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Byzantine, or round chess. A variant of Shatranj, played on a round board. (Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
M Winther wrote on Mon, Apr 30, 2007 05:37 AM UTC:
I made a new Zillions program of the modern version, called Circular Chess here. Better graphics, more varied opening play. It's attractive, and it seems to work. But rook and king cannot give mate to the enemy king because there are no corners on the board. Weimer's Zillions program also contains the traditional Byzantine round chess, downloadable here.
/Mats

Jean-Louis Cazaux wrote on Sun, Apr 29, 2007 08:02 PM UTC:Poor ★
I put 'poor' only because this old page would deserve a serious remake. Murray, as usual, as given many details not reported here. Such as:
* the diagram is wrong, king's aile of one player should face firzan's aisle of the other
* the game is only known from Muslim sources and is not attested in the Byzantium Empire. Its name of Byzantine round was given by Arabic authors who liked to say that the 'square' Shatranj was coming from East, India, and the round Shatranj was coming from West, Constantinople.
At that time Baghdad was the cultural center of the World!
This chess variant has been first mentioned by the great historian al-Mas'udî (947) and then by al-Âmulî (dead 1352). Which makes, at least, 400 years of longevity. Not so bad.

Tony Quintanilla wrote on Mon, Dec 5, 2005 06:09 PM UTC:
Derek, see the link to the Zillions of Games file for Byzantine Chess at the bottom of the page.

Derek Peterson wrote on Mon, Dec 5, 2005 05:15 AM UTC:Good ★★★★
Still Looking for an PC-Windows based version of Byzantine Chess. If you
know of one, my email address still is [email protected].

  Derek Peterson

Derek Peterson wrote on Sun, Oct 9, 2005 05:35 AM UTC:Good ★★★★
Any idea if anyone makes a Byzantine Chess program for the Windows-PC? Consider me a sale if there is one.

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