The earliest written evidence of chess is found in three romances (epic stories) written in Sassanid Persia around 600 AD. The English words chess and check both come from the Persian word shāh meaning king. In time, these pieces became the pawn, knight, bishop, and rook. The Gupta chess pieces were divided like their military into the infantry, cavalry, elephants, and chariots.

This early type of chess was known as Chaturanga, a Sanskrit word for the military. Most historians agree that the game of chess was first played in northern India during the Gupta Empire in the 6th century AD. Sofonisba Anguissola and her sisters are depicted in The Chess Game, 1555. It is enjoyed in many countries, and is a national hobby in Russia. Ĭhess is popular and is often played in competitions called chess tournaments. Because of this, White has a small advantage, and wins more often than Black in tournament games. The player with white pieces always makes the first move. There are rules about how pieces move, and about taking the opponent's pieces off the board. One player ('White') has pieces of a light color the other player ('Black') has pieces of a dark color. ĭuring the game the two opponents take turns to move one of their pieces to a different square of the board. Checkmate is a threat ('check') to the opposing king which no move can stop. The goal of the game is for each player to try and checkmate the king of the opponent. Each player starts with sixteen pieces: eight pawns, two knights, two bishops, two rooks, one queen and one king. It is played in a square board, made of 64 smaller squares, with eight squares on each side. Wynn Westcott (1848-1925) has been suggested as the inventor of this particular variant, but some (including Westcott himself) have claimed that the documents describing Enochian chess were among those supplied to him from an older occult group operating in Germany.Libro de los juegos, Alfonso X of Castile, showing Muslim playing Christian.Ĭhess is a board game for two players. At least partially because of this veil of secrecy, authorship of this variant is unclear.

John Dee (magus and astrologer to Queen Elizabeth I), which was later adapted by Victorian members of the Golden Dawn into “a complete system of training and initiation….Įnochian chess first appears to have been played by members of the Order of the Golden Dawn, who used their boards and pieces for divination as well as gameplay…Īnd considered Enochian chess to be a secret teaching. The name comes from the Enochian system of magic of Dr. Enochian chess is a four-player chess variant, similar to Chaturaji, associated with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

How many pieces in enochian chess