Katruji is not the most complicated game.

For more detailed and just better looking rules, see The creator's rules doc.

middle called the "Uczuda". Each player owns one 4x4 half of the board called a "Hajat".

Players attempt to win by capturing the other player's pieces, by emptying their hajat of pieces, or by running out a stalemate clock.

Play proceeds in turns until one player achieves victory. During their turn, a player must move a piece from its square in their hajat.

There are three kinds of piece in Katruji:

• the Private (P), a.k.a Hutu or Pawn, can move one square diagonally in any direction. When captured, it is worth one point.
• the Sergeant (S), a.k.a Ali, can move one or two squares in any orthogonal direction, horizontal or vertical. When captured, it is worth two points.
• the Officer (O), a.k.a Isza or Queen, can move any amount of squares horizontal, vertically, or diagonally. When captured, it is worth three points.

A player may start a move using only pieces in their own hajat. If the piece crosses the uczuda into the opponent's hajat, it is now controlled by the other player. Many players find this the hardest part of first playing Katruji!

A piece must occupy a single square, and cannot occupy the same square as another piece. A piece may end a move in one of three locations:

• On any legally reachable empty square.
• On an occupied square in the opponent's hajat, capturing the square's previous occupant, and adding its point value to the player's score.
• On an occupied square in their own hajat, replacing both pieces with a higher ranked piece, called promotion. A Private may move to a square occupied by another Private, creating a new Sergeant, or a Sergeant may move to a square occupied by a Private, creating an Officer. Promotion to a Sergeant is only permitted if there are no Sergeants remaining in the player's hajat.

You may not move the last piece moved (by your opponent, into your hajat) back to its previous square, as to undo that last move.

There are three ways to win in Zilatran Chess: Yara, Yemubus, and Alka.

Yara

To win by Yara, you must gain 18 points before you opponent does. 18 is the number after which it is mathmatically impossible to lose. To gain points, you have to capture pieces in your opponent's hajat.

Yemubus

To win by Yemubus, you must move all of your pieces into the opponent's Hajat, so that you have none left, then, the person with the most points wins the game. In the case of a point tie, the player who performed the Yemubus move wins.

Alka

To win by Alka, you must first enact Kyan-A-Alka ("Start the Clock"). To enact Kyan-A-Alka, seven moves must have passed from the last capture. Then, you may declare Kyan-A-Alka. If you do, which you do not have to, a 3-move timer starts. If, after 3 moves, no captures have taken place, the player whose turn it is may claim Alka, and the player with the most points wins. If a capture does happen, the 3 move timer resets to 0, and continues counting. If points are even when Alka is claimed, the person who enacted Kyan-A-Alka wins. Other game ending conitions still apply.

Good luck!