My newest "toy" Chaturanga

[jb143]

I picked this up at a thrift store the other day. It's actually Chaturaji (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaturaji), the 4 player version played with dice. (So the box is technically wrong I think)

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii12/jeremy_burk/Chaturanga.jpg

I'm a big fan of Chess and have always been interested in the ancient games it derived from and this is considered to be one of the earliest. I have still yet to play it though. And finding 3 other people to play with me may be a challenge. Has anyone else here ever played this or other ancient board games?

[skaar]

Never heard of that game, but it looks neat.

I had a copy of Pente when I was a kid - sold as an ancient greek game. That was fun. I recently discovered on Wiki that some dude in a pizza parlour invented it. WTF.

[jb143]

Never heard of that game, but it looks neat.

I had a copy of Pente when I was a kid - sold as an ancient greek game. That was fun. I recently discovered on Wiki that some dude in a pizza parlour invented it. WTF.

Pente also came up when I showed this game to a friend. They were disapointed when I told them it's fairly recent. As was I when I learned it's wasn't ancient Greek. It's still a cool game. It's like dumbed down Go from what I can tell(though I've never actually played Go).

Chaturaji is basically 4 player Chess but with half the pieces per player and a pair of dice that adds a degree of chance as well as strategy. You can choose to move only the pieces that come up on the dice. The moves of the pieces correspond pretty directly to Chess pieces with a few slight variants. Mainly that the ship(bishop) must only move 2 spaces diagonally. You also have a loose alliance with the player across from you.