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
(Note: In the reverse matchup, the Strong Makruk King for White is on d1 instead of d2 as in the regular Makruk setup.)
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 as in Makruk, but to a Nobleman/Khun instead of a Seed/Met.Notes
Chess Strategy
The Chess army must be careful to stop the Strong Makruk Bia/Pawn advances, or it will be bombarded with a horde of Nobleman pieces from the enemy's 6th rank onwards. If the King is still on the back rank, it can be cornered easily by mutiple Nobleman pieces into checkmate.
The Seed-Horse and Seed-Boat which can move diagonally in addition to the regular Knight and Rook moves are also formidable pieces which can be hard to stop. Exchanging a Knight or Rook with the equivalent Seed-Horse or Seed-Boat would be advantageous for the Chess Army since they are of higher value in the Strong Makruk army. Without the Seed-Horses and Seed-Boats, the Chess army will be in a stronger position since the Queen is more powerful than the equivalent Noble-Seed.
Strong Makruk Strategy
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 are enough to checkmate a bare King.
Since Bia/Pawn promotions are faster in Strong Makruk, the focus should be 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)
This 'user submitted' page is a collaboration between the posting user and the Chess Variant Pages. Registered contributors to the Chess Variant Pages have the ability to post their own works, subject to review and editing by the Chess Variant Pages Editorial Staff.
By Albert Lee.
Last revised by Albert Lee.
Web page created: 2021-07-26. Web page last updated: 2021-08-27