Hiashatar

Hiashatar is a medieval chess variant played in Mongolia. The game is played on a 10 x 10 board. The pieces are the same as in chess with the exception that there is an additional piece which is called the "bodyguard" .^[1][2] The starting position is similar to chess, except that a bodyguard each is placed between king and bishop and between queen and bishop with a pawn in front and there are two more rows in the middle. The game is not as popular as western chess or Shatar.

Pieces

• King (noyon) - moves like the King in chess
• Queen (bers) - moves like the Queen in chess
• Bodyguard (hia) - moves like a Queen, but can only move one or two squares. The Bodyguard has a special power; any piece sliding must stop its move if it moves through any square a king's move away from the bodyguard. Any piece a king's move away from the bodyguard can only move one square. The only piece immune to this power of the Bodyguard is the Knight.
• Rook (tereg) - moves like the rook in chess
• Knight (mori) - moves like the Knight in chess
• Bishop (teme) - moves like the Bishop in chess
• Pawn (fu) - moves like the pawn in chess except that it can make an initial triple step.

Other Rules

• There is no castling
• Pawns promote only to queen

References

• N. Okano, Sekai-no meina shogi (World's chess games), p. 40-46, chapter V. 1999.

1. http://web.archive.org/web/20080703142230/http://www.geocities.com/kisslook/eng/mongeng.html
2. http://www.chessvariants.org/index/msdisplay.php?itemid=MLhiashatar