CHESS GAMES BY CHRISTIAAN FREELING (CONGO ⌐ DEMIAN FREELING).
PART 00 - PART 12. THIS IS PART 10.
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General
Yari Shogi is an attempt to carry some of the characteristics of the Japanese game of Shogi to extremes, while at the same time putting the rules and the choice of pieces into a logical framework. It is assumed that the reader is familiar with the rules of Shogi.
Diagram 1 shows the board and the initial position of the pieces.
All pieces are of the same colour. Sides are only distinguished by their direction.
On the reverse side of each piece its promoted version is depicted.
Rules
>>> The General moves like the King in Chess.
>>> The Rook covers the rank and the forward file it occupies, as indicated in diagram 2.
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>>> The Bishop covers the two squares diagonally forward and the forward file it occupies, as indicated in diagram 3.
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>>> The Knight covers the forward file it occupies and the two squares that are a knight's move away and adjacent to that file, as indicated in diagram 4. As in Shogi, the knight's move is a jump to the target-square, unaffected by intervening pieces.
>>> Pawns move one square forward and capture likewise.
From these pieces it may be clear which characteristic of Shogi has been taken to extremes here: It is Shogi's forward orientation. Except for pawn and General, all unpromoted pieces include Shogi's Lance as part of their options for movement, and with exception of the General, no unpromoted piece can move backward.
Another characteristic of Shogi is the game's ample opportunity for promoting pieces. This characteristic too has been taken to an extreme: with the implicit exception of the General, all pieces in Yari Shogi can be promoted.
>>> A piece in Yari Shogi may promote if it ends its (non-drop) move inside the promotion-zone.
As in Shogi, the promotion-zone consists of the 3 farthest ranks from the player's point of
view. Promotion is optional unless not doing so would leave the piece immobile.
Thus a Bishop, Knight or pawn must be promoted if moved to the ninth rank.
>>> A Rook promotes to a promoted Rook (sorry for that) which is identical to the Rook in Chess.
>>> The Bishop and the Knight both promote to Gold. This piece is similar to Shogi's Gold in that
it covers the three squares in front and the two squares to the left and right. But Yari Shogi's
Gold is much stronger in that it covers the whole backward file it occupies, as indicated in
diagram 5.
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>>> Pawns promote to Silver. This piece, again, is similar to Shogi's Silver in that it covers the
three squares in front. But instead of the 2 squares diagonally backward, Yari Shogi's Silver
covers the backward file. Thus Silver too is much stronger than its counterpart in Shogi.
Silver is depicted in diagram 6.
>>> As in Shogi, captured pieces change sides, that is, a captured piece becomes property of its
captor. The piece is now 'in hand' and may be dropped conditionally onto a vacant square, at
the cost of a turn. The conditions are:
1. A piece must be dropped unpromoted.
2. A drop may not render the piece immobile. Thus a Bishop, Knight or pawn may not be
dropped on the back rank.
3. A pawn may not be dropped on a file that already holds an unpromoted pawn of the same
player. Thus 'double pawns', as known in Chess, are not possible in Yari Shogi.
>>> Yari Shogi pawns may, like any piece, drop mate. This is the only difference with Shogi
pawns.
The one important game in this compilation is Grand Chess. Anyone who wrote a good Chess program and has half a mind to modify it into a Grand Chess program and put a demo on the Net on a fifty fifty basis regarding the codes, is welcome to contact me at the following address:
Christiaan Freeling
Pollenbrink 181
7544 AW Enschede
The Netherlands
+31 53 769075
Net: freeling@euronet.nl
All games: ⌐ Christiaan Freeling, except Congo: ⌐ Demian Freeling.
