Chess in Persia: The Golden Age

Chatrang becomes shatranj

The game reached Persia during the Sassanid period and appears in Persian literature by around the sixth or seventh century. Under Arabic influence chatrang became shatranj, the name this site takes.

Persian gave chess its permanent vocabulary. Shah means king; shah mat, the phrase that ends the game, passed through Arabic and Latin into nearly every European language as checkmate, echec et mat, scacco matto.

The first masters and the first theory

The Abbasid era produced the earliest players we can name — al-Adli, ar-Razi, and as-Suli among them — and with them the first genuine chess literature. They catalogued ta'biyat, standardised opening formations reached slowly because the pieces of shatranj were slow, and composed mansubat, constructed problems that are the ancestors of the modern puzzle.

As-Suli was remembered for centuries afterwards as the standard of excellence; to say a player was as good as as-Suli was the highest praise available.

A slower, quieter game

Shatranj was not modern chess played with different names. The firzan, the counsellor standing where the queen stands now, moved one square diagonally. The alfil, the elephant, jumped exactly two squares diagonally and could reach only an eighth of the board. Games were long manoeuvring struggles, and winning by capturing every enemy piece but the king was a recognised result.