If you read onward, to according to chess historians Gerhard Josten and Isaak Linder, "the early beginnings" of chess can be traced [still further] back to the Kushan Empire in Ancient Afghanistan, circa 50 BCE–200 CE. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kushan_Empire

The Kushan were a possibly Iranian or Tocharian, Indo-European nomadic people who had migrated from the Tarim Basin and settled in ancient Bactria. These are the same people as the famous tartan-wearing Tarim Mummies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarim_mummies (text) and https://encrypted.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=tarim%20mummi... (images)

Note the grid layout of the tartan. I wonder if there are any art history papers on hypothesized sacred geometries of early, pre-Islamic Central Asia? (We know that, for example, by 2600 BC, Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, major cities of the Indus Valley Civilization (present-day Pakistan), were built with blocks divided by a grid of straight streets.)

(Edit in response to below: Read onward, ie. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_chess#Origin ... nobody is disputing chaturanga, the above refers to the pre-chaturanga origins of chess-like games.)