Thai Chess, or Makruk Thai.

[randomness]

I was waiting for a Chao Phraya Express boat one late afternoon. It was before rush hour, because while waiting, I had enough time to join the group of spectators around a couple of guys playing chess.

After a while I began to notice they were not playing by western chess rules, even if the pieces looked familiar. The pawns were flat, and set up one row farther up, and they seemed to change their allowed movement at some point.

It was fun watching but I didn't make much headway in observing the rules before the boat arrived.

When I got home I forgot about it. Recently, though, I decided I'd take a look on the web and see what I could find.

"What" was a lot:

• Rules of Thai Chess, also known as Makrook Thai


• Makruk: Thai Chess


• How to play Thai Chess


• Thai Chess java applet

I still haven't played it, but it looks interesting.

Comments

[coraline]

unrelated to this post -- my friend jered is going to hong kong for a couple of days and is looking for things to do... i figured you might have suggestions :)

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Sure! I'll see what I can come up with. :)

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Oh, also, much depends on what kinds of things he likes to do. Would you have any thoughts on that? (Often friends can come up with different ideas from what the person themselves would say.)

[coraline]

um... he's a gay geek who likes technotoys, who's been known to frequent goth and industrial clubs, and who enjoys really good food. that help any?

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Yup! :)