Taratibu

Introduction

Taratibu was created for the 10th anniversary celebration of the Chess Variant Pages. It is a small game, reflecting a current design interest in games smaller than orthochess. It is also a quick game, a form of progressive chess.

The object in Taratibu is twofold:

• Kill the "king" (called a Man in Taratibu); and
• Destroy all opponent pieces of one of the animal Orders (aquatic, quadruped, or winged).

The contest theme ("10") is reflected in several ways.

• Each player has 10 pieces.
• The pieces have 10 different movement powers.
• The movement powers exhaust the 10 ways to pair up the five possible all-round moves of two squares or fewer (wazir and fers steps of one square, and alfil, dabbaba, and knight leaps of two squares).
• The game is limited to 10 turns (five per player).

The name Taratibu is Swahili for order, or method. It refers to the organization of the pieces.

Setup

Diagram is a low-resolution GIF of a Zillions of Games screenshot. Graphics and ZRF by Glenn Overby.
White	Pieces	Order 1	Order 2	Black
11	Sphinx	winged	quadruped	77
21	Elk	basic	quadruped	67
31	Bird	winged	basic	57
41	Angel	winged	human	47
51	Fish	aquatic	basic	37
61	Man	human	basic	27
71	Duck	winged	aquatic	17
52	Captain	human	aquatic	36
62	Turtle	aquatic	quadruped	26
72	Hero	human	quadruped	16
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ 7 | d | m | f | a | b | e | s | 7 +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ 6 | h | t | c | | | | | 6 +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ 5 | | | | | | | | 5 +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ 4 | | | | | | | | 4 +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ 3 | | | | | | | | 3 +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ 2 | | | | | C | T | H | 2 +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ 1 | S | E | B | A | F | M | D | 1 +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Rules

1. There are two players, White and Black. White moves first.
2. On the first turn, White makes one move. Black responds with two moves. White then makes three moves on the second turn, Black responds with four, and so on.
3. A piece may move more than once on a turn. But a piece which captures may not move again that turn.
4. Each piece has a distinctive pattern of allowed moves, given at Pieces below.
5. All pieces which have a two-square move may leap over intervening pieces when moving two squares.
6. Pieces may not move onto squares occupied by friendly pieces.
7. Pieces which move onto the square of an opposing piece capture that piece and remove it from the game.
8. A player wins by capturing the opponent's Man, which is the basic human piece, and capturing all of the opponent's pieces from one of the other three Orders (aquatic, quadruped, or winged).
• Each player has four pieces which belong to each of the five Orders: aquatic, basic, human, quadruped, and winged.
• Each piece belongs to two Orders.
9. The game is drawn if no player has won after 10 turns (five by each player, ending with Black making 10 moves).

Pieces

Angel		The Angel is a human, winged piece. Human pieces can move one square horizontally or vertically. Winged pieces can leap exactly two squares diagonally.
Bird		The Bird is the basic winged piece. Basic pieces can move one square diagonally. Winged pieces can leap exactly two squares diagonally.
Captain		The Captain is an aquatic, human piece. Aquatic pieces can leap exactly two squares horizontally or vertically. Human pieces can move one square horizontally or vertically.
Duck		The Duck is an aquatic, winged piece. Aquatic pieces can leap exactly two squares horizontally or vertically. Winged pieces can leap exactly two squares diagonally.
Elk		The Elk is the basic quadruped piece. Basic pieces can move one square diagonally. Quadruped pieces can leap exactly two squares like an orthodox chess knight.
Fish		The Fish is the basic aquatic piece. Basic pieces can move one square diagonally. Aquatic pieces can leap exactly two squares horizontally or vertically.
Hero		The Hero is a human, quadruped piece. Quadruped pieces can leap exactly two squares like an orthodox chess knight. Human pieces can move one square horizontally or vertically.
Man		The Man is the basic human piece. Basic pieces can move one square diagonally. Human pieces can move one square horizontally or vertically.
Sphinx		The Sphinx is a quadruped, winged piece. Quadruped pieces can leap exactly two squares like an orthodox chess knight. Winged pieces can leap exactly two squares diagonally.
Turtle		The Turtle is an aquatic, quadruped piece. Aquatic pieces can leap exactly two squares horizontally or vertically. Quadruped pieces can leap exactly two squares like an orthodox chess knight.

Comments

Background

The victory method of annihilating a type of piece comes from R. Wayne Schmittberger's distinguished Extinction Chess. In Taratibu, extinction has been combined with the traditional object of capturing the "king".

The style of progressive chess used was inspired by João Pedro Neto's Portuguese Progressive Chess. Neto's game restricts each piece to one move per turn. A one capture per piece per turn limit was found to be more practical with nothing but short-range pieces.

Writing down a game

Standard Taratibu notation records every move as a four-digit number. The first two digits are the square of origin, the last two the square of destination.

• The name of the moving piece is not needed.
• Captures are not noted. They operate automatically.

Playing Tips

• There are three possible sets of captures which win the game. These are: Man-Angel-Bird-Duck-Sphinx; Man-Captain-Duck-Fish-Turtle; Man-Elk-Hero-Sphinx-Turtle.
  1. Capturing the Man is by definition necessary for every win.
  2. The Turtle, the Duck, and the Sphinx each figure in two winning sets.
  3. It's often right to target these four pieces when faced with a choice.
• The Bird, Duck, and Fish are all colorbound to the white squares. Especially in the late game, this can influence your moves, with fewer pieces able to attack a piece left on a black square.
• Any piece moved by White on turn 1 can be captured by Black on move 2.
• On an open board, Zillions of Games values the Orders as follows: Quadruped (strongest), Human, Aquatic, Basic, Winged (weakest).
• Here is how Zillions ranks the ten pieces:
  1. Hero 6878
  2. Elk 6528
  3. Turtle 6504
  4. Sphinx 5891
  5. Man 5360
  6. Captain 5265
  7. Fish 4957
  8. Angel 4721
  9. Bird 4398
  10. Duck 4335

Computer Play

If you have Zillions of Games installed on your computer, you can play this game. Download file: taratibuzog.zip.

A Game Courier preset is under construction.

Sample Game

Turn	White	Black	Position	Comments
1	7264			White chooses to expose the Hero first. The Hero is, in isolation, the strongest piece, and seems a curious choice.
2		4765 6564		Black grabs the piece exposed by White, which is a fairly standard second turn.
3	3153 5364 5232			White plays here to keep a material balance with minimal exposure of pieces.
4		1735 7765 3533 3311		Exposing the Duck to quick capture will prove to be bad for Black. Several other pieces might have been used to target the Sphinx (the Captain, Fish, Hero, and Turtle can all get there). A double-edged alternative is to send the Elk after the White Man.
5	4163 6345 4527 5131 3111			The White Angel's three-move capture of the Man (4163-6345-4527) is one expression of a common theme. Two recurring strategic questions are how quickly to pounce on the Man, and what to expose in doing so. After this turn, note that although Black has lost only three pieces, they are all from a single winning set (Angel-Duck-Man). On White's next turn, there will be seven moves to hunt down just two pieces.
6		6543 6755 4321 5564 2647 4727		Black was a computer player, and realized the position was lost midway through the turn.
7	3231 3121 7153 5335 3557 (1:0)