Chess originated in India's Uttar Pradesh

The following article appeared in the Times of India on March 9.
The author was Akhilesh Kumar Singh

LUCKNOW: It's like a Taj-like glory for Uttar Pradesh. A group of German Indologists has claimed to have resolved the controversy over the origin of chess in favour of Kannauj, a township about 75 km from Kanpur in the state.

Different countries, at some point in time, have been associated with the game's invention including India, China, Persia (Iran), Egypt, Assyria, Arabia, Greece, Ireland and Uzbekistan. Many countries claim to have invented chess in some incipient form.

But the Indologists' group has almost come to the conclusion that chess originated in Kannauj when it was the capital of Maukhari kingdom in the 6th century. The Maukhari ruler Sharva Varman had gifted the game of 'chaturanga' to his contemporary Persian ruler Khushrau-II in lieu of saltpetre (a variety of gunpowder).

"According to the research done by us so far, we have reached the conclusion that 'chaturanga' was the initial form of chess," German researcher Manfred A J Eder told TOI.

Read the rest of this interesting article at the Times of India web site here: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Chess_originated_from_UP/

Of course, there is bound to be dissent and regular visitors to the Rooty Hill web page will realise that chess really originated in Scandinavia when the world was young. You can read about it here: http://www.rootyhillchess.org/xmas06.html