Thousand-Year-Old Shogi Piece Discovered

From a well in the city of Nara, Japan, archaeologists have recovered a wood suizo (drunk elephant) Shogi piece dating back to the Heian Period (794-1185). While the drunk elephant is no longer used in modern Shogi (Japanese Chess), the age of the piece (several hundred years older than pieces previously discovered) indicates that Shogi may have begun evolving in to a distinctly Japanese game from Indian and Chinese precursors earlier than previously thought.

[via The Asahi Shimbun]

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