Shatranj Kamil

This is an about 1000 years old variant of the game of Shatranj. According to Gollon, who describes this game based on a description of Murray, it was inspired by another similar variant.

The name means Perfect Chess, or Complete Chess.

Rules

The game is played on a 10 by 10 board. In addition to the pieces used in Shatranj, there are two war machines (dabbabah) and two extra pawns per player.

Interactive diagram: pieces movable, right-click resets! Click here to open/close a piece overview. Play it! The AI will now respond to your moves! (  +  2.5 ply  -  ) Info for selected board piece mc Move or capture mc Move or capture (unblockable jump) m Move only im Move only (unmoved piece only) c Capture only m,c Forbidden move, but delivers check  Click on piece to toggle its moved status Click on piece name to see its move diagram. (print version) ID white nr black nr name move P - - pawn fmWfcF N - - knight N E - - elephant A D - - dababbah D R - - rook R G - - general F K - - king K

Click below to display piece moves White: Pawn: a2-j2; Knight: b1,i1; Elephant: c1,h1; Dababbah: d1,g1; Rook: a1,j1; General: f1; King: e1 Black: Pawn: a9-j9; Knight: b10,i10; Elephant: c10,h10; Dababbah: d10,g10; Rook: a10,j10; General: f10; King: e10

Most pieces move like in Shatranj: kings, rooks, and knights as in orthodox chess (but no castling); Generals one square diagonally; Elephants two squares diagonally with the possibility to jump over the first square diagonally; pawns like usual pawns but without the possibility of a double first step. Pawns promote to generals when reaching the tenth row, but only when the player has no general on the board at the moment of promotion - otherwise the pawn reaching the last row is just removed from the board.

War machines (or dabbabahs) move like kings (one square in an arbitrary direction) but are not affected by check.

A player wins the game when he mates the opponent, when he stalemates the opponent. (There is no win by `bare king' in this variant.)