Invented and originally played in Vedic, India, and eventually brought to the Persian Empire by emissaries, Chaturanga is considered to be the original chess game.

Unlike the modern chess game that later emerged from it, Chaturanga can be played by two, three, or four players and involves the use of dice.

“Chaturanga” is a Sanskrit word meaning “divided into four parts”. The Vedic Indian army was reflected in the pieces and design of the game, just as modern chess reflects medieval military and aristocratic structures. Each Vedic Indian military platoon had four parts: one elephant, one war chariot, three cavalrymen, and five infantrymen.

Like modern chess, Chaturanga uses a board that is eight-square, or “ashtapada” in the Sanskrit. However, unlike the chess board, the squares aren’t checkered.

The pieces are: raja (the chess king); mantri (counselor - the chess bishop); gaja (elephant); asva (horse - the chess knight); ratha (chariot - the chess rook); and the pedati (infantry - the chess pawns).

As in chess, the object of the game is to mate the opponent’s king. But, Chaturanga is originally meant to be played by four players, with two each playing as one team. Nevertheless, the rules do allow for individual victory and “team loyalty” can be very loose.

The king moves just like the chess king, but in addition he has the right to make one cavalryman move during the game, provided that he hasn’t been “checked” before he makes this knight-move. This is likely the origin of “castling” in chess, which in Chaturanga doesn’t exist.

The counselor moves just like a chess bishop except only one square at a time.

The elephant moves two diagonal squares at one time and can leap over a piece that may be in the intervening square. In some versions of Chaturanga, the elephant is a “ship”. In this version, a ship may make a special capture move called “the triumph of the ship”, by which it moves to form a square out of four ships, one from each player. When this happens, the triumphing ship captures the other three.

The calvaryman moves exactly as a chess knight.
The chariot moves exactly like a chess rook.
The infantryman moves exactly like a chess pawn, but there is no allowance for the two-square first move.

The infantrymen can also receive the chess “upgrade” if they successfully cross the entire board, but they are limited to being upgraded to that piece which they stood in front of at the beginning of the game, and only if that piece has been captured already. Infantrymen cannot be upgraded to kings, thus each player has one infantrymen who can never be upgraded.

In Chaturanga, unlike chess, kings can be taken just like any other type of piece. If a player has his king taken, he can no longer move, but his remaining pieces stay in play on the board and they can be taken. If that player’s partner takes another king, then kings can be exchanged — probably a reflection of king-ransoming in ancient warfare. The players who receive their kings back place them on any empty square of their choosing.

When a king that is taken for the second time it is lost for good, and cannot be exchanged again.

While there are rules that allowed Chaturanga to be played without the dice, with players taking turns just like they do in chess, the game is typically played with dice.

Each player in his turn throws two long dice. A “2″ allows a player to move with his elephant. A “3″ permits him to move a cavalryman. A “4″ permits him to move a chariot. And a “5″ allows him to move either his king or one of his infantrymen.

A player might skip his turn, or make one or two moves on his turn. Some dice throws make it so a player cannot make a move on his first move, and thus his entire turn is lost.

Chaturanga is an excellent game for chess enthusiasts who have a sense of history or who like both the mental strategies of chess and the challenge of playing a game in which they must make their “destiny” out of the “fate” given them by the throw of the dice.