Re: Names of chess pieces in (con)langs

On 3/24/06, Michael Adams <michael.adams1@...> wrote:
> Or how about the game that Chess is based on?
Yes, Chaturanga; that would be the one I referenced above:

http://www.chessvariants.com/historic.dir/chaturanga.html

> It originally had FOUR sides..
Probably not.  A century ago it was believed that the 4-sided variant
was the original game, but it is now generally taken to have been a
later variant of the original 2-person game given above.
Rules for the 4-player version:

http://www.chessvariants.com/historic.dir/chaturang4.html

>  Our King/Queen/Bishop/Knight/Rook/Pawn was not the original names..
Except for "king", which is a direct translation.  Also as I already
said.  It's worth noting that the equivalents of the queen and bishop
were much less powerful in the original game; the changes were made to
speed up play.

> Since the same come from India, not sure if pre or post Moghul
> Empire creation? I think it come from pre-Moghul empire
> existance.
It was once commonly thought that the game dated from the second
millennium BC,  but the earliest authenticated references are from the
7th century AD in India.  Which means that as far as we can prove,
anyway, Chess has only been around for about as long as Islam.

--
Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>