Thai Chess, or
Makruk is a
chessgame on an 8 * 8 board immensely popular in
Thailand, and
pretty much nowhere else. It is largely appealing to the
Westerner as it can be played with a mere
FIDE Chess set and requires no special equipment.
Before You Start: I will be using my own
Logical Notation in this document, so you'll probably want to
understand it.
Note also that these are not the Thai names for pieces.
The Setup:w.Pawn 6.1; 6.2; 6.3... 6.8
b.Pawn: 3.1; 3.2; 3.3... 3.8
w.Rook: 8.1; 8.8
b.Rook: 1.1; 1.8
w.Knight: 8.2; 8.7
b.Knight: 1.2; 1.7
w.Khon: 8.3; 8.6
b.Khon: 1.3; 1.6
w.General: 8.4
b.General: 1.4
w.King: 8.5
b.King: 1.5
For the
more visual among you, a picture of the board.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1 b.R b.N b.H b.G b.K b.H b.N b.R
2
3 b.P b.P b.P b.P b.P b.P b.P b.P
4
5
6 w.P w.P w.P w.P w.P w.P w.P w.P
7
8 w.R w.N w.H w.G w.K w.H w.N w.R
Movement:
- The Pawn moves a single space forward and captures diagonally. There is no initial two-step jump and thus no en passant capture.
- The Rook moves as the FIDE Chess Rook; an infinite number of spaces orthogonally until interrupted.
- The Knight moves as an orthodox Knight; one space vertically and two horizontally; or vice-versa.
- The Khon moves either a single space forward and a single space in any diagonal direction.
- The General, as that of Shatranj, moves a single space in any diagonal direction.
- The King; as an orthodox King, may move a single space in any direction that does not put him in danger of being captured.
The Objective: The objective is to
mate the opponent's King. Stalemate is a draw. Additionally, when either player has lost his Rooks, Khon, and Knights, his adversary has a limited amount of moves in which to mate him, depending on the pieces he still has, lest the game is
drawn. They are as follows.
Major Pieces Moves
No Rook or Khon
and less than 2 64
Knights
Two Knights 32
One Khon 44
Two Khon 22
One Rook 16
Two Rooks 8
Pawn Promotion: When w.Pawn moves
4.* ! 3.* or b.Pawn moves
5.* ! 6.*, it is
promoted to a General.
In Thai Chess there is considerably less power on the board, which can make it
disarming (though
interesting nonetheless) to those accustomed to sweeping moves like those of the
Queen. Above all,
enjoy the game.