Ouk Chaktrang

The board is a grid of 8x8 squares and each player has 16 pieces to start. The first row of pieces reading left to right are:

| touk | ses | koul | neang | khon | koul | ses | touk |

The second row is empty, differing from the chess starting position, and the third row is a line of eight:

| trey | trey | trey | trey | trey | trey | trey | trey |

Touk (boat) x 2

Touk boats in this context represent war canoes that were dug out from s korki tree, blessed by monks, and held typically between 20 and 40 oarsmen. They are difficult to manoeuvre, so often take a very straight course. You can see more about these war vessels from the annual Bon Om Touk festival.

The 2 touk pieces have their starting positions at the extremities of the board, far left and far right. They move in straight cardinal lines N, E, S, W as many squares as they like or until they take an opponent’s piece. They can not move in the diagonal. Effectively the same as the rook in chess.

Ses (horse) x 2

The 2 ses horse pieces represent the Khmer cavalry, though Khmer armies had more war elephants than horses.

The ses starting position is one square inside that of the touk, and just like the knight chess piece it moves in an ‘L’ shape 1x3 or 3x1 squares in any direction.

Koul (colonel) x 2

The 2 koul pieces represent battlefield commanders, most likely mounted on war elephants and accompanied by soldiers baring crossbow type weapons.

Their starting position is one square inside from each of the ses pieces. Their movement is unique to Ouk, not found in chess, in that they can move 1 square NW, N, NE, SW and SE, they cannot move along the cardinals W, E and S.

Met or Neang (queen) x 1

There is only 1 neang and she probably also rode a war elephant for its apparent security and accompanying soldier defences.

Consequently, her movement is much restricted to 1 square in the diagonals NW, NE, SE and SW.

Note: In the neang’s first move she may move 2 squares north.

Ang or Khon (king) x 1

There is only 1 khon and he also probably rode a war elephant. Whilst his movement is also limited to 1 square per turn, he can move in all directions, N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W and NW.

Note: In the khon’s first move, and only if being targeted in an Ouk position, the khon may move like a khoul.

Trey (fish [soldier]) x 8

Last, but by no means least, there are 8 trey representing the infantry of the battlefield. Perhaps they were called fish as in the saying

“They’re like fish on a chopping board”,

meaning their destiny was for no more than to have their heads chopped off for nourishment of others.

These pieces can only move north 1 space at a time, just as pawns do in chess. However, if they are fortunate enough to reach the 6^th row, the piece is flipped onto its back, earning a promotion to “trey bork” and can now move as the neang, NW, NE, SE, SW improving chances of survival considerably.

The objective is as required in most variations of chess, to take or trap the king.

To help put a little pressure into more closely matched games some additional limitations are presented:

1. When players have no pawns left, trapping the khon must be achieved in 64 moves. If the losing player traps the opponent, the game is a draw.
2. When the last piece of the losing player is captured, that is not the khon, the count may be started, or restarted from the aforementioned counting, and the winning player now has a maximum number of moves left to win based on the remaining pieces:

• 2 touk = 8 moves
• 1 touk = 16 moves
• 0 touk + 2 koul = 22 moves
• 0 touk + 0 koul + 2 ses = 32 moves
• 0 touk + 1 koul = 44 moves
• 0 touk + 0 koul + 1 ses = 64 moves
• 0 touk + 0 koul + 0 ses + 1 neang = 64 moves

The losing player counts his moves, starting from the number of pieces left on the board, including both khons. The winning player must trap the opponent's khon before the maximum number is reached, else the game is a draw.

Anyone who has played such a game for long enough will come to appreciate the benefits of having a superior control over emotions. To succeed at Ouk players must learn not to make hasty decisions based on emotion. The desire to attack or retaliate impetuously will overcome reason and a more calculated approach, thus lowering a player’s chances of survival in this game of strategy.

When players realise that their chances of survival are much increased through control of emotions, they can then begin to enjoy the experimentation of the mind. The ability to imagine future moves and possible responses from the opposing player is the start of a creative process that can help develop an individual's propensity to making more creative choices for life in general.

Whilst the origins of Ouk probably came to the Khmer empire along with external Hindu and Buddhist influences anywhere between 7^th and 12^th century CE.

The original game from India was known as Chaturanga, from the Sanskrit language, and thus “Chaktrang” bares some similarity inheriting syllables from the original name.

The Khmer adapted the game to suit their own preferences in play such as the word “Ouk” which is often shouted quite loudly as an attacking piece is slammed onto the board. Beyond this it is difficult to place any particular cultural association with the game.

However, after experiencing more than 3 years living in Cambodia it must be one of the more peaceful lands I have visited and with people who are generally calm, courteous and civil. You can’t help but see a correlation between the serenity of Ouk and this peaceful society. Whilst the game Ouk had fallen in popularity for some time it is now on the rise again and appears as an official sport in the SEA (South East Asia games).