Simplified Makpong
Makpong is a variant of Makruk where the King may not move out of check. The King may capture an attacking piece if in range, but cannot capture out of double check. Makpong is designed to reduce draws. Over the board it is used as tie breaker in Makruk single elimination tournaments. This variant of Makpong simplifies away the unituitive counting rules of Makruk for a 50 move rule and 3-fold repetition.Setup
The opening setup is very similar to that of orthodox chess, with the following differences: the positions of white king and queen are reversed, and all pawns are on the third and sixth row. So, the setup is as follows:Pieces
Moves The king, rook, and knight move as in orthodox chess, except that castling does not exist in this game. The queen moves one square diagonally. (A ferz) The bishop moves one square straight forward or one square diagonally. (Silver General in Shogi) The pawn moves as a normal pawn, but may not make a double step on its first move. When it reaches the sixth row, it promotes to a queen. (Ferz)Rules
Object of the game is to mate the opponents king. Stalemate is a draw. The King may not move out of check. The King may capture an attacking piece if in range, but cannot capture out of double check. 50 move rule and 3-fold draws are in effect. There's no castling, no pawn double step, no en passant.Notes
Unlike many other variants that try to reduce drawrate and opening bias by massively increasing the complexity, this variant achieves the goal by making the game less inherently drawish and actually reducing complexity. Testing with Fairy-Stockfish (both old handcrafted eval, and current nnue) shows very low draw rate and no opening bias. This game has both strategical and tactical complexity. Creating strong structures is a must to keep the king safe but the game can be over in a moments notice if someone misses tactics. Opening variety is high. The knight is a scary piece. Sources: https://github.com/cutechess/cutechess/pull/626 https://www.chessvariants.com/oriental.dir/thai.html
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 Henk Drost.
Last revised by Henk Drost.
Web page created: 2021-04-11. Web page last updated: 2021-10-24