Of course, it could be used for modern FIDE chess, but I wanted something different. One option would be to set the board up for Chaturaji, an old Indian four-player chess variant, but I'd already made a Chaturaji set in the past.
Googling around for other ideas, I stumbled across a web-page on Martian Chaturaji. Martian?? I thought only Jetan was played on the planet called Barsoom by its inhabitants? Turns out the name ultimately comes from a sci-fi novel, Empty City, in which there is mention of a board game called 'Icehouse' and a Martian princess. The Icehouse game was actually commercialised, and Martian Chaturaji is a further development of that.
There are several differences between Martian and Indian Chaturaji, mostly in the starting line-up and what happens when one of the kings has been mated (which is linked to the unique, immobile 'throne' piece, which is actually outside the board).
The four players in the game form two partnerships and, normally, the four sets of pieces would have four different colours. Given that the Egyptian-style pieces have a clear 'direction', the pieces from the two members of the pair are already differentiated by their orientation, so no need to do any further painting!
Neat little set, eh?
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