Question: I had heard from someone that Chess evolved from [Chaturanga](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaturanga) then [Shatranj](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shatranj). Are there any pointers towards this?

I would like to know counter arguments as well, if any.

Answer: 
Chaturanga is the ancient game that gave birth to board games chess, shogi, makruk, xiangqi and janggi. I believe Chaturanga is the same game as Shatranj or got only slightly varied while moved from India to Sassanid Persia. There is another variation of chess Chaturaji which used 2 dices and 4 players (Ludo style) around 11th century or slightly earlier. The game of chess evolved from Shatranj and got most of the current rules around 15th century in Spain. It was only at late 19th century that Chess as we know of has been formalized.
Chaturanga was evolved 2000 yrs ago. Chaturanga is based on Ashtpaad board (8×8) which was again modified. Many modern variants including Modern Chess are supposedly derived from Chaturanga.

Before Ashtpaad board, Dashpaad board existed on 10x10. If you go through the historical evidences, you will find these boards. On Dashpaad board, Shadyantra or Shatranjan was played. So, Dashpaad is the most ancient board, and Shad Yantra is the most oldest game.