Chapter 1: The nature and objectives of the game of Myanmar Traditional Chess

Chapter 1: The nature and objectives of the game of Myanmar Traditional Chess

1.1 The game of Myanmar Traditional Chess is played between two opponents who move their pieces alternately on a square board called a 'chessboard'.

1.2 The player with the red pieces commences the game. He shall set the initial position of his own side first and then the player with the black pieces shall set the initial position of the other side. After setting the position, no player is allowed to correct the position again.

1.3 Allowance time for setting the pieces shall be 5 minutes each unless no special condition is mentioned before the game.

1.4 If it is played under time control, the player with the red pieces shall set the initial position while his clock is running. After setting the red pieces, the clock of the player with the red pieces shall stop and the player with the black pieces shall set his initial position on his own time. After setting the pieces of both sides, then the players shall stop their clocks.

1.5 After setting the pieces and the completion of the setting is confirmed by both players, the game is started.

1.6 A player is said to 'have the move', when his opponent's move has been made.

1.7 The objective of each player is to place the opponent's king 'under attack' in such a way that the opponent has no legal move. The player who achieves this goal is said to have 'checkmated' the opponent's king and to have won the game.

1.8 Leaving one’s own king under attack, exposing one’s own king to attack and also ’capturing’ the opponent’s king are not allowed.

1.9 The player whose king has been checkmated has lost the game.

1.10 If the position is such that neither player can possibly checkmate, the game is drawn.

Chapter 2: The initial position of the pieces on the chessboard

The chessboard

The chessboard is composed of an 8x8 grid of 64 equal light-coloured squares with two diagonal lines drawn clearly.

The pieces

At the beginning of the game one player has 16 red pieces; the other has 16 black pieces:
These pieces are as follows:

A red king, usually indicated by the symbol

A red general, usually indicated by the symbol

Two red rooks, usually indicated by the symbol

Two red elephants, usually indicated by the symbol

Two red knights, usually indicated by the symbol

Eight red pawns, usually indicated by the symbol

A black king, usually indicated by the symbol

A black general, usually indicated by the symbol

Two black rooks, usually indicated by the symbol

Two black elephants, usually indicated by the symbol

Two black knights, usually indicated by the symbol

Eight black pawns, usually indicated by the symbol

The initial position

2.3.1 The initial position of the pawns on the chessboard is fixed as shown below:

2.3.2 It is allowed to place the king, general, elephants and knights freely on the one’s side behind the pawns according to the player’s wish.

2.3.3 The rooks are allowed to place only at the back rank.

2.3.4 The eight vertical columns of squares are called ‘files’. The eight horizontal rows of squares are called ‘ranks’. A straight line of squares touching corner to corner is called a ‘diagonal’.

Mate by rook and king

It is necessary to get the support by a piece or pieces to check mate the lonely king. By eliminating and the reducing the movable squares of that king, it is forced to go to the last rank or file where he has to take fully rest.

If the king is flanked by the rooks or knights or both which are unable to protect the square just right in front of the king, we can see the beautiful check mate positions shown below. It is also possible to be caught in the corner flanked by a piece of same colour.

Mate by two rooks

The power of two rooks is enough to check mate the lonely king without any support from its own king. The check mate position shown below is called “Ra Htar Leim” in Myanmar Tradition Chess terms.

When two rooks are placed double in the same rank of file, their power is unstoppable. The beautiful check mate position shown below is the example.

Mate by rook and knight

When the lonely king reaches the corner square, it is possible to check mate by the knight while the rook restricts the king’s movement.

Mate by rook and elephant

Since the elephant has the power to control 3 front squares, it can take the king position to check mate the lonely king as shown below.

Elephant can also post a check mate on the opponent’s king of standing on the corner square right in front of it with the support by a rook.

While the opponent king sitting on the last rank square to avoid the elephant’s tusks since the elephant has the weakness of not-able-to-control-the-back-square, the elephant needs the help from the king in order to check mate the opponent king.

Mate by rook and general

This position is very simple and similar to the position shown above, just changing the piece: general taking the elephant’s square.

Mate by elephant and king

Being able to control 3 front squares, the elephant can post a check mate position to the opponent king at the last rank by using the tusks. The king must be together with the elephant too.

Mate by two elephants

Like the two rooks working together, two elephants are very strong while they are in good connection and making a combined attack against the opponent king. Some check mate positions are shown below.

Mate by elephant and knight

It looks not difficult to do, but it is necessary for moving the knight precisely to restrict the area of the opponent king. Once the king’s moves are limited, the final curtain is not far away.

Mate by knight and general

Even in international chess where the bishops are able to move many squares diagonally, the experiences have shown us that many players are not able to check mate the opponent king within 50 moves. So the difficulty can be guessed how to get it done in Myanmar Traditional Chess where the general has only one diagonal move. But with the help of beautiful knight moves, the opponent king has to walk into the dead-end road of no return.

Mate by two knights

In fact, it is impossible to force the check mate against the lonely king by two knights. It cannot be found at the high level tournaments, but it can still happen at the low level games as well as blitz games.

Mate by pawn

Supported by the other piece or pieces, pawn can also check mate the opponent king. It may not happen many times in actual play, it has the chances to appear depending on the positions. The king may be sad to get killed by the weakest piece on the board. Chess in a part of the human life and sometimes it can reflect the nature of the world.

They are the basic check mate positions and just to show as the examples. It can vary a little while playing the game. But it is useful for the players to know such samples so that they can drive or avoid on the board depending on which side they are standing

Mate by a rook

1.Ke3 Kd5 2.Rc2 Kd6 3.Ke4 Ke6 4.Rc6+ Kd7 5.Kd5 Ke7 6.Ra6 Kf7 7.Ke5 Kg7 8.Kf5 Kh7 9.Rg6 Kh8 10.Rg1 Kh7 11.Kf6 Kh8 12.Kf7 Kh7 13.Rh1#