Oxeli is a new chess variant which combines the features of three popular chess formats played in this region – Thai, Chinese and international. To enable instant recognition of the Oxeli pieces and accompanying method of moving them on the playing board, a simple graphic icon is employed to denote the allowed directions of a move associated with each particular piece.

	Oxeli chessmen	Similarities to Traditional variants	Symbol
	- Oxeli King	All directions; one square at a time, á la international King.
	- Oxeli Bishop	Diagonally, á la international Bishop. The single Oxeli Bishop can "Shift Colour" from white squares to black squares and vice versa. Shifting colour requires a separate move.
	- Oxeli Cannon	Moving á la international Rook; capturing requires an intervening piece of either colour, in same manner as the Cannon in Chinese chess.
	- Oxeli Knight	Moves and captures á la international Knight.
	- Oxeli Rook	Moves and captures á la international Rook.
	- Oxeli Pawn	One square forward when advancing; one square diagonally when capturing. A promoted Pawn moves and captures á la international Queen.

The symbols are laser-inscribed onto the faces of round wooden tablets. The major pieces are tablets of 3 cm. across and 1.5 cm. tall. Tablets for the Pawns are each 1 cm. tall to differentiate them from the higher-value pieces.

Topside of the board is marked with an 8 x 8 checkerboard pattern with 4 x 4 cm squares. The board has a built-in sliding drawer with three compartments for storing the pieces in the outer slots and playing instructions in the middle.

A "courtesy" ritual may be established as part of the game. At the start, a player pushes on the drawer to slide it towards the other player and invites him (Say "Chern" in Thai) to set up the pieces. The second player does so and slides the drawer back to invite the first player to set up. A player is deemed uncouth if he purposely ignores this practice.

The symbols on the pieces on the home rank spell out the name of the game: OXELI.