Chess vs Strong Makruk
Makruk is played on an 8x8 board like Chess.
One can easily place both Chess and Makruk on the same board and pit them against each other. However, the Chess army may be too strong with the long-range Queen and Bishop, compared to the much weaker Seed/Met and Nobleman/Khon in Makruk.
Strong Makruk is an enhanced Makruk variant created to face the Chess army in a more balanced matchup. The moveset for the enhanced pieces in Strong Makruk are described below.
Setup
Chess Army
Strong Makruk Army
Pieces
Chess
The Chess pieces of Rook, Knight, Bishop, Queen, King, and Pawn move as in Orthodox Chess.Strong Makruk
Seed-Boat
Moves as a Boat/Rua or Seed/Met (Rook + Ferz)
Seed-Horse
Moves as a Horse/Ma or Seed/Met (Knight + Ferz)
Nobleman
Moves as a regular Nobleman/Khon in Makruk (unchanged)
Noble-Seed
Moves as an extended Nobleman/Khon - any number of squares diagonally and orthogonally forward (Bishop + Lance)
Khun
Moves as a regular Khun/King in Makruk (unchanged)
Bia
Moves as a regular Bia/Pawn in Makruk, with the exception of the promotion rule described below
Rules
Chess
The Pawn promotion and Castling rules are the same as in Orthodox Chess.Strong Makruk
The Bia/Pawn in Strong Makruk also promotes on the 6th rank, but to a Nobleman/Khun instead of a Seed/Met.Notes
The Bia/Pawn in the Strong Makruk army may only promote to the Nobleman, but it promotes on the 6th instead of the 8th rank for the Chess Pawn which can promote to the much stronger Queen. The Nobleman may be weaker than the Queen, but the Strong Makruk army can obtain them faster. During the endgame, two Nobleman pieces is enough to checkmate a bare King. The Chess army must be careful to stop the Strong Makruk Bia promotions, or it will be bombarded with a horde of Nobleman pieces. The Seed-Horse and Seed-Boat which can move diagonally as well as the regular Knight and Rook moves are also formidable pieces which can be hard to stop. The Queen in Chess is more powerful than any other piece on the board, so having a solid Pawn structure that will eventually lead to Queen promotions would be a good strategy. Since Bia/Pawn promotions are faster in Strong Makruk, a focus on promoting as many Bias as possible in the least number of moves. While the Noble-Seed is a strong piece equivalent to the Chess Queen, it cannot move orthogonally sideways or backwards. So, it should be developed as soon as possible to support the Bias in promoting to Nobleman pieces. The Seed-Horse and Seed-Boat are also powerful pieces that can be used to support a strong Bia structure.Play with Zillions of Games
Chess vs Strong Makruk (The reverse matchup and a Strong Makruk game with the same armies are also included)
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By Albert Lee.
Last revised by Albert Lee.
Web page created: 2021-07-26. Web page last updated: 2021-08-27