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Maha Chatukanga. Variant arranging Chaturanga's paired pieces and all their compounds in the style of Grand Chess. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Joseph Ruhf wrote on Mon, May 18, 2015 01:45 AM UTC:

In his Encyclopedia of Chess Variants, David Pritchard writes this of the Silver piece in the entry on Makruk: "Less convincing is the presence of the B[ishop], which equates to the Gin of shogi, since the piece is also found in Indian and Burmese C[hess] where it is known as the Elephant, its move resemblimg the four feet and trunk of the pachyderm." Since "alfil" means "the elephant" in Arabic and an alternate Elephant move equates to the Silver move, it stands to reason that the names "Kangaroo" and "Infanta" do not need to be lost although Makruk technically has no piece actually named "Elephant".