Chaturaji is a four-player game similar in some ways to Chaturanga, the Indian game from which Chess, Shogi, and other similar games are derived. Dice are used to determine which piece is moved. Several texts give many details of the game, but are not sufficient to provide all of the rules of play.
Rules
8x8 board. Four players. One die. Four pawns, one ship, one horse, one elephant, and one king per player. The king moves one square in any direction. Pawns move one square forward, and capture one square forward diagonally. Horses move three squares diagonally. Ships move two squares diagonally. The Elephant moves any number of squares orthogonally.Moves are determined by dice roll: 5= pawn or king, 4= elephant, 3= horse, 2=ship. Captures are made by moving onto the space occupied by an opponent's piece. Points are awarded based on captures. The player who accumulates the most points wins.
DLP evidence.
All Rulesets
Suggested rulesets Wikipedia
As suggested on Wikipedia.
Origin
India
Ludeme Description
Chaturaji.lud
Reference
Murray 1913: 68-75.
Evidence Map
2 pieces of evidence in total. Browse all evidence for Chaturaji here.
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Sources
Bock-Raming, A. 1996. Manasollasa, 5,560–623: Ein Bisher unbeachtet gebliebener Text zum indischen Schachspiel, übersetzt, kommentiert und interpretiert. Indo-Iranian Journal. 39(1):1–40.
Murray, H. J. R. 1913. A History of Chess. London: Oxford University Press.
