Chess --the original Indo-Iranian Version

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Chess
--the original Indo-Iranian Version
Shatranj (Peraian: شترنگ‎; from Middle Persian chatrang) is an old form of chess, as played in the Sassanian Persian Empire.
Its origins are in the Indian game of chaturanga. Modern chess   developed from this game, as it was introduced to the western  world via contacts in Muslim Andalusia (modern Spain) and in Sicily in the 10th century.
The Arabic word shatranj ultimately derives from Sanskrit  (Sanskirt  चतुरङ्ग; caturaṅga) (catuḥ: "four"; anga: "arm"), referring to the game of the same name: Chatranga. In Middle Persian the word appears as chatrang, with the 'u' lost due to syncope and the 'a' lost to apocone, such as in the title of the text Mâdayân î chatrang ("Book of chess") from the 7th century CE. In Persian folk etymology, a Persian text refers to Shah Ardeshir I, who ruled from 224–241, as a master of the game:
"By the help of Providence, Ardeshir became more victorious and warlike than all, on the polo and the riding-ground, at Chatrang and Vine-Artakhsir , and in several other arts."
However, Karnamak contains many fables and legends, and this only establishes the popularity of chatrang at the time of its composition.
During the reign of the later Sassanid king Khosroau I (531–579), a gift from an Indian king  included a chess game with sixteen pieces of and sixteen of (green vs. red). The game came with a challenge which was successfully resolved by  Khosrau's courtiers. This incident, originally referred to in the Mâdayân î chatrang (c. 620 AD), is also mentioned in Ferdosi's Shah Nameh (c. 1010).
The rules of chaturanga seen in India today have enormous variation, but all involve four branches (angas) of the army: the horse, the elephant (bishop), the chariot (rook) and the foot soldier (pawn), played on an 8×8 board.  Shatranj adapted much  of the same rules as chaturanga, and also the basic 16-piece structure.  There is also a larger 10×11 board derivative; the 14th-century Tamerlan chess , or shatranj kamil (perfect chess), with a slightly different piece structure.
In some later variants the darker squares were engraved.  The game spread Westwards after the Islamic conquest of Persia and a considerable body of literature on game tactics and strategy was produced from the 8th century onwards.
In early Indian chaturanga (c. 500–700), the king could be captured  and this ended the game.
Persian shatranj (c. 700–800) introduced the  idea of warning that the king was under attack (announcing check  (shah) in modern terminology). This was done to avoid the early and accidental  end of a game.  Later the Persians added the additional rule that a king could not be moved into check or left in check. As a result, the  king could not be captured, and checkmate (Shah Mat) was the only decisive way of ending a game.
With the spread of Islam, chess diffused into the Maghreb and then to Andushian Spain. During the Islamic conquest of India (c. 12th century), some forms came back to India as well, as evidenced in the North Indian term māt (mate, derivative from Persian  māt) or the Bengali borey Over the following centuries, chess became popular in Europe.
Middle Persian literature
Three books written in Pahlavi, Kar-Namag e Ardashir e Pabakan, Khosro and Ridag, and Wizārišn ī čhatrang ("Treatise on Chess"), also known as the Chatrang Nama ("Book of Chess"), all mention chatrang.  In Kār-nāmak it is said that Ardashīr "with the help of the gods became  more victorious and experienced than all others in polo, horsemanship,  chess, backgammon, and other arts," and in the small treatise on Khosrow  and ridag, the latter declares that he is superior to his comrades in  chess, backgammon, and hašt pāy.
Bozorgmehrv , the author of Wizārišn ī čhatrang, describes how the game of chess was sent as a test to Khosrow I (r. 531-79) by the "king of the Hindus Dēvsarm" with the envoy  Takhtarītūs and how the test was answered by the vizier Bozorgmehr, who  in his turn invented the game Backgammon as a test for the Hindus. These three Middle Persian sources do not  give any certain indication of the date when chess was introduced into  Persia. The mentions of chess in Kar- Namag e Ardeshir Papakan are simply conventional and may easily represent late Sasanian or even post-Sasanian redactions. According to Touraj Daryaee , Kar-Namag i Ardashir i Pabagan is from 6th century. Wizārišn ī čhatrang was written in the 6th century.
Persian chess masters composed many shatranj problems. Such shatranj problems were called mansūba (pl. mansūbāt). This word can be translated from Arabic as arrangement, position or situation.  Mansubat were typically composed in such a way that a win could be  achieved as a sequence of checks. One's own king was usually threatened  by immediate checkmate.
One Mansuba is the Dilaram Problem (see diagram). Black  threatens immediate checkmate by 1...Ra2#, Ra8#, or either Rb4#. But  White can win with a two-rook sacrifice:
1. Rh8+ Kxh8 2. Bf5+ Kg8 3. Rh8+ Kxh8 4. g7+ Kg8 5. Nh6#
Note that the alfil (bishop) moves two squares diagonally, jumping over intermediate  pieces; this allows it to jump over the white knight to deliver the discovered check  from the second rook with 2.Bf5+. It was said that a nobleman (playing  White) wagered his wife Dilārām on a chess game and this position arose.  She appealed "Sacrifice your two Rooks, and not me.'

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