I finally won a game of Tamerlane's Chess

After many, many, efforts, and taking back a LOT of moves for many games, I finally beat the computer at Tamerlane's Chess.

Tamerlane's Chess is so named because it was played at the court of its namesake so many centuries ago.  It is played on a 10 x 11 board, plus 2 special squares.  Each player starts the game with 28 pieces.  It is known from a couple of different primary sources, with very slightly different rules.

At any rate, it's weird.  Very weird.   There are several pieces that can move a minimum number of spaces.  The bishops are like bishops, except you have to move 2 squares, minimum, and they both start out on the same color, which makes them not at all like bishops.  The most difficult piece for me is the giraffe, which moves one square diagonally, then at least three squares orthogonally.  In the beginning of the game, they are practically worthless, but they are almost as powerful as rooks at the end.  As with most ancient variants, there is no highly mobile queen piece.

The game I finally won took 118 moves.

If this is the sort of variant that interests you, I highly recommend a program called zillions of games.  It's a generic game engine that plays lots and lots of board games, including chess variants.  If you download the free version of the game, you can play Chess, Xiangqi, Korean Chess, Thai Chess, Burmese Chess, Ultima, a small variation of Shogi, and Fairy Chess, plus several other games like Nine Man's Morris and one version of Hnefatafl.  If you pay 25 bucks to unlock the special features, you can play several more variants, including full Shogi, plus you gain access to downloadable files where you can play literally hundreds of Chess variants, including every historically significant variant I've ever heard of.  That's how I played Tamerlane's Chess. 

It plays a pretty darned mean game.  Anyway, google it if you're interested.  It's a great program for people who like Chess Variants. 

Another thing about Zillions of Games, which I never got the hang of, is that you can create your own game files. That way you can test out chess variants that you have designed against the computer.

Wow, Meadmaker, you sure have lot sof patience to play, let alone win a game of Tamerlane's chess! it's a monster variant. Good on you!

I just looked up Tamerlane Chess, and I did this:    :U

That is a ridiculously complex variant. Props to you for even learning the rules!

That sounds fun!  Good on ya.

For anyone interested in this variant, here's a link to the annotated game.

http://gamesinmichigan.com/annotatedgames/tamerlane.htm

I've played a few more games of this, and I think I'm developing some understanding of it.  The key seems to be to abandon the idea of controlling the center.  In Chess, there are only 64 squares, and each side has five pieces out of 8 that could move across the entire board.  That makes the four squares right in the middle very powerful.  In Tamerlane's Chess, there are 110 squares, and only two pieces that can cover the entire board (the rooks).  Four others can cross the board, but have restrictions on short range movements (Bishops and Giraffes).  Meanwhile, most pieces are more restricted in movement than Chess counterparts, and since there are so many pieces, the board gets cluttered.

So, I decided to try a territory domination strategy by moving a wall of pawns forward, freeing up space for my own pieces while restricting his.

It seems to have worked.  The annotated game (with 209 moves!) is found here:

http://gamesinmichigan.com/annotatedgames/tamerlane2.htm

amazing variant

I finally played this game OTB against a real human.  I held a tournament of medieval games at an event of the Society for Creative Anachronism (medieval recreationist group).  It was a game where players could choose what game to play from a list, and five of them were Chess variants, including Tamerlane's Chess.

This variant is grueling to play.  We were playing fairly rapidly, not thinking too much time for each move, and it still took over an hour.  I eventually resigned after he caught my king out in the open.  I had moved it in order to take a piece.  It was on the C file.  The B and D files were open, and I didn't realize the implications of his giraffes on the A and E files, covering B and D  When he put me in check with a Rook on the C file, only a ransom move saved me, but there wasn't a good place to run.

A few turns later, he had captured one of my rooks, a giraffe, and both camels.  It was hopeless, and I resigned.

I can't see this ever becoming my favorite game, but it was really interesting to play it against a human instead of a computer.  I could see enjoying it, as long as I didn't do it too often.

Chess varients are always fun to play