"Tenjiku shogi pieces that occur in chu shogi move as they do in that game."Īn opposing piece is captured by "displacement": That is, if a piece moves to a square occupied by an opposing piece, the opposing piece is displaced and removed from the board. Unlike many shogi variants, the very first move can have a very profound effect on the outcome of the game, and indeed it is sometimes wondered whether playing first is an automatic win, barring any mistakes. Good use of the fire demons can make for a short game. Each of these options is detailed below.ĭespite the large size of the board and number of pieces, tenjiku shogi games are often quicker than smaller shogi variants because of the higher average power of the pieces. (The pieces are not differentiated by color the traditional chess terms "Black" and "White" are only used to indicate who plays first, and to differentiate the sides during discussions of the game.) A "move" consists of moving a piece either to an empty square on the board or to a square occupied by an opposing piece, thus capturing that piece and optionally of promoting the moving piece, if all or part of its move lies in the "promotion zone". Two players alternate making a move, with Black moving first. Pieces marked with an *asterisk are only available with promotion. Listed below are the pieces of the game and, if they promote, which pieces they promote to. This shows who controls the piece during play. The pieces of the two sides do not differ in color, but instead each piece is shaped like a wedge, and faces forward, toward the opposing side. On the reverse side of some pieces are two or three other characters, often in a different color such as red this reverse side is turned up to indicate that the piece has been promoted during play. Several of the English names were chosen to correspond to rough equivalents in Western chess, rather than as translations of the Japanese names.Įach piece has its name in the form of one or two kanji written on its face. From largest to smallest (roughly most to least powerful) they are: The pieces are of slightly different sizes. In all, the players must remember 45 moves for these pieces. A pair of dots may be placed just beyond the fifth rank on each side to mark the promotion zones and aid in the initial setup of the two camps.Įach player has a set of 78 wedge-shaped pieces of 36 types. The squares are undifferentiated by marking or color. Two players, Black and White (or 先手 "sente" and 後手 "gote)," play on a board composed of squares in a grid of 16 "ranks" (rows) by 16 "files" (columns) with a total of 256 squares. Unlike standard shogi, captured pieces may not be dropped back into play by the capturing player. The objective of the game is to capture the opponent's king and, if present, the crown prince, which counts as a second king. The game dates back to the 15th or 16th century and was based on the earlier chu shogi, which itself was based on dai shogi. The various pieces are listed below.Tenjiku shogi (天竺将棋 "tenjiku shōgi," or 天竺大将棋 "tenjiku dai shōgi" "exotic chess") is a large-board variant of shogi (Japanese chess). (The promoted value appears on the reverse side.)Įach player starts the game with 402 pieces. The pieces are shaped like other Japanese Shogi pieces, five-sided with the Kanji characters of the names written on them. The board is a 36X36 grid, with 11 ranks for each player's position. The most recent of the large ancient shogis, although its existence is not widely known. Page number links will display graphic images of the original pages in Japanese.Īn ancient shogi with even more pieces than Mujotai Shogi, Taikyoku Shogi is thought to be What the author's sources were, we do not know. The book gives diagrams and some explanations of the moves of the various pieces. The images are from "Sekai no Shogi" by Isao Umebayashi, a Japanese book about shogi variants, published in 1997 by Shogi Tengokusha. Special Thanks to Patrick Davin, whose work on these documents was of great assistance.Īlso Thanks to Luke Merrit, Colin Paul Adams, Michael Vanier and others who contributed in early discussion groups. Taikyoku Shogi (Unlimited Chess) Playing Pieces.Shogi with Impassable Kings on Game Courier.Shogi, Mortal Shogi, and Kamikaze Mortal Shogi with Zillions-of-Games.
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