about 600 A.D., which ascribes the origin of Chess to India. Many
of the European Chess terms used in the Middle Ages which can be
traced back to the Indian language also tend to prove that India
is the mother country of the game.

We are, therefore, fairly safe in assuming that Chess is about
1300 years old. Of course we could go farther, considering that
the Indian Chess must have been gradually developed from simpler
board games. Indeed we know from a discovery in an Egyptian tomb
built about 4000 B.C. that board games have been played as early
as 6000 years ago; but we have no way of finding out their rules.

The game of Chess spread from India to Persia, Arabia and the
other Moslem countries, and it was brought to Europe at the time
of the Moorish invasion of Spain. It also reached the far East,
and games similar to Chess still exist in Japan, China, Central
and Northern Asia, the names and rules of which prove that they
descended from the old Indian Chess.

In Europe Chess spread from Spain northward to France, Germany,
England, Scandinavia and Iceland. It became known with
extraordinary rapidity, although at first it was confined to the
upper classes, the courts of the Kings and the nobility. In the
course of time, when the dominance of the nobility declined and
the inhabitants of the cities assumed the leading role in the
life of people, the game of Chess spread to all classes of
society and soon reached a popularity which no other game has
ever equaled.

While in the early Middle Ages the game was played in Europe with