tours in the form of mural paintings at Jayachamaraja Art gallery, Mysore and Krishnaraja Wodeyar is pre-eminent for such discoveries. His attachment to the board games and horse games was so great that he combined both with great ingenuity and skill and developed several interesting games, which apparently depicts animate and inanimate forms of choice.