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This page is written by the game's inventor, Jean-Louis Cazaux. This game is a favorite of its inventor.

Maasai Chess

The Maasai are a people living in East Africa, Kenya and Tanzania, near the Great Lakes region. They are famous for their distinctive customs and colorful dress. This large chess variant is dedicated to this great people.

The board is the dozenal 12x12 square battlefield, like for Metamachy and Zanzibar games. The pieces from Metamachy and Zanzibar-S are used here again, with a small and necessary difference for what concerns the Pawns and the Princes, which is explained below. The Sorceress and the Duchess are borrowed from the giant board of Terachess-II.

The setup occupies four full ranks for each player, which gives 48 pieces in each side. There are 20 different types of pieces, including Pawns and Sergeant "Maasai" as improved Pawns.  

Each player has: 1 King, 1 Queen, 1 Eagle, 1 Lion, 1 Rhinoceros, 1 Buffalo,  1 Sorceress, 1 Duchess, 2 Princes, 2 Bishops, 2 Knights, 2 Camels, 2 Rooks, 2 Cannons, 2 Elephants, 2 Giraffes, 2 Crocodiles, 2 Machines, 8 (Sergeants) Maasai and 12 Pawns.

Like for its parents games Metamachy and Zanzibar, there is a choice of different starting setups. Black chooses the setup and White makes the first move.

The goal is to checkmate the opposing King.

 

Setup

At the beginning Pawns, Maasai and all pieces which come as pairs (Elephants, Cannons, Rooks, Camels, Knights, Giraffes, Bishops, Crocodiles, Princes, Machines) are placed on the board as follows for each player:

Then, Black freely decides where to place his King on one central square of the second row, f11 or g11. The 3 "metamachian" pieces, Queen - Eagle - Lion should be placed on the remaining free squares on the second row, in whichever order. After this, Rhinoceros - Buffalo - Duchess - Sorceress are place in whichever order on the four free squares on the first row, e1 to h1.

Then, White put his pieces symmetrically in mirror (if Black King is on f11, White King goes on f2) and makes the first move.

This agreement balances the advantage of White starting to play with Black choosing the setup.

An other advantage is that it is not necessary to remember a full arrangement. Finally, it prevents the development of stereotyped openings. Only basic principles ruling the openings and development of the game can be studied and followed.

It can be demonstrated that it exists 144 different starting positions:

All positions where the Black King is placed on g11 are completely equivalent by symmetry and are, therefore, not accounted for.

Diagrams made with the fantastic Chess Board Painting Tools provided by Musketeer Chess

Pieces

King: moves 1 step in every (8) directions on a not attacked square. The King is in check if it is attacked by one or several enemy pieces. It is forbidden to play a move letting his King in check.

There is no castling in Maasai Chess. At his first move, the King may jump to a free square at two squares' distance. For instance, from f2, it can jump to d1, d2, d3, d4, e4, f4, g4, h4, h3, h2 or h1). It does not matter if the square jumped over is occupied or not; however, the jump is forbidden if that intermediate square is threatened by an enemy piece. When jumping like a Knight, at least one of the two intermediate squares must be free of threat (e.g., if jumping from f2 to h3, either g2 or g3 must not be under attack). The King's jump is not permitted if the King is in check. This rule, which was once prevalent in medieval European chess, replaces castling. Identical to Metamachy.

Queen: slides to any square along the file, the rank or a diagonal on which it stands. Identical to standard chess.

Rook: moves to any square along the file or the rank on which it stands. Identical to standard chess (except there is no castling)

Bishop: slides to any square along a diagonal on which it stands. Identical to standard chess

Knight: a (2,1) jumper, it jumps to the opposite square of a 2x3 rectangle. No matter what the intermediate square contains. Identical to standard chess

Pawn: it can move straight forward one, or two square from its starting position on the board, without capturing. It captures one square diagonally forward.  Identical to standard chess

(Sergeant) Maasai: a "complete" Pawn, he can move or capture one square straight or diagonally forward.  Like the Pawn, he can also move two square straight ahead without capturing from its starting position. Simply called Maasai in this game.

Eagle: moves one square diagonally and then, slides away of an indefinite number of squares vertically or horizontally. It is authorized to go only one square diagonal. It can not jump and the unobstructed path must start with the diagonal movement. This piece is almost as powerful as the Queen and is inspired by the Giraffe from Tamerlane's Chess and the Aanca (a mythical giant bird preying elephants, mistaken for a gryphon) from Alfonso X's Grande Acedrex. Identical to Metamachy.

Move of the Eagle

Rhinoceros: moves one square vertically or horizontally and then, slides away of an indefinite number of squares diagonally. It is authorized to go only one square in line or column. It can not jump and the unobstructed path must start with the orthogonal movement. This piece is inspired by the Unicorn of medieval Grande Acedrex. It is a counterpart of the Eagle. It is now called Manticore on the chessvariants pages.

Moves of the Rhinoceros

Lion: moves as a King (a single step move in any direction as Wazir or Ferz), or may jump to a position two squares away, jumping in any orthogonal (Dabbaba) or diagonal (Alfil) directions, or jumping as a Knight. (Inspired by Chu Shogi, the most popular variant of the Japanese Chess, where the Lion has the same range but is more dreadful as it can move twice in a turn). Identical to Metamachy.

Moves of the Lion

Camel: a (3,1) jumper, it jumps to the opposite square of a 2x4 rectangle, like an extended Knight. No matter what intermediate squares contain. Note that it always stays on the same color of square. A well known piece from medieval Muslim great Chess like Tamerlane's Chess. 

Moves of the Camel

Giraffe: a (3,2) jumper, it jumps to the opposite square of a 3x4 rectangle, like an extended Knight. No matter what intermediate squares contain. Note that it always changes the same color of its square. That piece is found in Alfonso X's Grant Acedrex (but its move has been rendered differently by 20th century historians). The same pattern, but with a non-jumping move, is found in Janggi, Korean Chess, for the Elephant. Under the name of Zebra, it is also a fairy piece used by problemists for compositions.

Moves of the Giraffe

Buffalo: combines the leaps of the Knight (2,1), the Camel (3,1) and the Giraffe (3,2).  

Moves of the Buffalo

Cannon: exactly as in Xiangqi. The Cannon moves without taking like a Rook, but it takes by going in a straight horizontal and vertical line and jumping over exactly one piece. When a Cannon takes a piece, there must be exactly one piece between the original and final square of the Cannon's move - this piece may be of either color. This is identical to the move of the Cannon in Shako and Metamachy.

Moves of the Cannon

Crocodile: it is the diagonal counterpart of the Xiangqi's Cannon. It moves like a Bishop (which was named Crocodile in Grant Acedrex) and needs an intermediate piece between itself and its victim to capture it. The Crocodile jumps the intermediate and takes the victim on its square. The intermediate is left unaffected. (Also known as Vao by problemists).

Moves of the Crocodile

Machine: it is an orthogonal counterpart of the Elephant as it moves 1 or 2 squares orthogonally, jumping over the first square if it is occupied. Then, it combines the moves of old Dabbaba and Wazir found in ancient Muslim Chess variants. The word Dabbaba designated a siege machine at war in Arabic, hence the name given for this piece.

Moves of the (War) Machine

Elephant: exactly as in Shako and Metamachy. It moves one or two squares diagonally. When an Elephant moves two squares, no matter what intermediate squares contain. Note that it always stays on the same color of square. The Elephant moves as the combined Alfil and Ferz from Shatranj, two pieces which were also present in mediaeval Chess and have disappeared with the birth of modern moves for the Bishop and the Queen.

Moves of the Elephant

Prince: a non-royal King who moves and captures one square in any direction, but without being hindered by check. It has been inspired by medieval games like the Courier chess , an old chess variant, played in Germany, where it is called "Man". Like the Pawn, he can also move two square straight ahead without capturing from its starting position. 

Moves of the Prince

Sorceress: it moves like a Queen and needs an intermediate piece between itself and its victim to capture it. The Sorceress jumps the intermediate and takes the victim on its square. The intermediate is left unaffected. Like the Queen is Bishop + Rook, the Sorceress is Cannon + Crocodile.

Moves of the Sorceress

Duchess: it moves as a limited Queen, one, two or three squares in any straight directions. When moving two or three squares, it may jump and it does not matter what any intermediate squares contain.

Moves of the Duchess

Rules

Pawn, Maasai and Prince Promotion: A Pawn, a Maasai or a Prince reaching the last rank of the board is immediately replaced by a "chief" piece: Queen, Eagle, Lion, Sorceress, Duchess, Rhinoceros or Buffalo. Promotion to any other type of piece is not allowed. It is permitted to promote a Pawn, a Maasai or Prince to a type of piece already present on the same side; however; it is considered "good etiquette" to avoid choosing a piece which is not captured yet, if possible.

Note that a Pawn must take at least seven moves to reach promotion (rows 4 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12), which is the more than the number of moves required for a pawn in standard chess (rows 2 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8). A Maasai or a Prince needs a minimum of one more step, then eight, to get promoted.

En Passant capture: Any time a Pawn, a Maasai  or Prince takes a double step and passes through the capture square of an opposing Pawn or Maasai, that Pawn or Maasai may capture the opposing piece as if it had only moved one square. This en passant capture must be made in the immediate move following the double step. Only a Pawn or Maasai may capture en passant; the Prince does not have this option.

End Of Game: The end-of-game rules, checkmate, stalemate, etc., are identical to standard chess.

Notes

Pieces Value Zillions gives these average values on the line-up, normalized to 5 for the Rook :

Pawn: 0.9 ; Maasai: 1.7 ; Giraffe:2 ; Camel: 2.2 ; Elephant: 2.5 ; Knight: 2.5 ; Machine: 2.9 ; Crocodile: 3.3 ; Bishop: 3.4 ; Prince: 3.6 ; Cannon: 4.9 ; Rook: 5 ; Rhinoceros: 5.9 ; Buffalo: 6.8 ; Duchess: 7.4 ; Lion: 7.8 ; Eagle: 7.7 ; Sorceress: 8 ; Queen: 8.2

A maybe more realistic estimate would be: Pawn: 1 ; Maasai: 1.5; Giraffe: 2 ; Camel: 2 ; Elephant: 2.5 ; Knight: 2.5 ; Machine: 3 ; Prince: 3; Crocodile: 3 ; Bishop: 3.5 ; Cannon: 4 ; Rook: 5 ; Rhinoceros: 6 ; Sorceress: 6.5; Buffalo: 7 ; Duchess: 7.5 ; Lion: 7.5 ; Eagle: 8 ; Queen: 8.5

These values are just given for a very rough estimate. A lot of players would disagree and give less or more points to several piece. Never mind, make your own scale and be the Lord of the Maasai.


This 'user submitted' page is a collaboration between the posting user and the Chess Variant Pages. Registered contributors to the Chess Variant Pages have the ability to post their own works, subject to review and editing by the Chess Variant Pages Editorial Staff.

By Jean-Louis Cazaux.

Last revised by Jean-Louis Cazaux.


Web page created: 2021-05-06. Web page last updated: 2022-11-30

Revisions of MSmaasai-chess