Weird, cool, and familiar, the family tree of chess is delightful to explore Become a patreon and help me pay a psychiatrist to tell me what's wrong with me: patreon.com/HighlyEntropicMind
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First game of chess is the chinese version. Believe to created by general Han Xin during the early Han dynasty. Advisor character look like elephant and was call elephant when trade to middle east and south Asia. People are miss informed because chaturanga is not chess but a dice board game. Advisor change to bishop and body guard change to queen when reach europe. Go is the absolute oldest stragety game created. The river called the dividing river of 2 armies Han and Chu. During the final battle of Han Chu contention.
@@HighlyEntropicMind Hey, you seem very enthusiastic about different board games. I'm working on my own board game that takes inspiration in chess but is totally different, if you could help or would like to be involved on developing it, if there's some way I can contact you, please. Very good video!
If you think Dai Shogi has many pieces, then try Taikyoku Shogi. A 36×36 board, 1,296 squares, each player has 402 pieces of 207 different types, including your favorite drunken elephant, and with 253 sets of moves to remember, there are no drops and you have to capture the opponent's king(s) AND prince(s) to win.
@@brendanthedreamer I don't know if there's a playable version anywhere, but there is a Wikipedia page on Taikyoku Shogi which I saw some time ago. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taikyoku_shogi
@@vitallinethat’s awesome. This should be brought back immediately. A game where you legitimately need to look 79 moves ahead in order to avoid a blunder. It feels like it should be played by a team as each side, it’s so complex
One time you might want to promote to a bishop or rook (our knight) instead of a queen is to avoid causing a stalemate where the opponent cant move their king without getting check, isn’t in check, and doesn’t have any other pieces.
I don’t think you have addressed the cannon in XiangQi. It moves like a rook but it has to jump over a piece to capture another piece on the same row/column.
and also the rule of pawn as well. The pawn in Xiangqi and Shogi is very different from other type of chess (capturing pieces in front instead of diagonally)
modern chess got popular because the pieces got huge buffs that made games more explosive and gave you more to think about during each move chaturanga takes like 30 moves to complete development and start attacking
I really enjoyed this video! Congratulations! I knew something about Chaturanga, but not so deeply. So thank you so much for the explanation! If you want to make a new video related to chess variants, in my opinion you should mention "bizantine chess" because in that type of game the rooks become more powerful and the bishops weaker (due to the circular shape of the board). Another variant you should mention is "jester chess": 10x10 board with 2 jesters more for the white and 2 jesters more for the black, added to the standard pieces (pawns, bishops etc.). The brilliant move of the jester is to replicate the move of the last piece moved by the opponent player. This is amazing! Because it increases a lot the game variables :-) Keep on this way! I'm looking forward to watch another video like this. Thanks again, Vikash Trapani
Premotion in chess might not see frequently, but a lot of time they use the premotion as threatens. I see that's fascinating concept of chess premotion.
Chess didn't shake up the mechanics of promoting, but changed the feeling. Promoting to an advisor is lackluster since they're a weaker king, but pawn->queen is a badass feeling
Yes, Shogi is by far the most interesting chess variant in my humble opinion. Although it must be said that games like Chess, Xiangqi, etc are all complicated and challenging enough you could spend a lifetime of enjoyment and problem solving on any one of them. There are no bad choices here really!
Xiangqi is interesting but it's somewhere between Chess and Checkers in terms of complexity. Chess is unusual in how the power of the pieces is distributed relatively evenly, whereas many Chess variants often have alot of very weak pieces.
@@Magnulus76 not really the case, you feel that way because probably you have learnt the basic principles and openings. For example, if you open with Sicilian or Petrof or Kings gambit it's very different balance. Same with Xiangqi, it has many openings based on how you want to position like opposite cannon opening or direct elephant and so on. It brings the balance of the game. So how much time and energy one puts into learning and formulating strategies is the main point. Each of these games offers trillions of possibilities, it is truly complex and has a lot of innovative potential.
This is a really cool video! I would loved to see some info on Senterej or 'Ethiopian Chess' though. It's sort of similar to the Myanmarese variant you mentioned - it begins with a 'marshalling' stage where you arrange your pieces as you want to on the baord, an ulimited number of moves, until the first capture is made, and then it becomes turn based. I just like that 'game before the game' dynamic. Can't find any online servers which support it, or any videos of it being played, or for that matter very much information at all. Still, understand that there's simply too much to cover, and a very interesting and informative video nonetheless!
i can't believe you only have 600 subscribers!!! you deserve over 10,000 atleast. your method of explaining things is so entertaining and your videos are so great. im a a fan :)
Idea, when pawn promotes it gains an additional option of the hippo, for that player's next turn, they can play a normal move, or they can do 1 of 2 things with the newly promoted piece. Destroy each piece (including your own) in a 3x3 area around it, OR move 1 square like a king. Another option, the piece moves 1 square like a king again, but when it dies by being captured, it destroys a 3x3 area around it (including your own). These pieces were inspired by this video and the variant atomic chess.
After watching your video I've finally realized that implementing various chess variants is actually a good idea) Now I have standard chess xiangqi but want to do much more. Thanks for sharing your inspiration!
I am so glad I discovered your channel! Great content overall and always very well researched: I get the feeling that you're a grad/PhD student, as an undergrad myself I was wondering how you conducted your research and if you had any advice for getting better at researching? 😃
When I research something I usually start with Wikipedia to get the general "view of the land", then I try to go to books, interviews or documentaries. If possible, I try to do any experiments myself, if not, I try search for videos of the experiments I guess the most important thing is this: Never say something is true if you are not sure it's true You can be sure it's true because you tested it yourself, or you can be sure it's true because a trustworthy source said it If you are not sure something is true you can still say it, but you have to make the uncertainty known to the audience
There are still some differences between Chaturanga and Shatranj. And Dai Shogi is actually older than the modern version of Shogi. And from what I saw in this video, I presume you like chess variants with a large number of pieces. Ever heard of Taikyoku Shogi?
I liked your video. Enjoyed your enthusiasm! You did ask at the end of the video to mention any chess variant that you may have missed. Well, you missed SENTEREJ (commonly called Ethiopian Chess). Since you liked the opening movies for SITTUYIN, I thought you'd love the opening moves for SENTEREJ !
I'm so happy so liked my video, and thanks for bringing Senterej to my attention In my research I did come across a variant known as Shatranj played in Arabia and the Middle East, but upon reading the rules it seemed too similar too Chaturanga to get a different spot However it seems Ethiopians took Shatranj and made it unique with the "opening phase". If I ever make a follow up to this video I'll mention it for sure
You should check out Congo. The pawns promote after crossing "river" in the middle. There's also a piece that moves like a king, but when in the river it moves like a rook.
and also the rule of pawn as well. The pawn in Xiangqi and Shogi is very different from other type of chess (capturing pieces in front instead of diagonally)
I would love to see a "world tour chess" tournament where people play each one of these games against each other. When two people face off, they have to play a round of western chess, chinese chess, etc and the winner is whoever wins the most games in a given match up. I wouldn't include the larger versions of shogi, though, as it would probably take too much time 😂. Thanks for the video
in sittuiyn I don't know how pawn promotes because you said that they promote when they teach the diagonal lines but in the setup the pawns are already on the diagonal lines
21:14 Actually, there are some cases when you should promote to a rook, because queen leads to immediate stalemate and knight is not enought to mate with. Also there are many cases when promoting to rook (or to bishop) is same immediate check-mate as promoting to a queen, so that you could feel proud that you were able to check-mate your opponent without making a new queen.
@@HighlyEntropicMind hey man :) that'd be great! Sorry for the late answer I've had some problems with CZcams notifications last days, but seems fixed now. Anywhere I can contact you? Otherwise you can send me a DM to my instagram
I think Chess having the mad Queen that can move literally anywhere fundamentally changes the threat of and gameplay around promotion. Honestly promoting to anything other than a Queen is more of a thing for puzzles than actual games. The only reason you’d want to promote to a Rook or a Bishop is if promoting to a Queen will cause stalemate. But then you’d probably just want to promote to a Rook, since it’s easier to checkmate with than a Bishop. I think the only usage for promoting to a Bishop is if you want to torment your opponent.
3:58 in spanish we still call that pice "alfil" which has something to do with the word "elefante" (from what I understand). Calling them bishops has more to do with the translation and catholicism, since the top of the pice resembles something like the hat of a bishop.
Great informative video!! As far as other unmentioned variants go I don't know if anyone else has mentioned it but I'd like to throw Hnefatafl into the mix the older Viking version of chess or the Roman version Ludus Latrunculorum another predecessor to chess
I did look into those games, but I couldn't find definitive evidence that they were chess variants. Maybe the idea of playing a board game on a grid had become popular and people developed independent games based on that idea
@@HighlyEntropicMind oh I was under the impression they were predecessors but I suppose that could be up for debate maybe some would feel that the games are too far removed from each other to be related . Especially Hnefatafl being the objective is different and the odds aren't even like in how we know chess today. I do love Hnefatafl though I own it I play it all the time what I mentioned though is part of why I love it because you have to think differently depending on which side you play l. Of that's why I love the other variants you mentioned because of the slight differences you have to think differently in each one.. good exercise for your brain. I would highly recommend fans of chess to own at least two variations to train yourself to think critically in different ways.. thank you for showing the world the variety in this world
In some languages, such as Russian, bishops are referred to as elephants. Bishop is 'slon' in Russian, which means elephant. In some languages, they're 'hunters' like in Serbian and 'runners' like in German
German has got more different names for the pieces. A pawn is called a Bauer, which literally means farmer, a knight is a Springer, which literally means jumper, and as has been said, the bishop is a Läufer, which literally means runner. In the terminology for the pieces, I never understood the thing about the rook. It's represented by a tower, but its name is not tied to that representation in English, while on the other hand the meaning of the word 'rook', which is a kind of chariot, makes more sense on the battlefield than a tower. In many other languages, the rook is named after it's representation as a tower, though (Dutch: Toren, German: Turm, French: Tour, Spanish: Torre, Italian: Torre, Portugese: Torre). Some seem to use the term 'castle' for a rook in English as well, but that makes even less sense. First, the representation of the rook is only a part of the castle, and second but more importantly, castle is the term for the special king-and-rook move, which could create some confusion this way.
@@williamwilting The rook is the chariot in the original Chaturanga and the closest descendant Chinese Chess. Later it is abstracted by a symbol of power, a castle.
Dig that's sumn else. Did you the differentiating of a distant past game developing eventually into multiple extant games is actually really common. Gridiron football is football by virtue of being in the football family of games having evolved from a form of rugby back when rugby variants were called rugby football gridiron football just never bothered renaming itself
In my research I found that the consensus between scholars is that there were many games played in square grids with different numbers of pieces that moved in different ways. Among them Chaturanga is the ancestor of chess, but Chaturaji probably isn't
@@HighlyEntropicMind that would be the same thing as most other games in the video then. All are offshoots of chaturanga. Only chaturanga and shatranj would be direct ancestors, but they are all still related. Example: my grandfather is my direct ancestor and my uncle isn't, but I'm still related closely to my uncle
Shadyantra was invented in India and Shri Lanka because Shri Lanka was part of india 8800 yrs back. Initially it was named as Dhyut. Shadyantra is based on 10x10 board called Dashpaad. Chaturanga was evolved from Shadyantra in 200 BC after it was latter was banned. And yes Chaturanga was played on 8x8 board..
Promotion is rare, but it is still an absolutely critical part of the game, even when it doesn't wind up happening at all. Just the potential itself of the pawn to eventually become a Queen affects the way you assess the threat of a pawn. Many games come down to how many pawns you have when entering the end-game, their advancement, whether they are passed pawns, isolated pawns, defended etc. determines their value and power.
Chinese Chess is closer to its parent Indian chess than Western Chess. I think that chess should be a bi-athlon. 5 games of Western chess, and 5 games of Chinese chess for the World Bi-athlon Chess championship. The rules you don't like in one game is in the other game, and vice versa. You really have the best of both worlds. My invention, in my head. Biathlon Chess. Western and Chinese.
I think it would be interesting to make a variant with the modern chess where you promote your pawn if it can reach the 6th (for white) or 3rd (for black) row, but it will promote to the piece that "belong" to the file that the pawn is promoting on, so if your (white) pawn reach A6 you get a rook and if you promote a pawn on E6 you get another king.
@@HighlyEntropicMind cool, I really enjoyed the video! I think the different promotions for the pawns is a cool idea but I am skeptical to how the other games you mentioned solved it, keeping track of what piece the promoting pawn started in front of, there may be some confusion or argument which pawn is which if you have several on the same file after captures. So promoting based on end position rather than start position simplifies what you need to keep track of. Also consider adding a Fortress with "bodyguards" that is restricted to inside it like in Chinese chess, I always thought that was a pretty cool feature as those pieces moved based on the lines of the fortress rather than having their own move set so to speak which adds a new interesting dimention to the pieces. Otherwise I think many of the variants you covered is just "more of the same" (like the knight movement extended an extra square etc.) which is more repetetive than interesting, and may be the reason those variants didn't "survive" in the same way that those variants with actual new gameplay additions have done. Quality over quantity
Shut the fuck up. Chess is elegant because it is SIMPLE. The more pieces you have, the more complicated it is. Kriegsspiel tries to go into the. direction of realism as opposed to abstraction, and it failed to surpass chess, in ALL of its incarnations from Kriegsspiel to Dungeons and Dragons to Betrayal at House on the Hill.
The bishop of modern Western chess is still called "elephant" in Russian. Shōgi probably got the idea for promoting on the 6th rank from Ouk chatrang (Cambodia) or Makruk (Thailand).
Thanks for making this, the distinctions between the games are all very interesting. If you want, check out this variant. www.chessvariants.com/large.dir/gigachess.html
The Western chess is very well balanced aesthetically. The occupied squares are balanced against the unoccupied squares. The weakest piece, the pawn, is balanced with the strongest piece, the queen. The pawn can promote to queen. The king is balanced with the queen. The rook is balanced against the bishop. The rook controls the orthogonal, the bishop controls the diagonals. The queen is balanced by the rook and bishop. The queen is balanced by the knight. Where the knight can go the queen cannot go. Black bishops are balanced by white bishops. Bishops are balanced by knights. Knight change colors every time it moves.
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First game of chess is the chinese version. Believe to created by general Han Xin during the early Han dynasty. Advisor character look like elephant and was call elephant when trade to middle east and south Asia. People are miss informed because chaturanga is not chess but a dice board game. Advisor change to bishop and body guard change to queen when reach europe. Go is the absolute oldest stragety game created. The river called the dividing river of 2 armies Han and Chu. During the final battle of Han Chu contention.
@@SaberXFencer Sources or didn't happen
I have liked this comment and the video. I can now dislike and like a video simultaneously. I have so much power.
@@HighlyEntropicMind Hey, you seem very enthusiastic about different board games. I'm working on my own board game that takes inspiration in chess but is totally different, if you could help or would like to be involved on developing it, if there's some way I can contact you, please. Very good video!
I'm imagining a "Reverse Chariot" is like a literal example of putting the cart before the horse
I always thought it sounded like some sex act
If you think Dai Shogi has many pieces, then try Taikyoku Shogi. A 36×36 board, 1,296 squares, each player has 402 pieces of 207 different types, including your favorite drunken elephant, and with 253 sets of moves to remember, there are no drops and you have to capture the opponent's king(s) AND prince(s) to win.
Link!
@@brendanthedreamer I don't know if there's a playable version anywhere, but there is a Wikipedia page on Taikyoku Shogi which I saw some time ago. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taikyoku_shogi
@@vitallinethat’s awesome. This should be brought back immediately. A game where you legitimately need to look 79 moves ahead in order to avoid a blunder.
It feels like it should be played by a team as each side, it’s so complex
One time you might want to promote to a bishop or rook (our knight) instead of a queen is to avoid causing a stalemate where the opponent cant move their king without getting check, isn’t in check, and doesn’t have any other pieces.
Good point, but still, it's a very fringe situation
@@HighlyEntropicMind there is also a line in the albin counter gambit where you promote to a Knight
Fun fact: rooks used to be a chariot so rook the word came from chariot in Persian(rukh).
@@Froge4291 only if your opponent blunders
@@chaseeppards3155 it is still an existing line
I don’t think you have addressed the cannon in XiangQi. It moves like a rook but it has to jump over a piece to capture another piece on the same row/column.
and also the rule of pawn as well. The pawn in Xiangqi and Shogi is very different from other type of chess (capturing pieces in front instead of diagonally)
Speaking of chess promotions, there is a sub-genre of chess puzzles that are basically "can you remember that you can promote to rook/bishop?"
I think chess is so popular because 1. It’s not overly complicated, and 2. It’s very similar to chaturanga
modern chess got popular because the pieces got huge buffs that made games more explosive and gave you more to think about during each move
chaturanga takes like 30 moves to complete development and start attacking
Chess is the western game, and globalization means westernization now
This video was dope. Loved the amount of information and the style. Subbed.
This deserves at least 50x more views. This video is amazing.
thank you, please share it and maybe we will get to 50k
I really enjoyed this video! Congratulations! I knew something about Chaturanga, but not so deeply. So thank you so much for the explanation!
If you want to make a new video related to chess variants, in my opinion you should mention "bizantine chess" because in that type of game the rooks become more powerful and the bishops weaker (due to the circular shape of the board). Another variant you should mention is "jester chess": 10x10 board with 2 jesters more for the white and 2 jesters more for the black, added to the standard pieces (pawns, bishops etc.). The brilliant move of the jester is to replicate the move of the last piece moved by the opponent player. This is amazing! Because it increases a lot the game variables :-)
Keep on this way! I'm looking forward to watch another video like this.
Thanks again,
Vikash Trapani
Apparently, the Timurid empire was only Timur the Lames side hustle
Finally someone got it
Wow very interesting story and you speak with such enthusiasm! Liked! From a fellow chess enthusiast! :D
I was under the impression that dai shogi came before shogi not the other way around
Premotion in chess might not see frequently, but a lot of time they use the premotion as threatens. I see that's fascinating concept of chess premotion.
Chess didn't shake up the mechanics of promoting, but changed the feeling. Promoting to an advisor is lackluster since they're a weaker king, but pawn->queen is a badass feeling
Yes, Shogi is by far the most interesting chess variant in my humble opinion. Although it must be said that games like Chess, Xiangqi, etc are all complicated and challenging enough you could spend a lifetime of enjoyment and problem solving on any one of them. There are no bad choices here really!
Xiangqi is interesting but it's somewhere between Chess and Checkers in terms of complexity. Chess is unusual in how the power of the pieces is distributed relatively evenly, whereas many Chess variants often have alot of very weak pieces.
@@Magnulus76 not really the case, you feel that way because probably you have learnt the basic principles and openings. For example, if you open with Sicilian or Petrof or Kings gambit it's very different balance. Same with Xiangqi, it has many openings based on how you want to position like opposite cannon opening or direct elephant and so on. It brings the balance of the game. So how much time and energy one puts into learning and formulating strategies is the main point. Each of these games offers trillions of possibilities, it is truly complex and has a lot of innovative potential.
This is so great. What a great informative vid man. Got urself a sub
thank you so much, I'm working on the history of forgotten board games, stay tuned for that!
This is a really cool video! I would loved to see some info on Senterej or 'Ethiopian Chess' though. It's sort of similar to the Myanmarese variant you mentioned - it begins with a 'marshalling' stage where you arrange your pieces as you want to on the baord, an ulimited number of moves, until the first capture is made, and then it becomes turn based. I just like that 'game before the game' dynamic.
Can't find any online servers which support it, or any videos of it being played, or for that matter very much information at all.
Still, understand that there's simply too much to cover, and a very interesting and informative video nonetheless!
You didn’t talk about Xiangqi’s Cannon. 😼 it’s signature.
I wanted to, but the problem is that talking about individual pieces in each game would have taken too long
There’s so many different chess variants
i can't believe you only have 600 subscribers!!! you deserve over 10,000 atleast. your method of explaining things is so entertaining and your videos are so great. im a a fan :)
you can help me get there by sharing this video
Great video, thank you!
Amazing video, very well done
Thank you
Idea, when pawn promotes it gains an additional option of the hippo, for that player's next turn, they can play a normal move, or they can do 1 of 2 things with the newly promoted piece. Destroy each piece (including your own) in a 3x3 area around it, OR move 1 square like a king.
Another option, the piece moves 1 square like a king again, but when it dies by being captured, it destroys a 3x3 area around it (including your own).
These pieces were inspired by this video and the variant atomic chess.
After watching your video I've finally realized that implementing various chess variants is actually a good idea) Now I have standard chess xiangqi but want to do much more. Thanks for sharing your inspiration!
wow, it always feels so incredible when my videos inspire someone, good luck and let me know when you have implemented Timur's Chess
The “shatranj” finally connected my neurons from “chaturanga” to the Turkish word for chess “satranç” what the heck
Underrated
it might be useful to promote to Rook or Bishop to prevent stalemate
I think a video about modern variants would be very cool! :)
I am so glad I discovered your channel! Great content overall and always very well researched: I get the feeling that you're a grad/PhD student, as an undergrad myself I was wondering how you conducted your research and if you had any advice for getting better at researching? 😃
When I research something I usually start with Wikipedia to get the general "view of the land", then I try to go to books, interviews or documentaries. If possible, I try to do any experiments myself, if not, I try search for videos of the experiments
I guess the most important thing is this: Never say something is true if you are not sure it's true
You can be sure it's true because you tested it yourself, or you can be sure it's true because a trustworthy source said it
If you are not sure something is true you can still say it, but you have to make the uncertainty known to the audience
I remember seeing xianqi in a few martial arts movies & shogi in some animes.i typed chess variants,i saw this video.i like it,very informative
"i typed chess variants,i saw this video"
yesss!
There are still some differences between Chaturanga and Shatranj. And Dai Shogi is actually older than the modern version of Shogi. And from what I saw in this video, I presume you like chess variants with a large number of pieces. Ever heard of Taikyoku Shogi?
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Thanks r/chessvariants. I liked I'll subscribe.
I liked your video. Enjoyed your enthusiasm! You did ask at the end of the video to mention any chess variant that you may have missed. Well, you missed SENTEREJ (commonly called Ethiopian Chess). Since you liked the opening movies for SITTUYIN, I thought you'd love the opening moves for SENTEREJ !
I'm so happy so liked my video, and thanks for bringing Senterej to my attention
In my research I did come across a variant known as Shatranj played in Arabia and the Middle East, but upon reading the rules it seemed too similar too Chaturanga to get a different spot
However it seems Ethiopians took Shatranj and made it unique with the "opening phase". If I ever make a follow up to this video I'll mention it for sure
Very epic
You should check out Congo. The pawns promote after crossing "river" in the middle. There's also a piece that moves like a king, but when in the river it moves like a rook.
❤ Cool
I need these to play in my channel 😁👍🏽
Thank you so much!!!
😂and i actually love Shogi the must but am so dumb in it aswell....
I’m surprised that you didn’t mention the cannon in Xiangqi (pronounced closer to Syiang Chi). It changes everything!
and also the rule of pawn as well. The pawn in Xiangqi and Shogi is very different from other type of chess (capturing pieces in front instead of diagonally)
@@vaninhhuu3215 Yes, I’d forgotten to mention that!
I would love to see a "world tour chess" tournament where people play each one of these games against each other. When two people face off, they have to play a round of western chess, chinese chess, etc and the winner is whoever wins the most games in a given match up. I wouldn't include the larger versions of shogi, though, as it would probably take too much time 😂. Thanks for the video
in sittuiyn I don't know how pawn promotes because you said that they promote when they teach the diagonal lines but in the setup the pawns are already on the diagonal lines
21:14 Actually, there are some cases when you should promote to a rook, because queen leads to immediate stalemate and knight is not enought to mate with. Also there are many cases when promoting to rook (or to bishop) is same immediate check-mate as promoting to a queen, so that you could feel proud that you were able to check-mate your opponent without making a new queen.
The elephant moves like the elephant in Chinese Chess, 2 squares diagonally, basically.
Hi. I like your vdo. To answer your question I like the chinese chess and the cannon. It is really tricky. Really fun to play.
I recently made a video about about the history of chaturanga! To find your content was a welcomed surprise :) great work!
I've been wanting to do a video about board games that were forgotten like Liubo, wanna colab?
@@HighlyEntropicMind hey man :) that'd be great! Sorry for the late answer I've had some problems with CZcams notifications last days, but seems fixed now. Anywhere I can contact you? Otherwise you can send me a DM to my instagram
@@ancientgaming4698 use my email francofelix94@gmail.com
I think Chess having the mad Queen that can move literally anywhere fundamentally changes the threat of and gameplay around promotion. Honestly promoting to anything other than a Queen is more of a thing for puzzles than actual games. The only reason you’d want to promote to a Rook or a Bishop is if promoting to a Queen will cause stalemate. But then you’d probably just want to promote to a Rook, since it’s easier to checkmate with than a Bishop. I think the only usage for promoting to a Bishop is if you want to torment your opponent.
I am thinking about timur's chess I think I find it very intresting but you know what I need? ans: more pieces
3:58 in spanish we still call that pice "alfil" which has something to do with the word "elefante" (from what I understand). Calling them bishops has more to do with the translation and catholicism, since the top of the pice resembles something like the hat of a bishop.
How did you gloss over the most modern piece in Xiangqi, le kanon.
Great informative video!! As far as other unmentioned variants go I don't know if anyone else has mentioned it but I'd like to throw Hnefatafl into the mix the older Viking version of chess or the Roman version Ludus Latrunculorum another predecessor to chess
I did look into those games, but I couldn't find definitive evidence that they were chess variants. Maybe the idea of playing a board game on a grid had become popular and people developed independent games based on that idea
@@HighlyEntropicMind oh I was under the impression they were predecessors but I suppose that could be up for debate maybe some would feel that the games are too far removed from each other to be related . Especially Hnefatafl being the objective is different and the odds aren't even like in how we know chess today. I do love Hnefatafl though I own it I play it all the time what I mentioned though is part of why I love it because you have to think differently depending on which side you play l. Of that's why I love the other variants you mentioned because of the slight differences you have to think differently in each one.. good exercise for your brain. I would highly recommend fans of chess to own at least two variations to train yourself to think critically in different ways.. thank you for showing the world the variety in this world
XiangQi is actually pronounced like schun chee, something like that.
Nice vid
You're quiet confident for the view your getting
Bishops used to move/capture only one Square diagonaly, no?
That's Queen
I have a version it isn't overwhelmingly high change and not a eye rollably low change
In some languages, such as Russian, bishops are referred to as elephants. Bishop is 'slon' in Russian, which means elephant. In some languages, they're 'hunters' like in Serbian and 'runners' like in German
fascinating, thank you
@@HighlyEntropicMind Happy to help :)
In Romania they are called (a person who is)crazy or insane [nebun]
German has got more different names for the pieces. A pawn is called a Bauer, which literally means farmer, a knight is a Springer, which literally means jumper, and as has been said, the bishop is a Läufer, which literally means runner.
In the terminology for the pieces, I never understood the thing about the rook. It's represented by a tower, but its name is not tied to that representation in English, while on the other hand the meaning of the word 'rook', which is a kind of chariot, makes more sense on the battlefield than a tower. In many other languages, the rook is named after it's representation as a tower, though (Dutch: Toren, German: Turm, French: Tour, Spanish: Torre, Italian: Torre, Portugese: Torre). Some seem to use the term 'castle' for a rook in English as well, but that makes even less sense. First, the representation of the rook is only a part of the castle, and second but more importantly, castle is the term for the special king-and-rook move, which could create some confusion this way.
@@williamwilting The rook is the chariot in the original Chaturanga and the closest descendant Chinese Chess.
Later it is abstracted by a symbol of power, a castle.
1:35 - Roll a d8
Omg m from Myanmar and I didn't even know that "sittuyin" is a verient of chess
We usually just use that word for chess
Interesting, how do people know which variant they mean?
You have an interesting accent. Where are you from?
Mexico
Dig that's sumn else. Did you the differentiating of a distant past game developing eventually into multiple extant games is actually really common. Gridiron football is football by virtue of being in the football family of games having evolved from a form of rugby back when rugby variants were called rugby football gridiron football just never bothered renaming itself
Isn't pawn of pawns promoted to Prince in Tamerlane Chess
The name varies but in functional terms it is a king
Of course chaturaji is classified as a chaturanga variant, why would you say it isn't related to chess
In my research I found that the consensus between scholars is that there were many games played in square grids with different numbers of pieces that moved in different ways. Among them Chaturanga is the ancestor of chess, but Chaturaji probably isn't
@@HighlyEntropicMind that would be the same thing as most other games in the video then. All are offshoots of chaturanga. Only chaturanga and shatranj would be direct ancestors, but they are all still related. Example: my grandfather is my direct ancestor and my uncle isn't, but I'm still related closely to my uncle
They are origns to chase
As a game designer... Note to self: In game, include drunken elephant.
My mission here is done
As an obscure chess variants inventor... Include Drunken Crab instead
Shadyantra was invented in India and Shri Lanka because Shri Lanka was part of india 8800 yrs back. Initially it was named as Dhyut. Shadyantra is based on 10x10 board called Dashpaad. Chaturanga was evolved from Shadyantra in 200 BC after it was latter was banned. And yes Chaturanga was played on 8x8 board..
Bishops are called elephants in some languages, Russian for example
Young Mitch Hurwitz
I'm oddly flattered
@@HighlyEntropicMind You should be, he's a handsome (and hilarious) man.
Chess Battle Advance
India Chess: Old Chess
Tamerlane Chess: Big chess
Chinese Chess: Geography Chess
Shogi: Promotion Chess
European Chess: Fast Chess
Pretty much
I should clarify that I now think of European Chess (after finishing the video) as special movement cheas
@@realmless4193 pretty much
What's better than Shogi? DAI Shogi.
amen
Bigger is not always better.
there is luzhanqi which is a chinese game of war and doushouqi which is animal game
All of them were the invention of their era, imagine Vietnam war chess, it's can be a mix of chess and battle ship, lol
@8:07 Sounds like Timurs Chess was so complicated the ONLY TIMUR COULD HAVE KNOWN ALL THE RULES!!! A tyrant likes to always win... IMHO
I really think that the culture of chess is actually more intresting in the east and not being checkered
Promotion is rare, but it is still an absolutely critical part of the game, even when it doesn't wind up happening at all. Just the potential itself of the pawn to eventually become a Queen affects the way you assess the threat of a pawn. Many games come down to how many pawns you have when entering the end-game, their advancement, whether they are passed pawns, isolated pawns, defended etc. determines their value and power.
Chinese Chess is closer to its parent Indian chess than Western Chess.
I think that chess should be a bi-athlon. 5 games of Western chess, and 5 games of Chinese chess for the World Bi-athlon Chess championship.
The rules you don't like in one game is in the other game, and vice versa.
You really have the best of both worlds.
My invention, in my head. Biathlon Chess. Western and Chinese.
I think it would be interesting to make a variant with the modern chess where you promote your pawn if it can reach the 6th (for white) or 3rd (for black) row, but it will promote to the piece that "belong" to the file that the pawn is promoting on, so if your (white) pawn reach A6 you get a rook and if you promote a pawn on E6 you get another king.
Cool, I'll see if I get a couple more suggestions and maybe combine them into "Highly Entropic Chess"
@@HighlyEntropicMind cool, I really enjoyed the video! I think the different promotions for the pawns is a cool idea but I am skeptical to how the other games you mentioned solved it, keeping track of what piece the promoting pawn started in front of, there may be some confusion or argument which pawn is which if you have several on the same file after captures. So promoting based on end position rather than start position simplifies what you need to keep track of.
Also consider adding a Fortress with "bodyguards" that is restricted to inside it like in Chinese chess, I always thought that was a pretty cool feature as those pieces moved based on the lines of the fortress rather than having their own move set so to speak which adds a new interesting dimention to the pieces. Otherwise I think many of the variants you covered is just "more of the same" (like the knight movement extended an extra square etc.) which is more repetetive than interesting, and may be the reason those variants didn't "survive" in the same way that those variants with actual new gameplay additions have done. Quality over quantity
Shogi is a very elegant chess variant that's far less abstract, in many ways its superior to western Chess.
Shut the fuck up. Chess is elegant because it is SIMPLE.
The more pieces you have, the more complicated it is. Kriegsspiel tries to go into the. direction of realism as opposed to abstraction, and it failed to surpass chess, in ALL of its incarnations from Kriegsspiel to Dungeons and Dragons to Betrayal at House on the Hill.
Have you ever heard of taikoyu shogi? The board's size is 600*600!!!
No, because complexity is stupid.
Have u ever heard of chess variant named "Trappist-1"?
@@hy7864 HOLY MOLY, a new variant for me to get lost in...
there is shatar mongolian chess
i have weak chess
pieces:
Elephant (xiangqi)
Silver general (Shogi)
Gold general (Shogi)
Ferz
Wazir
King
Pawns
shogi
The bishop of modern Western chess is still called "elephant" in Russian. Shōgi probably got the idea for promoting on the 6th rank from Ouk chatrang (Cambodia) or Makruk (Thailand).
Thanks for making this, the distinctions between the games are all very interesting.
If you want, check out this variant.
www.chessvariants.com/large.dir/gigachess.html
The Western chess is very well balanced aesthetically.
The occupied squares are balanced against the unoccupied squares.
The weakest piece, the pawn, is balanced with the strongest piece, the queen. The pawn can promote to queen.
The king is balanced with the queen.
The rook is balanced against the bishop. The rook controls the orthogonal, the bishop controls the diagonals.
The queen is balanced by the rook and bishop. The queen is balanced by the knight. Where the knight can go the queen cannot go.
Black bishops are balanced by white bishops.
Bishops are balanced by knights. Knight change colors every time it moves.
Gaming
If you liked Shogi and Dai Shogi, you're going to love Taikyoku Shogi.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taikyoku_shogi
Handsome man