This was very educational and instructive. Thank you so much, Milo! You should make this a blog post.
Chaturaji basic opening theory
Sort:
I will, thanks for the idea
Most Recent
Forum Legend
Following
New Comments
Locked Topic
Pinned Topic
This post is a basic guide to chaturaji openings. I hope you learn something from it today!
In this article the pawns will be designated a number, where 1 is the rook pawn (or sailboat pawn for pedantic people) and 4 is the king pawn. Also all diagrams are symmetrical and colors do not matter unless explicitly stated.
Starting position:
1.1. The King
In chaturaji, the most important piece is the king. Therefore, in the opening, your first 3 moves should move the king out of the vulnerable d1 (for red) and somewhere safer, such as c1 or c2. Openings always prioritize king safety.
1.2 Basic theory
In the game, you will notice the player in front of you is generally your main target. They are vulnerable to a quick pawn storm and rather weak. You also want them out of the way so you can promote.
On the other hand, the player to your right will be attacking you. You must always watch out for their attacks. However, you do not want them to be the first one to be eliminated, as the opposite player will promote, and you will become their target.
The player opposite you is the most tricky. They will attack the right player for you, and therefore are your friend, in a sense. You also do not want them dead as then you are sandwiched between the 2 others. However, you must watch out for annoying bishop pins and attacks on the long diagonals.
2.1. As Red
As Red, you have a large advantage. You can choose what to do at will on the 1st move and not worry about other attacks. There are 4 main openings available to you as Red.
2.2. As Anyone Else
If you are not Red, you must respond to other players. Therefore, some openings become unplayable.
3.1. Pawn 3
This is the safest of all the openings. The idea is that moving pawn 3 gives you a safe place to put your king on move 2. However, it often leads to cramped and passive gameplay.
Arrow diagram:
After moving the pawn, the logical 2nd move is to move your king to c2. The 2nd pawn is a common follow up choice. However, you may have to worry about the player right of you's bishop. If they move pawn 4 initially, you should consider moving pawn 4 as your 3rd or 2nd move.
After moving, your main goal is going to be to move the pawns 1 and 2. This forces the forward player to move the king either backwards, or forwards onto a4. They will be in a very cramped position and the best moves is to keep bullying them with the knight and rook.
You must grab as much space as possible. It is very easy to be forced into zugzwang and you need to push pawns as fast as possible before losing pieces. Make sure pawn 3 does not get pinned though, it is very bad when that happens.
3.2. Pawn 2
This opening is going to be my 2nd choice. It is rather useful especially against unskilled people and can lead to a more aggressive style of play. However, be careful; if you are not Red, you cannot play this opening if the opposite player plays it or the right hand player moves pawn 4. In that case, play Pawn 3.
Arrow diagram:
The 2nd and 3rd moves should be King to left and Bishop to left, in any order. In this, the main goal can still be to attack the forward player. However, a much better option is if the opposite player is new to the game or has a low rating (<1550 or <5 games.) You will move the bishop on move 2 (assuming they played the same opening as you). You can then attack their rook from the other side and your bishop will be in a good position, you have 5 points, they lost their strongest piece, life is good. But you cannot fall for the trap yourself.
The king move to left should be move 3, and you may begin attacking the front player with pawns and knights if you wish. In this opening your right side is rather weak, so do not move pawn 4, or the right player will throw pawns at you.
3.3. Pawn 1
This is a risky opening, and can lead to very good attacks. But watch out for the king. If the right player plays a knight opening, pawn 4, or even pawn 3, do not play this.
Arrows:
You will notice that pawns 1 and 2 are the most important. Moving the knight is rather useful too if they move pawn 4 at any time (which they probably won't. But whatever.) Moving the bishop is important for protecting the king. IMO this is really just a worse version of pawn 3 but some people like it? Yeah idk
The rook is very strong. If you are not being attacked, your first 3 moves might even to be to only move pawn 1 and get it out so the rook can snipe their back rank. This can be very useful BUT MAKE SURE YOU ARE NOT GOING TO DIE TO THE OTHER PERSONS BISHOP sorry it's that important. If they ever move pawn 4 you are cooked, move pawn 3 or the bishop asap.
3.4. Pawn 4
This is another risky opening, it opens up your king, but can set up a great pawn chain that runs along the left side later. Don't play if the left person decides to play pawn 1, 3, or a knight.
Arrows:
The most important part of this opening is that you will get pawn stormed by the right person. You can't avoid it if they're smart, but you can mitigate it, by protecting the king and moving to the right. Anyway the opening gives a great opportunity to develop the knight which doesn't happen a lot, and pawn 2 is another great one.
If the player in front of you is new, like <3 games, you can move the bishop right 1. This can attack their king and sometimes they lose on move 3 (Idk some people are dumb), and that clears up a good promotion file. It can also work if they play pawn 3 by moving the bishop 2 steps to stop or attack the king. Again don't get cooked by the right person
3.5 Miscellaneous
There are 3 other opening moves people use:
So the knight openings. These are things you can use, occasionally you will see a newbie moving their knight, but they aren't that great. I guess the left one could be used as a move 2 to pawn 2 if the front player moves pawn 4 but it is still very niche.
The king opening, I've only seen it once, but I guess it is a valid move so I put it here. I don't really get it so yeah whatever.
4.1 Closing thoughts
So that is a basic guide to opening theory, I might write another one for middle game, but that will be later. I don't know if anyone else has done this, you can read those also, but the best way to get better is just to play. I spent a lot of time on this so I would really appreciate if you gave some constructive feedback, and thanks for reading!