Games - Heian dai shogi

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	Games - Heian dai shogi

Heian dai shogi (平安大将棋 'Heian (Era) large chess') is an early large board variant of shogi (Japanese chess) as it was played in the Heian period. The same 12th century document which describes the Heian form of shogi also describes this variant. Unfortunately, this description does not give enough information to actually play the game, but this has not stopped people from attempting to reconstruct this early form of shogi. A fairly complete and playable reconstruction is outlined here.

Rules of the game

Objective

The objective of the game is to capture your opponent's king or to capture all the other pieces, leaving a bare king. Unlike standard shogi, pieces may not be dropped back into play after capture.

Game equipment

Two players, Black and White (or 先手 sente and 後手 gote), play on a board ruled into a grid of 13 ranks (rows) by 13 files (columns) for a total of 169 squares. The squares are undifferentiated by marking or color.

Each player has a set of 34 wedge-shaped pieces of 13 different types. In all, the players must remember 13 different moves. The pieces are of slightly different sizes. From largest to smallest (most to least powerful) they are:

1 king
2 flying dragons
2 gold generals
2 silver generals
1 side mover
2 copper generals
2 iron generals
2 fierce tigers
2 free chariots
1 go between
2 knights
2 lances
13 pawns

Many of the English names were chosen to correspond to rough equivalents in Western chess, rather than as translations of the Japanese names.

Each piece has its name in the form of two kanji written on its face. On the reverse side of each piece (other than kings and gold generals) are one or two other characters, often in a different color (e.g., red instead of black); this reverse side is turned up 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.

Setup

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Each side places his pieces in the positions shown below, pointing toward the opponent.

In the rank nearest the player:
* The king is placed in the center file.
* The two gold generals are placed in the adjacent files to the king.
* The two silver generals are placed adjacent to each gold general.
* The two copper generals are placed adjacent to each silver general.
* The two iron generals are placed adjacent to each copper general.
* The two knights are placed adjacent to each iron general.
* The two lances are placed in the corners, adjacent to each knight.

That is, the first rank is |L|N|I|C|S|G|K|G|S|C|I|N|L|.

In the second rank, each player places:
* The side mover in the same file as the king.
* The fierce tigers in the same files as the silver generals.
* The flying dragons in the same files as the nights
* The free chariots in the same files as the lances.
In the third rank, the thirteen pawns are placed one in each file.
In the fourth rank, the go between is placed in the same file as the side mover.

Game play

Two players alternate in 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 displacing (capturing) that piece; and optionally of promoting the moving piece, if all or part of its move lies in the promotion zone.

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 knight is an exception in that it does not move in a straight line.

If a piece that cannot retreat or move aside advances across the board until it can no longer move, it must promote. This applies to the pawn, lance and knight upon reaching the furthest rank.

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