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Chaturanga

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Chaturanga ( Sanskrit : चतुरङ्ग , IAST : caturaṅga , pronounced [tɕɐtuˈɾɐŋɡɐ] ) is an ancient Indian strategy board game . It is first known from India around the seventh century AD.

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55-513: While there is some uncertainty, the prevailing view among chess historians is that chaturanga is the common ancestor of the board games chess , xiangqi (Chinese), janggi (Korean), shogi (Japanese), sittuyin (Burmese), makruk (Thai), ouk chatrang (Cambodian) and modern Indian chess . It was adopted as chatrang ( shatranj ) in Sassanid Persia , which in turn was the form of chess brought to late-medieval Europe . Not all

110-473: A canonry of Christ Church . Under Charles II , James II and William III , Hyde discharged the duties of Eastern interpreter to the court . He resigned his librarianship in 1701, giving as a reason, "my feet being left weak by the gout, I am weary of the toil and drudgery of daily attendance all times and weathers." He died at Oxford on 18 February 1703, aged 66. Hyde was an assiduous classical scholar and linguist who helped popularize Orientalism and

165-462: A games inventor said when interviewed about his game, The Great Train Robbery : With crime you deal with every basic human emotion and also have enough elements to combine action with melodrama. The player's imagination is fired as they plan to rob the train. Because of the gamble, they take in the early stage of the game there is a build-up of tension, which is immediately released once the train

220-514: A competition between two or more players. To give a few examples: in checkers (British English name 'draughts'), a player wins by capturing all opposing pieces, while Eurogames often end with a calculation of final scores. Pandemic is a cooperative game where players all win or lose as a team, and peg solitaire is a puzzle for one person. There are many varieties of board games. Their representation of real-life situations can range from having no inherent theme, such as checkers , to having

275-446: A confused account of weiqi (i.e., go ) which includes the first Latin mention of the game's concept of "eyes". The Historia Religionis Veterum Persarum was republished by Hunt and Costard in 1760. The other works—including some previously unpublished manuscripts—were collected, edited, and published by Gregory Sharpe in 1767 under the title Syntagma Dissertationem quas Olim Thomas Hyde Separatim Edidit . Sharpe also provided

330-577: A dice game such as Ludo , by giving each player the choice of rolling the dice or using the previous player's roll. Another important aspect of some games is diplomacy, that is, players, making deals with one another. Negotiation generally features only in games with three or more players, cooperative games being the exception. An important facet of Catan , for example, is convincing players to trade with you rather than with opponents. In Risk , two or more players may team up against others. Easy diplomacy involves convincing other players that someone else

385-445: A game belongs to several categories. The namesake of the board game, gameboards would seem to be a necessary and sufficient condition of the genre , though card games that do not use a standard deck of cards (as well as games that use neither cards nor a gameboard) are often colloquially included, with some scholars therefore referring to said genre as that of "table and board games" or " tabletop games ", or seeing board games as

440-479: A game piece. Playing board games has also been tied to improving children's executive functions and help reduce risks of dementia for the elderly. Related to this is a growing academic interest in the topic of game accessibility, culminating in the development of guidelines for assessing the accessibility of modern tabletop games and the extent to which they are playable for people with disabilities. Additionally, board games can be therapeutic. Bruce Halpenny ,

495-468: A game. The board sometimes had special markings, the meaning of which are unknown today. These marks were not related to chaturanga, but were drawn on the board only by tradition. These special markings coincide with squares unreachable by any of the four gajas that start on the board due to movement rules. Chess historian H. J. R. Murray conjectured that the ashtāpada was also used for some old race-type dice game, perhaps similar to chowka bhara , in which

550-766: A player moves their token, as in Monopoly , to how their forces fare in battle, as in Risk , or which resources a player gains, as in Catan . Other games such as Sorry! use a deck of special cards that, when shuffled, create randomness. Scrabble does something similar with randomly picked letters. Other games use spinners, timers of random length, or other sources of randomness. German-style board games are notable for often having fewer elements of luck than many North American board games. Luck may be reduced in favour of skill by introducing symmetry between players. For example, in

605-420: A skilled player will win more often. The elements of luck can also make for more excitement at times, and allow for more diverse and multifaceted strategies, as concepts such as expected value and risk management must be considered. Luck may be introduced into a game by several methods. The use of dice of various sorts goes back to the earliest board games . These can decide everything from how many steps

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660-514: A specific theme and narrative, such as Cluedo . Rules can range from the very simple, such as in snakes and ladders ; to deeply complex, as in Advanced Squad Leader . Play components now often include custom figures or shaped counters, and distinctively shaped player pieces commonly known as meeples as well as traditional cards and dice. The time required to learn or master gameplay varies greatly from game to game, but

715-416: A subgenre of tabletop games. H. J. R. Murray 's A History of Board Games Other Than Chess (1952) has been called the first attempt to develop a "scheme for the classification of board games". David Parlett 's Oxford History of Board Games (1999) defines four primary categories: race games (where the goal is to be the first to move all one's pieces to the final destination), space games (in which

770-542: Is a large facet of the market, with $ 233 million raised on Kickstarter in 2020. A 1991 estimate for the global board game market was over $ 1.2 billion. A 2001 estimate for the United States "board games and puzzle" market gave a value of under $ 400 million, and for United Kingdom, of about £50 million. A 2009 estimate for the Korean market was put at 800 million won, and another estimate for

825-451: Is a list of some of the most common game categories: Although many board games have a jargon all their own, there is a generalized terminology to describe concepts applicable to basic game mechanics and attributes common to nearly all board games. Thomas Hyde Thomas Hyde (29 June 1636 – 18 February 1703) was an English linguist , historian , librarian , classicist , and orientalist . His chief work

880-485: Is hidden from players. This makes finding the best move more difficult and may involve estimating probabilities by the opponents. Many board games are now available as video games. These are aptly termed digital board games, and their distinguishing characteristic compared to traditional board games is they can now be played online against a computer or other players. Some websites (such as boardgamearena.com, yucata.de, etc.) allow play in real time and immediately show

935-402: Is known to include modern additions and interpolations, however, even mentioning British rule of India. An early reference to an ancient Indian board game is sometimes attributed to Subandhu in his Vasavadatta , dated between the 5th and 7th centuries AD: The time of the rains played its game with frogs for pieces [ nayadyutair ] yellow and green in colour, as if mottled by lac, leapt up on

990-878: Is not necessarily related to the number or complexity of rules; for example, chess or Go possess relatively simple rulesets but have great strategic depth. Classical board games are divided into four categories: race games (such as pachisi ), space games (such as noughts and crosses ), chase games (such as hnefatafl ), and games of displacement (such as chess ). Board games have been played, traveled, and evolved in most cultures and societies throughout history. Several important historical sites, artifacts, and documents shed light on early board games such as Jiroft civilization game boards in Iran. Senet , found in Predynastic and First Dynasty burials of Egypt, c.  3500 BC and 3100 BC respectively,

1045-415: Is robbed. Release of tension is therapeutic and useful in our society because most jobs are boring and repetitive. Playing games has been suggested as a viable addition to the traditional educational curriculum if the content is appropriate and the gameplay informs students on the curriculum content. There are several ways in which board games can be classified, and considerable overlap may exist, so that

1100-405: Is the fact that the chariot is the most powerful piece on the board, although chariots appear to have been obsolete in warfare for at least five or six centuries, superseded by light and heavy cavalries . The counter-argument is that they remained prominent in literature and continued to be used for travel and transport, in processions, for games, and in races. While there is some uncertainty,

1155-539: Is the oldest board game known to have existed. Senet was pictured in a fresco painting found in Merknera's tomb (3300–2700 BC). Also from predynastic Egypt is mehen . Hounds and jackals , another ancient Egyptian board game, appeared around 2000 BC. The first complete set of this game was discovered from a Theban tomb that dates to the 13th dynasty . This game was also popular in Mesopotamia and

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1210-399: Is winning and should therefore be teamed up against. Advanced diplomacy (e.g., in the aptly named game Diplomacy ) consists of making elaborate plans together, with the possibility of betrayal. In perfect information games, such as chess, each player has complete information on the state of the game, but in other games, such as Tigris and Euphrates or Stratego , some information

1265-726: The Arabic , Persic and Syriac texts for that work, Hyde transcribed into Persic characters the Persian translation of the Pentateuch , which had been printed in Hebrew letters at Constantinople in 1546. To this work, which Archbishop Ussher had thought well-nigh impossible even for a native of Persia, Hyde appended the Latin version which accompanies it in the Polyglott. In 1658 he

1320-727: The Caucasus . Backgammon originated in ancient Mesopotamia about 5,000 years ago. Ashtapada , chess , pachisi and chaupar originated in India. Go (4th century BC) and liubo (1st century BC) originated in China. The board game Patolli originated in Mesoamerica and was played by a wide range of pre-Columbian cultures such as the Toltecs and the Aztecs . The royal game of Ur

1375-400: The "hobby game market" ("the market for those games regardless of whether they're sold in the hobby channel or other channels,") at over $ 700 million. A similar 2015 estimate suggested a hobby game market value of almost $ 900 million. A dedicated field of research into gaming exists, known as game studies or ludology. While there has been a fair amount of scientific research on

1430-600: The American board game market for the same year was at about $ 800 million. A 2011 estimate for the Chinese board game market was at over 10 billion yuan . A 2013 estimate put the size of the German toy market at 2.7 billion euros (out of which the board games and puzzle market is worth about 375 million euros), and Polish markets at 2 billion and 280 million zlotys , respectively. In 2009, Germany

1485-603: The Eastern tongues, from his father, who was rector of the parish. Hyde was educated at Eton College , and in his sixteenth year entered King's College, Cambridge . There, under Abraham Wheelock , professor of Arabic , he made rapid progress in Oriental languages, so that, after only one year of residence, he was invited to London to assist Brian Walton in his edition of the Polyglott Bible . Besides correcting

1540-584: The Gaming Acts of 1710 and 1845 . Early board game producers in the second half of the eighteenth century were mapmakers. The global popularization of board games, with special themes and branding, coincided with the formation of the global dominance of the British Empire . John Wallis was an English board game publisher, bookseller, map/chart seller, printseller, music seller, and cartographer . With his sons John Wallis Jr. and Edward Wallis, he

1595-558: The Indian epic Mahabharata . Chaturanga refers to four divisions of an army, namely elephantry , chariotry , cavalry and infantry . An ancient battle formation, akshauhini , is like the setup of chaturanga. The origin of chaturanga has been a puzzle for centuries. The earliest clear reference comes from north India from the Gupta Empire , dating from the sixth century AD. Banabhatta 's Harsha Charitha (c. AD 625) contains

1650-653: The Middle East, mancala is a popular board game archetype with many regional variations. In India, a community game called Carrom is popular. A popular board game of flicking stones ( Alkkagi ) is popular in South Korea . In the late 1990s, companies began producing more new games to serve a growing worldwide market. In the 2010s, several publications said board games were amid a new Golden Age or "renaissance". Board game venues also grew in popularity; in 2016 alone, more than 5,000 board game cafés opened in

1705-515: The U.S., and they were reported to be very popular in China as well. Board games have been used as a mechanism for science communication . Some games, such as chess, depend completely on player skill, while many children's games such as Candy Land and snakes and ladders require no decisions by the players and are decided purely by luck. Many games require some level of both skill and luck. A player may be hampered by bad luck in backgammon , Monopoly , or Risk ; but over many games,

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1760-737: The United States and its sister game Traveller's Tour Through Europe were published by New York City bookseller F. & R. Lockwood in 1822 and claim the distinction of being the first board games published in the United States. Margaret Hofer described the period of the 1880s–1920s as "The Golden Age" of board gaming in America. Board game popularity was boosted, like that of many items, through mass production , which made them cheaper and more easily available. Different traditional board games are popular in Asian and African countries. In China, Go and many variations of chess are popular. In Africa and

1815-625: The ability to anticipate moves, plays an essential role in chess-playing ability. Linearly arranged board games have improved children's spatial numerical understanding. This is because the game is similar to a number line in that they promote a linear understanding of numbers rather than the innate logarithmic one. Research studies show that board games such as Snakes and Ladders result in children showing significant improvements in aspects of basic number skills such as counting, recognizing numbers, numerical estimation, and number comprehension. They also practice fine motor skills each time they grasp

1870-570: The bishop is called the elephant. The Tamerlane chess was also introduced in Iran later. The game was first introduced to the West in Thomas Hyde 's De ludis orientalibus libri duo , published in 1694. Subsequently, translations of Sanskrit accounts of the game were published by Sir William Jones . Chaturanga was played on an 8×8 uncheckered board, called ashtāpada , which is also the name of

1925-487: The black field squares. The colours are not those of the two camps, but mean that the frogs have two colours, yellow and green. Chaturanga may also have much older roots, dating back 5000 years. Archeological remains from 2000 to 3000 BC have been found from the city of Lothal (of the Indus Valley Civilisation ) of pieces on a board that resemble chess. Another argument that chaturanga is much older

1980-488: The board gaming market is estimated to be smaller than that for video games , it has also experienced significant growth from the late 1990s. A 2012 article in The Guardian described board games as "making a comeback". Other expert sources suggest that board games never went away, and that board games have remained a popular leisure activity which has only grown over time. Another from 2014 gave an estimate that put

2035-485: The earliest reference to the name chaturanga: Under this monarch [...], only the bees quarrelled to collect the dew; the only feet cut off were those of measurements, and only from Ashtâpada one could learn how to draw up a chaturanga, there was no cutting-off of the four limbs of condemned criminals... According to Stewart Culin , chaturanga was first described in the Hindu text Bhavishya Purana . The Bhavishya Purana

2090-455: The game board but do not necessarily enforce the game's rules, leaving this up to the players. There are generalized programs such as Vassal , Tabletop Simulator and Tabletopia that can be used to play any board or card game, while programs like Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds are more specialized for role-playing games. Some of these virtual tabletops have worked with the license holders to allow for use of their game's assets within

2145-459: The growth of the board game market at "between 25% and 40% annually" since 2010, and described the current time as the "golden era for board games". The rise in board game popularity has been attributed to quality improvement (more elegant mechanics , components , artwork, and graphics) as well as increased availability thanks to sales through the Internet. Crowd-sourcing for board games

2200-603: The marks had meaning. The initial position is as shown. White moves first. The objective in chaturanga is to checkmate the opponent's Raja (King) or reducing the opposition to just the Raja. Al-Adli mentions two further rules: Bibliography Board game Board games are tabletop games that typically use pieces . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked game board (playing surface) and often include elements of table , card , role-playing , and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature

2255-474: The object is to arrange the pieces into some special configuration), chase games (asymmetrical games, where players start the game with different sets of pieces and objectives) and displace games (where the main objective is the capture the opponents' pieces). Parlett also distinguishes between abstract and thematic games, the latter having a specific theme or frame narrative (ex. regular chess versus, for example, Star Wars -themed chess). The following

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2310-467: The opponents' moves, while others use email to notify the players after each move. The Internet and cheaper home printing has also influenced board games via print-and-play games that may be purchased and printed. Some games use external media such as audio cassettes or DVDs in accompaniment to the game. There are also virtual tabletop programs that allow online players to play a variety of existing and new board games through tools needed to manipulate

2365-541: The other beliefs of the ancient Persians . He identified Zoroaster as a religious reformer. Like Engelbert Kaempfer , he is sometimes mistakenly credited with coining the word " cuneiform ". He is similarly sometimes credited with coining " dualism ". His writings and translations include: In parts of the De Ludis Orientalibus , he relates his understanding of various Chinese games as explained to him by Michael Shen. These include coan ki and

2420-459: The prevailing view among chess historians is that chaturanga is the common ancestor of the board games chess , xiangqi (Chinese), janggi (Korean), shogi (Japanese), sittuyin (Burmese), makruk (Thai), ouk chatrang (Cambodian) and modern Indian chess . In Arabic , most of the terminology of chess is derived directly from chaturanga: Modern chess itself is called shatranj in Arabic, and

2475-417: The program; for example, Fantasy Grounds has licenses for both Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder materials, while Tabletop Simulator allows game publishers to provide paid downloadable content for their games. However, as these games offer the ability to add in the content through user modifications , there are also unlicensed uses of board game assets available through these programs. While

2530-586: The psychology of older board games (e.g., chess , Go , mancala ), less has been done on contemporary board games such as Monopoly , Scrabble , and Risk , and especially modern board games such as Catan , Agricola , and Pandemic . Much research has been carried out on chess, partly because many tournament players are publicly ranked in national and international lists, which makes it possible to compare their levels of expertise. The works of Adriaan de Groot , William Chase, Herbert A. Simon , and Fernand Gobet have established that knowledge, more than

2585-415: The rules of Chaturanga are known with certainty. Chess historians suppose that the game had similar rules to those of its successor, shatranj. In particular, there is uncertainty as to the moves of the gaja (elephant). Sanskrit caturaṅga is a bahuvrihi compound word, meaning "having four limbs or parts" and in epic poetry often meaning "army". The name comes from a battle formation mentioned in

2640-718: The study of Asian history in Britain. He learned Chinese from the Chinese Jesuit Michael Shen and wrote in and translated Turkish , Arabic , Syriac , Persian , Hebrew , and Malay . His chief work was the 1700 De Vetere Religione Persarum [ On the Ancient Religion of the Persians ], the first attempt to use Arab and Persian sources to correct the errors of Greek and Roman historians in their descriptions of Zoroastrianism and

2695-511: Was chosen Hebrew reader at Queen's College, Oxford , and in 1659, in consideration of his erudition in Oriental tongues, he was admitted to the degree of M.A. In the same year he was appointed under-keeper of the Bodleian Library , and in 1665 librarian-in-chief. Next year he was collated to a prebend at Salisbury , and in 1673 to the archdeaconry of Gloucester , receiving the degree of D.D. shortly afterwards. As librarian, Hyde

2750-426: Was considered to be the best market per capita, with the highest number of games sold per individual. Some academics, such as Erica Price and Marco Arnaudo, have differentiated "hobby" board games and gamers from other board games and gamers. A 2014 estimate placed the U.S. and Canada market for hobby board games (games produced for a "gamer" market) at only $ 75 million, with the total size of what it defined as

2805-581: Was found in the royal tombs of Ur, dating to Mesopotamia 4,600 years ago. Board games have a long tradition in Europe. The oldest records of board gaming in Europe date back to Homer 's Iliad (written in the 8th century BC), in which he mentions the Ancient Greek game of petteia . This game of petteia would later evolve into the Roman ludus latrunculorum . Board gaming in ancient Europe

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2860-704: Was not unique to the Greco-Roman world, with records estimating that the ancient Norse game of hnefatafl was developed sometime before 400 AD . In ancient Ireland, the game of fidchell or ficheall , is said to date back to at least 144 AD, though this is likely an anachronism. A fidchell board dating from the 10th century has been uncovered in Co. Westmeath, Ireland. In the United Kingdom, association of dice and cards with gambling led to all dice games except backgammon being treated as lotteries by dice in

2915-534: Was one of the most prolific publishers of board games of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. John Betts' A Tour of the British Colonies and Foreign Possessions and William Spooner's A Voyage of Discovery were popular in the British empire. Kriegsspiel is a genre of wargaming developed in 19th century Prussia to teach battle tactics to officers. The board game Travellers' Tour Through

2970-767: Was responsible for the publication of the Catalogus impressorum Librorum Bibliothecae Bodleianae (1674) [Catalog of the Printed Books in the Bodleian Library], the third published catalogue of the Bodleian collections. In 1691 the death of Edward Pococke opened up to Hyde the Laudian professorship of Arabic ; and in 1697, on the deprivation of Roger Altham , he succeeded to the Regius chair of Hebrew and

3025-586: Was the 1700 De Vetere Religione Persarum [ On the Ancient Religion of the Persians ], the first attempt to use Arab and Persian sources to correct the errors of Greek and Roman historians in their descriptions of Zoroastrianism and the other beliefs of the ancient Persians , in addition to producing translations of some Zoroastrian texts . He was born at Billingsley , near Bridgnorth in Shropshire , on 29 June 1636. He inherited his taste for linguistic studies, and received his first lessons in some of

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