Check out Atomic Chess, our featured variant for November, 2024.

This page is written by the game's inventor, François Houdebert. This game is a favorite of its inventor.

Timurid

Timurid is an evolution of Tamerlane II for a 12x12 chessboard.

It is a familly of variants that adds a central piece : Queen, Lion, Rhinoceros, Snake or Emir at your choice. It enables to have the Bishops, Elephants and Camels on differents colors. At start-up, you can choose your variant by selecting a central piece and 2 side pieces to complete the setup.

Select your variant in the prelude

The choice of Griffons and Rhinoceros will result in a more aggressive and undoubtedly faster game. Choosing Ships and Snakes will result in a game that favors the quest for promotion.

Setup

Timurid Variant : with a Queen

setup of Timurid variant

Wild Timurid Variant : Ships are replaced by Griffons

setup of wild Timurid variant

Mirza(Prince in persian) Variant : The Queen is replaced by a Snake

Set up of Mirza variant

Wild Mirza Variant : Ships are replaced by Griffons and the Snake by a Rhino

setup of wild Timurid variant

Babur Variant : The Queen is replaced by a Lion

Set up of Babur variant

Wild Babur Variant : The Queen is replaced by a Lion and Ships are replaced by Griffons

Set up of wild babur variant

Samarkand Variant : The Queen is replaced by an Emir

Set up of Samarkand variant

Wild Samarkand Variant : The Queen is replaced by an Emir and Ships are replaced by Griffons

Set up of wild Samarkand variant

Pieces

King, Queen, Rook, Bishop, Knight: Identical to FIDE chess, except that there is no castling at Timurid.

Prince: Prince : a non-royal King who moves and captures one square in any direction. It can also move without capturing to the second square straight ahead.

Move of the prince

Ship: moves one square diagonally and then, goes away of an indefinite number of cases vertically, never horizontally. It can move one square diagonally only. It can not jump and must begin its move with the diagonal step. The Ship is more limited than the Griffon (which can move horizontally, see below). Nevertheless its move power is between the Rook and the Bishop.

Move of the Ship

Griffon : it moves one square diagonally and then slides away an indefinite number of squares vertically or horizontally.

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.

move of a Cannon

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.

Move of the Camel

Elephant: it moves one or two squares diagonally. When an Elephant moves two squares, no matter what intermediate squares contain.

Move of the Elephant

Rapid Pawn: it can move straight forward one, or two square from anywhere on the board without capturing. It captures one square diagonally forward.

Move of the rapid pawn

Lion : it moves as a King or may jump to a position two squares away.

Move of the Lion

Snake : it moves one square vertically and then, slides away of an indefinite number of squares diagonally.

Move of the Snake

Rhinoceros : It moves one square vertically or horizontally and then, slides away of an indefinite number of squares diagonally.

Emir : it combines the moves of the Camel, the Knight and the Ferz.

Move of the Emir

Rules

The King's succession: A checkmated King can swap location to the position of an unthreatened prince.

Castling: There is no castling in Timurid chess.

En passant capture: Any time a Pawn or Prince takes a double step and passes through a square controlled by an opposing Pawn, that Pawn may capture the Pawn or Prince as if it has only moved one square. This en passant capture must be made on the move immediately following the double step. Only a Pawn may capture en passant; the Prince does not have this option.

Pawn promotion: When a Pawn reaches the last row on the opposite side of the board, it is promoted to a Queen of the same color and nothing else. This promotion cannot be refused.

Prince promotion: A Prince may also be promoted when reaching the last row on the opposite side of the board. The Prince is promoted to a Queen of the same color. This promotion is optional. If the promotion is refused, it may be accepted later, if the Prince moves on the last row again.

Ship promotion: When a Ship reaches one the last row on the opposite side, it is promoted to an Griffon of the same color. This promotion cannot be refused.

Snake promotion: When a Snake reaches one the last row on the opposite side, it is promoted to a Rhinoceros of the same color. This promotion cannot be refused.

Notes

You can buy chess piece from Musketeer chess or print your own chess set from thingiverse in you have a 3D printer.

Starting position for wild timurid with some musketeerchess piecesWild timurid with musketeerchess pieces

Starting position for wild babur with printed pieces
Wild babur with 3d printed pieces

You can play online with Jocly to the timurid chess variants family


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 François Houdebert.

Last revised by François Houdebert.


Web page created: 2023-10-24. Web page last updated: 2024-01-22

Revisions of MStimurid