Kyoto Shogi (京都将棋 Kyōto Shōgi "Kyoto Chess") is a modern variant of Shogi (Japanese Chess). It was invented by Tamiya Katsuya c. 1976. In 2006, a tournament was held in Munich, Germany.
Kyoto Shogi is played like Standard Shogi, but with a reduced number of pieces on a 5×5 board. However, the pieces alternately promote and depromote with every move, and the promotion values are entirely different from Standard Shogi.
Rules of the Game[]
Game Equipment[]
Two players play on a board ruled into a grid of 5 ranks (rows) by 5 files (columns). The squares are undifferentiated by marking or color.
Each player has a set of 5 wedge-shaped pieces, of slightly different sizes. From largest to smallest (most to least powerful) they are:
- 1 King
- 1 Gold General
- 1 Silver General
- 1 Tokin
- 1 Pawn
Piece | Kanji | Rōmaji |
---|---|---|
White King | 王将 | ōshō |
Black King | 玉将 | gyokushō |
Rook/Pawn | 飛歩 | hifu |
Silver General/Bishop | 銀角 | ginkaku |
Gold General/Knight | 金桂 | kinkei |
Lance/Tokin | 香と | kyōto |
The names of the pieces combine their promoted and unpromoted values, and are puns in Japanese for words with the same pronunciations but different kanji. For example, the Lance/Tokin is homonymous with the name of the city 京都 Kyoto, and provides the name of the game.
Setup[]
|
|
Each side places his pieces in the positions shown below, pointing toward the opponent.
- In the rank nearest the player:
- The King (K) is placed in the center file.
- The Gold General (G) is placed in the adjacent files to the right of the King.
- The Silver General (S) is placed in the adjacent files to the left of the King.
- The Tokin (T) is placed in the left corner.
- The Pawn (P) is placed in the right corner.
That is, the first rank is |T|S|K|G|P|.
Promotion[]
There is no promotion zone in Kyoto Shogi. Every time a piece makes a move it alternately promotes and reverts to its unpromoted state. Promotion is effected by turning the piece over after it moves, revealing the name of its promoted rank; depromotion is effected by turning the piece back.
The promotion rules and values are reminiscent of Microshogi and entirely different from Standard Shogi:
- A King cannot promote: K
- A Tokin (T) promotes to a Lance and vice versa: T ↔ L
- A Silver General promotes to a Bishop and vice versa: S ↔ B
- A Gold General promotes to a Knight and vice versa: G ↔ N
- A Pawn promotes to a Rook and vice versa: P ↔ R
Movement and Capture[]
A piece is allowed to move, capture or be dropped in a manner that will prevent it from moving on a subsequent turn, which is illegal in Standard Shogi. For example, a Rook can move onto the furthest rank, becoming a pawn and unable to move further. Such pieces may be captured as any other.
Drops[]
A captured piece may be dropped with either side facing up.
See also[]
Copyright[]
Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Kyoto Shogi" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyoto_Shogi, used under the GNU Free Documentation License.