ancient chess

This is the final game of my series of gradually regressing board games. As many of the games have tried
to modernize chess this goes in the opposite direction. As new age chess was the next evolution of chess
and Mid Evil chess bridged the chess-shatranj gap along with mir chess II This game is a game maybe some
of the ancients played. This is the devolution of chess and in in its own way has its own elegance.

Setup

Pieces

The general is the royal piece in my game and moves one orthogonally and two generals cannot face each
other orthognally or diagonally without any intervening pieces there is no castling. The ferz moves one
diagonally or straight back. The elephant moves exactly two diagonally or can move two orthogonally the
elephant cannot jump and it can either move exactly two diagonally and can only capture on the last part
of its move and it may not move back to its starting square or moves as a dabbaba that cannot pass over
an occupied first orthoganal square . Horse moves as regular chess but cannot jump it either moves one
diagonally and then one orthogonally outwards or one orthogonally then one diagonally outwards. The
horse and elephant are stronger variants of their xiangqi counterparts. The elephant is slightly
stronger than a lame alibaba but is weaker than a normal alibaba. The chariot moves as a rook in
orthochess. Pawns move one square straight forwards and have no double step pawns upon crossing the
center line gain the ability to move one square sideways there is no other promotion. Generals may not
pass through the center line.

Rules

It is illegal to make a move that repeats the same board position three times If the king hasn't moved
and is not in check it may make a noncapturing horse move. Stalemate is a win for the side that
stalemates. If you bare the opponent's king you win.

Notes

This game is completely drawless. I got some of the inspiration from kevin maroney's ur chess.
The elephant is inspired the fact that elephants are the only animals in the world that cannot jump the
horse and elephant were inspired by xiangqi along with the no three fold repetition and stalemate being
a win and generals cannot cross the central line. The bare king (general) rule was inspired by shatranj
along with the noncaptureing horse move. The ferz isn't as weak as it was in shatranj partially beacause
of the way I enhanced it and partially beacause it can make some moves the General cannot make. The no
pawn promotion, no facing kings, no generals crossing the center, and the open position was also
inspired by xianqi.
There are variants:
#1 the ferz moves one diagonally or straight forwards.
#2 the horse and elephant can now jump.
#3 pawns on reaching the last rank promote to ferz or any lost piece.
these variants can be freely intermixed. This is the last game in my series. Enjoy:-)

Last revised by H. G. Muller.