Shatranj: the old name of chess, and how the game changed

01Two meanings of one word

Ask anyone in Pakistan to play shatranj and they will set up a normal chess board. In everyday Urdu, shatranj simply means chess, the same game played in tournaments everywhere and in our free chess game.

Historians use the same word for something more specific: the medieval game played in Persia and the Islamic world for centuries, before European players changed a few pieces around 500 years ago and created modern chess. Knowing both meanings explains a lot about chess words we still use.

02From chaturanga to shatranj

The earliest known ancestor of chess is chaturanga, played in India around the sixth century. Its name refers to the four divisions of an ancient army: infantry, cavalry, elephants and chariots, which became pawns, knights, bishops and rooks.

The game travelled to Persia, where chaturanga became chatrang and then shatranj. After the Arab conquest of Persia, shatranj spread across the Islamic world, where strong players wrote down problems and studies. From there it reached Europe through Spain and Italy.

03Shah mat: where checkmate comes from

The king in shatranj is the shah. When the king was attacked, players said shah, and when it was trapped, shah mat, usually explained as the king is helpless. Through Arabic and old European languages, shah mat became checkmate in English.

Urdu kept the original words. Check is shah, often said as shah lag gayi, and checkmate is shah mat. Stalemate is often called paat. If you play in Urdu, you are using words much older than the English ones.

04How the old pieces moved

Most pieces in shatranj moved like their modern versions, but two were much weaker:

• Shah (king): one square in any direction, as today.
• Firzan or farzin (counsellor): only one square diagonally. This piece later became the modern queen, the strongest on the board.
• Fil or alfil (elephant): jumped exactly two squares diagonally, leaping over anything in between. It became the modern bishop, which slides any distance.
• Faras (horse): the same L-shaped jump as the modern knight.
• Rukh (rook): any distance in a straight line, as today.
• Baidaq (pawn): one square forward, capturing diagonally, with no two-square first move. A pawn reaching the end became a firzan.

05Winning in shatranj

Because the counsellor and elephant were so weak, shatranj was slower, and many games were decided in long endgames. Checkmate won the game, but so did capturing every enemy piece except the king, called a bare king. In many traditions, stalemating your opponent was also a win, not a draw as it is now.

Modern chess, which appeared in Europe around the end of the fifteenth century, made the queen and bishop long-range pieces. Games became sharper and faster, and the rules set out in chess rules for beginners took shape over the following centuries.

06Urdu names of the pieces today

When people in Pakistan play chess today, they mix old and new names:

• Badshah (king).
• Wazir (queen): literally the minister, a descendant of the old counsellor.
• Rukh or hathi (rook): hathi means elephant, a reminder of the old army.
• Fil or oont (bishop): fil also means elephant; many people call it oont, the camel.
• Ghora (knight): the horse, whose move is called dhai ghar, two and a half squares.
• Piyada (pawn): the foot soldier.

07Play shatranj today

Our chess game plays modern rules, with Urdu menus on the Urdu site, eight computer opponents, puzzles, and rooms for playing a friend online. If you are learning, start with chess rules for beginners, then practise the classic checkmate patterns.