Makluk
This is how
you pronounce the Thai chess game, but it should be spelled 'makrook'. By and by
you see this very interesting game played at
The pictures above show the Karon and the Kata players.
At Robinson in Phuket Town I bought a set of pieces, which I have placed on an ordinary chess board as they should be placed at start:
How
the pieces move:
Lue
moves like a western rock, but the word means boat.
Mae
means horse and moves like our horses.
Kon
means mask - it moves one step at a time in all directions except straight
backwards or sideways.
Met
means pip - it moves one step at a time diagonally.
Kun
means leader - he moves like a western chess king and is, like in our chess, the
main piece. When you threaten him you must say 'makluk'. If you make him
mate you win the game.
Finally
there are 8 beea. Beea means cowry shell. They move and hit like our pawns, but
when a Beea reach the sixth row it transforms to a Met. The transformation is
shown by turning the piece upside down.
Note
that the Met and the Kun on one side stand diagonally to the pieces on the
opposite side.
The
rules are similar to those of a western chess but the rules for draw are
different. You are not allowed to stalemate. Draw occurs in an endgame if
the stronger part does not mate before a certain number of moves, which is
dependant of the difference in power. Thus there are very complicated rules for
draw. Locally you find variants of the first move, which can be a combination of
to pieces. Such rules are, however, not applied in big contests,
You
hardly never see a Farrang (western people) play Makluk. You need some time for
changing from western rules to makluk. Something I find very confusing is that
the pieces Kun, Kon and Met look alike and only differ by size. Also confusing
is that their correspondence to our Queen (Met) is not so powerful.