Maharajah and the Sepoys


Maharajah and the Sepoys, originally called Shatranj Diwana Shah and also known as the Mad King's Game and Maharajah chess, is a popular chess variant with different armies for White and Black. It was first played in the 19th century in India. It is a solved game with forced win for Black.

Game rules

Black has a full, standard chess army in the usual position. White is limited to a single piece, the maharajah, which can move as either a queen or as a knight on White's turn. Black's goal is to checkmate the maharajah, while White's is to checkmate Black's king. There is no pawn promotion.
The asymmetry of the game pits movement flexibility and agility against greater force in numbers. By perfect play Black always wins in this game, at least on an 8×8 board. According to Hans Bodlaender, "A carefully playing black player should be able to win. However, this is not always easy, and in many cases, when the white 'Maharaja' breaks through the lines of black, he has good chances to win."

Winning strategy

The maharajah can pose a serious threat and even win against a weak opponent. Its strategy is to clean as many black pieces as possible in the early game using forks as the main tactic; after sufficiently cleaning the board, by doing checks, chase the black king away from its other pieces, drive it to an edge of the board and give checkmate.
Maharajah's critical weakness is that it is alone, so it cannot do exchanges, meaning it cannot capture black pieces that are protected. So the Sepoys' winning tactic is to make moves in such a way that all their pieces stay protected while gradually stealing away available squares from the maharajah.
One example line of moves that gives Black a in 24 moves goes like this :
Now if the maharajah is on a1 then:
Else: