Malay chess

How Malay chess is played

Malay chess, main chator, is the chess of the Malay world, played from before 1509 into the 20th century on the Malay Peninsula, in Sumatra, Java and Borneo. Its pieces move as in chess today, but the board is uncoloured, the kings stand crosswise and some rules are its own. 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.

Board and start

The board has eight squares by eight, all of one colour, with its two long diagonals drawn, as on the boards of the mainland (in Sumatra every square’s diagonals were drawn). Each queen, the minister, stands on its king’s right, so the kings do not face each other: White’s king on d1 and queen on e1, Black’s king on e8 and queen on d8. The other pieces stand as in chess, and White moves first. In Java, by one 19th-century report, the minister stood on the king’s left.

The pieces

The pieces and their moves are today’s. The king (raja) steps one square in any direction. The queen (menteri, the minister) moves any distance along ranks, files and diagonals, the rook (tir) along ranks and files, the bishop (gajah, the elephant) along diagonals, and the knight (kuda, the horse) jumps in an L, over whatever stands between. There is no castling.

The king’s leap

Once in a game, a king that has not moved may leap as a knight, or two squares sideways along its rank, over a piece or an empty square: from d1 to b2, c3, e3, f2, b1 or f1. It lands on an empty square or takes an enemy piece there, but never in check. The right is lost when the king moves, and after the move that answers the first check against it; that move may be the leap itself. Most accounts give this rule. Von Oefele’s Batak also let the king leap two squares forward, and Brooke in Borneo saw it leap only out of the first check.

Pawns

A pawn moves one square forward, two from its starting square, and captures one square diagonally forward. Only a pawn with an enemy pawn on the square in front of it may take en passant, when an enemy pawn steps two squares past it; Elcum allowed en passant as in chess today, and Raffles and Brooke knew none. On the a- or h-file a pawn that reaches the last rank becomes a queen, rook, bishop or knight at once. On any other file it must first walk back diagonally: one step from the b- or g-file, two from c or f, three from d or e, counting the file it arrives on. Each step goes one square diagonally backward, either way, onto an empty square, and on the last step the pawn becomes the piece you choose. On its way back it neither takes nor gives check, it can be taken, and a badge shows the steps it still owes; how it walks is not described by any source and is ours. Raffles gave three steps on every file, Brooke two extra moves, Winstedt none (the pawn became the piece of the square it reached), and Elcum allowed only a piece already lost.

Winning and draws

Checkmate wins, but a mate given by a discovered check, where the piece that moved does not give check itself, is only a draw (Elcum, von Oefele); a double check that includes the moved piece mates. A side left with nothing but its king has Raja Lela, the free king: from then on that king moves, takes and gives check as a queen and a knight, so taking the last enemy piece too soon can throw a win away (Robinson). Other places ruled otherwise: Winstedt’s lone king stepped or leapt as a knight, Elcum’s had to be mated within seven moves, in Java a bare king won, and von Oefele’s Batak had no such rule. Stalemate is a draw. So are the same position three times, 50 moves without a capture or a pawn move, and king against king or against king and bishop or knight; no source gives these three, they are ours, as in chess.

The regions

H. J. R. Murray found that all Malay games were played the same way, differing only in their refinements. This app plays the rules most accounts give, which are the Peninsula’s (Robinson in Selangor, Elcum, Winstedt in Negri Sembilan). Among the Batak of Sumatra, whom von Oefele watched in 1904, the king’s pawn could make its double step late, a piece shielding its own king gave no check, and a pawn was crowned after a single step back. In Java, after Raffles, the pieces were ratu, pateh, mantri (in the bishop’s place), jaran and prahu (the boat, for the rook), and a bare king won. In Borneo Brooke saw the king leap only out of the first check.

The story

the Malay world · known at Malacca by 1509; played into the 20th century

When and where

Malay chess, main chator, was played across the Malay world: on the Peninsula, in Sumatra, Java and Borneo. It was there before the Portuguese came. At Malacca in 1509 Diego Lopes de Sequeira was playing chess when a Javan came on board and recognised the game, and the Malay Annals of the early 17th century tell of Tun Bahra of Pasai, the best player of his age, who beat the men of Malacca.

How it changed

Its names are Sanskrit, Tamil and Arabic: chator from chaturanga, raja, mantri and gajah; ter and kuda; bidak, sah and mat, which came with Islam. H. J. R. Murray held that European play of the 16th century remodelled the moves, while “the unchequered board, and the whole question of Pawn-promotion, is still pure Asiatic”. The king’s leap lost after the first check was known in parts of Italy around 1600. Seven observers described the game between 1817 and 1917: Raffles in Java, Brooke in Borneo, Clifford and Swettenham, von Oefele among the Batak of Sumatra, Robinson in Selangor, Elcum, and Winstedt in Negri Sembilan.

Today

David Pritchard called the game “a casualty of the 20th century”. This app plays the rules most of the old accounts give, which are those of the Peninsula; the other regions’ rules are in the rules. A Malaysian researcher reported reviving Malay chess in 2025, but his rules are not published, so they are not used here.

Did you know?

Among the Batak a board was carved into the floor of nearly every village hut, the game was always played for a stake, and a headman might ban it for a season. A lone king is Raja Lela, after the court physician, the one official who could go anywhere in the palace.

Original piece names

raja (king) · menteri, mantri (minister, the queen) · gajah (elephant, the bishop) · kuda (horse, the knight) · tir, ter (the rook) · bidak (the pawn)

Sources: H. J. R. Murray, A History of Chess (1913) · T. B. Elcum, Malay Chess, JSBRAS 49 (1907) · R. O. Winstedt, Rules in Malay Chess, JSBRAS 77 (1917) · A. von Oefele, Das Schachspiel der Bataker (1904) · T. S. Raffles, The History of Java (1817) · D. Forbes, The History of Chess (1860) · C. O. Blagden, JRAS (1898) · D. B. Pritchard, The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants (2007) · Jean-Louis Cazaux · Ludii

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.
• 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.
• 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.