စစ်တုရင် Sittuyin
- History:
The game arrived in Myanmar in the 8th century from the kingdoms of Arakan and Mon (which controlled what would become Myanmar). It developed the rules that would make it Sittuyin in the 9th century and was popular in the courts. However, these rules were not firmly established and many variants existed in the region.
The rules were formalized by the Burmese Chess Federation.
The differences with other regional variations were to do with opening positions and promotion rules.
The official rules were written to standardize the game and used (probably) the most popular version of the rules.
The first national championships with the standardized rules took place at the end of the second world war.
(From "Burmese Traditional Chess" by Dr. Peter Nicolaus)
- Sittuyin is unique in the Chaturanga family in that it allows the players to set up their pieces as they wish. The pawns have a decided placement, and the rooks can only be placed along the back row, but the other pieces can be freely placed anywhere else between those. Essentially your opening moves are already finished when the game starts and the pawns are already at each other's throats. Piece movement is the same as in Makruk, or Ouk Chatrang. It is said to be one of the oldest living "chess" games. Although the player base in its native Myanmar has dwindled significantly, as Chess becomes more popular there. In recent years though there has been an effort to revive the game and expand the player base. There is even an app you can download for free for your phone.
