The Indian Chess

The Origin

It is believed that the game of Chess originated in India about 500 A.D. and was popularly known as “Chaturanga". Literally, "Chaturanga" in Sanskrit, is a combination word of "Chatur” meaning four and "Anga" meaning parts or divisions representing "Ratha, Gaja, Turaga, and Padadi" meaning Chariots, Elephants, Horses and Foot troopers (Infantry) respectively, which constituted the four divisions of the Army of the Indian Kings. From India "Chaturanga" moved east to countries like China along with Buddhism before it travelled west to Persia (Iran) where it was called "Chatrang”.  From there, through Arabs, who called it “Shatrang” it entered Western Europe via Spain by 9^th or 10^th century. The various stages and details of its transformation to the modern Chess are not known. 

It is also believed that legendary Ravanasura taught “chaturanga” to his wife Mandodari before his war with Lord Rama to simulate the actual war scenes.

The Nomenclature and some of the rules of movement of Chess pieces such as Pawn and special Knight move of King and promotion rules of the Pawns when they reach 8^th or 1^st rank of Indian "Chaturanga” seem to have been retained in medieval Chess played in various countries especially of the East.

The modern Chess spread to India during the past 60 or 70 years. Until then, the elite in the villages and the towns played the traditional Indian Chess. The nomenclature and rules might have varied slightly from one part of India to the other because of the different languages spoken in different parts of the country. The details given below pertain to the Indian chess that was being played in the state of Andhra Pradesh in South India. 

Nomenclature:

The game of Chess is called the "Chadarangam" in Telugu, which is the spoken language of Andhra Pradesh. It is derived from the Sanskrit word "Chaturanga". The chessboard and pieces are the same as in the modern chess.

The nomenclature given below is in the Telugu language with its translation in the English language is second column and modern equivalent in the third column. 

 * Derived from Sanskrit word " Sakatam". In Rajasthan in North India, Bishop is called “Camel “and King is called “Shaw” and “mat” is used for mate. 

Rules of the Indian Chess game:

Chess Board

The Board is the same as in Modern Chess. In modern game the Chessboard is placed in a manner such that, the right hand corner is White. In Indian chess there is no such rule and the board can be placed in any manner by which right hand corner can be Black or White.

The colour and shape of Indian chess pieces

The chess pieces are generally made of light Red and light Green colours.

The shape of Indian chess pieces is in the annexure in Page 6 

Placement of Pieces

In modern Chess the White Queen has to be placed in white square and the Black Queen in Black square i.e., both the Queens face each other and also both the Kings. In Indian Chess the King is always placed on the right side of Queen either on d8 or e1 and Black King faces White Queen and Black Queen faces White King. The rest of the pieces are placed as in modern Chess. 

The Rules of Movement

Rules of movement of Queen, Rook, Knight and Bishop are identical with those of modern chess. But the movements of King and Pawns differ sometimes from modern chess. 

Movement Rules of King

The King has the privilege of having the movement of Knight once. This privilege will be lost even if it is checked even once though the King might not have moved or even when the

King is under check. However, if the King moves on its own, the King retains this privilege.

Rules of movement of Pawns:

The two-step initial movement of a pawn is totally absent in Indian Chess i.e., the Pawn always moves only one step in Indian Chess. Capturing a double – stepping Pawn “En Passant” is also totally absent.

Promotion of Pawns:

When a Pawn reaches 8^th or 1^st rank it can get promoted only into the corresponding piece e.g. Pawn reaching a8 or h8 or a1 or h1 can become only a Rook. Pawn reaching d8 or e8 or d1 or e1 can become a Queen. But the number of pieces on the board at any time cannot exceed the original number i.e. two Rooks, two Knights, two Bishops and one Queen. Also if the white Bishop is live, pawn cannot be promoted to get another white Bishop and similarly one cannot have two black Bishops. Pawn reaching 8^th or 1^st rank remains there immovable till a corresponding piece is captured and the pawn is converted into that piece. Pawns in d or e files are, therefore, more valuable than Pawns in other files. A Pawn reaching b1 or b8 or g1 or g8 becomes a Knight and immediately moves like a Knight.

In modern chess, when a Pawn gets all the way across the board to reach opponent’s edge of the table, it can be promoted to any piece that the moving player desires (except King or Pawn). Under normal circumstances, a player will want to promote his pawn to be a Queen since that piece is most powerful and flexible. The new piece is placed where the pawn ended its movement. Thus the player may end up having more than one Queen or more than two Roots or Knights or Bishops on the Board.

The Indian Chess Opening:

In Indian Chess, both the players are allowed initially to start with one movement each of three different pieces or three movements of the same piece. Capturing of enemy’s piece during or by those three initial movements is not allowed. Generally this privilege of three movements initially is used for castling of the King as described below. In the first three moves either party is not allowed to give a check to the King.

Castling:

The special privilege of the King to make the movement of Knight once is quite often used to move the King to one side of the Board and this is called “Castling” of King. This castling can be done by both the players, resulting in the Kings occupying almost diagonally opposite positions.

For castling the steps are:

This position can also be achieved by the following steps:

The position of the King arrived at in “Castling” is similar to “King’s Indian Defense” played by           

Black in modern chess as played below. 

It may be observed that where as this configuration can be arrived in four steps in modern chess it takes seven steps in Indian Chess.

The special moves of the King and Rook in King-side castling (short castling) and Queen-side castling (long castling) are totally absent in Indian Chess.

The Indian game also has two basic variants called “ Maddat mari” and “Mara mari”.  In the former version any piece having a support cannot be captured and therefore the game can take days to complete. In the latter version a piece can be captured even if it has support like in modern chess

End game rules:

A King left with only Pawns cannot be checked. The implication of this rule is that the weaker party with only King and Pawns can dodge defeat by not moving Pawns and moving only the King. The stronger party has to completely restrict the movement of the King without checking, force the pawns to be moved and when a pawn gets promoted to a piece by reaching 8^th or 1^st rank, try then to mate the weaker King.

When a King is left with only one piece that piece is called “Mastu” and that single piece cannot be captured. So the single piece goes on attacking and capturing opponent’s pieces with immunity. This is a situation, which has to be avoided by stronger party. If the single piece happens to be Queen or Rook, the hither-to weaker party becomes all too powerful. “Single-piece situation” with especially Queen or Rook has to be avoided at all costs. So pawns in d or e or a and h files reaching 8^th or 1^st ranks have to be stopped by blocking their advance and forced into c or f or b or g files by sacrificing a piece if necessary and blocking King’s movement before hand.

Stale-mate:

The rules regarding stale-mate in Indian chess are the same as in modern chess. 

Conclusion:

The development in Indian game is slow because of the absence of two-step initial movement for Pawns, though it is partially compensated by allowing both parties to have the privilege of three movements to start with. The castling in Indian game corresponding to King’s Indian defense of Modern chess is also a little slow.

In modern game the stronger party becomes even stronger and therefore the weaker party resigns without fighting to the end. In Indian Chess the end game rules give the weaker party many privileges to fight back and even win against the stronger party and it is a “Dharma Yuddham” (righteous battle). It definitely needs more mental skills to win or defend in Indian chess. The prohibition on checking the King if it is left only with the Pawns and the “Mastu” situation are worth examining quite seriously by research-minded chess players for future modification and incorporation in modern chess.

Annexure

Indian Chess Pieces

Author:

     The author of this article, Mr. K.R.Banerjee, is 72 years old. He learnt Indian Chess in his  
7^th year and played Indian Chess till his 17^TH year. He switched over to playing the modern Chess after the 17^th year. He won several tournaments in India and in Armenia of erstwhile U.S.S.R at Master of Sports level.

     In this article Mr. Banerjee explains the differences between the Indian way of playing Chess Vs Modern Chess.

     People who are interested in learning more about the Indian chess, may contact
Mr. Banerjee via email at “krb1933@yahoo.com”

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