Chess was invented in India.

The game that became modern chess began as chaturanga in the Gupta Empire of India, no later than the 6th century AD. The name refers to the four divisions of an army — infantry, cavalry, elephants and chariots — which became the pawn, knight, bishop and rook.

Chaturanga passed into Persia as chatrang, and after the Arab conquest spread across the Islamic world and into Europe, where the rules took their current shape by about 1500.