<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p><italic>Kauṭilya</italic>’s <italic>maṇḍala</italic> model has intrigued indologists and political scientists for some time. It deals with friendship and enmity between countries that are direct or indirect neighbours. (Ghosh; 1936) suggests a close relationship between this model and Indian four-king chess. We try to corroborate his claim by presenting a stylized game-theory model of both Indian four-king chess and <italic>Kauṭilya</italic>’s <italic>maṇḍala</italic> theory. Within that game model, we can deal with <italic>Kauṭilya</italic>’s conjecture according to which an enemy’s enemy is likely to be one’s friend. Arguably, this conjecture is reflected in the ally structure of four-king chess. We also comment on the widespread disapproval of dice in (four-king) chess.</p></abstract>

Kauṭilya’s maṇḍala model has intrigued indologists and political scientists for some time. It deals with friendship and enmity between countries that are direct or indirect neighbours. (Ghosh; 1936) suggests a close relationship between this model and Indian four-king chess. We try to corroborate his claim by presenting a stylized game-theory model of both Indian four-king chess and Kauṭilya’s maṇḍala theory. Within that game model, we can deal with Kauṭilya’s conjecture according to which an enemy’s enemy is likely to be one’s friend. Arguably, this conjecture is reflected in the ally structure of four-king chess. We also comment on the widespread disapproval of dice in (four-king) chess.

Four-king chess with dice is neither unrealistic nor messed up

Board Game Studies Journal

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"Four-king chess with dice is neither unrealistic nor messed up"}

Kauṭilya’s maṇḍala model has intrigued indologists and political scientists for some time. It deals with friendship and enmity between countries that are...

Four-king chess with dice is neither unrealistic nor messed up

Published Online: Sep 29, 2016

Page range: 33 - 59

Received: Oct 29, 2015

Accepted: Sep 08, 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/bgs-2016-0003

© 2016 Harald Wiese, published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.