Great chess

Great chess, also called large chess and known in Arabic as shatranj al-kabir, is a family of large-board historical chess variants that were played across the Middle East and Central Asia. These variants are direct descendants of medieval shatranj but are distinguished by their considerably larger playing boards, including eleven by ten and thirteen by thirteen configurations, compared to the standard eight by eight shatranj board. One of the best documented forms, Tamerlane chess, developed in Central Asia during the Timurid Empire under Emperor Timur, who ruled from the 1320s to 1405, though variants of great chess are attested from at least the twelfth century onward. The larger boards allowed for additional piece types not found in standard chess or shatranj, including giraffes, camels and war engines, along with varieties of pawn that each promote according to their own distinct rule, giving these historical games a tactical richness that modern chess historians continue to study as evidence of chess's diverse regional evolution.