How to Play Chaturanga
The ancestor of chess — the counsellor steps, the elephant leaps, a bare king has lost.
Chaturanga is where chess began: played in northern India by the sixth century, carried west as Persian shatranj, and reshaped into the modern game a thousand years later. It is chess on the same board with the same sixteen pieces a side, set out the same way, under the older moves — a counsellor where the queen stands who steps one square, an elephant where the bishop stands who leaps two, foot soldiers with no double step, no castling, and a game that is also won by stripping the other king bare. Play it offline against the computer at three levels, or online on a clock, on any of the eight boards.
Ways to play Chaturanga
Against the computer
Pick your side and a level — Easy, Medium or Hard — and play Chaturanga offline. The game is kept in your browser, exactly where you left it.
Online, on a clock
Create a board, choose your color, set a clock from one minute to sixty — or none at all — and share the code. Only the side to move has their clock running.
In 2D or 3D
Lay the board flat or stand it up. Every piece rises onto its square, and you can flip between them mid-game.
Seven boards, seven sets
Classic felt, Renaissance marble, Stone Age sandstone, Ice Age glacier, Jurassic amber, a Crustacean tide pool and a medieval chamber — changed while you play.
🎯 Objective
Checkmate the other raja, as in chess — or take everything he has but the raja himself. A player who is stalemated has lost. On a timed board, a flag that falls loses.
🎲 Chaturanga setup
- The board is the ashtapada, eight squares by eight; the app draws it chequered like a chessboard.
- The back rank, from the left: chariot, horse, elephant, counsellor, raja, elephant, horse, chariot — the same places as chess’s rook, knight, bishop, queen and king, and drawn with the same pieces.
- Eight foot soldiers fill the rank in front of them.
- Choose your side and the engine’s level, or create an online board and set the clock. White moves first.
▶ How to play Chaturanga
- The raja moves one square in any direction, as the king does, and may never move onto a square that is attacked. There is no castling.
- The counsellor (mantri, the piece the queen grew from) moves exactly one square diagonally — the weakest piece after a foot soldier.
- The elephant (gaja, the bishop’s ancestor) leaps exactly two squares diagonally, over whatever stands between. It reaches only eight squares in all, and never the square beside it.
- The horse jumps as the knight does, and the chariot slides along ranks and files as the rook does.
- A foot soldier moves one square straight forward and captures one square diagonally forward. There is no double step from the first rank, and so no en passant.
- A foot soldier that reaches the far rank becomes a counsellor, and nothing else.
- A raja in check must get out of it at once — by moving, by capturing the attacker, or by blocking a chariot’s line. Horses, elephants and counsellors cannot be blocked.
🎬 Watch: How to Play Chaturanga
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📖 Detailed guide
The six pieces, and what they became
- Raja — the king, and the piece the game is about. One square in any direction, never into check.
- Mantri — the counsellor, one square diagonally. Under Persian and Arab players it became the ferz; in fifteenth-century Europe it was given the rook’s and bishop’s moves together and became the queen.
- Gaja — the elephant, a two-square diagonal leap. It became the alfil, and then the bishop when the leap was traded for the slide.
- Ashva — the horse. The one move that has never changed.
- Ratha — the chariot, along ranks and files. The rook, under an older name.
- Padati — the foot soldier. One step, a diagonal capture, and a promotion to counsellor only.
How the game ends
- Checkmate — the raja is in check and nothing gets it out.
- Bare king — every piece your opponent has but the raja is gone, while you still have something. A win for you, unless your own raja is alone as well.
- Stalemate — the side to move has no legal move and is not in check. The stalemated player has lost.
- Threefold repetition, and fifty moves by each side with no capture and no foot soldier moved, are draws — the same rules chess plays.
What is reconstructed, and what is not
- No complete rulebook of Chaturanga survives. The rules here are the ones that agree with its well-documented descendant, shatranj — the reconstruction most modern players use.
- Some sources give the raja a single knight’s leap once in the game; it is not played here.
- The four-handed dice game chaturaji is a later, different game, and is not this one.
- On most boards the pieces are the chess sets’: the counsellor wears the queen’s crown and the elephant the bishop’s mitre, in the squares those pieces have always held. The Traditional Indian board draws them as themselves — the elephant with its howdah, the horse, the chariot, and the raja under his parasol.
Offline, online and the clock
- Offline, choose Chaturanga on the chess page’s rules picker, then your colour and the engine’s level. The game is kept in your browser under its rules until you end it.
- Undo takes back your move and the engine’s reply.
- Online you create a Chaturanga board, choose White, Black or a random draw, set a clock from one to sixty minutes — or none — and share the code or an invite link.
- Only the clock of the side to move runs. A clock that runs out loses the game.
- Chaturanga is rated and recorded as its own game, apart from chess.
🏁 How Chaturanga is won
Checkmate wins the game. So does baring the other king: the moment your opponent has nothing on the board but the raja, and you still have more, you have won — if both rajas stand alone, it is a draw. A player who has no legal move and is not in check has lost, not drawn. The same position three times, or fifty moves by each side without a capture or a foot soldier’s move, is a draw. On a timed board, a player whose clock runs out loses.
❓ Chaturanga — frequently asked questions
How many players do you need for Chaturanga?
Chaturanga is played by 2. Seats you do not fill are taken by the computer, so a game always starts.
Where can I play Chaturanga?
In your browser at play.vanikar.games, on a computer, a tablet or a phone. Sign in with the same Vanikar™ account you use for the card games.
Is Chaturanga included in my subscription?
Yes. One Card Games by Vanikar™ subscription covers the card games, Chess & Checkers and the board games, and every game released after them.
Does Chaturanga have ads?
No. No Vanikar™ game has ever carried advertising, and none ever will.
How is Chaturanga different from chess?
Same board, same pieces, same starting places, older moves. The queen’s piece steps one square diagonally, the bishop’s piece leaps exactly two squares diagonally, foot soldiers have no double step and promote to a counsellor only, there is no castling and no en passant, a bare king has lost, and a stalemated player has lost.
Is Chaturanga really the origin of chess?
It is the earliest ancestor we can name. It was played in northern India by the sixth century, reached Persia as shatranj and the Arab world after that, and the modern moves for the queen and the bishop appeared in Europe around 1475. Every game in that line keeps the raja, the horse and the chariot exactly as Chaturanga had them.
Why can the elephant reach so few squares?
Because it leaps exactly two squares diagonally, always landing on the same colour and never on a neighbouring square. Each elephant can visit only eight squares in the whole game, and the two elephants of a side never share one. That is why it was worth little more than a foot soldier, and why it was eventually replaced by the sliding bishop.
Is Chaturanga included in my subscription?
Yes. Chaturanga is part of Chess & Checkers by Vanikar™, which a Card Games by Vanikar™ subscription includes. Play it in your browser at play.vanikar.games with the same account.
The rules follow the reconstruction that agrees with shatranj; the king’s one-time knight leap given by some sources is not played.