Thai Chess: A Unique Take on a Classic

Thai Chess, played on an 8x8 board, shares similarities with classical chess but features key differences. The initial setup largely mirrors classical chess, with two notable exceptions: the white queen starts on e1 and the white king on d1 (each king positioned to the left of its queen from the player's perspective); and pawns are deployed on the third rank (white) and sixth rank (black).


Standard chess piece movements for the king and rook remain unchanged: the king moves one square in any direction, and the rook moves any number of unoccupied squares horizontally or vertically. Pawns move one square forward and capture diagonally forward, as in classical chess. However, the game incorporates unique movement rules for other pieces:

• Queen: Moves only one square diagonally.
• Bishop: Moves one square diagonally in any direction or one square forward vertically.
• Knight: Moves in an "L" shape (two squares in one direction, then one square perpendicularly), identical to its European counterpart.
• Pawn: Moves one square forward vertically and captures one square diagonally forward. Pawns promote only to queens upon reaching the sixth rank.

The game is playable against AI, a human player on the same device, or an online opponent in multiplayer mode. The objective, as in classical chess, is to checkmate the opponent's king. A stalemate results in a draw.