Editing Shatranj (section)

==Rules==
{{Chaturanga diagram
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 |rd|nd|bd|kd|qd|bd|nd|rd
 |pd|pd|pd|pd|pd|pd|pd|pd
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  
 |pl|pl|pl|pl|pl|pl|pl|pl
 |rl|nl|bl|kl|ql|bl|nl|rl
 |Shatranj starting setup
}}
The initial setup in shatranj was essentially the same as in modern chess; however, the position of the white shah (king), on the right or left side was not fixed. Either the arrangement as in modern chess or as shown in the diagram were possible. In either case, the white and black shāh would be on the same file. The game was played with these pieces:
{| class="toccolours" style="float:left; margin-left:15px;"
|-
! colspan="2" style="background:#ccf;"| Shatranj pieces
|-
| [[File:Chess kll45.svg|25px]][[File:Chess kdl45.svg|25px]]   || shah ([[King (chess)|king]])
|-
| [[File:Chess qll45.svg|25px]][[File:Chess qdl44.png|25px]]  || ferz or wazir (counselor or [[Ferz (chess)|ferz]])
|-
| [[File:Chess rll45.svg|25px]][[File:Chess rdl45.svg|25px]]   || rukh ([[Rook (chess)|rook]])
|-
| [[File:Chess bll45.svg|25px]][[File:Chess bdl45.svg|25px]] || pīl, or "alfil" in Arabic (elephant or [[Alfil (chess)|alfil]])
|-
| [[File:Chess nll45.svg|25px]][[File:Chess ndl45.svg|25px]] || asb or faras (horse or [[Knight (chess)|knight]])
|-
| [[File:Chess pll45.svg|25px]][[File:Chess pdl44.png|25px]] || sarbaz / piyadeh, or "baydaq" in Arabic (soldier, infantryman or [[Pawn (chess)|pawn]])
|}
{{clear left}}
{{Chess diagram 5x5
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 |  |  |  |  |  
 |  |xx|  |xx|  
 |  |  |ql|  |  
 |  |xx|  |xx|  
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 |Moves of the ferz
}}
{{Chess diagram 5x5
 |tright
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 |xx|  |  |  |xx
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 |  |  |bl|  |  
 |  |  |  |  |  
 |xx|  |  |  |xx
 |Moves of the alfil, which can jump over other pieces
}}
{{Chess diagram 5x5 | tright | |bl|nl|rl|nl|bl|nl|ql|rl|ql|nl|rl|rl|xx|rl|rl|nl|ql|rl|ql|nl|bl|nl|rl|nl|bl| Complementarity of the shatranj pieces' movements, excluding king and pawn.}}
* '''Shāh''' ("king" in Persian) moves like the [[King (chess)|king in chess]].
* '''[[Ferz (chess)|Ferz]] (Wazir)''' ("[[adviser|counselor]]"; also spelled ''fers''; Arabic ''firz'', from Persian {{lang|fa|فرزين}} ''farzīn'') moves exactly one square diagonally, which makes it a rather weak piece. It was renamed "[[Queen (chess)|queen]]" in Europe. Even today, the word for the queen piece is ''ферзь'' (ferz) in Russian, ''vezér'' in Hungarian, ''vezir'' in Turkish, ''vazīr'' in Persian and ''wazīr'' in Arabic. It has analogue to the guards in [[xiangqi]].
* '''Rukh''' ("[[ratha|chariot]]"; from Persian {{lang|fa|رخ}} ''rokh'') moves like the [[Rook (chess)|rook]] in chess.
* '''[[Alfil (chess)|Pīl]]''', '''alfil''', '''aufin''', and similar ("[[war elephant|elephant]]"; from Persian {{lang|fa|پيل}} ''pīl''; al- is the [[Arabic language|Arabic]] for "the") moves exactly two squares diagonally, jumping over the square between. Each pīl could reach only one-eighth of the squares on the board, and because their circuits were disjoint, they could never capture one another. This piece might have had a different move sometimes in [[chaturanga]], where the piece is also called "elephant". The pīl was replaced by the [[Bishop (chess)|bishop]] in modern chess. Even today, the word for the bishop piece is ''alfil'' in Spanish, ''alfiere'' in Italian, ''fil'' in Turkish, ''fīl'' in Persian and Arabic, and ''слон'' ("elephant") in Russian. As chess spread from Iran northward to Russia, and westward into eastern Europe, south to Italy, and finally westward, it mostly retained the original name and look of the piece as an elephant. Usually, it was carved as a rounded shape with two blunt points representing the elephant's tusks. In Christian Europe, this piece became a bishop because the two points looked like a bishop's [[mitre]] to those unfamiliar with elephants in Western Europe. An early example of the bishop being used is the [[Lewis chessmen]] chess set of the 12th century. The elephant piece survives in [[xiangqi]] with the limitations that the elephant in xiangqi cannot jump over an intervening piece and is restricted to the owner's half of the board. In [[janggi]], its movement was changed to become a slightly further-reaching version of the horse.
* '''Asb (Faras)''' (current meaning of "[[cavalry|horse]]" in Persian, from old Persian ''Asp'' ({{lang|fa|اسپ}})), moves like the [[Knight (chess)|knight]] in chess.
* '''Piyadeh''' ("[[infantry]]man"; from Persian {{lang|fa|پیاده}} ''piyāde''; also called '''Sarbaz''' "[[soldier]]") in Persian and adopted later to ''Baydaq'' ({{lang|ar|بيدق}}) in Arabic (a new singular extracted by treating the Persian form as an Arabic [[broken plural]]), moves and captures like the [[Pawn (chess)|pawns]] in chess, but not moving two squares on the first move. When they reach the eighth rank, they are promoted to ferz.

Pieces are shown on the diagrams and recorded in the notation using the equivalent modern symbols, as in the table above. In modern descriptions of shatranj, the names king, rook, knight and pawn are commonly used for shah, rukh, faras, and baidaq. However, the ferz and alfil are sometimes treated as distinct, and given their own symbols. Specific ferz and alfil symbols have been provisionally accepted for a future version of [[Unicode]].<ref name=shatranj>{{cite web |url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2024/24020-shatranj-symbols.pdf |title=Unicode request for ''shatranj'' symbols |last1=Bala |first1=Gavin Jared |last2=Miller |first2=Kirk |date=22 December 2023 |website=unicode.org |publisher=Unicode |access-date=4 February 2024 |quote=}}</ref><ref name=pipeline>{{cite web |url=https://unicode.org/alloc/Pipeline.html |title=Proposed New Characters: The Pipeline |author=Unicode |date= |website=unicode.org |publisher=The Unicode Consortium |access-date=4 February 2024 |quote=}}</ref>

There were also other differences compared to modern chess: [[Castling]] was not allowed (it was invented much later). [[Stalemate|Stalemating]] the opposing king resulted in a win for the player delivering stalemate. Capturing all one's opponent's pieces apart from the king (''[[bare king|baring the king]]'') was a win, unless the opponent could capture the last piece on their next move, which was considered a draw in most places in the Islamic world (except for [[Medina]], where it was a win).{{sfn|Murray|1913}}

The possible movements of the main shatranj pieces, excluding that of the king and pawn, are complementary to one another, and without any omission or redundancy occupy all available squares with respect to the central position of a 5x5 grid, as shown in the figure to the right.<ref>Something similar also holds for both modern [[chess]] (rook-knight-bishop and knight-queen), as well as [[Tamerlane chess]] (general-vizier-elephant-catapult-knight and rook-general-knight-camel-giraffe).</ref>