Pawn which arrives at the 8th row receives promotion to the rank of the master-piece of the file, i.e. a Pawn reaching a8 (a1) or h8 (h1) becomes a Rook, reaching b8 (b1) or g8 (g1) a Horse (Kt), reaching c8 (c1) or f8 (f1) an Elephant (B), and reaching d8 (d1) or e8 (e1) a Vizier (Q). The possibilities of promotion are further complicated by the rule that no Pawn may be promoted until the player has lost a piece of the rank that the Pawn must adopt on reaching the eighth row. Before a Pawn can be promoted to an Elephant (B), that particular Elephant which could reach the ‘queening’ square must have been lost. A player may not have on the board more pieces of any kind than he had at the commencement of the game. Accordingly, we have a further rule that no Pawn on the 7th row can be advanced to the 8th, until its immediate promotion is legally possible. Thus a player with an advanced Pawn on d7 cannot play Pd8 so long as he has a Vizier on the board: if he wishes to ‘queen’ this Pawn, he must first sacrifice the existing Vizier. During this pause the advanced Pawn enjoys no immunity from capture: it can be taken like any other piece.18
The game is played from the commencement by alternate moves, precisely as is the case in the European game.19
Three conclusions of a game are recognized—
checkmate, which is identical with the European checkmate: the Urdu term is māt.
burd, or half-win, when a player succeeds in capturing all his opponent’s superior pieces, whether he leave him any Pawns or not.20
bāzī qā’īm, or draw, when both players are left with a single piece. Singha terms this termination chaturbolla.
Stalemate is not recognized, and a player is not permitted to make a move which stalemates his opponent.21 Perpetual check is recognized as a drawn game, but the game must not be abandoned, so says Durgāprasāda, until check has been given 70 times in succession!
The following specimen of Hindustani chess is taken from the Benares work of Syamakiṣora. The Kings are to be placed upon e1 and d8:
The Parsi chess differs considerably from the game that I have just described. The moves of the superior pieces are the same, except that the King is allowed to make his single leap as a Knight out of check, and can even capture a hostile piece by it.23 But the Pawns’ moves are quite different. Each of the four Pawns which stand in front of the King, Vizier, and Rooks, i.e. on the a, d, e, and h files, is allowed the full European initial move, so long as the master-piece of the file, which stands behind the Pawn it is desired to play, has not been moved. The other four Pawns, as in the Hindustani game, can only move one square at a time.24
There is also some variation with respect to Pawn-promotion. It is not clear from my authorities that the restriction to promotion of a BP, which I have recorded in the case of the Hindustani game, obtains in the Parsi game. On the other hand, the Pawn which is promoted on the Knights’ files is specially privileged. When the player moves the Pawn from the 7th sq. to the 8th, and promotes it to the rank of Horse (Kt), he can, if he choose, on the same move, make a further Knight’s move with the newly promoted piece.25 There are also some local peculiarities with regard to the Pawn promoted on its King’s file. According to one European writer (CPM., 1866, 35), the Deccan player was at liberty in this case to select the rank of any piece that he had already lost for the promotion-value of this Pawn. Another observer (CPC., 1843, 150) extends this privilege to a Pawn queening on the Vizier’s file also. Tiruveṇgaḍāchārya and Gillay, both native authorities, give the rule as I give it for Hindustani chess.
At the commencement of the game, the player who has the move begins by playing a certain number of moves in succession. In so doing he is not allowed to cross into the opponent’s half of the board. The native chessbooks generally speak of 4 or 8 moves being played in this way,26 but they give examples of arrangements which they recommend for use which require from 4 to 9 moves. Mr. Gillay told me that 4 moves were usually played in Northern, and 3 in Southern India, ‘as the player wishes to bring the King in a good position’. Lala Raja Babu says that in Parsi chess the players commence by playing 4 simultaneous moves. When the first player has made the number of moves that had been agreed upon, or which suited his plans, the second player proceeds to make an equal number of moves with the same restriction that he must keep to his own half of the board. At the conclusion of this rearrangement of the forces the game continues by alternate moves, precisely as in European chess. The earliest trace of this custom is to be seen in the chess passage which I have quoted from Nīlakaṇṭ·ha. The native player Tiruveṇgaḍāchārya Shastrī defends the custom in his Essays on Chess (xiv), as allowing ‘of a general disposition and all the pieces being brought out before any exchange takes place, without giving to either player any decided advantage’, a consummation which he considered would be more likely than the European method of play ‘to bring forward the learner’, and ‘to produce the greatest number of good players’: an opinion which has certainly not been borne out in the experience of the 19th c.
The following combinations of opening moves are given in the native chess-books which I have used. The order of the moves is naturally immaterial. The Kings stand on e1 and d8.
A. In four moves. I.—Pd4, Pe4, Pe3, Pf3. II.—Pe4, Pd3, Pf3, Be3. III.—Pe4, Pd4, Kte3, Ktf3. IV.—Pe4, Pd4, Kte3, Be3. V.—Pd3, Bf4, Pe3, Be2. VI.—Pe4, Pd4, Be3, Bd3. VII.—Pd4, Ph4, Bf4, Ktf3. VIII.—Pd4, Pc3, Pg3, Ktd2. IX.—Pe4, Pd4, Pc3, Be3. X.—Pe3, Pd3, Pc3, Pf3. XI.—Pb3, Pg3, Bb2, Bg2.
B. In six moves. XII.—Pe4, Pd4, Be3, Bd3, Ktc3, Ktf3. XIII.—Pd3, Pc3, Pb3, Pa3, Ktf3, bKtd2.
C. In seven moves. XIV.—Pe3, Pd3, Pg3, Bg2, Ktf3, Ke2, Re1.
D. In eight moves. XV.—Pe4, Pd4, Be3, Bd3, Pc3, Pf3, Kte2, Ktd2. XVI.—Pd4, Bf4, Ph4, Pa3, Pc3, Pc4, Ktc3, Ktf3. XVII.—Pe4, Pd4, Be3, Bd3, Ktf3, Ktc3, Ke2, Re1. XVIII.—Pe4, Pd4, Be3, Be2, Ktc3, Ktf3, Ph3, Kf1.
E. In nine moves. XIX.—Pe4, Pd4, Be3, Bd3, Ktc3, Ktf3, Pg3, Kg2, Re1.
There are different methods of concluding the game. While the ultimate object—the mate of the opponent’s King27—is the same as in European chess, the Parsi and Southern Indian chessplayer is more fastidious than the modern European as to the method by which he gives mate. The European esteems all his pieces alike for the purpose. The Indian thinks differently. In his opinion the highest achievement and the most brilliant conclusion is the mate with a Pawn,28 and he will steer his way past opportunities for brilliant sacrifice and past obvious mates on the move, if he thinks that he can, at the end of a long and wearisome manœuvre, give checkmate with a Pawn.
Stalemate is not recognized. ‘Stalemate is not known in the Hindoostannee game,’ says Tiruveṇgaḍāchārya; ‘if one party get into that position the adversary must make room for him to move. In some part of India he that is put into this predicament has a right to remove from the board any one of the Adversary’s pieces he may choose.’ Perpetual check is also forbidden: the attacking player must vary his procedure.
If a player lose all his superior pieces, whether he has Pawns remaining or not, the game is said to be būrd or būrj and is reckoned as drawn. Tiruveṇgaḍāchārya gives it as a win to which very little credit is attached, and adds that in many parts it is only counted a draw. Mr. Gillay says that it is called panchamobara būrj if the superior force has four pieces besides the King when the game is abandoned as būrj. Another observer in the Deccan (CPM., 1866, 34) says: ‘If at the end of the game, either player is left with only one piece, with or without Pawns, the game is drawn; or, if only Pawns are left, the game is drawn. This rule, however, admits of various modifications. In some cases, if one piece only is left, it becomes endowed with new powers and renders it difficult for the adversary to escape. But this, I assume, is rather a mode of giving odds than a distinct variety of the game.’ Something like this has been recorded of one form of Malay chess.
The following specimens of play with the Parsi rules are taken from the two Marathi chess-books which have been used as authorities for this form of chess. The Kings are to be placed