About This Site

Three Ways to Play

• Against AI: Choose White or Black, select one of four locally computed levels, and compare ideas with hints, undo, and move-by-move replay.
• Two players: Share one device for face-to-face play, teaching the rules, or discussing alternatives from the same position.
• Online rooms: Open a public or private room, choose a side, and invite an opponent by link or room code. Public rooms may also be joined or watched from the lobby.

See Makruk Rules for the rules and Makruk Strategy for practice advice.

Local Games and Online Rooms

AI and same-device games stay in the current browser. This includes the position, move record, and a few interface settings. A refresh will usually preserve the game, but clearing site data removes that local progress.

Online play is different: the server temporarily holds room state and synchronizes moves, while the browser keeps the identifiers needed to reclaim a seat. Those identifiers are not a user account. The Privacy Policy explains the data involved and how it is removed.

What the Site Does Not Provide

• No player ranks, rating tables, social accounts, or skill-based matchmaking.
• The public lobby lists open rooms, but it does not pair players automatically.
• AI moves and hints come from local search; they are not professional coaching or an official rating.
• Normal play does not ask for an email address, phone number, legal name, or payment details.

This site implements Makruk, Thai chess, on an 8×8 board. It is not xiangqi, shogi, or Western chess. If the written rules and the legal moves accepted by the board disagree, the program or documentation should be corrected; the discrepancy is not an alternate ruleset.

Why Each Feature Is Here

Every feature should help someone complete a game or understand a move. Board cues identify legal destinations, the move record makes it possible to revisit a decision, and room status confirms seats and connections. Accurate rules, clear feedback, and consistent legal moves across all modes matter more than adding another menu.

Where the pieces come from

The piece SVGs are from Fulmene's open set on GitHub (Fulmene/makruk-pieces-image), used under CC BY-SA 4.0. The license note is at /makruk-pieces/LICENSE.txt.

About Ply Yard

This site is maintained by Ply Yard. We investigate reports against this board, its rules, and its room service. If the board accepts an illegal move, rejects a legal one, loses sync with the move record, or fails to reconnect a room, please contact us with reproducible steps.