Sittuyin ( my, စစ်တုရင်), also known as Burmese chess, is a

strategy board game A strategy game or strategic game is a game (e.g. a board game) in which the players' uncoerced, and often autonomous, decision-making skills have a high significance in determining the outcome. Almost all strategy games require internal decisio ...

created in

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

. It is a direct offspring of the Indian game of

chaturanga Chaturanga ( sa, चतुरङ्ग; ') is an ancient Indian strategy game. While there is some uncertainty, the prevailing view among chess historians is that it is the common ancestor of the board games chess (European), xiangqi (Chinese), ...

, which arrived in Myanmar in the 8th century thus it is part of the same family of games such as

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

, and

shogi , also known as Japanese chess, is a strategy board game for two players. It is one of the most popular board games in Japan and is in the same family of games as Western chess, ''chaturanga, Xiangqi'', Indian chess, and '' janggi''. ''Shōgi'' ...

. ''Sit'' is the modern Burmese word for "army" or "war"; the word ''sittuyin'' can be translated as "representation of the four characteristics of army"—chariot, elephant, cavalry and infantry. In its native land, the game has been largely overshadowed by Western (international) chess, although it remains popular in the northwest regions.

Board

The sittuyin board consists of 64 squares, 8 rows and 8 columns, without alternating colors. The board has also two diagonal lines from corner to corner, which are known as ''sit-ke-myin'' ( my, စစ်ကဲမျဉ်း, general's lines).

Pieces and their moves

Pieces are commonly made of wood, and sometimes of ivory. The height of the pieces varies by class. The official colors of the pieces are red and black. ''Min-gyi'' ( my, မင်းကြီး, "king") :It can move one step in any direction. ''Sit-ke'' ( my, စစ်ကဲ, "general") :It can move one step in any diagonal direction (as ''fers'' in

shatranj Shatranj ( ar, شطرنج; fa, شترنج; from Middle Persian ''chatrang'' ) is an old form of chess, as played in the Sasanian Empire. Its origins are in the Indian game of chaturaṅga. Modern chess gradually developed from this game, as i ...

). ''Sin'' ( my, ဆင်, "elephant") :It can move one step in any diagonal direction or one step forward (as silver general in

). ''Myin'' ( my, မြင်း, "horse") :It can jump two horizontal squares and one vertical square or two vertical squares and one horizontal square, as knight in Western chess. ''Yahhta'' ( my, ရထား, "chariot") :It can move any number of free squares along four orthogonal directions. ''Nè'' ( my, နယ်, "feudal lord") :It can move one step forward but cannot retreat. It captures one diagonal step forward.

Rules

Only feudal lords ( pawns) are on the board in the initial position. The game starts with the Red player (depicted here having white pieces), followed by the Black player, placing their other pieces arbitrarily on their own halves of the board (known as ''sit-tee'' or troops deployment): chariots can be put on any square on the back rank. In official tournaments, a small curtain is used on the middle of the board to prevent the players seeing each other's deployment during the ''sit-tee'' phase. One of the possible game openings is shown in the diagram. Feudal lords promote to general when they reach diagonal lines marked on the board. The promotion is possible only if that player's general has been captured. If the player has a feudal lord on a promotion square and their general is no longer on the board, the player can (if they wish to) promote the feudal lord to general instead of making a move. A feudal lord which passes the promotion square cannot promote anymore. The goal of the game is to ''khwè'' (

checkmate Checkmate (often shortened to mate) is any game position in chess and other chess-like games in which a player's king is in check (threatened with ) and there is no possible escape. Checkmating the opponent wins the game. In chess, the king is ...

) the opponent's king. Putting the opponent in

stalemate Stalemate is a situation in the game of chess where the player whose turn it is to move is not in check and has no legal move. Stalemate results in a draw. During the endgame, stalemate is a resource that can enable the player with the inferior ...

is not allowed. In the version reported in ''

A History of Chess The book ''A History of Chess'' was written by H. J. R. Murray (1868–1955) and published in 1913. Details Murray's aim is threefold: to present as complete a record as is possible of the varieties of chess that exist or have existed in differen ...

'' in 1913, a game of sittuyin had three stages: # Eight moves each: the ''sit-tee'' stage described above, but no restriction on chariot placing; Murray did not mention a curtain. Also, a player could put a piece where one of their pawns was, and in the same move put that pawn in a free square behind their row of pawns. # Second stage: in each move, each player moves any one of their pieces (not a pawn) to any other empty place in their own half of the board, ignoring the usual move rules. Or they can move a pawn one square forwards and this ends the second stage and the third stage starts. # Ordinary play, obeying the rules for piece moves. Sittuyin-castle1.jpg Sittuyin-castle2.jpg Sittuyin-castle3.jpg Sittuyin-castle4.jpg

Dice rules

Anne Sunnucks Patricia Anne Sunnucks (21 February 1927 – 22 November 2014) was an author and three-times British Women's Chess Champion (1957, 1958, 1964). During her chess career she was always known as Anne Sunnucks. She was educated at Wycombe Abbey Scho ...

writes that three dice were thrown and each player made three moves at a time.Anne Sunnucks, ''The Encyclopaedia of Chess'', St. Martin's Press, 1970, pp. 97–98.

References

Bibliography * Maung Maung Aye (1971). ''Sittuyin: Traditional Myanmar Chess''. * * *

External links

Sittuyin
by Hans L. Bodlaender, ''

The Chess Variant Pages ''The Chess Variant Pages'' is a non-commercial website devoted to chess variants. It was created by Hans Bodlaender in 1995. The site is "run by hobbyists for hobbyists" and is "the most wide-ranging and authoritative web site on chess variants". ...

''
Sittuyin, the Burmese Chess
by Jean-Louis Cazaux

by Dr. Peter Nicolaus, ''