Chaturaji modern-variant (4-handed Chaturanga) without dice

created May'2008 (v1.0), updated February'2009 (v1.1)
by Emmanuel Baud

History

Chaturanga for four players (called Chaturaji by Pritchard in his Chess Variants Encyclopedia) probably originated in India about 1000 years ago, and is believed to be a development of 2-handed Chaturanga. In medieval times, the game was mostly played with dice (four-sided long dice), often with stakes involved. This version without dices is an implementation of the modern variant (played in several parts of India until the end of the 19th century) whereas some options are not clear (no move after king captured and no 2nd King, piece promotion, king entering an attacked position...). The options I chose are for a better play, according to me.

Description

The four players form two teams of two players. Red plays together with yellow, and green plays together with black(=viollet). The king, rook, and knight move as in orthodox chess. Pawns, too, move as in orthodox chess, but have no initial double move. The boat jumps two squares diagonally.

Here are the options I chose for this implementation of the modern variant of Chaturaji, without dice:
v1.1:

• A player can Pass its turn anytime only when no other move is possible.
• improved processing (faster) and graphics
  

v1.0:

• The first team that has taken both opponents' kings wins the game.
• A player can not move his pieces after his own king is captured (no 2nd life for the king), and its pieces are no more attacking.
  
• It is not possible to capture one's partners pieces, allied pieces are not attacking themselves.
• A king cannot move into an attacked position (but any piece can move while its king is/become attacked).
• Pawns promote to any of: rook, knight, boat.

Strategy

Note that, sometimes, it is possible to put one's own piece 'en prise', provided that one's partner has the intermediate move, so that he can remove the threatening piece. It is a common tactics to put a piece on a threatened square, assuming partner will attack opponent's King. It is a highly cooperative game. In this implementation, like in orthodox chess, king is a passive piece, not able to enter an attacked position. You'll play Yellow+Red or Black+Green, and if you want to play only one army, then use ctrl-H at partner's turn.
It is fully playing with partnership, so that sometimes you won't understand a move at first sight. You'll lose some important pieces while capturing an opponent's King, that makes the game more equilibrate after capture. Try to place quickly your King in a not-attackable position, and to always keep an attack move towards opponents' Kings... This is the winning Key.
Chose at least 1 min reflexion time for computer. This is a very fast and aggressive game.

This implementation has a bug: army pieces of a captured King still have a small value strength... then Zillions AI tries to capture such useless pieces... Kings' values have been increased in order to increase targeting their capture (In fact when a King is lost, all its army is lost... in this implementation, King=Rook+Knight)

You'll find some sample plays in root directory of zipped Zillions files. Unfortunately, previous version gameplay are no more compatible with this version of ZRF.


See also Chess Variants page. , or Eurasia-Chess website for previous version.

To play you must have installed "Zillions of Games". Either double-click on "Chaturanji-modern.zrf" or
1. Run "Zillions of Games"
2. Choose "Open Game Rules..." from the File menu
3. Select "Chaturaji-modern.zrf" in the Open dialog and click "Open"
"Chaturanji-modern.zrf" is a rules file used by the Windows program "Zillions of Games". Zillions of Games allows you to play any number of games against the computer or over the Internet. Zillions of Games can be purchased online. For more information please visit the Zillions of Games website www.zillions-of-games.com