History of Chess Variants

Weird, cool, and familiar, the family tree of chess is delightful to explore

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72 Comments

  1. Isn't pawn of pawns promoted to Prince in Tamerlane Chess

  2. Omg m from Myanmar and I didn't even know that "sittuyin" is a verient of chess
    We usually just use that word for chess

  3. This is a really cool video! I would loved to see some info on Senterej or 'Ethiopian Chess' though. It's sort of similar to the Myanmarese variant you mentioned – it begins with a 'marshalling' stage where you arrange your pieces as you want to on the baord, an ulimited number of moves, until the first capture is made, and then it becomes turn based. I just like that 'game before the game' dynamic.

    Can't find any online servers which support it, or any videos of it being played, or for that matter very much information at all.

    Still, understand that there's simply too much to cover, and a very interesting and informative video nonetheless!

  4. After watching your video I've finally realized that implementing various chess variants is actually a good idea) Now I have standard chess xiangqi but want to do much more. Thanks for sharing your inspiration!

  5. i can't believe you only have 600 subscribers!!! you deserve over 10,000 atleast. your method of explaining things is so entertaining and your videos are so great. im a a fan 🙂

  6. All of them were the invention of their era, imagine Vietnam war chess, it's can be a mix of chess and battle ship, lol

  7. This video was dope. Loved the amount of information and the style. Subbed.

  8. In some languages, such as Russian, bishops are referred to as elephants. Bishop is 'slon' in Russian, which means elephant. In some languages, they're 'hunters' like in Serbian and 'runners' like in German

  9. XiangQi is actually pronounced like schun chee, something like that.

  10. Idea, when pawn promotes it gains an additional option of the hippo, for that player's next turn, they can play a normal move, or they can do 1 of 2 things with the newly promoted piece. Destroy each piece (including your own) in a 3×3 area around it, OR move 1 square like a king.
    Another option, the piece moves 1 square like a king again, but when it dies by being captured, it destroys a 3×3 area around it (including your own).

    These pieces were inspired by this video and the variant atomic chess.

  11. I remember seeing xianqi in a few martial arts movies & shogi in some animes.i typed chess variants,i saw this video.i like it,very informative

  12. There are still some differences between Chaturanga and Shatranj. And Dai Shogi is actually older than the modern version of Shogi. And from what I saw in this video, I presume you like chess variants with a large number of pieces. Ever heard of Taikyoku Shogi?

  13. I am thinking about timur's chess I think I find it very intresting but you know what I need? ans: more pieces

  14. I really think that the culture of chess is actually more intresting in the east and not being checkered

  15. there is luzhanqi which is a chinese game of war and doushouqi which is animal game

  16. in sittuiyn I don't know how pawn promotes because you said that they promote when they teach the diagonal lines but in the setup the pawns are already on the diagonal lines

  17. Yes, Shogi is by far the most interesting chess variant in my humble opinion. Although it must be said that games like Chess, Xiangqi, etc are all complicated and challenging enough you could spend a lifetime of enjoyment and problem solving on any one of them. There are no bad choices here really!

  18. it might be useful to promote to Rook or Bishop to prevent stalemate

  19. Speaking of chess promotions, there is a sub-genre of chess puzzles that are basically "can you remember that you can promote to rook/bishop?"

  20. Nice Video. I have a channel dedicated to Tamerlane Chess.

  21. Apparently, the Timurid empire was only Timur the Lames side hustle

  22. India Chess: Old Chess
    Tamerlane Chess: Big chess
    Chinese Chess: Geography Chess
    Shogi: Promotion Chess
    European Chess: Fast Chess

  23. If you think Dai Shogi has many pieces, then try Taikyoku Shogi. A 36×36 board, 1,296 squares, each player has 402 pieces of 207 different types, including your favorite drunken elephant, and with 253 sets of moves to remember, there are no drops and you have to capture the opponent's king(s) AND prince(s) to win.

  24. Have you ever heard of taikoyu shogi? The board's size is 600*600!!!

  25. 3:58 in spanish we still call that pice "alfil" which has something to do with the word "elefante" (from what I understand). Calling them bishops has more to do with the translation and catholicism, since the top of the pice resembles something like the hat of a bishop.

  26. As a game designer… Note to self: In game, include drunken elephant.

  27. Promotion is rare, but it is still an absolutely critical part of the game, even when it doesn't wind up happening at all. Just the potential itself of the pawn to eventually become a Queen affects the way you assess the threat of a pawn. Many games come down to how many pawns you have when entering the end-game, their advancement, whether they are passed pawns, isolated pawns, defended etc. determines their value and power.

  28. The Western chess is very well balanced aesthetically.

    The occupied squares are balanced against the unoccupied squares.

    The weakest piece, the pawn, is balanced with the strongest piece, the queen. The pawn can promote to queen.

    The king is balanced with the queen.

    The rook is balanced against the bishop. The rook controls the orthogonal, the bishop controls the diagonals.

    The queen is balanced by the rook and bishop. The queen is balanced by the knight. Where the knight can go the queen cannot go.

    Black bishops are balanced by white bishops.

    Bishops are balanced by knights. Knight change colors every time it moves.

  29. The elephant moves like the elephant in Chinese Chess, 2 squares diagonally, basically.

  30. Chinese Chess is closer to its parent Indian chess than Western Chess.

    I think that chess should be a bi-athlon. 5 games of Western chess, and 5 games of Chinese chess for the World Bi-athlon Chess championship.

    The rules you don't like in one game is in the other game, and vice versa.

    You really have the best of both worlds.

    My invention, in my head. Biathlon Chess. Western and Chinese.

  31. @8:07 Sounds like Timurs Chess was so complicated the ONLY TIMUR COULD HAVE KNOWN ALL THE RULES!!! A tyrant likes to always win… IMHO

  32. Bishops are called elephants in some languages, Russian for example

  33. I liked your video. Enjoyed your enthusiasm! You did ask at the end of the video to mention any chess variant that you may have missed. Well, you missed SENTEREJ (commonly called Ethiopian Chess). Since you liked the opening movies for SITTUYIN, I thought you'd love the opening moves for SENTEREJ !

  34. I was under the impression that dai shogi came before shogi not the other way around

  35. I think a video about modern variants would be very cool! 🙂

  36. Shogi is a very elegant chess variant that's far less abstract, in many ways its superior to western Chess.

  37. I don’t think you have addressed the cannon in XiangQi. It moves like a rook but it has to jump over a piece to capture another piece on the same row/column.

  38. I have a version it isn't overwhelmingly high change and not a eye rollably low change

  39. The bishop of modern Western chess is still called "elephant" in Russian. Shōgi probably got the idea for promoting on the 6th rank from Ouk chatrang (Cambodia) or Makruk (Thailand).

  40. कौटिल्य धूत षडयंत्र (वास्तविक शतरंज) says:

    Shadyantra was invented in India and Shri Lanka because Shri Lanka was part of india 8800 yrs back. Initially it was named as Dhyut. Shadyantra is based on 10×10 board called Dashpaad. Chaturanga was evolved from Shadyantra in 200 BC after it was latter was banned. And yes Chaturanga was played on 8×8 board..

  41. The Amazing Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobian Cancer Infected Fig Man of the Nederlands says:

    I would love to see a "world tour chess" tournament where people play each one of these games against each other. When two people face off, they have to play a round of western chess, chinese chess, etc and the winner is whoever wins the most games in a given match up. I wouldn't include the larger versions of shogi, though, as it would probably take too much time 😂. Thanks for the video

  42. You should check out Congo. The pawns promote after crossing "river" in the middle. There's also a piece that moves like a king, but when in the river it moves like a rook.

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