'Checkmate' is Persian shāh māt, 'the king is helpless'. Around 600 chess reached Sasanian Persia from India as chatrang, and spread from there to the Arabs and Europe.
More amazing facts
- 578 · 2006 Japan's Kongō Gumi stayed independent for 1,428 years, from 578 to 2006.
- 578 · 622 The Japanese company Kongō Gumi is older than Islam: it was founded in 578, 44 years before the Hijra — Muhammad's move to Medina, from which the Islamic calendar counts its years.
- 589 Toilet paper is first mentioned in 589, the year the Sui reunited China.
- 607 A Chinese emperor took offence at Japan over the sun. In 607 Prince Shōtoku wrote to him: 'The Son of Heaven where the sun rises, to the Son of Heaven where the sun sets.' Emperor Yang was furious.
- 615 · 683 The Maya king Pakal took the throne at 12 and ruled for 68 years, from 615 to 683.
- 615 · 618 · 622 Within seven years three great eras began on three sides of the world: in 615 twelve-year-old Pakal became king of Maya Palenque, in 618 the Tang dynasty was founded, and in 622 Muhammad made the Hijra.