Introduction

The word SHUURO is Sanskrit for “warrior” or “skilled one”, chosen as the origins of the game of chess can be traced to ancient India. Through the centuries, Buddhist monks, caravans on the silk road, Persian and then Arab traders have contributed to spread its use, until it reached Europe in the middle ages. So the terminology is from the remote past, but the game is quite innovative at a tactical and strategic level. Designed by Alessio Cavatore and produced by the British-Italian River Horse LLP, Shuuro’s rules are less than two pages long. So, little reading time, but a lot of creativity is required for a game that promises never to bore, as it changes every time you play.

How does it work?

Shuuro recreates a battlefield on a twelve by twelve chessboard, which is therefore larger than a traditional chessboard (8X8). On this, before each game, the players place eight cubic plinths of the same dimensions as the squares themselves, to represent in a stylised fashion the elements of terrain and buildings that are found on battlefields. These plinths inhibit the movement of the pieces, limiting the advantage that queen, rooks and bishops would have on such a large board, and instead favouring knights, that can jump these obstacles or even use them as impregnable castles. The fact that the plinths are randomly placed before the start of the game ensures that each game is always new and challenging.

The second concept that sets Shuuro apart from traditional chess is the choice of chess pieces, which simulates the fact that in reality armies are never identical to the enemy. Like in three-dimensional wargaming, each piece has a set points value (for example, a Queen is worth 130 points, a rook is 70 points and a pawn is 10). Before the game, the players decide how many points they will be able to field in total (800 points, for example), and then build a chess army to reflect their tactical preferences. So a player might have an army consisting of two queens, three rooks, four bishops, four knights and six pawns, while the opponent could have opted for no queens, but two rooks, six bishops, eight knights and twelve pawns.

Once again, the great variety of possible permutations, combined with the changing of the battlefield, makes every game of Shuuro different.

Shuuro is based on innovative concepts, which marry the best elements of two different traditional games: chess; and military simulation games with miniatures, also known as three-dimensional wargames (or simply “toy soldiers battles”).