Single Comment

Chaturanga. The first known variant of chess. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Jared McComb wrote on Sun, Mar 20, 2005 01:16 PM UTC:

I have a copy of Gollon's book.  I can check this out later today.

EDIT: Checked it.  The book I'm using is Gollon's Chess Variants Ancient,
Regional, and Modern, first edition.  According to this book, the starting
position and stalemate rules are correct.

However, the promotion rule listed here is inaccurate.  First of all,
pawns do not promote to the piece which started on the promotion space,
but to the 'master piece' of that file.  In other words, the piece of
yours that started in that file is the one that determines promotion, not
the one of the opposing army.  This only has ramifications in the central
two files.

Gollon's rules also require the actual piece that started in the file to
which the pawn will be moving to have been lost, not just a piece of the
type.  (The example given is that a pawn cannot promote in the C file
until his elephant which started in the C file has been lost.)
Additionally, according to Gollon, a pawn may not even move to the last
rank unless it is able to promote, which is not stated here.