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When the Arabs conquered Persia, chess was taken up by the Muslim world and subsequently spread to Southern Europe. In Europe, chess evolved into roughly its current form in the 15th century. The " Romantic Era of Chess " was the predominant chess playing style down to the 1880s. It was characterized by swashbuckling attacks, clever combinations, brash piece sacrifices and dynamic games. Winning was secondary to winning withstyle. These games were focused more on artistic expression, rather than technical mastery or long-term planning. The Romantic era of play was followed by the Scientific, Hypermodern, and New Dynamism eras.

In the second half of the 19th century, modern chess tournament play began, and the first World Chess Championship was held in 1886. The 20th century saw great leaps forward in chess theory and the establishment of the World Chess Federation ( FIDE ) . Developments in the 21st century include use of computers for analysis, which originated in the 1970s with the first programmed chess games on the market. Online gaming appeared in the mid-1990s.

Precursors to chess originated in India during the Gupta Empire . There, its early form in the 6th century was known as chaturaṅga , which translates as "four divisions (of the military). These forms are represented by the pieces that would evolve into the modern pawn, knight, bishop, and rook, respectively. According to chess historians Gerhard Josten and Isaak Linder, "the early beginnings" of chess can be traced back to the Kushan Empire in Ancient Afghanistan .

Chess was introduced to Persia from India and became a part of the princely or courtly education ofPersiannobility.InSassanid Persiaaround 600 the name becamechatrang, which subsequently evolved to shatranj , due to Arab Muslims' lack ofchandngnative sounds,and the rules were developed further. Players started calling "Shah!" (Persian for "King!") when attacking the opponent's king, and "Shah Mat!" (Persian for "the king is helpless" – seecheckmate) when the king was attacked and could not escape from attack. These exclamations persisted in chess as it traveled to other lands.

The game was taken up by the Muslim world after the Islamic conquest of Persia , with the pieces largely keeping their Persian names. The Moors of North Africa rendered Persian "shatranj" asshaṭerej, which gave rise to the Spanish acedrex,axedrezandajedrez; in Portuguese it becamexadrez and …. There are two theories about why this change happened:

1. From the exclamation "check" or "checkmate" as it was pronounced in various languages.
2. From the first chessmen known of in Western Europe (except Iberia and Greece) being ornamental chess kings brought in as curios by Muslim traders.

The Mongols call the gameshatar, and in Ethiopia it is calledsenterej, both evidently derived fromshatranj.

Chess spread directly from the Middle East to Russia, where chess became known as “шахматы”

The game reached Western Europe and Russia by at least three routes, the earliest being in the 9th century. By the year 1000 it had spread throughout Europe.^[9]Introduced into theIberian Peninsula by the Moors in the 10th century, it was described in a famous 13th-century manuscript coveringshatranj , backgammon and dice named the Libro de los juegos .

Chess spread throughout the world and many variants of the game soon began taking shape.Buddhistpilgrims,Silk Roadtraders and others carried it to the Far East where it was transformed and assimilated into a game often played on the intersection of the lines of the board rather than within the squares. Chaturanga reached Europe through Persia, the Byzantine empire and the expanding Arabian empire .Muslims carried chess to North Africa , Sicily , and Iberia by the 10th century.

The game was developed extensively in Europe. By the late 15th century, it had survived a series of prohibitions and Christian Church sanctions to almost take the shape of the modern game.Modern history saw reliable reference works,competitive chess tournaments,and exciting new variants. These factors added to the game's popularity,further bolstered by reliable timing mechanisms (first introduced in 1861), effective rules,and charismatic players.