Maharajah and the Sepoys

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Maharajah and the Sepoys
abcdefgh
8
a8 black rook
b8 black knight
c8 black bishop
d8 black queen
e8 black king
f8 black bishop
g8 black knight
h8 black rook
a7 black pawn
b7 black pawn
c7 black pawn
d7 black pawn
e7 black pawn
f7 black pawn
g7 black pawn
h7 black pawn
e1 A l
8
77
66
55
44
33
22
11
abcdefgh
Starting position. The white figure is a maharajah; it can move as queen or knight.

Maharajah and the Sepoys, originally called Shatranj Diwana Shah and also known as the Mad King's Game,[1] Maharajah chess,[2] or Sarvatobhadra "auspicious on all sides",[3] is a popular chess variant with different armies for White and Black. It was first played in the 19th century in India. It is a solved game with a forced win for Black.

Game rules

Black has a full, standard

maharajah, which can move as either a queen or as a knight on White's turn (analogous to the amazon fairy chess piece). Black's goal is to checkmate the maharajah, while White's is to checkmate Black's king. There is no promotion.[2]

The asymmetry of the game pits movement flexibility and agility against greater force in numbers. By

Hans Bodlaender, "A carefully playing black player should be able to win. However, this is not always easy, and in many cases, when the white 'Maharaja' breaks through the lines of black, he has good chances to win."[4]

Winning strategy

This section uses algebraic notation to describe chess moves.

The maharajah can pose a serious threat and even win against a weak opponent. Its strategy is to clean as many black pieces as possible in the early game using forks (attacking more than one unprotected piece at once) as the main tactic; after sufficiently cleaning the board, it should use checks to chase the black king away from its other pieces, drive it to an edge of the board and give checkmate.

Maharajah's critical weakness is that it is royal, so it cannot do exchanges, meaning it cannot capture black pieces that are protected. Thus, the Sepoys' winning strategy is to make moves in such a way that all their pieces stay protected while gradually taking away available squares from the maharajah.

abcdefgh
8
g8 black king
b7 black pawn
c7 black pawn
e7 black bishop
f7 black pawn
h7 black knight
c6 black knight
a5 black pawn
d5 black pawn
g5 black pawn
h5 black pawn
d4 black queen
e4 black pawn
g4 black bishop
b2 black rook
c2 A l
b1 black rook
8
77
66
55
44
33
22
11
abcdefgh
Final position after 24...R3b2#

One example line of moves that gives Black a forced mate in 24 moves goes like the following (White's moves are unimportant, as, in this variation, White cannot legally capture any piece or be stalemated):[citation needed]

1... d5 2... Nc6 3... Qd6 4... e5 5... Nf6 6... a5 7... Ra6 8... Rb6 9... Bg4 10... e4 11... Qe5 12... Be7 13... 0-0 14... Rb2 15... Ra8 16... Ra6 17... Rab6 18... R6b3 19... h5 20... g5 21... Nh7 22... Qd4

Now, if the maharajah is on a1, then:

23... Rb1 24... R3b2# (diagram) 0–1

Else:

23... Qd1# 0–1

History

Descriptions of this chess variant can be traced as far back as the 12th century in the

Sanskrit: सर्वतोभद्र, lit. 'auspicious on all sides'). It is a variant of chaturanga that is determined by each player throwing two or so dice. Supposedly, the multiple dice were used to expand the rolling player's possible choices. The values on each die correspond to which types of pieces to be moved; the player with the Maharajah is forced to move it like a piece as indicated by the dice.[5][6]

The chaturanga variant was revived by the 1871 Indian encyclopedia of games Kridakaushalya, which revised it using the moves of modern chess pieces. It was first described in the Western world in 1892 by Edward Falkener, who called it "The Maharajah and the Sepoys".[6][7]

See also

References

Citations

  1. ^ Pritchard (1994), p. 183.
  2. ^ a b Rachunek, Filip. "Maharajah Chess: Rules". Brainking.com. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
  3. ISBN 9780786494279
    .
  4. ^ Bodlaender, Hans L. "The Maharaja and the Sepoys". The Chess Variant Pages. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
  5. JSTOR 24662204
    .
  6. ^
    ISBN 978-0-7864-9427-9
    . Retrieved 9 January 2022.
  7. ^ Falkener, Edward (1892). "Game of the Maharajah and the Sepoys.". Games Ancient and Oriental, and how to Play Them: Being the Games of the Greek, the Ludus Latrunculorum of the Romans and the Oriental Games of Chess, Draughts, Backgammon and Magic Squares. Longmans, Green and Co. pp. 217–224. Retrieved 9 January 2022.

General and cited references

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