Marshal the Thai chess army — pawns already advanced, a queen and bishop that step softly, and promotions that fire mid-board.
Makruk is Thai chess, played on an 8×8 board with pieces whose ranges sit between the medieval and modern games. Pawns begin on the third rank, much closer to contact, and the close-stepping pieces make for sharp, tactical middlegames where promotion happens deep in enemy territory rather than on the back rank.
Makruk is the traditional chess of Thailand, and one of the closest living relatives of the medieval game. Like European chess, Japanese shogi and Chinese xiangqi, it grew out of the Indian chaturanga that spread across Asia more than a thousand years ago, reaching the Thai world through the Khmer lands — it remains almost identical to Cambodia's ouk chatrang.
Where modern chess sped its pieces up, Makruk kept them close to the old form. The queen — the Met — steps just one square diagonally, as weak as the medieval Fers; and the bishop — the Khon, an elephant — moves one square diagonally or one straight forward, exactly like shogi's silver general. Because the strong long-range pieces never arrived, Makruk is a slow, subtle game of maneuver rather than sudden long-range attacks.
Two features set it apart. The pawns — the Bia — begin already advanced, on the third rank, and when one reaches the sixth rank it promotes to a Met, traditionally shown by turning a cowrie shell face-up. With so many short-range pieces, endgames are long and exact, and Thai rules count down the moves in which the stronger side must deliver mate or settle for a draw.
Makruk has been played in Thailand for centuries — in villages, temples and coffee shops — and is still hugely popular today, with its own champions and tournaments. This is a free browser version of that enduring game.
Makruk is the traditional chess of Thailand, a public-domain board game closely related to other historical chess variants of Southeast Asia. This is an original, free browser version with a built-in computer opponent — no download or account needed.