This is a timeline of chess.
Early history
6th century – The game chaturanga probably evolved into its current form around this time in India. 569 – A Chinese emperor wrote a book of xiangqi, Xiang Jing, in AD 569. c. 600 – The Karnamuk-i-Artakhshatr-i-Papakan contains references to the Persian game of shatranj, the direct ancestor of modern Chess. Shatranj was initially called "Chatrang" in Persian (named after the Indian version), which was later renamed to shatranj. c. 720 – Chess spreads across the Islamic world from Persia. c. 840 – Earliest surviving chess problems by Caliph Billah of Baghdad. c. 900 – Entry on Chess in the Chinese work Huan Kwai Lu ('Book of Marvels'). 997 – Versus de scachis is the earliest known work mentioning chess in Christian Western Europe. 1008 – Mention of chess in the will of Count Uregel, another early reference. 10th century – As-Suli writes Kitab Ash-Shatranj, the earliest known work to take a scientific approach to chess strategy. late 10th century – Dark and light squares are introduced on a chessboard. 1173 – Earliest recorded use of a form of algebraic chess notation. 1283 – Alfonso X compiles the Libro de los juegos, with an extensive collection of chess problems. late 13th century – Pawns can now move two ranks on first move. late 14th century – The en passant rule is introduced. 1422 – A manuscript from Kraków sets the rule that stalemate is a draw. 1471 – The Göttingen manuscript is the first book to deal solely with chess. 1474 – William Caxton publishes The Game and Playe of Chesse, the first chess book in English. 1475–1525 – Castling and the modern moves for the queen and bishop are slowly adopted. 1475 – Scachs d'amor the first published game of modern chess, written as a poem. 1493 – Hartmann Schedel publishes the Nuremberg Chronicle. It mentions the invention of chess by the philosopher Xerxes in Babylon during the rule of Evil-Merodach, the son of Nebuchadrezzar and illustrates the citation with a woodcut of Xerxes. 1497 – Luis Ramirez Lucena publishes the earliest surviving work on the modern European game.
16th century
1510 – Marco Girolamo Vida wrote Scacchia ludus (The Game of Chess) with the first reference to a goddess of chess. 1512 – Pedro Damiano publishes one of the first chess treatises, Questo libro e da imparare giocare a scachi et de li partiti. One of the oldest surviving manuscripts to detail chess strategy, Damiano's work gives the earliest known refutation of an unsound chess opening. This opening, the Damiano Defense is named in his honor. The Damiano Variation of the Petrov Defense will also later be named for Damiano's work, appearing in a game in which Damiano (playing white) takes advantage of poor play by Black to fork his King and Queen. 1561 – Inspired by Damiano's previous written work, Spaniard chess player Ruy López writes his book Libro de la invencion liberal y arte del juego del axedrez, in which he coins the word gambit to describe opening sacrifices. 1575 – The first known championship between Chess Masters is held in Madrid, between Italian masters Giovanni Leonardo and Paolo Boi along with Spanish masters Ruy López and Alfonso Ceron. Leonardo wins, with Boi placing second, López third, and Ceron fourth.
17th century
1620-24 – Gioachino Greco writes a number of manuscripts on Chess strategy, giving the first known descriptions of Fool's Mate and Smothered Mate, as well as detailing a number of opening traps. His overall strategy promotes aggressive play. Most of Greco's games feature the King's Gambit Accepted or Giuoco Piano, and his work is greatly influential in popularizing both of these openings throughout the rest of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. 1634 – Alessandro Salvio publishes Il Puttino, a book describing Italian Chess masters of the previous century. 1690 – Openings are now systematically classified in the book Traitté du Jeu Royal des échets, published in 1675 in Lausanne, France by the printer David Gentil (author unknown). This book is known by the nickname Traite de Lausanne.