Chess has a history possibly going back over 4 Millenia. Chess has seen countless variations throughout its evolution. It has been expanded from small to enormous boards to non-square boards, pieces have been added, new moves have been devised and new identities have been given to the pieces. It has been estimated that there are well over 2000 Chess variants in the world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_chess_variants

Chess games such as Chaturanga, Shatranj, Xiangqi and Shogi (and many others) pre-date Western Chess by over 1500 years and are still played in their respective regions, in some cases dwarfing Western Chess in popularity.

The 1500 year old Indian game of Chaturanga Chess played by 4 players on an 8 x 8 board was the “root” game from which modern day Chess was developed. By 1100AD the game migrated through Persia and then the Muslim world where Tamerlane Chess was played on a 10 x 11 board. This was followed 700 years ago by the German Courier Chess played on a 12 x 8 board. It became the most popular chess game in the western world and was played for 500 years until its recent fall in popularity late in the 20th century. Then 500 years ago the 8 x 8 board re-emerged with several leaper pieces removed from the game. This backward step hobbled the game, making a once great game not so great. The myopic punters of the time were unaware that they had been cheated and embraced the new variant, known today as WESTERN CHESS.

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The rules of all these Chess games have morphed over time, as the game has migrated around the world, until Chess reached Europe in the 7th century and morphed into its ‘Western’ rule set in Spain, sometime in the late 15th century. The rules for WESTERN CHESS were subject to more changes over the last 500 years and were formally ratified in 1924 and this variant has become the most played variant of chess in the western world.

However, over 500 years on, Chess faces a new world, with sophisticated computer games competing for the attention of gamers. Unfortunately by today's standards, Western Chess, with a slow opening and congested middle game, and constricted movement of power pieces, has grown stale has suffered a decline in popularity in the face of the digital competition. This problem and frustration with the game play, has lead to the introduction of many variants of chess since the 1500's - over a thousand in the last 50 years.

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Fortunately chessionados didn't forget the past.

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The new GREAT CHESS is a contemporary variant of the great games of TAMERLANE and COURIER chess. With the return of the lost leapers and the liberation of the towers, chess players can enjoy a return to the glory days of chess. Great Chess combines the best features of these variants and draws inspiration from real world battlefields, to fill in the game play missing from traditional Western Chess. If you compare real life battles with traditional Western Chess battles, there are some glaring problems with - and omissions from - the old game. Great Chess addresses these issues with a new level of sophistication, speed and excitement, which bring the game into the 21st century.

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2500 - 1500 BC Pakistan
Game pieces (speculatively called "chess pieces") uncovered in archaeological findings are considered as coming from other, distantly related board games, which may have had boards of 100 squares or more. Findings in the Mohenjo-daro and Harappa (2600–1500 BCE) sites of the Indus Valley Civilization show the prevalence of a board game that resembles chess.