Chess and I: click here for the homepage. And click here to see my handmade shōgi set.
February 2025.
§1 The appendix within the appendix, in Italian
One nice day last January, when I had already turned twenty times two plus two, I learned the rules of a very beautiful kind of chess: Japanese chess, also known as shōgi. It was 2025-01-21.
Some days after that, I wrote a long and perhaps inconclusive text in Italian about shōgi. It is hidden in the Italian appendix of my page Sensible names for fairy chess pieces (link here: go to section §6) and is made up of three parts:
Scacchi giapponesi, parte 1ª di 3: introduzione, simboli, colori
Scacchi giapponesi, parte 2ª di 3: le mie proposte lessicali
Scacchi giapponesi, parte 3ª di 3: i pachidermi, gli effetti dell'alcol e l'immunità da scacco
§2 My self-training plan with reduced forms of shōgi
2025-01-31: I have decided I'll practise the following four reduced forms of standard shōgi, mostly with AI.
Minishogi (PyCh & LiSh): 5x5; 1 prom.; 1 P; no L N.
Judkins shogi (AltPyCh): 6x6; 2 prom.; 1 P; no L.
Gorogoro original (PyCh): 5x6; 2 prom.; 3 P; no R B L N.
Gorogoro plus (PyCh): 5x6; 2 prom.; 3 P; no R B, but L N in hand.
[Standard shōgi: 9x9; 3 prom.; 9 P; –.]
Names of the platforms: LiSh = lishogi; PyCh = pychess; AltPyCh = pychess-alternates. How many ranks (rows) for promotion? How many pawns per player? Which pieces are missing?
§3 Easy and friendly vocabulary for shōgi, with no Japanese words, and no dragons (!)
P: pawn or soldier
L: lance
N: knight or Nippoknight (or, too long for a piece name, two-directional knight)
S: silver
G: gold
K: king
B: bishop
R: rook
Overall term for silvers and golds: a metal, metals. (Or, ok, generals... But, according to the Japanese names, the king is a general too!)
Promotion is promotion and promoted is promoted. Besides:
promoted weak pieces: a pro, pros; pro-pawns, pro-lances, pro-knights, pro-silvers;
golds and/or any pros: goldlikes;
golds and/or promoted silvers: pro-metals (or pro-generals);
promoted strong pieces: crowned; crowned bishops (B+K hybrids), crowned rooks (R+K hybrids).
§4 Sets of pieces on PyChess and LiShogi: which ones I dislike the least
I have never studied Japanese but, at the age of 15 to 16, back in the Nineties, I learned to read and write the Japanese syllabaries (hiragana and katakana), as a hobby. I can still read and write them fairly well -- understanding western names and words written in katakana is such a nice skill!
As far as shōgi is concerned, I'll probably have to memorize the kanji characters for the pieces if I decide to learn some shōgi theory: building castles and the like. Only a few characters: not difficult, and very useful in order to understand any reference works -- and en.wikipedia pages. That's true. On the other hand, I'm not interested in playing any kind of chess with Asian inscriptions, or any other sort of written words/letters, or geometrical-only reminders, in the place of the usual and friendly western-style pieces or symbols. That's my preference and my choice -- no shame about it. I like foreign languages and writing systems, but that has nothing to do with playing chess-style games, as far as I'm concerned.
Another relevant issue is the colour differentiation for player one vs. player two. For anyone who is used to western chess and other similar games, the colour differentiation is not easily renounceable. If this option were not available, I'd certainly drop the idea of learning Japanese chess: I really think that Japanese chess is wonderful but, you see, it will never be my priority one.
Colours are very useful and eye-catching symbols are important. Isn't that obvious?
So, on practical grounds, what are my favourite sets of pieces/symbols for shōgi on LiShogi and PyChess?
Unfortunately, for the moment being, I have to adapt and be content with the colour-differentiated versions of the set "International". The best is "International - black and white", where it's available -- not on LiShogi, unfortunately. The second-best is "International - shadowed" (slight shade differences, instead of a real sharp colour difference: does that make sense?...)
Anyway, I do not like (any version of) the set "International", for several reasons. The most important reasons are the same that I've already written on my web page On player-friendly piece design (link here -- read sections §7, §8 and the final note).
Are there any other good solutions? In particular, are there any rational, straightforward, dragonless (!) solutions for the people who are used to western/international chess as the main reference game, and think there shouldn't be any ban on westernization? Yes, there are some. The most interesting alternative is the set "western" created by Peanatsu in Spring 2021 and readily added on LiShogi -- but not on PyChess. It's a good western-style set of pieces for shōgi but, strangely enough, with no serious colour differentiation for player one vs. player two -- only a slight shade difference, even worse than the set "International - shadowed".
Soon after that, in order to correct this flaw, Peanatsu made two other versions of his own set ("brown piece version" and "black/white/red version"), but unfortunately they have never become available as normal choices on LiShogi or PyChess. The "brown piece version" is really friendly and would be my personal choice, if I could choose it.
More details in these forum posts:
https://lishogi.org/forum/lishogi-feedback/i-made-a-western-style-piece-set?page=1
https://lishogi.org/forum/lishogi-feedback/i-made-a-western-style-piece-set?page=2
The set "western" by Peanatsu, with colour modifications similar to the above-mentioned "brown piece version", is -- or rather would be! -- much more friendly than any other set available on any platform for shōgi, as far as I know. In spite of that, we could even propose some further improvements. (For at least some of the following details, there could be custom options.)
1. Colours of pieces and tiles. All the pieces, promoted or not, have black symbols for Black, and white symbols for White -- or, anyway, dark vs. light symbols. The colour of the tiles is neutral (for example grey or brown) for the unpromoted pieces, and red (or orange or yellow) for the promoted ones.
2. Two different promotion colours? The promotion colour could be a. red or orange for the major pieces (rooks and bishops), and b. yellow for the others: gold-shaded yellow, since they all move like golds. -- Even better than two different promotion colours: one and the same colour in two different patterns, that is a. plain uniform background for the major pieces and b. six-spot pattern (gold movements) for the others. See the promotion tiles of my handmade shōgi set.
3. Different symbols for different pieces: pawns and knights. Since kings, rooks and bishops are exactly the same as in western chess, it's very good they have the same symbols. Slightly modified symbols for pawns (soldiers) and knights (Nippoknights), instead, would be a nice choice, although such details are important only for beginners -- see my cardboard tiles for shōgi, and the pawn symbol in the "International" sets.
4. I really like Peanatsu's choices for the symbols of silvers and golds, including the important detail of the promoted silver. Anyway, a sharper differentiation between silvers and golds might be good -- see, again, my cardboard tiles for shōgi.
5. Choosing western chess king symbols and western chess bishop symbols without a cross would be better, for obvious cultural reasons. (That would also be better for western chess itself, of course. Crossless sets of pieces are available, but not so widely used. That's not crucial for me, but it may be for a lot of other people worldwide.)
§5 My own wonderful cardboard tiles for shōgi (March 2025)
See the page More pictures: my shōgi board and pieces (click here).
My international and western-chess-friendly shōgi set follows the same principles as the cardboard set for crazyhouse I made in the Autumn of 2024: a. any piece reverses colour if you overturn it, and b. promotion is made by putting a promotion tile under the piece. (By contrast, with standard shōgi sets, a. there exists no colour differentiation for player one vs. player two, and b. promotion is made by overturning the piece.)
I have drawn the pieces myself, with pencils and markers. Not a masterly work of art but, ok, it could be worse. By the way, where did I copy the symbols from?
Pawn (aka soldier). It's a normal pawn symbol, with a pointed head reminding of the vertical-only movement, even for captures. This kind of symbol is commonly used for East Asian forms of chess, on PyChess and other platforms.
Lance. I copied it from the westernized set "JI Chess-Themed Shogi".
Knight. A simplified earless chess knight. No ears, but two antennas pointing to the only two directions of a Nippoknight.
Silver. Copied from the LiShogi set "western" by Peanatsu. My version of the symbol is small, so that, for the promoted silvers, the six-spot pattern (gold movements) of the promotion tiles is much more evident than the basic silver symbol itself.
Gold. It's a sun-based symbol, because of the common association between gold and the sun (see the set "JI Chess-Themed Shogi", though with different symbols, and many other sources). I could copy the very good set "western" by Peanatsu again, but I prefer to make a sharper differentiation between silvers and golds. My gold symbols have the same six-spot pattern (gold movements) as the promotion tiles, reminding beginners that adding a promotion tile would make no sense: it usefully gives the idea of an already promoted piece.
Bishop and rook. Same symbols as in western chess, since they are the same. (The thicker border lines remind the players that these are the major pieces. For the bishops, I have chosen a crossless design.)
King. The same as in western chess, without the Christian-derived cross. I have chosen a small red circle as the top ornament or finial: it's a reference to the rising sun and the flag of Japan. It's a Japanese game, isn't it?, although I have no intention to play it on unchequered boards, not to mention kanji characters in the place of friendly symbols...
(Drunken elephant! It doesn't exist in standard shōgi, but it's included in my set. I copied the cute elephant symbol to be found in several PyChess variants, which is even the icon of PyChess itself. I put a red triangle on the top of its head: the red element parallels the king's finial, since the drunken elephant promotes to a prince or second king... and is a reference to a glass of some drink.)
Promotion tiles. See the pictures (click here). I have made many more promotion tiles than are needed, and each one is a goldlike promotion tile on one side and a strong promotion tile on the other. (The strong promotion side will be useful for all promotions in Mansindam, if I decide to make cardboard tiles for the Mansindam pieces too.)
As for my paper shōgi board, it is chequered, because chequered is better.
§6 Some shōgi variants
I will never try to learn any larger-board forms of shōgi (9x9 is large enough!) but, if I become a decent player, I'd like to practise some heterodox or variant shōgi as well. That's why my cardboard set will certainly include some of the following pieces [update, March 2025: it does -- see section §3 of the shōgi pictures]:
drunken elephant, promoting to a prince or second king (half-royal kings: see my page On Spartan Chess and Spartan Mirror, and other variants with more than one king per player, link here);
the four types of cannons, and maybe Korean soldiers too, for cannon shogi;
eight-directional knights, and four-directional knights too.
§7 Some ideas about eight-directional knights
Eight-directional knights are exactly the same as western chess knights, and proto-chess (i.e. chaturanga) knights too. They must have been present in undocumented proto-forms of Japanese chess itself.
(In a very ancient phase of shōgi, almost all pieces became forward-oriented, imitating the orientation of pawns and elephants/silvers. There is no doubt that, before this radical change, the lances were normal rooks, and the knights were normal eight-directional knights. -- That very ancient phase is undocumented in Japan, right? Please correct me, readers, if you find that what I have written is wrong!)
I have read some web pages about modern shōgi variants with eight-directional knights in the place of normal shōgi knights (or, as I call them, Nippoknights): see, for example, www.chessvariants.com/rules/double-eight-directional-knight-shogi.
That's very interesting. If the information we have is correct, the most widespread variant with eight-directional knights is a handicap variant, where only the weaker player has this special kind of knights, and the other stays with the normal shōgi pieces. Instead, in the variant "Double Eight-directional Knight Shogi", both players have the special kind of knights.
When promoting, the eight-directional knight "becomes an Eight-directional Promoted Knight", which, "in addition to moving as a gold (as a normal promoted knight does in shogi), may move also as a Western Chess Knight". That makes it a dreadful attacker and merciless checkmater, as is easily observed.
Why such a powerful promotion? Hasn't anybody proposed other reasonable alternatives? Yes, probably -- well, I have no idea. Should I search for detailed information on Japanese web pages? Not easy, and not amusing enough. I'll just invent my own proposals for a reformed and customizable n-directional knight shōgi!
Three types of basic knights:
2. two-directional or Nippoknight, as in normal shōgi
4. four-directional (all four forward-oriented directions, instead of only two)
8. eight-directional or western/international knight
Several types of promoted knights:
a. G, as in normal shōgi
b. 2dirN+G
c. 4dirN+G
d. 8dirN+G, as in the shōgi variants described above
e. 8dirN
Some combinations:
2a = normal shōgi
8d = the variant described above (the "double" one)
8e = eight-directional knights with no promotion
All the other combinations might be tested and played too, I suppose -- and many more, if we consider handicap variants: for example, weaker player 8b or 8c or 8d vs. stronger player 2a or 4a or 8a or 8e, etc.