Parsi Chess is a general term for a number of local varieties of chess
played in southern India in the nineteenth century, apparently descended from
the game brought by the European traders at the start of the seventeenth
century. The following rules appear to be typical and distinctive.
The board was still the original one on which chess was invented: eight
squares by eight, uncheckered, but with the first, fourth, fifth, and eighth
squares of the first, fourth, fifth, and eighth rank and file specially
marked.
The king and vizier stand on the two central squares on the first rank, with
the king on the right and the vizier on the left from
each players point of view. They are flanked on each side by a camel,
then by a horse, and lastly by an elephant. The elephant may be replaced by a
chariot or even a castle, and the camel is not invariant, though the horse is
always a horse. Pawns fill up the second rank.
Pieces
The pieces have the same basic moves as in Europe. The piece in the corners,
whatever its shape, has the rooks move, the horse has the knights leap,
the camel or other piece next inboard runs along the diagonals, and the vizier
has the queens move. The king moves one square in any direction, and cannot
castle, but once in each game may leap like a knight. He may exercise this power
after he has moved, and even to get out of check, and may capture on that leap.
Whether, having once been checked, and having escaped the check by other means,
he may afterwards leap, we are not told. Probably he could.
The pawn moves one step forward, and captures one step diagonally forward.
The rooks, kings, and viziers pawns may move two squares forward on
their first moves (bringing those pawns to marked squares), provided in each
case that the piece behind the pawn has not yet moved. There is no capture en
passant.
A pawn reaching the eighth rank is promoted to the rank of whatever piece
originally stood on that square (except on the kings home square), provided
that the player who owns the pawn has already lost a piece of the appropriate
type, because a player can never have more of any type of piece than he started
with. On the c or f file, the camel (bishop) that could reach that square must
already have been lost (and remember that the board was not checkered). A pawn
that reaches the opposing kings square can be promoted to the rank of any
piece already lost. A knight gained by promotion can make an immediate
knights leap. However, a pawn cannot be promoted to knight if the knight
would immediately give check. A pawn cannot be moved to the eighth rank unless
it can legally be promoted; it is stuck on the seventh rank, a stationary
target. Whether it can offer a check that could not be executed is not stated;
logic suggests that it could not.
Rules
The player with the first move starts by making a series of moves, typically
four or eight but any number from three to nine have been recorded, provided
that no piece crosses the center line. The second player then replies with the
same number of moves, still not crossing the center line, and then the game
proceeds one move at a time.
Checkmate is a win, and the lowlier the piece that dealt the fatal blow, the
more the victor relished his win. Stalemate is not allowed, and in some
localities a player who found himself stalemated could confiscate one of his
opponents pieces to make room for his own move. Perpetual check is not
allowed. Rules concerning the reduction of forces on one side or both were so
various as to resist codification.
