Burmese Chess

created 2006 March
by Mats Winther

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Introduction

Burmese Chess (Sittuyin) is still played in parts of Burma. It is a descendant of Indian Chaturanga and is believed to be quite old. The pieces are red and black and are usually carved. The red pawns are carved as demonic men, the black as monkeys, in reference to the battle of the demons versus the god Răma and Hanuman's monkeys.

The objective is checkmate. The king, rook (chariot), and knight (horse), move as in orthodox chess. The pawns also move as in orthodox chess, but have no initial double move. The General (equivalent: queen) moves one step diagonally in all directions. The Elephant (equivalent: bishop) moves one step diagonally in all directions, or one step forwards. Pawns promote to General only, and only if the General is missing from the board. Pawn promotion occurs only on the marked squares on the enemy side of the board. Promotion occurs not immediately, but when the pawn leaves the square. Note! When leaving the square, a pawn is not allowed to promote if that implies capturing an enemy King or General. A pawn can also promote on the spot, that is, promote without moving (just lift and drop the pawn). It is possible for a pawn to move past the squares where he can promote: in that case, promotion is no longer possible for that pawn.

In the first phase the pieces are dropped on the board, either behind the pawn chain, or on a friendly pawn. In the latter case the removed friendly pawn must immediately be relocated to another empty position. This implementation honours the rule that the rooks must be dropped on the first rank, which is reserved for the rooks only. After all the pieces have been dropped the play begins. Stalemate is not allowed in Burmese Chess. Should you put the opponent in a stalemate position, you must take the move back.

Don't underestimate the curiously moving Elephant, although it is slow. It is very suitable for giving mate. Together with a king, or some other piece, it can often give mate in the endgame. Knights and bishops can seldom achieve this. The Elephant has about the same value as a knight. Passed pawns are much less dangerous in Burmese Chess than in orthodox chess. Play aggressively with the General, because when it is exchanged, you can promote a pawn a get a new one.

The additional drop variants differ only regarding the promotion rules. Pawns can promote upon entering a marked square. The 8 standard positions given as variants derive from the Burmese Chess Guide 'Myan-ma sit bayin lan-nyunt sa-ok gyi', as cited in D.B. Pritchard's The Encyclopedia of Chess Variants.

Note! According to the standard rules of the Burmese Chess Federation, pieces are always dropped behind the pawn chain and Red drops all his pieces first. This variant has also been implemented.

Discussion

Both the rules and the board markings vary somewhat. The board pattern in the main variant is the most common, but the board pattern according to the Burmese Chess Federation has also been implemented (X pattern). There is a rule, referenced by Murray, which allows relocation of pieces also after the dropping phase, until a pawn is moved. But this will surely create an erratic game as relocation of the king, or a rook, would alter the strategical conditions dramatically. This rule is omitted (as it also is in some renditions). I find the rule of "on the spot" promotion quite logical. However, the rule that disallows giving check with the promotion move, is incomprehensible. This rule is referenced in The Chess Variants pages, but is not mentioned in Murray. This rule is omitted. Instead I have prohibited promotion whilst capturing an enemy King, or an enemy General. Prohibition of King capture is natural, but why disallow the capture of an enemy General? The point seems to be that such a move would help to improve defensive possibilities, making the game too drawish. One can put the General en prise. When the general is removed the player is allowed to promote a pawn, and can then often capture the General back, as the attacking piece quite often is a General. The rule is also designed to give greater potency to the General.

Sources differ concerning the rule of promotion. Should pawns be forced to promote when reaching a marked square (if the General is missing) or should promotion occur only when leaving the square? Three variants have been implemented. As stated above, when leaving the square, a pawn is not allowed to promote if that implies capturing an enemy King or General. In the two additional variants promotion is allowed upon entering a marked square. In these cases, should the pawn's capture-destination be a marked square, then, naturally, capture of the General is allowed, and promotion may occur. Although, in some circumstances, the newly promoted General's capturing move is prohibited, we cannot prohibit the pawn's natural move. If that were the case, then a King, or General, could step onto a square which is formally threathened by a pawn, and pawn-capture would be prohibited. This would be illogical. For this reason, pawn promotion upon leaving a marked square, is never obligatory, in any variant.

Burmese Chess is attractive. It reminds me of very complex practical endgames in orthodox chess. The dropping phase ensures that the strategical variegation is practically endless. The implementation of Burmese Chess on the Zillions CD does not allow the user to drop pieces. With this new implementation editing the board and adding and removing Generals will affect the promotion rights (unlike in the Zillions CD implementation). If you want to use standard opening positions, you can store them as games, and then double-click on the game file to start a game from that position again.


References

Murray, HJR (1913). A History of Chess. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press.

See also: The Chess Variants pages

To play you must have installed "Zillions of Games". Either double-click on BurmeseChess.zrf or
1. Run "Zillions of Games"
2. Choose "Open Game Rules..." from the File menu
3. Select "BurmeseChess.zrf" in the Open dialog and click "Open"
BurmeseChess.zrf is a rules file used by the Windows program "Zillions of Games". Zillions of Games allows you to play any number of games against the computer or over the Internet. Zillions of Games can be purchased online. For more information please visit the Zillions of Games website www.zillions-of-games.com