Senterej (Amharic: ሰንጠረዥ sänṭäräž or Ethiopian chess) is a regional chess variant, the form of chess traditionally played in Ethiopia and Eritrea. It was the last popular survival of shatranj. According to Richard Pankhurst, the game became extinct sometime after the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in the 1930s. A distinctive feature of Senterej is the opening phase – players make as many moves as they like without regard for how many moves the opponent has made; this continues until the first capture is made. Memorization of opening lines is therefore not a feature of the game. Rules Pieces Broadly, the pieces move the same way as in shatranj; however, there are regional variations. Each king (negus) stands just to the right of the centerline from its player's point of view. It moves one step in any direction as a chess king. At the left of the king stands the ferz, moving one square diagonally. (One source says it moves one step in any direction, but may only capture diagonally. There may have been regional variations.) On the flanks of the king and ferz stands a piece called the fil or alfil (saba). It leaps diagonally to the second square distant. Beside the fils stand the horses (feresenya), moving as chess knights. In the corners stand the rooks (der), moving as chess rooks. The second is filled with pawns (medeq), which move one step forward and capture one square diagonally forward. There is no first move double-step option, and therefore no en passant. A pawn reaching the farthest rank is promoted to ferz (one source says, to the rank of any piece already lost). The possible movements of the main senterej pieces, excluding that of the king and pawn, may complementary to one another, occupying, without any omission or redundancy, all available squares with regards to a central position inside a 5×5 grid, as shown in the figure to the right. Gameplay In Senterej both sides start playing at the same time without waiting for turns. The phase before first capture is called the "mobilization" or "marshalling" phase, or werera. Both players may move their pieces as many times as they like without concern for the number of moves the opponent makes. During this phase the players watch each other's moves, and retract their own and substitute others as they think best. They only start to take turns after the first