Chess History

The most conclusive evidence that can be pulled up today, points to India being the country that invented chess. Over the long years chess has gradually evolved little by little. One of the big changes to the game of chess, was when England became the biggest world power during the reign of Queen Victoria. The queen of the chess board went from being slightly better than a pawn, to the strength it is today, bishops could only move 2 spaces diagonally but they could also hop over other pieces. Castling was unheard of at first, and pawns weren't allowed the option to jump two squares for their first move.
Almost all the modern rules of chess were not finalized until about the 20th century. Even now chess is changing, there are may radical chess variants. The Most notable chess variants are Bug House, which is played with 4 player 2 chess boards and involves teams, (great practice for classical chess to) And 960 chess, also known as Fischer Random; the reason it is called 960 chess is because the back rank (with a few exceptions) are set up at random, and 960 different legal positions can be made. This completely destroys current opening theory, and really builds you strategy and tactics.