Shatranj Kamil Board Game | BoardGames.com | Your source for everything to do with Board Games

Description

As documented by Harold Murray and John Gollon, Shatranj Kamil was an early and largely unsuccessful attempt to expand the game of Shatranj. The board has been enlarged from 8x8 to 10x10, and in addition to two more pawns, each player is given two of a new piece, the camel, which jumps two spaces in a straight orthogonal line (i.e. it is an orthogonal counterpart to the elephant and significantly weaker than the rook). The camels have variously been placed in the corners, in the fourth and seventh columns, and possibly in other configurations. The rules and pieces are otherwise the same as in Shatranj. The word "kamil" does not refer to the camel piece, but instead means "perfect" or "complete".

This game should not be confused with Tamerlane Chess, which is also referred to as Shatranj Kamil; most likely there were several other variants being ascribed the status of higher perfection.