Chausar

How to play chausar

Chausar is a variant of pachisi and is often played on the pachisi board. The pieces go the same way: down the middle row of their own arm, with the sun round the board along the outer rows, and up the middle row into the centre. The first to get all four pieces into the centre has won; in teams the partners win together.

From the book

• The dice are three long, four-sided sticks, marked 1 and 6 on opposite faces, 2 and 5 on the others.
• There are no castle squares in chausar.
• Black and yellow play against red and green.
• All the black pieces must be back in the centre before the yellow ones may go up the middle row of their own arm. In the same way the red ones must be in before the green ones can follow.
• If two dice show the same, pieces standing together on a square may be moved twice as many squares as the pips show.
• Blockades can only be made by pieces that have gone round half the board.
• In teams, a partner who has all pieces in the centre keeps throwing whenever it is his turn, and the partner may use the throw if it is to their advantage.

From pachisi, where chausar is silent

• If you land on an opponent's piece, it is sent back to the centre, and you get an extra throw.
• The opponent cannot move past a blockade with a single piece, and takes it only by landing with as many or more.
• A piece enters the centre only on an exact throw.

My choices where the book leaves it open

• Each die moves one piece its number, in whatever order you like, and the same piece may take several dice one after another. An equal pair may instead move a group on the same square double, and uses both dice.
• Pieces may leave the centre on any throw, since the chausar dice have no throws that give another throw.
• Two pieces that have not gone round half the board are no blockade: they can be passed and taken by a single piece. The same goes for pieces waiting at the foot of their own middle row; otherwise two waiting partners could lock the whole board.
• Pieces moved together each go the whole number, and such a group may pass a blockade that is no bigger than the group.
• Your partner's pieces count in a blockade, and you never take them. With two or three players everyone plays for themselves.

New game