New: Chess history, from chaturanga to Gukesh

35 new pages on where chess came from, how its pieces and rules changed, every world champion, 17 great players, famous games and chess records.

Updated 9 November 2026 · 2 min read

ChessMess now has a Chess history section: 35 pages, free to read, with board diagrams and pictures.

What's in it

• The story of chess: who invented chess (chaturanga in India), Persia and the Islamic world, medieval Europe, the birth of modern chess around 1475, coffeehouses to world championships, chess and computers, and chess in India.
• Pieces and rules: where each piece got its name, in Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, Hindi, Urdu and European languages; how the rules changed; and how to play chess.
• Champions: every world champion and every women's world champion.
• 17 great players, from Philidor and Paul Morphy to Magnus Carlsen and Gukesh Dommaraju, each with one of their best games.
• Famous games and records: the most famous games, the Game of the Century, Kasparov vs Topalov 1999, Deep Blue vs Kasparov and chess records.
• Famous people who played chess, from Benjamin Franklin to Satyajit Ray.

How it was checked

Every page lists its sources. Where historians disagree, the page says so, and legends are marked as legends. Every board diagram is drawn from the game's real moves, and the pictures are public domain or Creative Commons, with the photographer and licence under each one. Ratings and titles are dated: this is chess as of November 2026, with the world championship match between Gukesh and Javokhir Sindarov due to start on 24 November.

Try the games yourself

The Immortal, Evergreen and Opera games are also interactive lessons, and any game can be replayed move by move on the free analysis board.