Byzantine chess

How Byzantine chess is played

Byzantine chess is Shatranj on a round board, as Arabic books describe it from about 850 on. The goal is to checkmate the opposing king: to attack it so that no move can save it. An attacked king is in check, and no move may leave your own king attacked.

The round board

Sixty-four cells lie on four rings of sixteen round an empty centre. Along a ring the cells go all the way round; the inner and the outer ring are edges, and no piece may cross the centre or stand in it. The cells keep the names of an ordinary board: files a to d are the left half from the outer ring inwards, e to h the right half from the inner ring outwards, and the ranks run round each half.

The start

Each army fills four neighbouring cells of every ring: the king and the ferz on the inner ring, then the alfils, the knights, and the rooks on the outer ring, with a wing of four pawns on each side. The two kings face each other across the centre. White moves first.

The pieces

The pieces move as in Shatranj, counted in rings and cells. The king steps one cell in any direction, the ferz one cell diagonally (to the next ring and the next cell), the alfil jumps two rings and two cells diagonally, and the knight jumps one ring and two cells, or two rings and one cell. The rook moves along its ring in either direction, all the way round but not back to its own cell, or straight across the rings.

Pawns

A pawn steps one cell along its ring, away from its own army, and captures one cell diagonally forward. The two wings of an army run round the board in opposite directions, and a pawn keeps its direction for good. It never promotes: a ring has no end, so a pawn simply walks on. When two of your own pawns meet head-on on a ring, both are taken off at once, as part of your move.

Winning

As in Shatranj: checkmate wins, and so does stalemate, leaving the opponent without a move. You also win by capturing every piece of your opponent except the king, a bare king; if the bare king can capture your last piece right away, the game is drawn instead. The old books state these rules for Shatranj only; every reconstruction of the round game takes them over.

Draws

The same position three times, or seventy moves each without a capture, is a draw. Pawn moves do not count, since a pawn can walk round the board for ever. The old sources know no such rule; it is ours.

Where it comes from

Arabic books copied from al-Adli, a master of the 9th century, describe the round game beside the square one, so it existed by about 850. They call it the Byzantine (ar-rumiyya, the Roman) game, but no Byzantine writer describes it, and nothing shows that it was played in Byzantium. The books name the differences: the rook has more squares, the knight fewer, the alfils of both sides can meet, and the pawn cannot promote “because it has no limit”. Most of the old diagrams put each king opposite the other king, as here; modern reconstructions put it opposite the enemy ferz. Some read the meeting rule as the two pawns striking each other, with the same result. A board with one or four citadels in the centre, from al-Amuli’s book of about 1340, is too thinly described to play.

The story

the Arab world · described in Arabic books by about 850

When and where

Round chess is known only from Arabic and Persian books. The oldest of them copy al-Adli, a master of the 9th century, so the game existed by about 850; they say that one Siwar al-Harrani gave it to Tahir ibn al-Husain, a general who died in 822. Around 947 al-Masudi listed it among the boards of his time as “the round board, attributed to the Byzantines”.

How it changed

It is Shatranj with the same pieces and moves, bent into a ring of four circles of sixteen cells round an empty centre. The books name what changes: the rook has more squares, the knight fewer, the alfils of the two sides can meet, and a pawn never promotes, “because it has no limit”. Two pawns of one side that run into each other from opposite directions are simply taken off by the opponent.

Today

The name “Byzantine” is the Arabs’ (ar-rumiyya, “the Roman one”): Byzantine writers mention chess, zatrikion, but none of them describes a round board, and nothing shows that the game was played in Byzantium. A round board appears in an English manuscript of the 13th century, al-Amuli described a form with a refuge in the centre around 1340, and a modern Circular Chess with queens and bishops has been played since 1983.

Did you know?

The Arabic books set the two boards side by side: the square Indian game is the older and the longer one, the round Byzantine game “more modern” and quicker. Late in the 14th century Ibn Arabshah still saw a round board at the house of Ali ash-Shatranji, the chess master of Timur’s court.

Original piece names

shah (king) · firzan (counsellor, the ferz) · fil (elephant, the alfil) · faras (horse, the knight) · rukh (the rook) · baidaq (foot soldier, the pawn)

Sources: H. J. R. Murray, A History of Chess (1913) · Jean-Louis Cazaux · Wikipedia · D. B. Pritchard, The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants (2007)

More games

Chess and variants

• Chess · Classic chess, or Chess960 with a shuffled back rank.
• Chess960 · Fischer random chess: the back rank starts in one of 960 setups.
• Antichess · Losing chess: give away all your pieces, captures are compulsory.
• Atomic chess · Every capture is an explosion that clears the pieces around it.
• Crazyhouse · Captured pieces change sides and can be dropped back onto the board.
• Hostage chess · Captured men become hostages and come back by exchange or from the airfield.
• Three-check · Chess where the third check wins, so every check counts.
• King of the Hill · Chess where a king that reaches the centre wins at once.
• Jeson Mor · Mongolia’s nine horses: take the centre and hold it for a move.
• Racing Kings · No pawns, no checks: the first king on the far rank wins.
• Horde · 36 white pawns storm a full black army.
• Dunsany’s chess · Lord Dunsany’s game of 1942: 32 pawns against a full army.
• Los Alamos chess · Chess on 6 × 6 without bishops, the first game a computer played (1956).
• Duck chess · After every move you move the duck, which blocks everyone. No check.
• Marseillais chess · Two moves a turn, with one piece or two; White starts with one.
• Progressive chess · One move, then two, then three: each turn is one move longer.
• Fog of War · You only see where your pieces can move. Capture the king to win.
• Kriegspiel · Only your own pieces in sight; an umpire judges every move.
• Alice chess · Two boards: every piece that moves passes through to the other one.
• Raumschach 3D · Chess in a 5 × 5 × 5 cube: five boards stacked, and the unicorn.
• Old Raumschach · Maack’s cube as played before 1919: five pawns above the pieces.
• Friendly Chess · Nothing is captured: pieces unite and set off chain reactions.
• Ultima · Every piece captures its own way, and the immobilizer freezes.
• Gliński’s hexagonal chess · Chess on 91 hexagons: three bishops, rooks in six directions.
• McCooey’s hexagonal chess · Hexagonal chess closer to chess: seven pawns that take diagonally.
• Shafran’s hexagonal chess · Hexagonal chess on 70 cells, with castling and pawns that step three.
• Spartan chess · Persians against Spartans: chess’ army against two kings and new pieces.
• Legan chess · The armies in opposite corners; pawns step diagonally towards the far one.

Big chess

• Complete chess · The Arabic chess of the 9th century on 10 × 10, with two dabbābas a side.
• Courier chess · Medieval Germany’s chess on a 12 × 8 board, with the courier, the man and the schleich.
• Grande Acedrex · Alfonso X’s great chess on a 12 × 12 board, with lions, giraffes and a roc.
• Tamerlane chess · Timur’s great chess on an 11 × 10 board, with giraffes, camels and citadels.
• Carrera’s chess · The first chess on ten files, from a Sicilian priest’s book of 1617.
• Duke of Rutland’s chess · Fourteen files, with the concubine and two crowned rooks a side.
• Bird’s chess · Henry Bird’s ten-file chess of 1874, with the guard and the equerry.
• Capablanca chess · Ten files and two new pieces: the archbishop and the chancellor.
• Gothic chess · Ed Trice’s setup of 2000, today called Trice’s Chess.
• Capablanca Random · Capablanca chess from one of 12,118 shuffled starts.
• Embassy chess · Grand chess’ row of pieces on a 10 × 8 board.
• Janus chess · Two januses a side, each moving as a bishop or a knight.
• Grand chess · Christian Freeling’s 10 × 10 game: pawns promote only to lost pieces.
• S-chess · Chess with a hawk and an elephant in hand, placed as the back rank leaves.

The chess family

• Chaturanga · India’s ancient chess, the root of the family: take the king to win.
• Shatranj · The medieval ancestor of chess, with a weak ferz and a jumping alfil.
• Medieval chess · Europe’s chess before 1475: the ferz and the king may leap on their first move.
• Senterej · Ethiopian chess: no turns until the first capture, then Shatranj.
• Shatar · Mongolian chess: the bers, the camel, and a mate that needs a shak.
• Makruk · Thai chess: a slow, strategic game with a counting rule.
• Ouk Chatrang · Cambodian chess: Makruk with a leap for the king and the met.
• Sittuyin · Burmese chess: set up your pieces, then promote on the diagonals.
• Kar Ouk · Ouk Chatrang where the first check wins: guard your king.
• Malay chess · Chess of the Malay world: the king leaps, a crowned pawn walks back.
• Xiangqi · Chinese chess: a river, palaces and a cannon that jumps to capture.
• Minixiangqi · Xiangqi on 7 × 7 points: no river, no advisors, no elephants.
• Manchu chess · Red’s lone chariot moves as horse and cannon too, against a full army.
• Jieqi · Xiangqi with the pieces face down: each is revealed by its first move.
• Banqi · Xiangqi’s pieces face down on half a board: turn them up, take by rank.
• Janggi · Korean chess: no river, palace diagonals and a cannon that always jumps.
• Shogi · Japanese chess: captured pieces return to the board on your side.
• Minishogi · Shogi on a 5 × 5 board: six pieces a side, short and sharp games.
• Chu shogi · Japan’s great shogi on 12 × 12: no drops, and a lion that moves twice.
• Tori shogi · Bird shogi on 7 × 7: a phoenix, quails and swallows, with drops.

More players

• Chaturaji · India’s four-handed chess: kings can be captured, captures score.
• Four Seasons Chess · Alfonso X’s chess for four from 1283: four seasons, the last king wins.
• Three-player chess · Three armies on a hexagonal board: you against two bots.
• Four-player chess · Four armies on a cross-shaped board: in teams or all against all.
• Bughouse · Two boards, two teams: what you capture goes to your partner's hand.
• Eight-player chess · Eight armies on a board of 516 squares: all against all, in pairs or four against four.
• Verney’s four-handed chess · Verney’s game of 1881: two against two, mate both enemy kings.
• Verney’s eight-handed chess · Verney’s game for eight of 1884: four against four on 448 squares.