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Is anyone else finding weird similarities between Chaturanga (Davidson's variantion) and Makruk?

Well, the consensus for Makruk seems to be Elephant. This causes a dilemma; Elephant might be best for Makruk, but in WinBoard I also have to take into account how well it fits with other variants. One of the purposes of WinBoard is to provide a unified platform for variants, where the user can easily switch from one to the other, because the pieces symbols always mean what he is used to, with perhaps a minor modification (such as the Chess Knight vs Xiangqi Horse). This is why I dislike the Elephant; it is really a completely different piece from the Xiangqi or Shatranj Elephant. And I would also dislike the Silver General to be different in Shogi and Makruk.

So I will keep this under consideration; the alpha version of WinBoard now on my website still uses the German Helmet. Perhaps I should switch to that in Shogi too. Or perhaps I should indeed make an entirely new symbol for Silver.

Unfortunately, WinBoard has no separate symbol for the Shogi Silver General, and uses the same symbol for it in Shogi as the Ferz (which is also used in Shatranj and Courier for Queen, and in Xiangqi for Advisor). After all, it is an augmented Ferz, like the Gold General is an augmented Wazir.

But this poses a problem in Makruk, where the Ferz and Silver both participate. I'd rather not make new bitmaps; WinBoard has so many already, and they would have to be made for each size separately, etc. So I wanted to represent the Med by the standard symbol in WinBoard for Ferz, and find an alternative for the Silver.

My first thought was to use the Elephant, (the WinBoard symbol used in Xiangqi and also for the Shatranj and Courier Alfil), although it moves nothing like the Afil. The only reason is that Shatranj uses Alfils in those locations of the array. So I wonder if this is the optimal choice. Alternatives would be to use the Lance symbol. But this is currently used in WinBoard as a wild-card piece, that can move in any way you want, and I would like to keep it that way. And I had rather only have pieces that WinBoard knows the moves of in not-so-well-known variants, so that people can use the -showTargetSquares option to be reminded of how the piece moves. (Which does not work for the wild-cards).

Yet another possibility is to use the WinBoard Commoner symbol, a 'german helmet' with a spike on top. Perhaps this would be best? The standard move of the Commoner is like a King, and the Thai Bishop is a subset of this. And the over-all shape of the helmet with a spike on top is not unlike the shape of the Thai pieces for Bishop, Ferz and King.

What do you think?

As I know now there is not standard Makruk notation in enlish
This web has Makruk to play online that can save pgn

http://www.playok.com/th/makruk/

it use chess notation with some adpation, all pieces use like chess, but only promotion pawn to Q they use e6=P and after that they use P and for this pieces which has same function as original Makruk queen.

this web is Thai web to play online that can save pgn also, but all notation is on Thai charactor.

http://www.thaibg.com/TSOnline/index.php

Thai notation is like chess notation in full form, by example if we move N from b1 to d2 needs to write N, b1-d2 but all write in Thai charactor

I would like to suggestion Makruk notation in English should write as chess in short form like http://www.playok.com/th/makruk/ doing, but should change something following

1. B to S as it moves like Silver in Shogi
2. Q to M as it was called Med in Thai and M is not in a-h file notation so it will easy to read
3. pawn after promotion should using as same as original queen notaion which may be like this 'e6=M'

What would be the most logical choice of letters for representing the pieces of Makruk in the western alphabet, e.g. for writing down a game in PGN? How do the Thai do this? Do they use the letters for the Chess counterparts?

Does there exist something like Makruk diagrams, and if so, what pictograms are used. I have seen stuff written about the 'Thai Elephant', and how its move pattern is supposed to represent an Elephant, with 4 legs and a trunk. But I understand that the Thai word for it does not mean 'Elephant' at all.

How does Thai software for playing this game represent the pieces on the screen?

I hope that someone from Thailand can help me with these questions, as I am currently adding Makruk as a standard variant in WinBoard, and want to know how best to do that.

Very good. Now the brain doesn't have to make Bishop to Khon conversions. Many thanks.

I am looking to play a game of Makruk.

Here is a new preset I just created:
/play/pbm/play.php?game%3DMakruk+%28Thai+chess%29%26settings%3DAlfaerie

Anyone interested?

I found this link on Thai Chess:
http://www.thailandlife.com/thaichess/

which explains the rules of the game, including the rule about how many moves does a player have to checkmate a lonely King before a forced draw.

Hi, This is a Makruk software.

Hope you like it.

http://www.geocities.com/peacedeveloper/downloadChess.htm

In my Books about Thai Chess is always White starting at first. That means that white/red moves first. The strongest players of Thai chess are all members in the Bangkok Chessclub which is a strong Western Chess Club. Irt is very likely that there are stronger Players as Mr. Tor from Samut Prakarn who is very likely the Number 5 in Thailand. The Club in Samut Prakarn is near the Shuttle Buses to the Crocodile Farm and they are playing there always in the Afternoon.

Cambodian Chess is identical to Thai Chess with one exception. The king can jump one time like the castling at the begin from his original field like a knight to th side. Everything else is identical .... as i know.

Nice greetings from Bangkok

Because the arrangement of the pieces for both sides are 'mirrored',
that
is King on left, there should be no difference who moves first...  Some
old
literatures put Black at the bottom (ie. move first) but the 'official'
rules (probably written quite recently and followed the Int'l version)
now is that White moves first.

And, by the way, I would like to add that there is a new ThaiChess
software with nice graphics etc. at www.thaichess.com...  Check it out! 
at about US$5, it's a great value and fun.  (The program incorporated
ALL
drawing rules, the first one that I know of)

Hi! One more question for Poompat or any native (or thoroughly accustomed)
player of makruk:
It there a first move rule? That is, does black or white (or red) move
first...or is there some other conventional way of deciding who has the
first move?
I've printed up a booklet of the rules of makruk...and someone asked me
this question...but I can't seem to find any answer, on this site, or on
any of the makruk sites, or in any of my books.
Is there a first move rule?