2,500-year-old chess pieces found in China

BEIJING - Chess pieces dating back 2,500 years have been found in a tomb in China’s Hebei province.

Ten chess pieces were found next to a skeleton in a Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-24 A.D.) tomb in Pingshan county, said Fan Shuhai, a researcher with Hebei provincial institute of archaeology.

The pieces were part of the original version of the game, popular in China at least 2,500 years ago. They were made of animal bones and were piled one on top of another, Xinhua reported.

Earlier, several chess boards have been discovered in China, but chess pieces are very rarely found, said Fan.