Why Black and White Became The Standard Color Chess Pieces
Historically, chess was not always black & white. There were different combination of colors in chess which were often influenced by the customs of the region and culture, the time period and its fashions etc. If you look at the origins of chess, in India, the colors of chess pieces were different. You may find chess set with pieces color of emerald and sixteen of ruby, i.e. the colors were green vs. red. These were for many centuries the predominant colors in traditional Indian chess sets. In Europe the most popular chess sets were made from bone and ivory in the 19th century which include the export chess sets made in India and China for British colonial officers, they were in red and white, the red color were made from cochenille was the most expensive dye available at that time. The combination of black and white color has long history. In the Persian epic Shahnameh written around 1010 AD by the Persian poet Abu ʼl-Qasim Firdawsi. Firdawsi - Chatrang-namak, the “Chess Book”,