Games - Dai dai shogi

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	Games - Dai dai shogi

Daidai shōgi (大大将棋 'huge chess') is a large board variant of shogi (Japanese chess). The game dates back to the 15th century and is based on the earlier Dai shogi. Apart from its size, the major difference is in the range of the pieces and the “promotion by capture” rule. It is the smallest board variant to use this rule.

Rules of the game

Objective

The objective is to capture the opponent's king. Unlike standard shogi, pieces may not be dropped back into play after being captured.

Game equipment

Two players, Black and White (or sente and gōte), play on a board composed of squares in a grid of 17 ranks (rows) by 17 files (columns) with a total of 289 squares. The squares are undifferentiated by marking or color.

Each player has a set of 96 wedge-shaped pieces of 64 different types. In all, the players must remember 68 different moves. The pieces are of slightly different sizes, from largest to smallest (or roughly most to least powerful.) they are:

1 King
1 Free king
1 Rushing bird
1 Free demon
1 Free tapir
1 Water buffalo
1 Dragon king
1 Dragon horse
1 Square mover
1 Side chariot
1 Rook
1 Bishop
1 Golden bird
1 Great dragon
1 Standard bearer
1 Fragrant elephant
1 White elephant
1 Lion
1 Lion dog
1 Dove
1 She-devil
1 Blue dragon
1 White tiger
1 Right chariot
1 Left chariot
1 Phoenix
1 Kirin
1 Poisonous snake
1 Old kite
2 Violent oxen
1 Flying dragon
1 Enchanted fox
1 Old rat
1 Enchanted badger
1 Flying horse
1 Prancing stag
2 Savage tigers
1 Hook mover
1 Long-nosed goblin
1 Northern barbarian
1 Southern barbarian
1 Eastern barbarian
1 Western barbarian
1 Neighboring king
1 Blind monkey
2 Ferocious leopards
2 Evil Wolves
2 Violent bears
1 Right general
1 Left general
2 Gold generals
2 Silver generals
2 Copper generals
2 Iron generals
2 Wood generals
2 Stone generals
2 Angry boars
1 Cat sword
2 Reverse chariots
2 Lances
2 Side movers
2 Vertical movers
2 Howling Dogs
17 Pawns

Many of the English-language names are chosen to correspond to their rough equivalents in Western chess, not necessarily as translations of the Japanese names.

Each piece has its name in the form of two Japanese characters marked on its face. On the reverse side of some pieces are one or two other characters, often in a different color (e.g., red instead of black); this reverse side is used to indicate that the piece has been promoted 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. This shows who controls the piece during play.

Listed below are the pieces of the game and, if they promote, which pieces they promote to.

Table of pieces

Relatively few pieces promote (or demote) in dai dai shogi. A few pieces (*asterisked) only appear upon promotion.

**The first kanji of Howling Dog is not supported by Unicode. It is a combined 口 and 奇.

Setup

Below is a diagram showing the setup of one player's pieces. The way one player sees their own pieces is the same way the opposing player will see their pieces.

Board layout

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Dai dai shogi ]

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