Pariah
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| Other names | Yedai (Gondwana), Spiel (Concord) |
|---|---|
| Years active | c. 13th century to present (predecessors c. 900 years earlier) |
| Genres |
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| Players | 2 |
| Playing time | 10-20 minutes |
| Chance | None |
| Skills | Strategy, Tactics |
Pariah is a board game for two players, called white and black, each controlling various pariah pieces in their color, with the objective to trap the opponent's king piece. It is sometimes called yedai or spiel depending on the continent. The rules of pariah, as they are known today in Yasteria, emerged in the 13th century, with general standardization in the 19th century.
Pariah is an abstract strategy game that involves no hidden information and no elements of chance. It is played on a checkered 16 square grid arranged in a 4x4 grid. At the start, each player has 3 pieces on the board: their player piece in a corner of the board (with their opponent's piece in the opposite corner), and two of their column pieces placed in front of their opponent. Black moves first, followed by white. The game is won by trapping the enemy king, i.e. leaving it with no squares to move toward. There are also a few ways in which a game can end in a draw.
Competitive pariah arose in the 19th century. Pariah competition today is governed internationally by IPF (the International Pariah Federation).
Etymology and Terminology
Pariah has several different names across the world. In Gondwana, Pariah is known as Yedai, from the Reijian word for “tower.” In Concord, it is known from the Nisser word Spiel, also meaning “tower.” For the Federation of the Southern Coast, the game is known as Marquis. Most of the rest of the world calls the game by its Jiduani name, Pariah. Pariah is a term that refers to someone or something that is outcasted or isolated.
In Pariah, there are several terms used to describe certain techniques, pieces, or movements:
- King: The King is the cone-shaped piece in the Parish set.
- Capstone: The capstone is the hemi-sphere shaped piece.
- Column: A column refers to one of the cylinder-shaped pieces.
- Stack: A stack refers to a tower of multiple pieces, regardless of color or piece type.
Rules
The rules of pariah are published by IPF in its Handbook. Rules published by naitonal governing bodies, or by unaffiliated pariah organizations, may differ in some details. The IPF's most recent revision to the rules was in 2020.
Setup
The game starts with the two players' king pieces placed on opposite corner squares of the 4x4 square grid board and two opposite color column pieces placed in front of the kings. Conventionally, the kings are placed on the dark square corners rather than the light ones. Outside of the board, each player has 10 extra column pieces of their color, aside from the two already on the board, and a capstone piece of their color.
In competitions, the colors of each player are decided by who is stronger. The stronger player will usually play as white because white offers a slight disadvantage, and reversely, the weaker player will play as black because black offers a slight advantage due to going first. In informal games, the color of the player is usually decided randomly.
Movement
Black moves first, after which players alternate their turns, moving one piece per turn (with the exception of moving stacks). The capstone piece can be moved and placed on any space on the board using a player's turn. Similarly to the capstone piece, the column piece can be placed anywhere on the board, but once it is placed it is bound by a set of movement rules. The king and column pieces, once it is placed, can only move one square orthogonally, and one piece's length upward and downward. Pieces can move onto either unoccupied squares, or on top of other pieces. Any piece can be placed on top of a column piece, including other column pieces. Kings and capstones cannot have anything placed on top of them. Whenever another piece is placed on top of a column piece, it is known as a stack. When moved, a stack moves everything on top of it with it, including when the stack jumps up to another piece.
Trapping
When a king piece no longer has any spaces to orthogonally move to, and no moves left on its turn to give itself a space to move toward, it is considered trapped.
The object of the game is to trap your opponent's king. Two common ways to do this is to surround the enemy king with either stacks that are at least two pieces high or with impassable pieces, or with the spire method, in which the enemy king in trapped on top of a stack with no way to get down.
End of the Game
Win
A game can be won in various ways:
- Trapping: When either king piece in placed in a position with no spaces left to move
- Resignation: When either one of the players resigns, conceding the game to the other player.
- Flagging: When the other player runs out of time. This can only happen in time controlled matches, which is usually the standard for competitive pariah.
- Foul: When the opposing player cheats or violates the rules, they automatically loose.
Draw
There are several ways a game can end in a draw:
- Dead position: A dead position is a position in which both king pieces are left with no spaces left to move on the same turn. These positions are usually reached due to a mistake on either one of the players, in which their move cuts their own king off from having any safe spaces left while doing the same to the enemy king.
- Draw by Agreement: At any point in a pariah game, either one of the players can offer a draw. If the other player accepts, then the game automatically ends in a draw.
- Draw by Repetition: A draw is reached when both players repeat the same sequence of moves 3 times each.
Notation
The standard system of notation for pariah games is short-form representative notation. In this system, each space is uniquely identified by a set of coordinates: a-d for the horizontal rows, 1-4 for the vertical columns, and a capital L followed by a number to denote height level. The sequence in which the notation is built goes as follows:
- location of piece being moved (only used in certain cases) – initial of the piece moved – file of destination square – rank of destination square
The pieces are identified by singular capital letters. The Kings are identified with a K, the columns with a C, and the capstones with an S. In order to avoid ambiguity, the column pieces usually have a coordinate placed before them to denote which column piece is being moved where. If a new column piece is being placed rather than moving an existing one, the notation skips the extra coordinates. An example of the Champion's Opening using representative notation:
- Cc4L2: A new column piece is placed on c4, on top of an existing column piece.
- Kd3L2: White's king moves on top of a column piece on d2.
- c4L1-Cc3: The first level column on c1 moves to c2, with no change in level.
- Ca2L2: White places a new column piece on top of an existing one.
- Kb1L2: Black moves their king on top of a column piece.
Organized Competition
Tournaments and Matches
Modern Pariah is a semi-organized sport with some official national leagues and an official international league held by the IPF. Hundreds of Pariah tournaments are held every year for players of all skill levels.
Most tournaments use the Garangol Rules System, in which each game won in a tournament is worth one point, a drawn game is half a point, and a lost game is no point, and usually results in an elimination with some exceptions.
A “Match” usually consists of a best-of-three or best-of-five game system, depending on the tournament.
Governance
Pariah’s international governing body is the International Pariah Federation, known by its acronym IPF. Aside from regulating and officiating the rules of chess, the IPF’s most notable activity is hosting the official International League, the largest international Pariah tournament in the world.
Titles and Rankings
In order to rank players, the IPF, as well as most national organizations, use the Marma rating system. The average club has a rating of about 1000, and the highest achieved rating of all time is 2800, achieved by Munazza Mabati. Players can be awarded lifetime titles by the IPF:
- Grandmaster is awarded to players with a rating of 2500 or higher. There are other ways in which a player may get the Grandmaster title, such as winning the official International League.
- Master is awarded to players with a rating of 2000 or higher.
- Candidate Master is awarded to players with a rating of 1800 or higher.
Theory
Opening
The opening section of the game is the set of initial moves played by each player. Recognized series of moves within this initial stage of the game are called openings. In pariah theory, the main goal of each player within the opening section of the game is to develop their kings toward the center of the board while also cutting off the opponent from accessing it. Moves that increase the number of squares your king can move on, and moves that reduce the squares the opponent’s king can move on, are generally considered good moves in this stage with some exceptions. Openings can be considered either aggressive, defensive, or positional.
The fundamentals strategic aims are as follows:
- Development: Development refers to the process of getting the king piece away from the corner and in the open, where it will have more squares to move to. This is considered a crucial part of pariah, because if the king is not moved away from the corner, it will have two less squares to move toward.
- Control of the Squares: One of the main goals in pariah is to control as many squares as possible to give the king as much space to move around as possible. The more squares that the king can reach, the safer a position typically is.
- Tempo: Tempo is a term used to refer to the attack-and-defense dynamic between the players in pariah. A player who has the tempo advantage in a game is considered the player who is on the attack. One of the main goals of the opening for white is to neutralize black’s tempo advantage for going first. For black, the main goal of the opening is to utilize and keep the tempo advantage against white.
Midgame
The midgame is the part of the game directly after the opening. There is no clear line dividing the midgame and the opening, but typically the midgame will start once both kings are fully developed and are one level up from the board. Because opening theory no longer applies to the midgame, players must formulate their own plans of attack and defense against the enemy king outside of theory. The midgame phase of the game is the phase in which the most combinations of tactical moves to gain tempo are made.