In recent months, a friend and I have gotten into makruk, the form of chess played in Thailand. It is perhaps closer to chaturanga, the great-grandaddy of all chess, than any other variant still played today. The games you see presented here, originally played on the night of 2012/06/22, are just presented for fun and as a basic demonstration of the moves, not as any sort of exhibition of skill (obviously!).
Yes, I know the background music is Burmese, not Thai, but the only traditional Thai music in my collection was either too raucous or too flowery.
Makruk is everything I love about Chess, and nothing that I hate about it (super fast pieces, weird combinations).
Very cool! I was just waiting for the pieces to move! 🙂
some day i'll beat ya! 🙂
On that day, I will insist we start playing xiangqi instead. :-p
I too know Chinese chess (xiangqi), it's probably my favourite.
Makruk is about as close to chess' common ancestor as any variant played in modern times can be. And it's pretty fun to boot! The advanced pawns make for relatively quick development, and the lack of a queen forces one to more carefully utilize the less powerful pieces.
Me too. If you have the time and interest, chessvariants,org has pages describing hundreds of variations on the game. Only a small fraction may be of interest t you, but it's worth a look.
Thank you!