Makruk

Makruk, also known as Thai chess, is a two-player strategy board game descended from the sixth-century Indian game of chaturanga and belonging to the wider family of chess variants played across Asia. It developed in Thailand and Cambodia, though scholars disagree about its precise lineage: some hold that Persian traders introduced shatranj to the Ayutthaya kingdom around the fourteenth century, while others argue for a more direct link to Indian chaturanga spreading through Buddhist cultural expansion in Southeast Asia. Makruk is classified as an abstract strategy game with no element of chance, so outcomes depend entirely on tactical and strategic skill, and its pieces are shaped distinctively differently from Western chess sets, reflecting its own separate artistic and cultural tradition. A single game of makruk can last anywhere from about twenty minutes between strong players to several hours, and the game remains widely played and organized competitively in Thailand today.