Chess in the 6th century was known as chaturanga, which translates as 'four divisions of the army'.
The earliest predecessor of the game originated in India before the 6th century AD. From India, the game spread to Persia. When the Arabs conquered Persia, chess was taken up by the Muslim world and subsequently spread to Southern Europe.
In Europe, chess evolved into roughly its current form in the 15th century. Romantic chess was preferring the late 15th century to the 1880s. The Romantic era of play was followed by the Scientific, Hypermodern, and New Dynamism eras.