Ouk Chatrang, the Cambodian Chess

and Makruk, the Thai Chess

Les checs cambodgiens et thalandais
Ok or Ouk Chatrang is Cambodian Chess, Chess played in Cambodia and Makruk is Thai
Siamese Chess, Chess played in Thailand (old name was Siam).

A traditional set (Scan from Gareth Williams, "Master Pieces", Apple Press, London, 2000

Both national varieties are in fact almost the same game. Makruk is now one of the bett
recognized Chess variety. It is a very lively game, played in Thailand.

Makruk is also widely played in Cambodia as attested by Tim Krabb. It is the true form
Cambodian Chess: the form given by Gollon and Pritchard (1st edition) in their books is,
most probably, an invention. See the dedicated page to this strange Cambodian Chess.

In a very important article, Ouk Chatrang, the true Cambodian Chess, is described in det
byVuthy Tan. However, his page is becoming old (June 13, 1998) and its disparition can b

feared. Therefore, it has been decided to offer here a mirror for this precious page: Mirro
page: Cambodian Chess Games by Vuthy Tan. (Disparition has finally happened!).
A page from the Khmer Institute offers a reliable information. See here. Nice
photographs are shown here.

Wooden set used in Cambodia (Photograph by Tim Krabb)

SHORT DESCRIPTION:
The name of the pieces and their meanings are the following:

Cambodian

Thai

King

Sdaach, Ang (King)

Khun (Lord)

Queen

Neang (Maiden)

Met (Seed*)

Bishop

Koul (Pillar)

Khon (Nobleman)

Knight

Ses (Horse)

Ma (Horse)

Rook

Tuuk (Boat)

Rua (Boat)

Pawn

Trey (Fish)

Bia (Cowrie shell)

* A seed is weird in this Chess context. The name could originate from the Sanskrit "Ma
(=counsellor, minister) which was used in India as well as in Malaysia and Java.

The Queen is always placed at right of the King in the setup. Contrarily to European Che
the King are not facing each other.

The King moves as in European Chess. In Cambodia, he is allowed to make a Knight jum
his first move. This special move is no more used in Thailand.
The Queen moves 1 step diagonally only, conserving the old Indo-Persian move. In
Cambodia only, she can jump at the 2nd case straight ahead (e1-e3) at her first move.
The Bishop can step 1 case in the 4 diagonal directions as well as straight forward. This

commented below.
The Knight and the Rook moves exactly as their European counterpart.

The Pawn moves 1 step ahead and captures 1 step diagonally ahead as in European Che
There is no initial double step allowed and no en-passant capture. The Pawns are small fl
tokens or cowries which are flipped upside down when promoted. The promotion is for
Queen only and is obtained when the Pawns reach the 6th row (the initial row of opposit
Pawns).

The game is won when the opposite King is mate. Pat and isolated King (if all pieces hav
been taken) are drawn games.
Plastic set sold in Thailand

(Red and white, photograph from James Master)

(Black and red, photograph by Hans Bodlaender)

HISTORY :

The very first account of Siamese Chess is due to La Loubre, the ambassador of French
King Louis XIV to the Kingdom of Siam in 1687-8. More will be given by the Captain Jame
Low to Asiatic Researches in 1836 and, finally, Edward Falkener will supply reliable
informations he had got from Prince Devawongsee, Minister of Foreign Affairs of H.M. the
King of Siam, in 1889.
Ouk Chatrang is most probably played in Cambodia for a long time, as it is depicted
in several reliefs found on the Angkor temples which date from the XIIth century.

Also, they were attested by Marco Polo : in 1285, he went to "Cyamba" which is Champa
Kingdom located in South Vietnam. His book says : "Il y a olifans assez en ce royaulme e
ont aussi lingaloes assez et si ont moult grant plant de grans bois et si ont fust noir que
l'en appelle ybenus et dont l'en fait les eschiez noirs." (There are elephants in this realm
and they also have a lot of aloe wood and they have black wood named ebony from whi
black chess are made). Chinese chess which is used today in Vietnam (Tuo-cong) did not
used ebony pieces, then it is very likely that Marco Polo saw a cousin of the Cambodian
Chess.
(Thanks to Thierry Depaulis for drawing my attention to this point)

Cambodian Chess Set, ivory, early 20th c.

Set in buffalo horn and shells, said to be made in Birmania (Photo from R.Pozzi)

Ivory Chess Knight believed to be a Viking

piece! Apparently, this is a Makruk Knight
(thanks to Christopher Cavey)

Another Thai Knight

(borrowed I can't remember where
on the web)

DISCUSSION

In the 1st millennium AD, the Indian culture spreads into south-east Asia. Under the
influence of Tamil spice traders coming from the South of India and Ceylon, especially un
the Chola dynasty, several indianised kingdoms were founded like Srivijaya in Sumatra a
Java, Champa in South Vietnam, Zhenla and other Khmer states in Cambodia, etc..
Magnificent temples in Borobudur (Java) or Angkor (Cambodia) are still there to rememb
Indians brought Hinduism, Buddhism, Sanskrit and writing alphabets, and also Chaturan
Chess.

The first kingdoms founded by the Khmer people, Funan, Zhenla, felt under Javan
domination circa 700. Jayavarman II, a prince educated in Java founded the Angkor Khm
kingdom in 802. Then, it can be assumed that Chess came in Cambodia from Java which
turn held it from South-East Indians.

On XIIth century, Khmer empire encompassed modern Thailand.

Thai people migrated from China in the Xth century, then founded several states. In 143
they seized Angkor and assimilated the Khmer kingdom. They probably learnt Chess from
Cambodians and this is the reason why Cambodian Chess and Thai Chess are so identica

In 1913, the great Chess historian Murray confessed in his History of Chess: "It is not
possible to discover any trace of Indian ancestry in the nomenclature of Siamese Chess"
However, today it is known that "Mak" is the word used for games in Thai and "Ruk" cou
come from Cambodian "ruk" or "ouk" meaning Check or Chess. Then "Makruk" would sim
be "The Chess game".(from a private discussion with Th. Depaulis).

This South-East Asian Chess is probably the closest to the original Chess which comes fr
India. It has several similarities with the Sittuyin played in Burma but the latter seems m
elaborated. In Malaysia and Indonesia, Chess (Main Chator) was latter influenced by
Europeans -Portuguese, Dutch and English- and therefore, has lost some original rules a
characteristics (for instance, they adopted the modern move of Queen and Bishop).
There are several points which merit a discussion :

The bulky shape of the piece is apparently an old tradition since it can be seen on Angko
temples. Only the Horse has a recognizable form. A similar design is found on the set
ofMalay Chess shown in Murray's History of Chess. That reinforce the link between
Cambodia and Malay/Java.

A Boat is used in place of the Rook. This is known to be common in India as well, especia
in the South and in the East (Bengal) and also in Java according to Murray. (It is also the
case in Russia but we think that the reason is different). Boats are attested for sure in In
Chess since circa 1500. Replacing the Chariot by a Boat in the warfare for people trading
and struggling onto the seas is something which can be easily understood. It reinforces
maritime arrival of Chess in this region.

The sense of Elephant (Bishop) is hidden both in the name and in the form of the piece.
battlefield, in troops parade, noblemen used to sit on the back of elephants. Also, one ca
say that elephants are the pillars of the fighting army.

More important is the move associated to this piece : it can step 1 case in the 4 diagona
directions as well as straight forward. This move was already attested by the Persian alBeruni in India, his account of his trip in that country circa 1030. He said that these 5

directions were to remind the four feet and the trunk of the animal ! The original Elephan
move which consisted in a diagonal leap on the 2nd square allowed to reach only 1/8 of
board. This genital weakness received several attentions in different regions in the world
the Korean gave their Elephant an elongated Knight move (see Changgi), the European
invented our modern Bishop sometimes at the end of the Middle Ages. This 5-limb stepp
probably born in Buddhist centers according to H.J.R. Murray, is a third response.

The Pawns are in an advanced position, on the 3rd line. This was probably adopted to
accelerate the original game which was slow. Again, it can be compared to other solution
made in other places like the Arab Ta'biyat in Shatranj or the initial phase (werera) in
theEthiopian Senterej.

The Pawns are either flat tokens or cowrie shell (having a slot on one face). They get the
promotion when reaching the 6th row (the 3rd from the opponent's edge). Then, they ar
turned upside down to show that promotion.

The last 4 points can also be found in Shogi, the Japanese Chess. Modern Shogi historia
now believe that Shogi has been influenced by Chess played in the South-East regions.
There were frequented commercial maritime routes connecting Japan to India through th
Malay Straits in these times.

Find the rules of Makruk, the Thai

Chess, on chessvariants.com
Retrouvez les rgles du Makruk, les
Echecs thailandais, dans le Guide
des Echecs exotiques et insolites

There is a book about Makruk / Ouk Chatrang: "Thai Chess and Cambodian Chess, Makru
and Ouk Chatrang", Gary Gifford, Lulu Publishing, 2011

LES CHECS CAMBODGIENS ET THALANDAIS

Retrouvez les rgles et l'histoire du Ouk et du Makruk dans

L'Odysse des jeux d'checs

References:
Marco Polo, "La description du Monde" Le Livre de poche, Lettres gothiques, dition,
traduction et prsentation par Pierre-Yves Badel, 1998.

Bernd Ellinghoven, Christine Gruber, "Kambodschach, Work in Progress zur Geschichte d

Schachspiels in Kambodscha" in Studiengemeinschaft Kambodschanische Kultur e.V.,
Schriftenreiche Heft Nr. 8, Berlin 2003.
(Thanks to Bernd Ellinghoven for sending precious information)

Makruk: Thai Chess

This is the variant of chess which is most played in Thailand, where it has a large
number of players (Pritchard mentions an estimate of two million Thais who at
least know the rules of the game, and there are other mentions of millions of
players of this game, all from Thailand.)
Rules
The game is played on an uncheckered board of 8 by 8 squares. The pieces have
large similarities to those of the (for us) orthodox chess game, and to make it from
the description easy to play with chess game with a normal set of pieces, I will
describe pieces with names of their `usual' chess equivalent.
Opening 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:
White:
King d1; Queen e1; Rook a1, h1; Knight b1, g1; Bishop c1, f1; Pawn a3, b3, c3,
d3, e3, f3, g3, h3.
Black:
King d8; Queen e8; Rook a8, h8; Knight b8,
g8; Bishop c8, f8; Pawn a6, b6, c6, d6, e6, f6,
g6, h6.
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.
The bishop moves one square straight forward or one square diagonally.
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 (Makruk) queen.

Other rules

Object of the game is to mate the opponents king. Stalemate is a draw. Also, when
a player has no rook, bishop, or knight anymore, the other player must mate him
within a certain number of moves, depending on how many `big' pieces the player
has, otherwise the game is declared a draw. The precise numbers are omitted here
(also, my sources on this seem to contradict - is there a native player of this game
who can provide full information on this topic?).
Additional information
The original names for the pieces are:

King: Khun - leader. The Khun was the lowest rank

of conferred nobility in the Siamese court system (as
opposed to inherited nobility).
Queen: Met - Pit or fruitstone. This is the kerner of a fruit,
like a cherry.
Bishop: Khon or Thon - Mask. The same word means a kind
of classical Thai royal drama, using such masks.
Knight: Ma - horse
Rook: Rua - boat
Pawn: Bia - cowry shell. Indeed cowry shells were formerly
used for pawns in Thai sets, as well as a unit of very small
money. You can take this as: pawns equal small change.
In some cases, for pawns cowry shells are used, who are turned over upon
promotion. Similarities of this game, both with Chaturanga or Shatranj,
and Shogi are remarkable. Last century, special first moves for king and queen
were allowed (the king could make a knight move his first move, and the queen
could move two squares diagonally on her first move.) This practice seems to be
no longer in use currently. For additional information, reader can e.g., consult The
Encyclopedia of Chess Variants which has two pages on this game, including
sample games and Thai notation.