Chess, the game that is beleived to be the 'sport' , excellence in which is achieved only by the best of stratergy makers and thinkers, has a strong bonding with India.Not only it founded here (according to the Encyclopedia), India today houses some of the superstars of the game, whose sheer presence in a tournament gives us hope of another title to India. This article outlines India's long lasting affair with Chess.
The Indian origin of the game of chess is supported even by the Encyclopedia Britannica according to which, "About 1783-89 Sir. William Jones, in an essay published in the 2nd Vol. of Asiatic Researches, argued that Hindustan was the cradle of chess, the game having been known there from time immemorial by the name Chaturanga, that is, the four angas, or members of an army, which are said in the Amarakosha (an ancient Indian Dictionary - S.B.) to be elephants, horses, chariots and foot soldiers. As applicable to real armies, the term Chaturanga is frequently used by the epic poets of India. Sir William Jones' essay is substantially a translation of the Bhawishya Purana, in which is given a description of a four-handed game of chess played with dice.Sir William, however, grounds his opinions as to the Hindu origin of chess upon the testimony of the Persians and not upon the above manuscript. He lays it down that chess, under the Sanskrit name Chaturanga was exported from India into Persia in the 6th century of our era; that by a natural corruption, the old Persians changed the name into chatrang; but when their country was soon afterwards taken possession of by the Arabs, who had neither the initial nor the final letter of the word in their alphabet, they altered it further into Shatranj, which name found its way presently into modern Persian and ultimately into the dialects of India.
The Encyclopedia Britannica further says that Wander Linde, in his exhaustive work, Geschichte and Litteraturdes Schachspiels (1874), has much to say of the origin-theories, nearly all of which he treats as so many myths. He agrees with those who consider that the Persians received the game from the Hindus. The outcome of his studies appears to be that chess certainly existed in Hindustan in the 8th century, and that probably that country is the land of its birth. He inclines to the idea that the game originated among the Buddhists, whose religion was prevalent in India from the 3rd to the 9th century. According to their ideas, war and slaying of one's own fellow-men, for any purpose whatever, is criminal, and the punishment of the warrior in the next world will be much worse than that of the simple murderer, hence chess was invented as a substitute for war. H.J.R. Murry in his monumental work A History of Chess, concludes that chess is a descendant of an Indian game played in the 7th century. According to the Encylopedia - altogether, therefore, we find the best authorities agreeing that chess existed in India before it is known to have been played anywhere else. In this supposition they are strengthened by the names of the game and some of its pieces. Shatranj as Forbes has pointed out, is a foreign word among the Persians and the Arabians, whereas its natural derivation from the term Chaturanga is obvious. Again affix the Arabic name for the bishop, means the elephant, derived from alephhind, the Indian elephant.
Even the word checkmate is derived from the Persian term Shah Mat which means 'the king is dead!'. The Sanskrit translation of this term would be Kshatra Mruta. Another term viz. 'the rooks' which is the name for one set of the counters used in chess, originated from the Persian term Roth which means a soldier. The Persian term according to the Encyclopedia is derived from the Indian term Rukh, which obviously seems to have originated in the Sanskrit word Rakshak which means a soldier from Raksha which means 'to protect'. About the introduction of this game into Persia, the Encylopedia says that the Persian poet Firdousi, in his historical poem, the Shahnama, gives an account of the introduction of Shatranj into Persia in the reign of Chosroes I Anushirwan, to whom came ambassadors from the sovereign of Hind (India), with a chess-board and men asking him to solve the secrets of the game, if he could or pay tribute. The king asked for seven days grace, during which time the wise men vainly tried to discover the secret. Finally, the king's minister took the pieces home and discovered the secret in a day and a night. The Encyclopedia Britannica concludes that "Other Persian and Arabian writers state that Shatranj came into Persia from India and there appears to be a consensus of opinion that may be considered to settle the question. Thus we have the game passing from the Hindus to the Persians and then to the Arabians, after the capture V of Persia by the Caliphs in the 7th century, and from them, directly or indirectly, to various parts of Europe, at a time which cannot be definitely fixed, but either in or before the 10th century. That the source of the European game is Arabic is clear enough, nor merely from the words "check" and "mate", which are evidently from Shah mat ("the king is dead"), but also from the names of some of the pieces. 
Folding chess board, India; late 17th century Padouk, rosewood veneer, ivory and ebony inlay, brass, silver. 53.1 x 52.1 x 12.7 cm
Peabody Essex Museum .Thus it was from India that the ancient Persians are said to have learnt this game, and from them it was transmitted to the Greco Roman world. The evidence of the Persians having borrowed this game from India is seen in the name the Persians gave to it. The Persian word for chess is Chatrang, which was later changed by the Arabs to Shatranj. As said in Encyclopedia Britannica, this word is obviously a corruption of the Sanskrit original Chaturanga.
The other term Astapada meaning eight steps, which was also used to describe this game in ancient India, perhaps was a description for the eight steps (Squares) which the modern Chessboard, has. The modern Chessboard is chequered with 64 (8 x 8) squares in all, with eight squares on each side. The old English word for chess which is Esches, possibly stems from this eight squared aspect of the game as did the Sanskrit word Astapada.The All India Chess Federation (AICF) is the central administrative body for the game of chess in India. The AICF was founded in 1951 with its headquarters in Bombay.h="150" />
Chess in India:: The reality today The Chess Federation is affiliated to FIDE, the world body for chess. The Federation has now under its fold more than 30 affiliated state associations, 16 special members and 23 recognized academies as its constituents. The AICF deserves accolades for their zealous efforts to promote the game in India. The Federation has played an active role in identifying new talents and ensuring quality competition in the domestic level. Such energetic organizing has paid rich dividends as India has made a name for producing precocious chess prodigies.Besides the thriving national circuit, AICF has also played host to a number of major world events in India like the World Junior Championships, the Commonwealth Championships and Asian Team Championships.Of late, Indians, specially in the young boys and girls sections' of the game have hogged the headlines. Mentioned below is a list of GrandMasters from India:Mentioned in brackets are the The Fédération Internationale des Échecs or World Chess Federation points accumulated by them GM's (17): Vishy Anand (2803-World No 1), Sasikiran (2679), P. Harikrishna (2679), SS Ganguly (2614), Koneru Humpy (2603), Sandipan Chanda (2585), Abhijjet Kunte (2547), Gopal (2562), Parimarjan Negi (2514), Abhijeet Gupta (2521), P. Magesh Chandran (2486), Barua (2492), Ramesh (2472), Neelotpal Das (2465), Deepan Chakravarty (2464) Bakre (2455), Pravin Thipsay (2444) 
.GM's Anand, Harikrishna, Sasikiran, Humpy, Ganguly, Chanda and Kunte In addition to this, there are 57 IM's aspiring to become GM one day!!!WGM's (8): D.Harika (IM-2461), S. Vijayalaxmi (IM-2464), Nisha Mohota (2401), Tania Sachdev ( IM-2423), S. Meenakshi (2336), Eesha Karawade (2302), Swati Ghate (2350), Arti Ramesh (2298).In addition to this, there are 19 WIM's aspiring to become WGM one day.
Although all of the above have been doing a tremendous job in brnging fame to the country, one person needing special mention is Vishwanathan Anand.Anand is one of four players in history to break the 2800 mark on the FIDE rating list and he has been among the top three ranked players in the world continuously since 1997. Recently he was awarded the second highest civilian award of India- "Padma Vibhushan". In the April 2007 FIDE Elo rating list, Anand was ranked first in the world for the first time, and he retained the number one spot in the July 2007 list with a rating of 2792, a lead of 23 points.
On the current April 2008 list he has an Elo rating of 2803, which makes him number one in the world . He is the sixth person to head the rating list since its inception in 1970; the other five being Fischer, Karpov, Kasparov, Kramnik and Topalov. Anand became the undisputed World Chess Champion on September 29, 2007, after winning the 2007 World Chess Championship Tournament held in Mexico City.Anand finished the tournament with a score of 9/14 (+4=10-0).