The oldest (hindu) name for chess is "charuranga", meaning a four-part army based on the four members ("anga") of an army: elephants (Bishops), chariots (Rooks), horses (Knight) and foot soldiers (pawns). The Persians learned chaturanga from the Indians. Persians corrupted the name in "chatrang" and codified its rules. In the seventh century the Persian Empire fell to the Muslim world where chess became very popular. They called the game "shatranj" from which both the spanish term "ajedrez" and portuguese "xadrez" derive. At the end of the first millenium, trade and cultural ties between Old Russia with the East countries borrowed chess in Russia. And it is through the Moslems that Europeans learned chess. Europeans changes many rules of the arabian way to play game introducing several powerful moves that bring the modern game of chess to emerge.

The reform of the game began with a long series of experiments with the moves of the pieces, carried out during all the medioeval period. It marked the general adoption of the modern moves of the Queen and the Bishop. In shatranj the Bishop could originally move only two square diagonally, but he could leap over a piece blocking his path. The Queen (councelor, vizir) was the weakest piece on the board, moving only one diagonal square per turn. The fifteenth century nobles probably assigned a more powerful role to the Queen. The changes completely altered the method of play at chess.(not earlier than 1485 according to Murray).

The most important medieval book, also for its influence on the game itslef, was written in latin by Jacobus de Cessolis, a Dominican friar, around the year 1300. It was titled: Liber de moribus hominum et officiis nobilium. This work (very popular during the Middle Ages) drew on the notion that chess was a symbolic representation of society.

The first description of the new chess is in the Luis de Lucena's work "Repeticion de Amores a arte de axedrez" that was also the first printed book on chess. Lucena dedicated his book to Prince Juan (who died young in 1497).

In 1512 Damiano (native of Oldemira, Portugal)  printed in Rome his book "Questo libro e da imparare a giocare a scachi et de li partiti" (of course this is an old italian language). In 1527 Marcus Hyeronymus Vida (born in Cremona, Italy, 1490), Bishop of Alba printed Scacchia Ludus, a chess poem, written in latin. In 1561 a spanish priest, Ruy Lopez, strong player, printed the "Libro de la invencion liberal y arte del juego del Axedrez...."

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