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Makruk (Thai chess). Rules and information. (8x8, Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

H. G. Muller wrote on Mon, May 3, 2021 05:04 PM UTC:

satellite=makruk promoZone=3 promoChoice=M graphicsDir=http://www.chessvariants.com/graphics.dir/small/ whitePrefix=W blackPrefix=B graphicsType=gif squareSize=35 darkShade=#FFFFFF symmetry=rotate Pawn::fmWfcF:Pawn:a3-h3 Met::F:Queen:e1 Elephant:S:FfW:Bishop:c1,f1 Knight:N:::b1,g1 Rook::::a1,h1 King::K::d1

Makruk

Aurelian Florea wrote on Mon, Feb 25, 2019 07:53 AM UTC:

Is anyone else finding weird similarities between Chaturanga (Davidson's variantion) and Makruk?

Anonymous wrote on Sun, Jun 6, 2010 11:25 AM UTC:

Have makruk any historical (or at least invented by well-known thai player) 'grand' variants'? I asked it because not only western chess and shogi have large variants: shatranj have well-known large variants, xiang-qi hhave seven players variant, played on go-board, and even mongolian shatar have large variant hiashatar, so makruk probably may have large variant to. Yes, i know about makruk variants, invented by cv members, but there almost any game have it's variant, as i told above, i'm asking about 'historical or invented by well-known thai player'.

Anonymous wrote on Sun, May 16, 2010 10:50 AM UTC:

Stalemate is draw?! does it become draw with influence of western chess or independently?

Charles Gilman wrote on Sun, Jan 17, 2010 07:32 AM UTC:

Like WinBoard, ffendiag also has no distinct Gold or Silver symbol, so I have taken to using the symbols for the Wazir and Ferz of which they are enhancements. This is why I have made little reference to Makruk and Sittuyin in my own variant. It is also why my Shoxiang family of variants add only the outer-file Xiang Qi pieces to the Shogi set.

H. G. Muller wrote on Fri, Jan 15, 2010 11:56 PM UTC:

Well, the consensus for Makruk seems to be Elephant. This causes a dilemma; Elephant might be best for Makruk, but in WinBoard I also have to take into account how well it fits with other variants. One of the purposes of WinBoard is to provide a unified platform for variants, where the user can easily switch from one to the other, because the pieces symbols always mean what he is used to, with perhaps a minor modification (such as the Chess Knight vs Xiangqi Horse). This is why I dislike the Elephant; it is really a completely different piece from the Xiangqi or Shatranj Elephant. And I would also dislike the Silver General to be different in Shogi and Makruk.

So I will keep this under consideration; the alpha version of WinBoard now on my website still uses the German Helmet. Perhaps I should switch to that in Shogi too. Or perhaps I should indeed make an entirely new symbol for Silver.

🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Fri, Jan 15, 2010 10:52 PM UTC:

In Shogi, I use the crescent moon for the Silver General, because that is the alchemical symbol for silver.

Jose Carrillo wrote on Fri, Jan 15, 2010 04:37 AM UTC:

H.G.

If you use the elephant, just call it a Burmese Elephant, which does move just like a Silver.

Sittuyin (Burmese Chess) is closely related to Makruk. And the Elephant piece is called a Sin in Burmese, so you can still use the initial S for the piece.

I actually use Seirawan Elephants for the Thai Bishops when I play Makruk OTB. Here is my western Makruk set:

Pornpong Petchrongrusamee wrote on Fri, Jan 15, 2010 01:13 AM UTC:

I think use elephant symbolic should be good, because acient war is asia use elephant as main attacker and I think Silver move represents elephant move such as it can attack good in front of its but I hardly move backward and it weaks on side.

H. G. Muller wrote on Thu, Jan 14, 2010 02:00 PM UTC:

OK, I will use S and M for Silver and Med. One more question. I saw in the playok link you gave a Thai Chess diagrams using non-standard pictograms (similar to the actual piece shape) for all pieces except Knight. In WinBoard / XBoard this can always be done by supplying external piece fonts or bitmaps, and for the built-in bitmaps i would definitely want to stick to the standard representation. E.g. a Thai 'Boat' would use the symbol of a Rook from western Chess, because it is the same pieces. The same applies to Pawn and King.

Unfortunately, WinBoard has no separate symbol for the Shogi Silver General, and uses the same symbol for it in Shogi as the Ferz (which is also used in Shatranj and Courier for Queen, and in Xiangqi for Advisor). After all, it is an augmented Ferz, like the Gold General is an augmented Wazir.

But this poses a problem in Makruk, where the Ferz and Silver both participate. I'd rather not make new bitmaps; WinBoard has so many already, and they would have to be made for each size separately, etc. So I wanted to represent the Med by the standard symbol in WinBoard for Ferz, and find an alternative for the Silver.

My first thought was to use the Elephant, (the WinBoard symbol used in Xiangqi and also for the Shatranj and Courier Alfil), although it moves nothing like the Afil. The only reason is that Shatranj uses Alfils in those locations of the array. So I wonder if this is the optimal choice. Alternatives would be to use the Lance symbol. But this is currently used in WinBoard as a wild-card piece, that can move in any way you want, and I would like to keep it that way. And I had rather only have pieces that WinBoard knows the moves of in not-so-well-known variants, so that people can use the -showTargetSquares option to be reminded of how the piece moves. (Which does not work for the wild-cards).

Yet another possibility is to use the WinBoard Commoner symbol, a 'german helmet' with a spike on top. Perhaps this would be best? The standard move of the Commoner is like a King, and the Thai Bishop is a subset of this. And the over-all shape of the helmet with a spike on top is not unlike the shape of the Thai pieces for Bishop, Ferz and King.

What do you think?

Pornpong Petchrongrusamee wrote on Thu, Jan 14, 2010 05:59 AM UTC:

As I know now there is not standard Makruk notation in enlish
This web has Makruk to play online that can save pgn

http://www.playok.com/th/makruk/

it use chess notation with some adpation, all pieces use like chess, but only promotion pawn to Q they use e6=P and after that they use P and for this pieces which has same function as original Makruk queen.

this web is Thai web to play online that can save pgn also, but all notation is on Thai charactor.

http://www.thaibg.com/TSOnline/index.php

Thai notation is like chess notation in full form, by example if we move N from b1 to d2 needs to write N, b1-d2 but all write in Thai charactor

I would like to suggestion Makruk notation in English should write as chess in short form like http://www.playok.com/th/makruk/ doing, but should change something following

1. B to S as it moves like Silver in Shogi
2. Q to M as it was called Med in Thai and M is not in a-h file notation so it will easy to read
3. pawn after promotion should using as same as original queen notaion which may be like this 'e6=M'

H. G. Muller wrote on Wed, Jan 13, 2010 08:41 PM UTC:

What would be the most logical choice of letters for representing the pieces of Makruk in the western alphabet, e.g. for writing down a game in PGN? How do the Thai do this? Do they use the letters for the Chess counterparts?

Does there exist something like Makruk diagrams, and if so, what pictograms are used. I have seen stuff written about the 'Thai Elephant', and how its move pattern is supposed to represent an Elephant, with 4 legs and a trunk. But I understand that the Thai word for it does not mean 'Elephant' at all.

How does Thai software for playing this game represent the pieces on the screen?

I hope that someone from Thailand can help me with these questions, as I am currently adding Makruk as a standard variant in WinBoard, and want to know how best to do that.

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