Controls

You play by tapping a piece and then its destination, on a board and with a goal familiar to chess players. The pieces, however, move in their own ways.

Several pieces differ from Western chess:

• The queen moves just one square diagonally, making it a short-range piece far weaker than the sweeping queen of Western chess. This is the biggest change to the game's feel.
• The bishop moves one step diagonally or one step straight forward, a limited range that keeps the game slow and close-quarters compared to the long-range bishops you may know.
• Pawns promote when they reach the sixth rank, turning into queens. There's no double-step first move and no castling, so the opening develops gradually.

The weaker pieces make Makruk a slower, more positional game than Western chess, with carefully built-up attacks.

You win by checkmating the enemy king. Against the computer, the difficulty rises across eight levels.

Tips

• Play patiently. With the queen and bishop both short-range, attacks build slowly, so a patient, positional style that improves your pieces step by step beats trying to force quick tactics.
• Value your pieces differently. The queen is weak here, so don't treat it as your powerhouse, and instead rely more on your rooks and knights, which keep their familiar strength.
• Advance pawns toward promotion. Pawns promote on the sixth rank rather than the last, so a passed pawn becomes a queen sooner than in Western chess, making pawn advances an important plan.
• Control the center gradually. Without a double pawn step, you can't grab the center as fast as in chess, so build your central control move by move with careful pawn and piece play.
• Keep your king safe without castling. There's no castling, so tuck your king into safety manually with a few quiet moves before you commit to an attack.
• Study the endgame. Makruk endgames, with their countdown rule, reward precise play, so learning how the weaker pieces coordinate to checkmate is what turns close games into wins.

Frequently asked questions