ASEAN Chess: making a move

Long term strategy and patience, two requirements of both regional integration and chess, so as the ASEAN Summit began Mizzima met with U Maung Maung Lwin, a man who has successfully combined the two.

ASEAN Chess as a phenomenon only dates as far back as March 2011, and the culmination of U Maung Maung Lwin’s plan to introduce a game that would preserve key hallmarks of the traditional forms of chess that existed in Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand and Laos and yet universalise the game so that all could participate.

“The creation of the game shows unity, friendship and understanding,” said U Maung Maung Lwin, president of Myanmar Chess Federation, vice-president of ASEAN Chess Confederation and author of multiple books on chess and its traditional Myanmar equivalent; Sittuyin.

“Originally only four countries played a form of chess similar to this, the remainder only played international chess [to the rules you might be more familiar with].”

“But we couldn’t have done this without the support and approval of the other federations, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, everybody supported it and worked together to persuade the 2011 Southeast Asian Games to include it in their programme.”

Those games, held in Indonesia, saw Thailand walk away with the gold, and two years later on home soil, Myanmar shared the spoils with Thailand in the 2013 event.

“The game is most similar to versions played in Myanmar and Thailand but the others are interested in the game and have medalled.”

“We adopted the international board and pieces to make it universal and easier for others to adopt.”

Garry Kasparov has proved that politics and chess can mix and U Maung Maung admits that the creation and promotion of ASEAN chess was in part a means to promote and propagate the game of Sittuyin.

“I knew that to include traditional chess [Sittuyin] at the 2013 SEA Games might be difficult if we could combine all the traditional games under one name and one set of rules then it would be easier to promote.”

“Once ASEAN chess was included in 2011, we were able to introduce ‘traditional chess’ following the rules of Sittuyin when Myanmar hosted the SEA games.”

Chess is thought by scholars to have been introduced to Myanmar from India in the 8th century, where it was modified and adopted with local rules surrounding the starting position, legal movements of pieces, and the promotion of pieces [for instance when a pawn becomes a Queen].

In the 11th century it spread to Thailand where it was modified again before crossing the borders into Cambodia and Laos.

“The pieces are the same, the only difference is the movement and promotion,” says U Maung Maung Lwin.

“Now we have this game, whenever Chess is included in the SEA games, we will include ASEAN chess.”

There are numerous regional Olympiads held across the globe, but many copy the same format of universal international and arguably hegemonic sports. The SEA games augment this programme with a number of regional sports that give it a unique character.

ASEAN chess is an example, albeit a minor one, of a compromise to create regional rules and find a common ground that all can participate.

U Maung Maung Lwin hopes that ASEAN chess might in the future find itself on the continental stage at the Asian Games. As for Sittuyin, the Myanmar Chess Federation received an invitation to demonstrate the sport at the Chess Olympiad in Norway, but was unable to find the resources to participate.