Shatra
Alternate Names
No. of Players
Two
Equipment
A Shatra board is required for play. The board is comprised of 62 square cells including a 7x6 central area divided by a ditch, two fortresses (3x3 squares at either end of the board) and two gates (single squares linking the fortresses with the central area. With one player controlling the black pieces and one player controlling the white each player will require one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, and eleven shatras. Additionally, each player has a temdek (cross) which is initially placed at the gate and serves as a marker.
At the beginning of the game each side has a king (biy), a queen (batïr), two rooks (tura), two bishops (jalkïn) and 11 pawns (šatra).** On diagrams a pawn is usually displayed as a white or black circle and a king, queen, rook or bishop as a similar circle marked respectively by a smaller circle, a triangle, a square or a straight line of the opposite colour, and this is also what the pieces look like in tournament sets. In souvenir sets chess pieces are substituted, and that is what I shall do on my diagrams also.
History
Shatra is known from the Altai region of Russia and seems to be a fusion of chess and checkers.
Objective
Play
Strategy
Variations
Sources
Pritchard, D.B. The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants. Completed, edited, and published by John Beasley, 2007. ISBN 978-0-9555168-0-1