Chess is commonly believed to have
originated in India during the Gupta empire, where its
early form in the 6th century was known as
caturaga.
In Sassanid Persia around 600 the name became
shatranj
and the rules were developed further. Shatranj was taken
up by the Muslim world after the Islamic conquest of
Persia (633–644), with the pieces largely retaining
their Persian names. In Spanish "shatranj" was rendered
as ajedrez, in Portuguese as xadrez, and
in Greek as zatrikion, but in the rest of Europe
it was replaced by versions of the Persian shāh
("king"), which was familiar as an exclamation and
became our words "check" and "chess". Murray theorized
that this change happened from Muslim traders coming to
European seaports with ornamental chess kings as curios
before they brought the game of chess.
The Winner of the 2009 Homecoming Chess Championship is Kris Nutt!
Kris defeated Charli West in the final match of the tournament.
