spoiler:

Obviously the game is chess. A few writer's notes.
1. Since chess originated in India, I threw "white" and "black" into Google translate to come up with the names "Safeda" (pronounced Sa-FEE-da) and "Kala" (pronounced KAH-la), which are the respective words in Hindi.
2. The infantry are the pawns, the mounted cavalry are the knights, and the chariots are the rooks, which is actually an ancient term for rooks that is still used in Chinese chess. The battle mages are bishops ("light" and "dark" squared), the wife of the ruler is the queen, and the ruler himself is the king.
3. The battle itself is based upon a random game from my chess openings book. I wanted black to play the Queen's Indian Defense, as it's a deceptively passive defense that can have a sharp counterattack. The specific game is Plaskett-Polugayevsky, Lucerne, 1985 in case you ever feel like looking it up. [1]
4. The ending was totally fabricated just to make it sound more interesting than a middle of the battle resignation :P

spoiler:

nuh-uh, the google translater can't be better than a native.

Its not written as Safeda, its Safed and its pronounced as suh-Faed( Faed rhyming with Fade).

Black's right. Its Kala pronounced as Kaa-Laa.