Sittuyin is a chess-related game

Chess variant

A chess variant is a game related to, derived from or inspired by chess. The difference from chess might include one or more of the following:...

 which is a direct offspring of the Indian game of Chaturanga

Chaturanga

Chaturanga is an ancient Indian game that is presumed to be the common ancestor of the games of chess, shogi, and makruk, and related to xiangqi and janggi.Chaturanga developed in Gupta India around the 6th century...

 which arrived in 8th century AD. 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 international chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

, though it remains popular in the northwest regions.

Board

The Sittuyin board consists of 64 squares, 8 rows and 8 columns, without alternating colors. It also consists two diagonal lines across the board known as "sit-ke-myin" (general's lines). Size of the board is usually 24×24 inches, with squares approximately 3×3 inches.

Pieces and their moves

Pieces are commonly made in wood and sometimes in ivory. The height of the pieces is varied by class, traditionally two to three inches. The official colors of the pieces are red and black.

Min-gyi (king): equivalent to a chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

 king

King (chess)

In chess, the king is the most important piece. The object of the game is to trap the opponent's king so that its escape is not possible . If a player's king is threatened with capture, it is said to be in check, and the player must remove the threat of capture on the next move. If this cannot be...

; it can move one step in any direction.

Sit-ke (general): equivalent to a chess queen

Queen (chess)

The queen is the most powerful piece in the game of chess, able to move any number of squares vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. Each player starts the game with one queen, placed in the middle of the first rank next to the king. With the chessboard oriented correctly, the white queen starts...

; it can move one step in any diagonal direction (as Fers in Shatranj

Shatranj

Shatranj is an old form of chess, which came to the Western world from India. Modern chess has gradually developed from this game.-Etymology and origins:...

).

Sin (elephant): equivalent to a chess bishop

Bishop (chess)

A bishop is a piece in the board game of chess. Each player begins the game with two bishops. One starts between the king's knight and the king, the other between the queen's knight and the queen...

; it can move one step in any diagonal direction or one step forward (as silver general in Shogi

Shogi

, also known as Japanese chess, is a two-player board game in the same family as Western chess, chaturanga, and Chinese Xiangqi, and is the most popular of a family of chess variants native to Japan...

).

Myin (horse): equivalent to a chess knight

Knight (chess)

The knight is a piece in the game of chess, representing a knight . It is normally represented by a horse's head and neck. Each player starts with two knights, which begin on the row closest to the player, one square from the corner...

; it can jump two horizontal squares and one vertical square or two vertical squares and one horizontal square, as in Western chess.

Yahhta (chariot): equivalent to a chess rook

Rook (chess)

A rook is a piece in the strategy board game of chess. Formerly the piece was called the castle, tower, marquess, rector, and comes...

; it can move to any number of free squares along four orthogonal directions.

Nè (feudal lord): equivalent to a chess pawn

Pawn (chess)

The pawn is the most numerous and weakest piece in the game of chess, historically representing infantry, or more particularly armed peasants or pikemen. Each player begins the game with eight pawns, one on each square of the rank immediately in front of the other pieces...

; it can move one step forward but cannot retreat; it captures as in Western chess.

Rules

Only feudal lords (pawns

Pawn (chess)

The pawn is the most numerous and weakest piece in the game of chess, historically representing infantry, or more particularly armed peasants or pikemen. Each player begins the game with eight pawns, one on each square of the rank immediately in front of the other pieces...

) 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 anywhere but in the last row. In official tournaments, a small curtain is used on the middle of the board to prevent the players seeing each others' deployment during the sit-tee phase. One of the possible game openings is shown in the diagram to the right.

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 his or her general is no longer on the board, the player can (if he wishes 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

Checkmate is a situation in chess in which one player's king is threatened with capture and there is no way to meet that threat. Or, simply put, the king is under direct attack and cannot avoid being captured...

) the opponent's king. Placing the opponent's king into stalemate

Stalemate

Stalemate is a situation in chess where the player whose turn it is to move is not in check but has no legal moves. A stalemate ends the game in a draw. Stalemate is covered in the rules of chess....

 is not allowed.

In the version reported in A History of Chess

A History of Chess

A History of Chess is a chess history book by Harold James Ruthven Murray published in 1913.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 different parts of the world; to investigate the ultimate origin of these...

in 1913, a game of Sittuyin had three stages:

1. 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 his pawns is, and in the same move put that pawn in a free square behind his row of pawns.
2. Second stage: in each move, each player moves any one of his pieces (not a pawn) to any other empty place in his own half of the board, ignoring the usual move rules. Or he can move a pawn one square forwards and this ends the second stage and the third stage starts.
3. Ordinary play, obeying the rules for piece moves.

Dice rules

Anne Sunnucks

Anne Sunnucks

Patricia Anne Sunnucks is an author and the several time British Women's Chess Champion .Although she learned how to play chess at age 8, she did not play seriously until age 21 when she joined the same chess club as Imre König, who became her tutor...

writes that three dice were thrown and each player made three moves at a time.

External links

• Sittuyin by Hans L. Bodlaender
• Sittuyin, the Burmese Chess by Jean-Louis Cazaux
• Burmese traditional chess by Dr. Peter Nicolaus