Madrasi chess is a
chess variant
A chess variant is a game related to, derived from, or inspired by chess. Such variants can differ from chess in many different ways.
"International" or "Western" chess itself is one of a family of games which have related origins and could be co ...
invented in 1979 by Indian
Abdul Jabbar Karwatkar, who named the game after
his home town. The game uses the conventional
rules of chess
The rules of chess (also known as the laws of chess) govern the play of the game of chess. Chess is a two-player Abstract strategy game, abstract strategy board game. Each player controls sixteen chess piece, pieces of six types on a chessboar ...
with the addition that when a piece is attacked by a piece of the same type (for example, a black queen attacking a white queen) both are paralysed and become unable to move, capture or give check.
Paralysis
Most of the time, two like pieces attack each other mutually, meaning they are both paralysed. ''
En passant
In chess, ''en passant'' (, "in passing") describes the capture by a Pawn (chess), pawn of an enemy pawn on the same and an adjacent that has just made an initial two-square advance. This is a special case in the rules of chess. The capturi ...
''
pawn
Pawn most often refers to:
* Pawn (chess), the weakest and most numerous chess piece in the game
* Pawnbroker or pawnshop, a business that provides loans by taking personal property as collateral
Pawn or The Pawn may also refer to:
Places
* Pa ...
captures are an exception to this, since the attack is not mutual. The status of an ''en passant'' capture is open to debate.
[Pritchard (2007), p. 44]
This paralysis rule is not usually extended to the
king
King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...
s, meaning that as in orthodox chess, the two kings cannot move to adjacent squares; when it extended to kings, the variant is called ''Madrasi rex inclusive'' (sometimes shortened to ''Madrasi RI''). Although it is possible to play complete games of both Madrasi chess and Madrasi RI, they have mainly been used as a condition in
chess problem
A chess problem, also called a chess composition, is a puzzle created by the composer using chess pieces on a chessboard, which presents the solver with a particular task. For instance, a position may be given with the instruction that White is t ...
s.
The position diagrammed demonstrates some of the peculiarities of Madrasi. The black king is not in check from the rook on c5, because the rook is attacked by the black rook on g5, meaning it is paralysed. In its turn, the c5-rook attacks the g5-rook, paralysing it. Likewise, the white rook on g2, also attacked by the g5-rook, is paralysed. The black rook on h4, however, is not paralysed and is free to move. The knights on d8 and f7 also attack each other, as do the pawns on c2 and d3, so these pieces also are paralysed. Note that the bishop on d1 is not paralysed by the knight on f2 attacking it – units must be of a similar type (both knights, both bishops and so on) for paralysis to happen.
Releasing paralysis
There are two ways in which a paralysis can be released. The first is for a non-paralysed piece to make a capture. In the example, White cannot play cxd3 because his pawn is paralysed, but he can play Nxd3, thus unparalysing his c2-pawn. The second way is to cut off the line of attack from the paralysing unit by interposing a third piece. For example, 1.Be5 in the diagram cuts the line of attack from the g5-rook to the c5-rook and so unparalyses it. As a result, the white rook on c5 is now giving check. The only way for Black to escape the check in this instance is to re-paralyse the checking rook, which can be done by 1...Rc4. White then has the reply 2.bxc4, which is checkmate: Black has no safe squares for his king, he cannot capture the checking unit, he cannot interpose a piece between the checking unit and the king, and he cannot paralyse the checking unit (note that ...Rxe5 paralysing the c5-rook is not possible because the g5-rook is paralysed by its counterpart on g2).
References
Bibliography
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External links
Madrasi problems
{{Chess variants
Chess variants
Fairy chess
1979 in chess
Board games introduced in 1979
Chess in India
Chennai
Madras Presidency