Origins of Chess

Where did it come from? How did it start? What was its purpose? Asthpada, a four-handed race game, is thought by some to be the earliest form of chess. But others disagree.

"The theory that chess is a development of an earlier race game involves the hypothesis that some reformer changed the whole nomenclature in order to make it self-assistent as a war game and secured the agreement of all his contemporaries. I find this hypothesis incredible."

-H.J.R. Murray (1913)

This site presents a collection of essays on the origin and evolution of chess.