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Senterej

Senterej (Amharic: ሰንጠረዥ sänṭäräž), also known as Ethiopian chess, is a regional chess variant, the form of chess traditionally played in Ethiopia and Eritrea. It was the last popular survival of shatranj. According to Richard Pankhurst, the game became extinct sometime after the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in the 1930s. A distinctive feature of Senterej is the opening phase – players make as many moves as they like without regard for how many moves the opponent has made; this continues until the first capture is made. Memorization of opening lines is therefore not a feature of the game.

Rules

Pieces

Broadly, the pieces move the same way as in shatranj; however, there are regional variations.

  • Each king (negus) stands just to the right of the centerline from its player's point of view. It moves one step in any direction as a chess king.
  • At the left of the king stands the ferz, moving one square diagonally. (One source says it moves one step in any direction, but may only capture diagonally. There may have been regional variations.)
  • On the flanks of the king and ferz stands a piece called the fil or alfil (saba). It leaps diagonally to the second square distant.
  • Beside the fils stand the horsemen (feresenya), moving as chess knights.
  • In the corners stand the rooks (der), moving as chess rooks.
  • The second is filled with pawns (medeq), which move one step forward and capture one square diagonally forward. There is no first move double-step option, and therefore no en passant. A pawn reaching the farthest rank is promoted to ferz (one source says, to the rank of any piece already lost).

The possible movements of the main senterej pieces, excluding that of the king and pawn, may complementary to one another, occupying, without any omission or redundancy, all available squares with regards to a central position inside a 5×5 grid, as shown in the figure to the right. Senterej creates randomized initial chess positions, which makes memorizing opening sequences far less helpful. In the opening play, each side moves its units at liberty as slowly or fast as they like, without waiting for their opponent to move and without taking turns. The "mobilization phase" (Amharic: ዌሬራ) also has an added advantage in the fact that draws are less likely to occur than under FIDE rules. The problem of frequent draws is a major source of irritation and concern for serious chess players. Many championship contests generate a large amount of draws and allow for players at the level of master and above to avoid losing by playing to a draw. This ensures that the turnover of chess champions is rather low, as all they have to do is avoid losing rather than playing to win. Due to this, Western chess games become unimaginative as they test players' memory rather than skill.

Gameplay

In Senterej both sides start playing at the same time without waiting for turns. The phase before first capture is called the "mobilization" or "marshalling" phase, or werera. Both players may move their pieces as many times as they like without concern for the number of moves the opponent makes. During this phase the players watch each other's moves, and retract their own and substitute others as they think best. They only start to take turns after the first capture.

The object of the game is to checkmate the opponent. A king denuded of all pieces (excluding pawns) cannot be mated; the game is drawn. A king with only a single piece supporting him (again excluding pawns) can only be mated before that piece has moved seven times, or else the game is drawn.

Game flow

  1. Start game
  2. Werera (mobilization or marshalling) phase: both players move piece(s) together at every step, until there is any piece captured
  3. First piece captured, werera ends
  4. Players move pieces by turns, until either:
  5. * One side win the game, in case of the opponent's king is being checkmated under the opponent has any pieces of ferz/alfil(s)/horse(s)/rook(s) still alive
  6. * Game drawn, in case of the opponent remains king and pawns only (or fits other house rules)
  7. End game

Customs

Traditionally, the board is not checkered, merely marked into squares; it is usually a red cloth, marked by strips of black or blue. The play is much more sociable than is usual in Western chess, with all the bystanders (even, formerly, slaves) calling out their notions of useful plays and moving the pieces about to demonstrate. The customs surrounding checkmate are numerous. Dealing the fatal blow with a rook or knight is considered inartistic. Delivering the fatal stroke with a ferz or fil is more respectable; with a combination of pawns, even more praiseworthy.

References

External links