David H Li

Hypothesis

In his book "The Genealogy of Chess" (which won the 'Book of the Year' 1998 award from the editors of GAMES Magazine), Li surveys evidence regarding the origins of chess and concludes that an early version of chess called xiangqi was invented in China in 203 BC, by General Han Xin, who supposedly drew on the earlier game liubo as well as on the teachings of The Art of War. Li suggests that this game had spread via the Silk Road, to Persia (becoming various forms of shatranj) and India (becoming various forms of chaturanga), as well as to Japan (becoming shogi) and Korea (becoming janggi).Li's idea has been contested.