Errr. Modern chess was not invented in India, but in ancient Persia. Afrasyab (the first pics on that site) is also the name of some character in Ferdowsi's Shah Nameh or Epic of the Kings (شاهنامه).
The name of the elephant (called FIL in Persian/Arabic) is not Indian (Indians call the elephant 'Haathi'). So is Vizier, a persian word (not queen!, it means something like minister or second in command after king).
In Russian, chess is called SHAKHMAT, but that is also derived from Persian: Shah means king, maat means defeat (this was somehow Anglified into checkmate).
The original word in Indian was chaturanga but that was a wholly different game-- a sort of predecessor. But so did the Chinese have a strategy board game which is also a far cry from chess as you know it now (and the Chinese "chess" still has remained the same as it was in ancient times).
The current, modern chess as you and I know it was invented in Saasaanid Persia, and the word used for it was SHATRANJ, as a sort of nod to Chaturanga, though the games are wildly different in every way except in intention (both are games of strategy).
According to Wikipedia: "During the Islamic Golden Age, many works on shatranj were written, recording for the first time the analysis of opening moves, game problems, the knight's tour, and many more subjects common in modern chess books. Many of these manuscripts are missing, but their content is known due to compilation work done by the later authors".
The name of the elephant (called FIL in Persian/Arabic) is not Indian (Indians call the elephant 'Haathi'). So is Vizier, a persian word (not queen!, it means something like minister or second in command after king).
In Russian, chess is called SHAKHMAT, but that is also derived from Persian: Shah means king, maat means defeat (this was somehow Anglified into checkmate).
The original word in Indian was chaturanga but that was a wholly different game-- a sort of predecessor. But so did the Chinese have a strategy board game which is also a far cry from chess as you know it now (and the Chinese "chess" still has remained the same as it was in ancient times).
The current, modern chess as you and I know it was invented in Saasaanid Persia, and the word used for it was SHATRANJ, as a sort of nod to Chaturanga, though the games are wildly different in every way except in intention (both are games of strategy).
According to Wikipedia: "During the Islamic Golden Age, many works on shatranj were written, recording for the first time the analysis of opening moves, game problems, the knight's tour, and many more subjects common in modern chess books. Many of these manuscripts are missing, but their content is known due to compilation work done by the later authors".