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Link to: ThaiBG

ThaiBG is a website for playing Thai Chess - also known as Makruk - and other games.

The site is in Thai, but there is enough information on the site in English that those who read English will be able to find their way around. The registration, login, links to the different games, and buttons for getting information on your ratings, record, and rank are all in English; pretty much everything else, including the FAQ, is in Thai. Most of the chat dialogue is in Thai as well, but if you send messages in English you may get a response.

There are 6 boards per room, although more than 12 people can be in a room, so it is possible to watch others play. When you enter you will be able to see all 6 boards in miniature; only after you sit at a board and have an opponent will the board expand to a larger - and more legible - size. The graphics are very nice and sound is provided as well. Time limits are based on a single move basis, rather than the total game, and there are 5 settings ranging from 6 seconds to 2 minutes per move. Time settings are chosen from a pull-down menu in the lower-left corner of each board, and rating options from a menu in the upper-left corner; players must choose their settings before they sit down at a board.

Thai Checkers is also available. The game is played on an 8x8 board with just 8 pieces per side instead of 12 as in American checkers. (Because of this difference, and because Makruk pawns flip over, it is possible to play Thai Checkers using just the pawns from a Makruk set. Whether or not this is coincidence or not, I do not know, but it seems more likely that it is not. If anybody knows anything about this, please let us know.) Promoted men move and capture, however, as those in European Checkers. There were only four people in the Thai Checkers room when I was there. There is a room for Othello as well, but I found it to be empty.

Thanks to Malcolm Maynard for pointing this site out to me.

ThaiBG


Written by Benjamin C Good.
WWW page created: Monday, February 10, 2003.