Chess

Chess (Chaturang, Shataranja or AshtaPada) was reportedly invented in India.

Chess is one of a group of games descended from Chaturanga, a game believed to have originated in India in the 6th century or perhaps earlier, which itself may be related to a much older Chinese game.

Chaturanga is a Sanskrit word referring to the four arms (or divisions) of an Indian army: elephants, cavalry, chariots, and infantry; which inspired the four types of pieces in that game.
Chaturanga spread eastward to China, and then through Korea to Japan. It also appeared in Persia after the Islamic conquest (638-651).

In Persia the game was first called chatrang, the Persian form of chaturanga, and then shatranj, the Arabic form of the word.

The spread of Islam to Sicily and the invasion of Spain by the Moors brought shatranj to Western Europe, and it reached Russia through trade routes from several directions.

By the end of the 10th century, the game was well known throughout Europe. It attracted the serious interest of kings, philosophers, and poets, and the best players recorded their games for posterity. Problems, or puzzles, in which the solver has to find a solution, such as a forced checkmate in a given number of moves became popular during the 12th and 13th centuries.