CHESMAYNE
Thai Chess
Links: Thai
chess Thai chess (Makruk) Thai chess game
Thai chess program Thai chess set
Thai chess v1.0 Thai BG
01 Played in
02 GMs are called ‘sian’ [‘god’].
03 Suchart Chaivichit has been the Thai National Champion for the past
decade. Veeraphol Sunthornpongsathorn is
also a very strong player of this game.
04 8 x 8 board. The mps are placed on rank-3 (:A) and rank-6 (:B) - ISP. Promotion also occurs on these ranks for :A
and :B. In
05 A Thai chess set has 32 MPs/mps - 8 MPs and 8 mps
pieces per player.
Tribal children, Chiang Mai,
Thailand
Monogram, name and Thai name translation
1 AD = Adviser, AD1, Met, Fruitstone.
2 RO = Rook, RO1 and RO2, Rua, Boat.
2 ET = Elephant, ET1 and ET2, Thon, Nobleman.
2 KT = Knight, KT1 and KT2, Ma, Horse.
8 PT = Pawn Thai, PT1 to PT8, Bia , Cowrie.
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RO2 |
KT2 |
ET2 |
AD1 |
KI |
ET1 |
KT1 |
RO1 |
8 |
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7 |
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PT8 |
PT7 |
PT6 |
PT5 |
PT4 |
PT3 |
PT2 |
PT1 |
6 |
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5 |
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4 |
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PT1 |
PT2 |
PT3 |
PT4 |
PT5 |
PT6 |
PT7 |
PT8 |
3 |
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2 |
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RO1 |
KT1 |
ET1 |
AD1 |
KI |
ET2 |
KT2 |
RO2 |
1 |
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A |
B |
C |
D |
E |
F |
G |
H |
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There are a total of 16 MPs/mps per side in
Thai chess.
Left: Thailand Buddhist
Temple. Right: Thai Dragons, Buddhist
Temple.
Pawn Thai
Monogram, Pawn Thai (PT) PT1, PT2, PT3 etc.
First Move Option, (FMO), 1 cell directly forward.
All Other Moves, (AOM), 1 cell directly forward.
Capture (*), 1 cell diagonally forward.
Promotable (#), Yes, only to AD.
Special Move - SM, No.
Above: exotic sunset, Wat Arun and Chao Phyra River -
Thailand
06 :A-PTs promote to ADs (A-AD2, A-AD3 etc) on rank-6 for :A.
:B-PTs promote to ADs (B-AD2, B-AD3 etc) on rank-3 for :B.
07 Special Moves (:sm) are not allowed in modern
Thai chess.
08A Special Moves (:sm), also known as ‘privilege moves’ for some of the MPs were permitted in the past.
In
08B Allowing the KI to move like
KT1 on his first move (FMO).
08C Allowing AD1 to move two
cells on the first move (FMO).
09 Castling (%) is not permitted (%K, %AD).
10 Laborious endgames are avoided by the
following rules:
10A When a player has no ROs, ETs or KTs, h/er opponent must checkmate in a prescribed number of moves. The
prescribed number of moves is dependent on the number of MPs that the other
player has on the board.
Above: my name is Nawapol Paibool, I was
the winner of the Thai Chess Tournament at school this year. I have been playing for two years. My father taught me how to play and I play
with him often. I like to play chess
very much because it is good exercise for my brain. In
10B If your opponent has RO1 and RO2
then checkmate must occur in 8 moves.
10C If your opponent has one RO
then checkmate must occur in 16 moves.
10D If your opponent has ET1 and
ET2 then checkmate must occur in 22 moves.
10E If your opponent has one ET
then checkmate must occur in 44 moves.
10F If your opponent has KT1 and
KT2 then checkmate must occur in 33 moves.
This year we had just over 40 students interested in the
‘World Chess Tournament’. It is not so
easy for us to find boards for this version of chess as most people only play
Thai chess. So, all of the early rounds
were played on the computer over a period of five days.
10G If the opponent has one KT
then checkmate must occur in 66 moves.
10H The above checkmate rules
take no account of ADs.
11 Stalemate (++ST) is considered a draw.
12 The KI, ROs (RO1 and RO2),
KTs (KT1 and KT2) are the exact same as used in traditional chess. There is a lack of vector MPs [QU and BSs -
long-range].
13 AD1 (Adviser) moves one cell diagonally forward
or back.
14 2 Elephants. ET1 and ET2 move one cell diagonally or, can move one cell
forward (changing from the XL to the XD cells in the process). Note: to account for the slight difference
in the moving ability of ET1, ET2 (used in Burmese chess) and EL1, EL2 (used
in Shatranj) a different monogram is used. Both types of MP are Elephants.
15 Each side has 8 mps. Pawn-Thai: PT1, PT2, PT3, PT4, PT5, PT6, PT7
and PT8.
On
We selected 18 of our best students from both the
Primary and Secondary school. The
competition started at four in the afternoon with Mr. Tim walking around the
room playing one piece at a time. Once
Mr. Tim had made his move, the students were given about 1-2 minutes thinking
time as it took Mr. Tim a little while to walk around the room making one move
on each of the 18 boards.
On his return, the students had to make their move
straight away. They weren’t allowed to
move while he was elsewhere. The
students really enjoyed the two hour exhibition even though none of them were
winners. This has now become an annual
event. We look forward to meeting Mr.
Tim again in 2001. Please click here
for pictures from the 1999 Exhibition.
16 A PT does not have the option of moving two cells on
the initial first move (FMO).
17 A PT captures just like a PA. The ‘en passant’ move is not available.
18 A PT is promoted on reaching the promotion cells in the
opponent’s half of the board.
19 The ISP of the PTs is shown in the
diagram below. All games of Thai chess
commence by placing the mps in this manner.
20 The MPs are placed on rank-1
(for :A) and on rank-8 for :B.
Mr. Tim Rogalski from the
We selected 17 of our best students from both the Primary
and Secondary school. The competition
started at four in the afternoon with Tim walking around the room playing one
piece at a time…….
Once Tim had made his move, the students were given about
1-2 minutes thinking time as it took Tim a little while to walk around the room
making one move on each of the 17 boards.
On his return, the students had to make their move straight away. They weren’t allowed to move while he was
elsewhere. The students really enjoyed
the two hour exhibition even though none of them were winners. We are hoping to make this an annual
event.
21 The objective of the game is
to checkmate the opposing KI.
22 The opening set of moves (:&O) are
leisurely due to not having any vector MPs (QUs and BSs). :A and :B avoid clashes until the development stage is completed.
23 KT2 is usually moved in front of the KI.
24 KT1 is placed beside KT2 on $F03 for :A and on $C06 for
:B.
25 A-AD1 is placed on $E03 for :A and on $D06 for :B (via
$FO2 for :A and via $C07 for :B). Thus,
the ADs face the enemy KIs (on the same file).
26 The ETs are placed beside the
KTs.
27 :A and :B then advance on the KI-side of the board with the
objective of forcing an open file.
How to place the MPs and PTs on
the Thai Chess board (ISP):
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RO2 |
KT2 |
ET2 |
AD1 |
KI |
ET1 |
KT1 |
RO1 |
8 |
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