Makruk

Opening Position

Alternate Names

หมากรุก, Thai Chess, Siamese Chess, Mak Ruk

No. of Players

Two

Equipment

Makruk is played on the cells of an uncheckered 8x8 square grid. Boards are often brown with lighter brown to yellow marked lines. Each side has sixteen pieces of six varieties described below.

Pieces

Piece

Number per Player

1

1

2

2

2

8

-

Thai Name

ขุน

เม็ด

โคน

ม้า

เรือ

เบี้ย

Khun

Met

Khon

Ma

Ruea

Bia

Translation

Feudal Lord or Title-Holder

Seed or Fruit-stone

Nobleman or Mask

Horse

Boat

Cowry Shell

Orthochess Equivalent or Similar

King

Queen

Bishop

Knight

Rook

Pawn

Promoted Pawn

History

Makruk is still widely popular, far more so than Orthochess in Thailand.

Objective

Stalemate is a draw.

Play

The board is setup as shown above. First move?

The movements of the six different kinds of pieces are illustrated below. The blue dots mark the cells where the piece can move if no other pieces (including one's own) are obstructing its route. The Ma (horse), however, can jump over intervening pieces. All pieces capture by replacement.

The Khun moves exactly as the King in Orthochess. That is, one step in any diagonal or orthogonal direction at a time. Castling is not allowed in Makruk.

The Met is a very weak piece compared to its counterpart, the Queen, in Orthochess. It moves one step in any diagonal direction.

The Khon moves one step in any diagonal direction and may also move one step orthogonally forward. This is the same move as the Silver General in Shyogi.

The Ma moves hippogonally, exactly as the knight in Orthochess. It too, may jump over an intervening piece, friendly or opposing.

The Ruea (boat) moves exactly as the Rook in Orthochess, as many steps as desired orthogonally.

The Bia moves and captures as its counterpart in Orthochess. Moving one step orthogonally forward at a time and capturing diagonally forward. The Bia on the right in the diagram above may move forward or move diagonally forward to capture Black's Ma. The Bia does not, however have the initial two-step move and thus there are no en passant captures. A Bia promotes to a Met (and Met only) in the sixth rank (the opponent's Bia row).

There is no castling or en passant captures in Makruk.

Strategy

Variations

Some older descriptions allow an initial jumping move to the Khun and the Met.................

Ok, Ouk Chatrang or Cambodian Chess

Ka Ok or Kar Ouk

Sources

  1. Parlett, David. The Oxford History of Board Games. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1999

  2. Pritchard, D.B. The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants. Completed, edited, and published by John Beasley, 2007. ISBN 978-0-9555168-0-1

  3. How to Play Makruk at ancientchess.com. http://ancientchess.com/page/play-makruk.htm.