Burmese "Yamayana" Chess Set, 18th or early 19th century

The Burmese developed their own chess variant known as Sittuyin (in older sources also called chit-thareen (Stewart Culin, Chess and Playing-Cards, Washington 1898, p. 859) or tsit-da-yin (G. W. Strettell, The Ficus Elastica in Burma Proper, p. 57)). It is not entirely clear, when this Burmese type of chess developed, but the most likely theory is that it spread from India with the migration of Buddhism in the seventh century. This theory is backed by the pronunciation "siturin", which shows a certain similarity with the Sanskrit Chaturanga. In the west, Sittuyin was not known until the end of the 18th century. First reports came from Major Symes, the British ambassador, in 1800, and from a Captain Cox who had lived in the court of Amarapura in 1801.

Just as mysterious as the game are the pieces the game is played with. As Mackett-Beeson points out, it is virtually impossible to ascertain where any particular early Burmese chess set was made, but it is fairly safe to assume that the majority were made in and around Pagan. Burmese chessmen were predominantly made of wood or ivory, but there are also pieces made of metal or stone. The dating of Burmese chess pieces is somewhat difficult. These types of chessmen are rare and as already mentioned there are very little sources, most of which only mention the particular rules of the game but not the gaming pieces. Some authors of well-known books on antique chessmen, such as Hammond or Mackett-Beeson as well as many renowned collectors date most of these sets from the early to mid 18th century to the early 19th century.

The common type of Burmese chessmen is depicting two armies with foot soldiers as pawns. There is a special type, however, also known as “good vs evil”, the design of which honors the legend of Rama as told in the Ramayana (or in the Burmese adaptation called Yamayana), when Hanuman’s army of monkeys defeated Ravana, the king of the demons, who had kidnapped Rama’s wife Sita.

The pieces of the set shown here are of the second type. They are made of hardwood, the “good” side lacquered in red, the “evil” side lacquered in black. The king is called “Min-gyi”, which means Great King. The red king is carrying a sword in his right hand, the black king with a demon face is holding a snake in both hands. Instead of a queen, Burmese chess has the so called “Sit-ke” or “Sit-bo”, which translates to Lieutenant-General, again with a demon face for the black side. The rook is called “Yattah”, which means chariot. While earlier Burmese pieces were carved as an elaborate Juggernaut cart, later sets tended to show them as a simplified depiction of a temple (Kenneth G. Beauchamp, Cultural Influences in the Chess of South-East Asia, in: Ernst Strouhal (Ed.), Vom Wesir zur Dame, p. 152). In the set shown here, the Yattahs are tall pagoda type temples, but still indicating the movement, as the bases are shaped like boats, which was a feature also known of some Indian sets. A beautiful example from the Jaeger collection, which was even dated to the 16th or 17th century (without any conclusive evidence, however) is shown in “Schachspiele – Wandel im Laufe der Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte” on page 30. Hence, this might indicate that the set shown here is also an earlier set of the 18th century. The knights are called “Myin”, which means horse and the bishops are called “Sin”, which means elephant. Some sets, such as this one here, come with further elaborations. The first elaboration is that the Sin and Myin are carved with mahout or rider. As a further reference to the Ramayana topic, the riders on the red side are little monkeys, as monkeys are believed to have the power to drive away evil spirits, while the black side riders are little demons. And the second elaboration is that one Sin rider on each side buries his face in his arms. Finally, the pawns are called “Ne”, which is the Burmese name for foot-soldiers. Again, the red side Ne are mokey, the black side Ne are demons. For the sake of completeness, the names in Burmese language vary throughout the different regions of the country. Sometimes the pieces – in the above order - are referred to as Meng, Chekoy, Ratha, Mhee, Chein and Yein or as Min, Shimbooyen, Yattar, Tsakai, Sin and Gnas.

Without going into details of the rules of Sittuyin, the different starting position compared to western chess should be mentioned. In Sitttuyin, only the pawns (Ne) are initially placed on the board in two rows of four pawns each. In classical western chess, the positions would be a3-d3 and e4-h4 for the red side and a5-d5 and e6-h6 for the black side, as shown in one of the pictures. The red player then begins the game by placing his major pieces anywhere behind his soldiers. It is permitted to place a major piece on a square already occupied by a soldier, in which case the soldier is moved to another empty square behind the soldiers’ line. When the red pieces are all placed, the black player deploys his pieces in the same manner. This way, the initial setup is determined by the red player and may vary from game to game, thus bearing a certain resemblance to freestyle chess. The picture with the full board is showing a typical starting position.

And one last thing is to be noted regarding the set shown here. The pieces show signs of heavy use, which is not unusual as just a few Burmese sets were ornamental sets, while the majority of sets was made for actual play. Among Burmese players, it is common to not just move a piece, but to slam it on the board with force, which explains the imperfect, but very authentic and charming condition of the lacquer surface.