More about Shatar, the Mongolian Chess

Les échecs mongols, compléments

This page contains more illustrations about Shatar, the Mongolian Chess. All of them have been provided to me by Rodolfo Pozzi (or borrowed from his on-line articles) who is deeply acknowledged. Rodolfo Pozzi is Italian and is a Chess set collector. He is the author of several booklets and papers about Chess history and he is a recognized expert of Mongolian Chess.

Game of Shatar inside the yurte

The Nojon (Noyion): equivalent to the King.

Nojon riding quiver and two hounds. Painted wood, Mongolia, 19th century.	Two wooden Nojons (Inner Mongolia, Assia Popova)
Nojons riding horses
Two bronze Nojons	Metallic Nojons. One is aggressive (a warrior from Genghis Khan period), the other is peaceful (a nomad Khan seated).
Two bronze Nojons (beg. 19th c.)
Bronze Nojon with the soyombo symbol on the back of the throne
King represented by a woman on camelback	Mongolian bronze Nojon, Chinese influence
Two musicians Nojons, wood, 1960
Mongolian Kings holding sacred book (wood, 1920-1930)

The Bers: equivalent to the Queen.

Nojons and Bers (wood, 1950)

Stone Bers

A Bers and two Xüü compared to the symbolic lions on the Tibetan flag

Mongolian Bers and Xüü as tigers (wood, 1920-30)

Black Tereg (Rook) and white Bers, both in form of bulls (Mongolia).

The Temee: equivalent to the Bishop.

Temee from a bronze set (1870)	Temee from a wooden set (1930)


(wood, 1850)	A drinking Camel (Temee) along with two Horses (Mor')
Wooden Temee (c. 1850)
Bronze	Wooden Temee (ca. 1850)
Ivory (20th c.)	Wooden Temee (ca. 1850)
Wooden Temee in a not natural motion (1960)
(wood, 1922-24)	Two Temee, standing and lying (wood, 1940)
Bronze Temee and Mor', females with their heird (1870).
The Xüü (Pawn) is a boy collecting the Camel's shit which will be used for the fire.
Fighting camels (wood, 19th c.)

The Mor' (Mori): equivalent to the Knight.

	Four Tuvinian Mor'
Wooden Horses. (The one in the middle is from 1820)

The Tereg (Terghe): equivalent to the Rook.

	Losanges and peacock tails (Musée de l'Homme, Paris)
Bronze Tereg: wheel of life and endless knot
Bronze Tereg
Rooks in form of Solomon's knots
Rooks in form of svastika (as a solar symbol, wood, beg. 20th c.)
	Tereg (Rook) pulled by a camel (wood, beg. of 20th c.)



Rooks, wood, 1920


Rooks in shape of trees with large leafs, birds and men, wood, 1850
Portable yurts (wood and bronze)

The Xüü (Huu): equivalent to the Pawn.

(Musée de l'Homme, Paris)
single wrestlers	couple of wrestlers
Hares
Celestial Buddhistic peacocks	Couple of wrestlers
Couple of wrestlers	Playing children with small animals
These horses are Xüü, not Mor'!

A set opposing Mongolian communists to Russian soviets (1936):

Wooden set opposing Mongolian communists (top) to Russian (bottom).

Two Nojons and two Bers (front and back views). One Nojon (left) is a soviet officier. The Bers are ferocious dogs.

Mor'

Soviet Russian cars (right) vs Mongolian cars with imprisoned bouddhist lamas! (1936)

Old wooden set made when Mongolia was controlled by the Mandchu Qing dynasty of China (circa 1790):

Nojons with a Mandchu lord (top) vs two knights

Couples of wrestlers

Xüü as pairs of Knights

Wooden set with "drunk" Nojons (beg. 20th c.):

Set opposing the "bad", the Chinese, to the "good", the Mongolian
(wood, Inner Mongolia beg. of 20th c.):

The old Nojon (Chinese) and the young (Mongolian)

Temee and Mor'

Tereg

The Mongolian Xüü (Pawns) are celestial Buddhist Peacocks.

The Chinese Xüü (Pawns) are chickens.

The Chinese Bers is a malign tiger, the Mongolian Bers is a sacred Buddhist lion.

click to enlarge
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Other complete sets:

Soapstone (steatite) sets from Tuva

(Musée de l'Homme, Paris)

(Assia Popova)

Wooden set with musician Nojons, Mongolia, 1960

Wooden set (1850)

Wooden set (19th c.)

Wooden set from Mongolia, 1950

Here the Nojon bears a chessboard. The Tereg is a cart pulled by an elephant.

Wooden set with tents instead of camels for one side (top)

Wooden animal set

Metallic set opposing aggressive versus pacific (20th c.)

Metal set

Wooden set

Metal sets with Garuda as Tereg-Rook (Thomas Thomsen)

Ivory set

Mammoth ivory set

Hard stone set

References authored by Roldolfo Pozzi:

"I giochi di schacchi mongoli riflesso della cultura nomade delle steppe - The Mongolian chess sets reflecting the nomadic culture of the steppes", Chess Collectors International, 10th Biennal Convention, Philadelphia, USA, May 2002.
"The Mongolian and Tuvinian Chess sets and their symbolism", Chess Collectors International, 8th Convention, Vienna, Austria, May 1998.
"Les jeux d'échecs mongols", in Voyage en Mongolie, catalogue d'exposition présentée au Musée international du Carnaval et du Masque, 24 mai - 31 octobre 2003.
"Novita' nella ricerca sui giocchi di scacchi della Mongolia - Mongolian chess set: recent findings", bilingual (Italian-English), in The Chess Collector, Vol. XIII, N.1, Spring 2004.
"Gli scacchi mongoli", Soyombo, Autumn 2003, Milano.
"Gli scacchi della Mongolia", I quaderni del museo, Museo popoli e culture, 14/03/2009-14/06/2009, Milano

If there is any problem with the illustrations presented here, please do mail me.

The Bactrian camel with two humps

13/03/2010