- Khmer Ouk
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Khmer Ouk', (known in the Western world as Cambodian Chess ) is a game related to Western chess which is played in Cambodia.[1] It is played on the squares or intersections[2] of a 9x9 monotone board, with the spaces separated by grooves.[3]
A game of Cambodian chess set up with a Western chess set (plus some Go stones. The pieces are represented as follows: Rooks are used for the boats, kings for the kings, pawns for the queens (aka officials) bishops for the border posts (aka elephants), and Go stones for the fish.
Contents
Pieces
The boat
Analogous to the rook in Western chess, the boat slides any number of spaces in the orthogonal directions (i.e. left, right, up, down).[3]
The king
As in Western chess, the king steps one space in any direction.[3]
The horse
As with the knight in Western chess, the horse leaps one orthogonal and then one diagonal in any direction.[3]
The border post
Analogous to the bishop in Western chess, the border post moves as a silver general in Shogi; One space diagonally or orthogonally forwards.[3] In some variants, it is known as the "elephant".[2]
The queen
Like the queen in Shatranj, the queen steps one space diagonally.[3]
In some variants, it cannot capture in the two backwards directions and is known as the "official".[2]
The fish
Analogous to the pawn in Western chess, the fish steps one space orthogonally forwards until crossing the center line of the board, at which point it promotes and may move as a king.[2]
In some variants, the fish captures one diagonally forwards, as in western chess, and promotes to a queen upon reaching the sixth row.[3]
Ka Ok
In the variant Ka Ok (aka Kar Ouk), the first player to put the other in check wins.[3]
Tournament
The first Khmer Ouk tournament was held in Cambodia from April 3 to 4 of 2008, upon the completion of a standardized ruleset by the Olympic Committee of Cambodia and the Cambodian Chess Association.[4]
References
- ^ Tang, Kim Y. K. (September 2003). "Automatic Generation of Board Games" (PDF (1.6 MB)). Imperial College, University of London, Department of Computing. http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~sgc/teaching/projects/KimTangReport.pdf. Retrieved 18 April 2011. Master of Science thesis.
- ^ a b c d http://www.chessvariants.org/programs.dir/zillions/cambodianchess.zip
- ^ a b c d e f g h http://www.khmerinstitute.org/culture/ok.html
- ^ http://english.sina.com/sports/1/2008/0427/156243.html
External links
Categories:- Cambodian culture
- Chess variants
- Chess in Cambodia
- Traditional board games
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