Complete chess

How Complete chess is played

Complete chess is the Arabic chess of the 9th century on a board of ten squares by ten: Shatranj with two more pieces a side, the dabbābas. 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 board and the start

The board has ten files, a to j, and ten ranks. From a1: rook, knight, alfil, dabbāba, king, ferz, dabbāba, alfil, knight, rook; the second rank stays empty and the pawns stand on the third. Black sets up the same on ranks 10 and 8, so the kings face each other on e1 and e10. Ludii sets them crosswise instead.

The pieces

The king steps one square in any direction, the rook moves along ranks and files, the knight jumps in an L. The dabbāba steps one square in any direction, as the king does, but it is not royal: it captures and may be captured. The ferz steps one square diagonally and the alfil jumps exactly two, as in Shatranj. There is no castling.

Pawns

A pawn moves one square forward and captures one square diagonally forward; there is no double step and no en passant. A pawn that reaches the last rank becomes a ferz, but only while its side has no ferz on the board: a side has one ferz at a time. Otherwise the pawn is removed as soon as it arrives, with the piece it captured there, if any. Cazaux reads the text the other way: the pawn promotes and the old ferz is taken off.

Winning

Checkmate wins, and so does stalemate: a player who cannot move loses. A king that reaches the opposing king’s starting square, e10 for White and e1 for Black, wins half the stake: the game ends three quarters to one quarter. Ludii and the Chess Variant Pages leave this rule out, and Murray found it unclear. Unlike Shatranj, a bare king does not lose: it plays on.

Draws

The same position three times, seventy moves each without a capture or a pawn move, or two bare kings are a draw. The text says nothing on draws; these are Shatranj’s rules in this app.

The story

the Arab world · from the 9th century; its rules survive in manuscripts of 1140 to 1446

When and where

Complete chess, in Arabic ash-shatranj at-tamma, is a larger Shatranj of the Muslim world. The Arabic chess books quote its one rule text as al-Adli’s, a master of 9th-century Baghdad, and in the 10th century al-Masudi named it among the games derived from chess.

How it changed

It widened the board to ten squares by ten and gave each side two dabbābas, which step one square in any direction like the king but are not royal. The pawns start on the third rank, behind an empty line. A side may have only one ferz at a time, and a king that reaches the other king’s starting square wins half the stake.

Today

Its rules survive in five manuscripts copied between 1140 and 1446, but not a single game or problem; one of them left its diagram blank. H. J. R. Murray (1913) saw it as a Muslim invention, not a survival of an older Indian board. In the 19th century Antonius van der Linde tried to revive it with the modern queen and bishop.

Did you know?

The rule text describes the dabbāba piece itself: square, with a furrowed head, as tall as the ferz. Its name means a siege engine, a covered shed that sheltered the men working a battering ram.

Original piece names

shah (king) · firzan (counsellor, the ferz) · fil (elephant, the alfil) · dabbaba (siege engine) · 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 · Ludii · The Chess Variant Pages

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.
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Big chess

• 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.
• Byzantine chess · Shatranj on a round board: the rook circles, pawns never promote.
• 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.