Dai shogi
Dai shōgi (大将棋, 'large chess') is a board game native to Japan. It is similar to standard shogi (sometimes called Japanese chess) in its rules and game play. Dai shogi is only one of several large board shogi variants. Its name means large shogi, from a time when there were three sizes of shogi games. Early versions of dai shogi can be traced back the end of the Heian period about AD 1230.
Rules of the game
Other than the additional pieces, and the often weaker promotions, the rules of dai shogi are thought to have corresponded very closely to those of chu shogi.
Objective
The objective of the game is to capture the opponent's king and, if present, the crown prince, which counts as a second king; or to capture all the other pieces leaving a bare king or bare crown prince. Unlike standard shogi, pieces may not be dropped back into play after capture.
Game play
Two players alternate, making a move with Black moving first. (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.
Game equipment
Two players, Black and White (or 先手 sente and 後手 gote), play on a board ruled into a grid of 15 ranks (rows) and 15 files (columns) with a total of 225 squares. The squares are undifferentiated by marking or color, unlike a Western chess board.
Each player has a set of 65 pieces of 29 different types. In all, a player must remember 36 different moves. Each piece has its name written on it in Japanese kanji. The writing is typically in black. On the reverse side of most pieces there are characters to indicate the piece's promoted rank, typically written in red. The pieces are wedge-shaped and their orientation indicates which player they belong to, as they point toward the opposing side. The pieces are of slightly different sizes, from largest to smallest (most to least powerful) they are:
1 King
1 Free king
1 Lion
2 Dragon kings
2 Dragon horses
2 Rooks
2 Bishops
1 Kirin
1 Phoenix
2 Violent oxen
2 Flying dragons
1 Drunken elephant
2 Blind tigers
2 Ferocious leopards
2 Gold generals
2 Silver generals
2 Copper generals
2 Angry boars
2 Cat swords
2 Vertical movers
2 Side movers
2 Reverse Chariots
2 Lances
2 Knights
2 Evil wolfs
2 Iron generals
2 Stone general
2 Go betweens
15 Pawns
Setup
Below is a diagram showing the initial setup of the board.
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Movement and capture
An 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. A piece cannot move to a square occupied by a friendly piece, that is, by another piece controlled by the moving player.
Each piece on the game moves in a characteristic pattern. Pieces move either orthogonally (that is, forward, backward, left, or right, in the direction of one of the arms of a plus sign, +), or diagonally (in the direction of one of the arms of a multiplication sign, ×). The lion and knight are exceptions in that they do not move, or are not required to move, in a straight line.
Many pieces are capable of several kinds of movement, with the type of movement most often depending on the direction in which they move. The movement categories are:
Step movers
Some pieces move only one square at a time. If a friendly piece occupies an adjacent square, the moving piece may not move in that direction; if an opposing piece is there, it may be displaced and captured.
The step movers are the king, drunken elephant, blind tiger, ferocious leopard, generals, angry boar, cat sword, evil wolf, go between and the 15 pawns on each side.
Limited ranging pieces
The violent ox and flying dragon can move along a limited number (2) of free (empty) squares along a straight line in certain directions. Other than the limited distance, they move like ranging pieces. See below.
Jumping pieces
Several pieces can jump, that is, they can pass over any intervening piece, whether friend or foe, with no effect on either. These are the lion, kirin, phoenix and knight.
Ranging pieces
Many pieces can move any number of empty squares along a straight orthogonal or diagonal line, limited only by the edge of the board. If an opposing piece intervenes, it may be captured by moving to that square and removing it from the board. A ranging piece must stop where it captures, and cannot bypass a piece that is in its way. If a friendly piece intervenes, the moving piece is limited to a distance that stops short of the intervening piece; if the friendly piece is adjacent, it cannot move in that direction at all.
The ranging pieces are the free king, dragon king, dragon horse, rook, bishop, vertical mover, side mover, reverse chariot and lance. Only the free king can range along all eight directions.
Lion moves (multiple captures)
The lion has sequential multiple-capture ability, called a 'lion move', as do the soaring eagle and horned falcon (promoted dragon king and dragon horse) to a lesser extent. The details of these powerful moves are described for the lion below.
Promotion
The promotion zone is the 'enemy camp', the farthest five ranks of the board, which are mostly occupied by the opposing player's pieces when the board is first set up. When a promotable piece makes a move within the promotion zone—including entering, leaving, or moving entirely within the zone,—it has the option of "promoting" to a more powerful rank. Promotion is effected by turning the piece over after it moves, revealing the name of its promoted rank. Promotion is not mandatory if the unpromoted piece could move further on a later turn, and in some cases it may be beneficial to leave the piece unpromoted. Promotion is permanent and promoted pieces may not revert to their original rank.
Many promoting pieces promote to a piece that exists in the initial setup of the board. However, such a promoted piece cannot then promote a second time as its namesake does. For example, a gold promotes to a rook. However, while several pieces can promote to gold, they do not further promote to a rook later. Rather, they remain a gold for the rest of the game. This should be obvious from the game pieces, which only have two sides.
Promoting a piece has the effect of changing how that piece moves. See below.
If a piece that cannot retreat or move aside advances across the board until it reaches the other side, it must promote. This applies to the pawn, stone general, iron general, knight and lance.
Individual pieces
Following are diagrams that indicate the movement of each piece. Pieces are listed in order, from back to front rows, from the center out. Pieces are paired with their promotion and those with a grey heading start out in the game; promoted pieces have a blue heading. Pieces with an asterisk ("*") only appear on the board as a promoted piece. Names are rough translations that have become somewhat standardized in English.
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Check and mate
When a player makes a move such that the opponent's only remaining royal (king or crown prince) could be captured on the following move, the move is said to give check; the king or crown prince is said to be in check. If a player's king or crown prince is in check and no legal move by that player will get it out of check, the checking move is also mate, and effectively wins the game.
Unlike Western chess, a player need not move out of check in dai shogi, and indeed may even move into check. Although obviously not often a good idea, a player with more than one royal may occasionally sacrifice one of these pieces as part of a gambit.
A player is not allowed to give perpetual check.
Game end
A player who captures the opponent's sole remaining king or crown prince wins the game. In practice this rarely happens, as a player will resign when checkmated, as otherwise when loss is inevitable.
A player who has only one piece left (a bare king or bare crown prince) loses unless he can bare or mate his opponent in the next move.
A player who makes an illegal move loses immediately. (This rule may be relaxed in casual games.)
There are two other possible (but fairly uncommon) ways for a game to end: repetition (千日手 sennichite) and impasse (持将棋 jishōgi).
If the same position occurs four times with the same player to play, then the game is no contest. (Recall, however, the prohibition against perpetual check.)
The game reaches an impasse if both kings, or crown princes have advanced into their respective promotion zones and neither player can hope to mate the other or to gain any further material.
Game notation
The method used in English-language texts to express shogi moves was established by George Hodges in 1976. It is derived from the algebraic notation used for chess, but modifications have been made for dai shogi.
A typical example is P-8f. The first letter represents the piece moved (see setup above). Promoted pieces have a + added in front of the letter. e.g., +P for a gold general (promoted pawn). The designation of the piece is followed by a symbol indicating the type of move: - for an ordinary move or x for a capture. Next is the designation for the square on which the piece lands. This consists of a number representing the file and a lowercase letter representing the rank, with 1a being the top right corner (as seen from Black's point of view) and 15o being the bottom left corner. (This method of designating squares is based on Japanese convention, which, however, uses Japanese numerals instead of letters. For example, the square 2c is denoted by 2三 in Japanese.)
If a move entitles the player to promote the piece, then a + is added to the end to signify that the promotion was taken, or an = to indicate that it was declined. For example, Nx7d= indicates a knight capturing on 7d without promoting.
In cases where the above notation would be ambiguous, the designation of the start square is added after the designation for the piece in order to make clear which piece is meant.
When a 'Lion', 'Horned Falcon' or 'Soaring Eagle' captures by 'igui' (that is, without moving), the square of the piece being captured is used instead of the destination square, and this is preceded by the symbol '!'. For example, a Lion on 8c capturing a piece on 9d would be shown as LNx!9d.
When a piece makes a double capture with 'Lion' powers, both captures are shown in the order that they were made. For example, a Lion on 3g, capturing a piece on 3h and then capturing another on 2i, would be represented by LNx3hx2i.
Moves are commonly numbered as in chess.
Translation of "Dai shogi"
Korean: 다이쇼기, Japanese: 大将棋, Chinese: 大將棋.
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