Answers.Body: <p>Origins of chess is from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaturanga" rel="noreferrer">Chaturanga/Chaturang</a>, which the persians pronounced <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shatranj" rel="noreferrer">Shatraj</a> (Note  that <code>Shah</code> means king in persian)</p>
  
  <p>Rook which is basically chariot is called Rath (hindi) or Ratha (Sanskrit) or Rukh (persian)</p>
  
  <p>Mantri/Wazir which means key minister/counsellor, is todays queen.</p>
  
  <p>Ghoda (hindi) and Ashva (sanskrit) means horse which is basically our modern Knight</p>
  
  <p>Hathi which means elephant is our modern bishop</p>
  
  <p>And finally pawn was called Padati, nowadays called Paida (hindi) in short.</p>
  
  <p>According to <a href="http://chess.about.com/od/chesshistory/a/History-Of-Chess-Part-I-Before-Chess.htm" rel="noreferrer">this article</a>, it went to china much later...</p>
  
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Answers.Text: I was also remembering something about the queen naming being more recent for the same piece descendant (whose mobility rule evolved also in Europe even more recently).
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Answers.Body: <p>This is not true. The ancient name of this game is called ShadYantra which means 6 principles to manage a war.</p>
  <p>The war is fought as per protocols and dharma.. Till today, the same principals are applicable in today's perspective.</p>
  <ol>
  <li><p>Knight: Called Ashwarohi. It represents unit of Horses and horse riders headed by Shoorveer.</p>
  </li>
  <li><p>Bishop: Called Gajarohi or Hastin. It represents the unit of Elephants (Like Trucks). Main purpose was to assist the army in resources transportation and migration.. Very rarely used as an offensive and forced to move diagonally (side ways) from the army to avoid damages made to own army.</p>
  </li>
  </ol>
  <p>In Mahabharat Hastinapur means a City of elephants..</p>
  <ol start="3">
  <li><p>Rook: Called Maharathi or Rathi.. It represents the chariot or cart carrying the arms, ammunitions, medicines and food. This unit compromised of additional horses, soldiers and charriot riders.</p>
  </li>
  <li><p>Queen: Called Senapati or SeneNayak. This represents the most powerful unit headed by top Army Official. As a joke, modern Chess Players call it as a queen, but it is in reality - Army General.</p>
  </li>
  <li><p>Pawns: Called Padati aur Mooshak (Not rats). This unit represents the foot soldiers.</p>
  </li>
  <li><p>Immortal Peacemaker: Missing in Modern Chess.</p>
  </li>
  <li><p>ArthShastri or PrimeMinister of economics: Missing in modern chess.</p>
  </li>
  <li><p>Vigilance: This royal unit was called Charan, Charak, Char, GuptChars. Missing in modern system. Even in Ramayan and Mahabharat, they arw mentioned.</p>
  </li>
  <li><p>Emperor: The owner of the opponent King after controlling his empire.</p>
  </li>
  </ol>
  <p>The Agastya Suktam, which is 8000 yrs old Samskrit Shloks have these rules mentiond. In Chanakya (Kautilya) ArthShastra which is 2300 yrs old book, this game plan is discussed in too much detail.</p>
  
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Answers.Text: _"modern Chess Players call it as a queen, but it is in reality - Army General."_ - and it's still called that way in some languages
Answers.UserDisplayName: user11153
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Answers.Text: The term "queen" has been used in Europe [for a thousand years](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Versus_de_scachis), so I wouldn't call it "modern" per se.
Answers.UserDisplayName: MJ713
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Answers.Text: Your comment is not researched properly. 1400 yrs ago there was no chess in Europe.. Army General and Minister were later merged as Wazeer ehich became queen
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Answers.Text: @ShadYantra There is no contradiction between what I said and what you said. I was merely saying that it is odd to describe something as a "modern joke" when it is 1000 years old (and gives no sign of being a joke, really).
Answers.UserDisplayName: MJ713
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Answers.Text: I wonder if looking at the eastern derived forms can help recontruct the chess logic evolution, I think those are likely to be more stable than the names and interpretations that go with them.  How is Murrays' book on history of chess, standing the witnessing of times?  Could there have been many contemporary parallel naming's, perhaps also fighting for being right about their nomenclatures?
Answers.UserDisplayName: dbdb
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2023-12-22T04:23:40.100Z
Answers.Text: could there be some sources shared. whether easy to access or not.
Answers.UserDisplayName: dbdb
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2023-12-22T18:47:06.380Z
Answers.Text: Not all information is available on internet. I am trying to create youtube video for informative purpose on shadyantra or dhyut played in ancient times, but its very very time demanding task
Answers.UserDisplayName: ShadYantra
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Answers.UserDisplayName: ShadYantra
Answers.Body: <p>I believe that the chess pieces are supposed to constitute an army – I'll try to give a breakdown of how each individual name evolved.</p>
  <p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiangqi" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Xianqi</a>, or Chinese Chess, originally developed in India before spreading across the world. Xianqi is the Chinese interpretation of the ancient game, and the pieces do really sound like those that would be in an army – General, Advisor, Cannon, Elephant, Horses, Soldiers, and Chariots.</p>
  <p>When the game moved to Persia, as referenced by user Akavall in the comments, the Persian word for chariot is &quot;rokh&quot; and is naturally what the piece is called today.</p>
  <p>The modern interpretation of chess holds its roots in Spain where one of the final transformations occurred. The General piece became the King and the Advisor became the Queen, as these positions were more familiar in the Western environment. The horses became knights and the elephant became a bishop (I suppose this was influenced by the Church's power during this era). The Soldiers became known as pawns (from Anglo-French poun, or Old French peon).</p>
  <p>If you want to read more about this, this link might do a better job explaining it than I did: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100324093608/http://www.articlesbase.com/art-and-entertainment-articles/how-did-chess-pieces-get-their-names-531892.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">How Did Chess Pieces Get Their Names?</a></p>
  
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Answers.UserDisplayName: Andrew Ng
Body: <p>I understand why there would be a king and queen but I would love to know where the idea to call pieces what they are - such as the Rook, Knight, Bishop and Pawn - came from. Is there any background information on the reasons they were called this, and why they were assigned their specific move set?</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2013-06-21T13:44:54.863Z
Comments.Text: I believe that Rook is Chariot in Farsi.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Akavall
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2013-06-21T23:56:01.690Z
Comments.Text: found in wikipedia these: [rook](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rook_%28chess%29#History), [bishop](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bishop_%28chess%29#History), [pawn](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pawn_%28chess%29#History) and [queen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_%28chess%29#History) (however, the 'History' sections of pawn, knight and king are missing)
Comments.UserDisplayName: ajax333221
Tags: <history><terminology><pieces>
Title: Is there an origin or story of where the pieces that make a chess game got their name from?
ThreadText: # Is there an origin or story of where the pieces that make a chess game got their name from?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2013-06-21)
  
  I understand why there would be a king and queen but I would love to know where the idea to call pieces what they are - such as the Rook, Knight, Bishop and Pawn - came from. Is there any background information on the reasons they were called this, and why they were assigned their specific move set?
  
  **Tags:** history, terminology, pieces
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: I believe that Rook is Chariot in Farsi.  
  > **username_2**: found in wikipedia these: [rook](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rook_%28chess%29#History), [bishop](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bishop_%28chess%29#History), [pawn](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pawn_%28chess%29#History) and [queen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_%28chess%29#History) (however, the 'History' sections of pawn, knight and king are missing)  
  
  ---
  
  ## 3 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_8 on 2013-06-22. Score: 20 | Accepted answer
  
  I believe that the chess pieces are supposed to constitute an army – I'll try to give a breakdown of how each individual name evolved.
  
  [Xianqi](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiangqi), or Chinese Chess, originally developed in India before spreading across the world. Xianqi is the Chinese interpretation of the ancient game, and the pieces do really sound like those that would be in an army – General, Advisor, Cannon, Elephant, Horses, Soldiers, and Chariots.
  
  When the game moved to Persia, as referenced by user username_1 in the comments, the Persian word for chariot is "rokh" and is naturally what the piece is called today.
  
  The modern interpretation of chess holds its roots in Spain where one of the final transformations occurred. The General piece became the King and the Advisor became the Queen, as these positions were more familiar in the Western environment. The horses became knights and the elephant became a bishop (I suppose this was influenced by the Church's power during this era). The Soldiers became known as pawns (from Anglo-French poun, or Old French peon).
  
  If you want to read more about this, this link might do a better job explaining it than I did: [How Did Chess Pieces Get Their Names?](https://web.archive.org/web/20100324093608/http://www.articlesbase.com/art-and-entertainment-articles/how-did-chess-pieces-get-their-names-531892.html)
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_3 on 2013-06-27. Score: 10
  
  Origins of chess is from [Chaturanga/Chaturang](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaturanga), which the persians pronounced [Shatraj](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shatranj) (Note that `Shah` means king in persian)
  
  Rook which is basically chariot is called Rath (hindi) or Ratha (Sanskrit) or Rukh (persian)
  
  Mantri/Wazir which means key minister/counsellor, is todays queen.
  
  Ghoda (hindi) and Ashva (sanskrit) means horse which is basically our modern Knight
  
  Hathi which means elephant is our modern bishop
  
  And finally pawn was called Padati, nowadays called Paida (hindi) in short.
  
  According to [this article](http://chess.about.com/od/chesshistory/a/History-Of-Chess-Part-I-Before-Chess.htm), it went to china much later...
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_4**: I was also remembering something about the queen naming being more recent for the same piece descendant (whose mobility rule evolved also in Europe even more recently).  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_5 on 2021-04-01. Score: 0
  
  This is not true. The ancient name of this game is called username_5 which means 6 principles to manage a war.
  
  The war is fought as per protocols and dharma.. Till today, the same principals are applicable in today's perspective.
  
  1. Knight: Called Ashwarohi. It represents unit of Horses and horse riders headed by Shoorveer.
  2. Bishop: Called Gajarohi or Hastin. It represents the unit of Elephants (Like Trucks). Main purpose was to assist the army in resources transportation and migration.. Very rarely used as an offensive and forced to move diagonally (side ways) from the army to avoid damages made to own army.
  
  In Mahabharat Hastinapur means a City of elephants..
  
  3. Rook: Called Maharathi or Rathi.. It represents the chariot or cart carrying the arms, ammunitions, medicines and food. This unit compromised of additional horses, soldiers and charriot riders.
  4. Queen: Called Senapati or SeneNayak. This represents the most powerful unit headed by top Army Official. As a joke, modern Chess Players call it as a queen, but it is in reality - Army General.
  5. Pawns: Called Padati aur Mooshak (Not rats). This unit represents the foot soldiers.
  6. Immortal Peacemaker: Missing in Modern Chess.
  7. ArthShastri or PrimeMinister of economics: Missing in modern chess.
  8. Vigilance: This royal unit was called Charan, Charak, Char, GuptChars. Missing in modern system. Even in Ramayan and Mahabharat, they arw mentioned.
  9. Emperor: The owner of the opponent King after controlling his empire.
  
  The Agastya Suktam, which is 8000 yrs old Samskrit Shloks have these rules mentiond. In Chanakya (Kautilya) ArthShastra which is 2300 yrs old book, this game plan is discussed in too much detail.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_6**: _"modern Chess Players call it as a queen, but it is in reality - Army General."_ - and it's still called that way in some languages  
  > **username_7**: The term "queen" has been used in Europe [for a thousand years](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Versus_de_scachis), so I wouldn't call it "modern" per se.  
  > **username_5**: Your comment is not researched properly. 1400 yrs ago there was no chess in Europe.. Army General and Minister were later merged as Wazeer ehich became queen  
  > **username_7**: @username_5 There is no contradiction between what I said and what you said. I was merely saying that it is odd to describe something as a "modern joke" when it is 1000 years old (and gives no sign of being a joke, really).  
  > **username_4**: I wonder if looking at the eastern derived forms can help recontruct the chess logic evolution, I think those are likely to be more stable than the names and interpretations that go with them.  How is Murrays' book on history of chess, standing the witnessing of times?  Could there have been many contemporary parallel naming's, perhaps also fighting for being right about their nomenclatures?  
  > **username_4**: could there be some sources shared. whether easy to access or not.  
  > **username_5**: Not all information is available on internet. I am trying to create youtube video for informative purpose on username_5 or dhyut played in ancient times, but its very very time demanding task  
  
  ---
  
  