Sittuyin vs Computer

How to play Sittuyin (Burmese Chess)

Sittuyin, the traditional chess of Myanmar (Burma), is one of the most distinctive members of the worldwide chess family. Like international chess, Chinese chess and Thai Makruk, it grew out of the ancient Indian game of chaturanga, and it is played on an 8×8 board with a King, short-range royal pieces, knights, rooks and a row of pawns. What sets Sittuyin apart is its opening: the pawns begin on a fixed diagonal wall, but every other piece is placed by the players themselves before the fighting starts. That setup phase makes each game feel fresh, because no two openings need ever be the same. Play a friend on the same screen, or challenge the computer at three difficulty levels and earn ranking points for every win.

The goal

The goal is the same as in ordinary chess: trap the enemy King so that it is attacked (in check) and cannot escape. That is checkmate, and it wins the game at once. There is no capturing of the King itself — you win the moment escape becomes impossible. If the player to move has no legal move but is NOT in check, the position is a stalemate and counts as a draw, and there are also draws for a long spell with no progress and for a position repeated three times.

The board and the pieces

Sittuyin is played on the same 8×8 board as international chess. Each side commands one King (Min-gyi), one General (Sit-ke), two Elephants (Sin), two Horses (Myin), two Chariots (Yahhta) and eight Feudals, or pawns (Ne). The Horses and Chariots move exactly like the knight and rook you already know, but the General and Elephant are short-range pieces closer to the pieces of Makruk than to a modern queen or bishop, which gives Sittuyin its slow, manoeuvring character.

The setup phase — arrange your own army

Sittuyin begins with a fixed pawn wall and an open setup. The eight Feudals are already on the board in a staggered diagonal line: for Red they sit on files a–d of the third rank and files e–h of the fourth rank, and Black mirrors this across the centre. Everything else you place yourself. Red arranges all eight of their non-pawn pieces first, then Black does the same, and only then does play begin (Red moves first).

• Place each piece — King, General, the two Elephants, the two Horses and the two Chariots — on any empty square in your OWN half of the board. You may never place a piece on a feudal square, and both Kings therefore start hidden behind the pawn wall.
• In this app you place your pieces in a fixed order (King, General, Elephants, Horses, Chariots) by tapping the squares you want; this is a small simplification of the historical free-order setup. Tap "Quick setup" at any time to drop the rest of your army onto a solid, ready-made arrangement.
• Because you build your own position, opening theory barely exists — you can hide your King in a corner, mass your Chariots on one wing, or spread your Horses across the centre. The computer always uses a strong default arrangement.

How the pieces move

• King (Min-gyi): moves one square in any of the eight directions, exactly like a chess king. It may never move into check, and there is no castling in Sittuyin.
• General (Sit-ke): the main "royal" defender. It moves only ONE square diagonally, in any of the four diagonal directions — much like the Met of Makruk or the ferz of old chess. It is short-range and best used to shield the King.
• Elephant (Sin): moves one square diagonally in any of the four directions, OR one square straight forward. It never steps straight back or sideways, so like a silver general it slowly loses ground as it advances. Its forward direction depends on its colour.
• Horse (Myin): moves exactly like a chess knight — an L-shape of two squares then one at a right angle — and it is the only piece that can jump over others. With so many weak short-range pieces around it, the Horse is one of the strongest attackers on the board.
• Chariot (Yahhta): moves exactly like a chess rook — any number of empty squares in a straight line, horizontally or vertically. It is the most powerful piece in the game and rules open files and ranks.
• Feudal (Ne, the pawn): moves one square straight forward to an empty square, and captures one square diagonally forward, just like a chess pawn. There is no two-square first move and no en passant. Feudals start on their fixed diagonal wall and can promote to a General.

Feudal promotion

A Feudal can be promoted to a General, but Sittuyin restricts this in a way found in no other chess. A Feudal may promote ONLY when your own General has already been captured, so each side can have at most one General at a time. Promotion also happens only on a "promotion square": in this app those are the squares of the two long diagonals that lie in the opponent's half of the board. When your General is gone and a Feudal reaches one of those diagonal squares — by an ordinary step or by a capture — it is promoted to a General on the spot, as part of that move. If your General is still on the board, a Feudal that reaches a promotion square simply stays a Feudal. This is a documented simplification of the fuller historical promotion rules, chosen so promotion is easy to see and always legal to reason about.

Winning and draws

You win by checkmating the enemy King. A game is drawn in three ways: by stalemate (the player to move has no legal move while not in check), by a no-progress rule (a long run of moves with no capture and no feudal move, which is exactly what a dead, drawn ending looks like), and by threefold repetition (the same position occurring three times). In the two-player game you can use Undo to take back a move — including a placement during setup — if a finger slips.

Playing the computer (ranked)

In "Sittuyin vs Computer" you choose your colour and one of three difficulty levels, then arrange your own army while the computer arranges its. Easy plays loosely and makes deliberate mistakes, so beginners can win. Normal looks a couple of moves ahead and punishes obvious blunders. Expert searches deeper, defends its King carefully and rarely misses a forced mate. The computer thinks entirely on your device, so it works offline. Beat it to earn ranking points — Easy +10, Normal +30, Expert +100 — and sign in to put your best result on the leaderboard.

Strategy tips

• Set up with your King safe. Because you place your own pieces, tuck the King into a corner or behind a knot of defenders, and keep the General close by to guard the diagonals next to it.
• Value your Chariots and Horses. With the General and Elephant so weak, the rooks and knights do almost all of the real fighting — trading a Chariot for an Elephant or General usually favours the side that keeps the Chariot.
• Give your Chariots open lines. When you set up, try to leave at least one file where your Chariot can break out once the pawns start moving; a Chariot buried behind its own army is nearly useless.
• Remember the Elephant only moves forward, never straight back. Once it advances it cannot easily return to defend, so send Elephants forward with support and keep some near your King early.
• Think about promotion late in the game. If your General has been traded off, a Feudal steered onto one of the long diagonals in the enemy half becomes a new General and can decide a close endgame.

Frequently asked questions