From: karttu@mits.mdata.fi (Antti Karttunen)
Subject: Re: Help With Shogi Variants
Organization: MITS, Helsinki, Finland
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 1992 01:06:20 GMT
Keywords: Shogi,Variants,Japanese,Chess

In article <1992Oct4.020940.5825@unlinfo.unl.edu> jgoff@nde.unl.edu (jeffrey goff) writes:
>I'm looking for information on both the smaller and larger variants of Shogi.
>Ishi Press's catalog mentions them in passing, but the only source that I know
>of for information on these variants is G.F. Hodges, the custodian of Shogi
>Magazine.  Unfortunately, it's been several years since I ordered anything from
>him, and I am not sure if he is still in the business of selling Shogi equipment
>Any pointers to information about these variants would be helpful, even if the
>source is Japanese or Chinese.  My language skills are rusty, but I could
>resurrect them if it were the only way to find this information.  Thank you for
>your time.
>jgoff@nde.unl.edu

I hope the following is of some interest to you.
(I crossposted this also to rec.games.chess for the chess speculants
who have argued how much more complex the game would become if the board
were larger and pieces more numerous. There was similar 'progress'
in Shogi, where board got bigger and bigger, pieces multiplied and so on,
but I don't think the game got fundamentally any more complex (or at least
not more interesting) until the 'great purge' was made and the revolutionary
rule of 'paratrooping' was introduced.
 
 
      INTRODUCTION
      From "Shogi, Japan's Game of Strategy":
      (by Trevor Leggett, published by the Charles E. Tuttle Company,
      Inc. First edition 1966, Seventh printing 1980.
      ISBN 0-8048-0526-1.)
      <I added Japanese names for the variants from the Kodansha
      Encyclopedia of Japan. Macron over the vowel indicates that
      it's pronounced long. E.g. letter _
                                        O is pronounced somewhat
      like 'oo' in English word 'door'.>
 
        _
      SHOGI is the Japanese representative of the family of chess
      games, offshoots of the Indian chatur-anga which was
      traditionally invented by the legendary Emperor Ravana to
      excercise his generals in strategy and tactics. Chatur-anga
      literally means four limbs, and some authorities believe it
      referred to the four "arms" of the military India: elephants,
      chariots (or boats), horses, and foot.
        The name became corrupted to shatranj when it spread
      westward to Persia, which introduced it to Europe. The chess
      words "check" and "mate" are from the Persian shah (king)
      and mat (dead). The traditional elephant remains symbolized
      by castle, or Rook, because originally the archers shot from
      a howdah on the back of the elephant. The horse has become
      a Knight, with the same peculiar move in the Far West and
      Far East. The foot soldiers are Pawns the world over, usually
      with the right to advance only in single steps. Their power
      to capture, however, varies in the different forms of chess.
        The object of the game is everywhere the same - to capture
      the leader of the opposing forces, generally by depriving
      him of most of his men first. In the West this leader is the
      King, but to the Chinese a second Emperor on a level with
      the first was inconceivable, and the Chinese game is fought
      out between two "commanders-in-chief".
        In the course of time the Chinese made considerable
      alterations. Instead of the castling maneuver, the commander
      is provided with a special enclosure which he cannot leave;
      he has a special bodyguard of two retainers who remain in
      it with him. An early allusion to the game is supposed to
      date from about 570 A.D. The Chinese later incorporated an
      entirely new piece which is like a Rook except that it must
      jump over another piece and can then capture anything on the
      line beyond. This piece is called a Cannon, and a
      twelfth-century text mentions a mock war game in which each
      side has sixteen men: two Cannons, two Elephants, two Horses,
      two Chariots, two Knights, one Commander, and five Foot.
        The game went to Korea and is believed to have entered
      Japan in different forms about the eighth century. However
      there is considerable confusion and few reliable records.
      When it first came to Japan the board was probably already
      nine squares each way, the pieces totaling 36. The elephants
      had become Gold and Silver generals.
        It is thought that Shogi had already divided into two or
      even more forms by the time it reached Japan. The simplest
      was begun with the pieces on the back rank, or horizontal
      row of squares, with the Pawns on the second rank - rather
      like the Western chess opening position. The game must have
      been extremely tame because most of the pieces could only
      move one square at a time. The Japanese courtiers soon
      livened up the play by introducing (or rather re-introducing)
      the Rook, the Bishop, and some fresh pieces. At one time no
      less than six Japanese forms of the game were current:
                     _   _
      Little Shogi <shoshogi>, in which one Elephant was restored,
      and two Leopards, a Flying Chariot (Rook), and a Diagonal
      Runner (Bishop) were added, making 46 pieces in all;
                      _  _
      Middle Shogi <chushogi>, with a board of 12 squares each way
      and 92 pieces;    _
      Great Shogi <daishogi>, with a board of 15 squares each way and
      130 pieces;                 _
      Great-Great Shogi <daidai shogi>, 17 squares each way and 192
      pieces;                              _
      Maka-Great-Great Shogi <makadaidai shogi>, 19 squares each way
      and 192 pieces. ('Maka' is the Japanese rendering of Sanskrit
      'Maha', meaning great, so the game is called Great^3 Shogi);
      Tai-Shogi, a final supreme chess-to-end-all-chess, invented
      by some recreational megalomaniac with a board 25 squares
      each way and a total of 354 pieces.
        The opening set-up of a game of Maka-Great-Great Shogi is
      like a menagerie. The first rank is presumably human, with its
      Gold, Silver, Copper, Iron, Stone, and Clay generals, but the
      next four ranks are a jungle of Furious Dragons, Raging Tigers,
      Blind Boars, Soaring Phoenixes, Hard-Biting Wolves, Thrashing
      Serpents, and even the odd Cat and Old Rat. In front of this
      horde is a single line of 19 stolid Pawns. In the rear is the
      Commander who might well say like the Duke of Wellington at a
      march-past, "I don't know what effect they'll have on the
      enemy, but by Heaven they frighten me!"
        One would think that the play must have been hopelessly
      confused; however, we know that this mastodon of a game was
      actually played. On September 12, 1142 a minister at court
      recorded in his diary that he played Maka-Great-Great-Shogi
      in the Imperial presence, adding the pathetic note, "I lost."
        Towards the end of the sixteenth century a great purge was
      made, and the game was standardized to a board 9 squares each
      way and a total of 40 pieces. The reform is traditionally
      attributed to the Emperor Go-Nara who based it on Little Shogi
      minus the Elephants and Leopards. This talented Emperor is
      also supposed to have introduced the revolutionary rule by
      which a captured piece becomes the property of the capturing
      side and can be dropped on the board. The rule is the special
      characteristic of Japanese chess, found in no other game of
      the family. It gives Shogi a peculiar excitement, which was
      doubtless necessary to replace the lost thrills of lions and
      tigers.
        Shogi was taken up by three great generals of sixteenth-
      seventeenth-century Japan: Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Ieyasu.
      They esteemed it for its original purpose, namely as an
      excercise in military strategy and tactics. Ieyasu became
      sole ruler of Japan, and under his patronage the game was
      popular with high and low.
        In the seventeenth century the first championships were
      held. The second champion, Ohashi, established the rules,
      including a new rule against the repetition of moves. The
      championship descended, in the Japanese fashion, in the
      Ohashi and Ito families. (This does not work out so badly
      as might be expected because of the Japanese custom of
      adopting into the family the favorite pupil, to whom
      certain trade secrets are then imparted.) Early in the
      twentieth century the granting of the title was formally
      surrendered to the All-Japan Shogi Association, to be
      competed for regularly.
        At present Shogi players are organized in two classes,
      professionals and amateurs. There is a ranking system under
      which a beginner enters in the 15th kyu class and works his
      was down until he becomes 1st kyu. This is a reasonable
      amateur level. The next step is to 1st dan grade, and then
      he goes up through the dans. In the 8th dan there are
      generally some 30-40 masters, with probably fewer in the
      7th and 6th dan ranks below. Three living masters have
      attained 9th dan rank (which is fought out among the 8th
      dans), and they are all also championship holders.
        Amateurs do well if they get a 1st dan grade certificate
      from the All-Japan Shogi Association; the top rank ever held
      by an amateur is 5th dan.
        Shogi is extremely popular among all classes. There is
      almost no magazine without a column on it, and the evening
      editions of the big daily papers feature some current
      tournament game, giving a few moves and a long commentary.
      A top Shogi master thus can make a reasonably good living
      by writing articles and books for the very wide Shogi public
      and by giving lessons. Some of the masters are striking
      personalities in their own right and well-known figures on
      the Japanese scene. For instance former champion Yoshio
      Kimura, when he retired from tournament play, overnight
      became a television star noted for his sharp wit.
--
Antti Karttunen / karttu@mits.mdata.fi / $B%"%s%C%F%#!!%+%k%C%H%%%M%s(J
 ++ Think positively, ota olvia, and vote YES!