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10 <h1>mini-Shogi (Diamond Quest)</h1>
12 <table cellpadding="20">
14 <td><img src="Mini.png"></td>
17 <h3>Initial setup</h3>
22 b1, d5: Gold General<br>
23 c1, c5: Silver General<br>
29 <h3>Moves at a Glance</h3>
31 <p>Click on a piece below to see its moves</p>
35 <td class="n" id="sq0x9"></td>
37 <td class="n" id="sq1x9"></td>
39 <td class="n" id="sq2x9"></td>
41 <td class="n" id="sq3x9"></td>
43 <td class="n" id="sq4x9"></td>
45 <td class="n" id="sq5x9"></td>
47 <td class="n" id="sq6x9"></td>
49 <td class="n" id="sq7x9"></td>
51 <td class="n" id="sq8x9"></td>
53 <td class="n" id="sq9x9"></td>
57 <td class="n" id="sq0x8"></td>
59 <td class="n" id="sq1x8"></td>
61 <td class="n" id="sq2x8"></td>
63 <td class="n" id="sq3x8"></td>
65 <td class="n" id="sq4x8"></td>
67 <td class="n" id="sq5x8"></td>
69 <td class="n" id="sq6x8"></td>
71 <td class="n" id="sq7x8"></td>
73 <td class="n" id="sq8x8"></td>
75 <td class="n" id="sq9x8"></td>
79 <td class="n" id="sq0x7"></td>
81 <td class="n" id="sq1x7"></td>
83 <td class="n" id="sq2x7"></td>
85 <td class="n" id="sq3x7" onmousedown="down_click(3,7)"
86 onmouseup="up_click()"><img src="sym/WhiteGold.png"></td>
88 <td class="n" id="sq4x7" onmousedown="down_click(4,7)"
89 onmouseup="up_click()"><img src="sym/WhiteAdvisor.png"></td>
91 <td class="n" id="sq5x7"></td>
93 <td class="n" id="sq6x7"></td>
95 <td class="n" id="sq7x7"></td>
97 <td class="n" id="sq8x7"></td>
99 <td class="n" id="sq9x7"></td>
103 <td class="n" id="sq0x6"></td>
105 <td class="n" id="sq1x6"></td>
107 <td class="n" id="sq2x6"></td>
109 <td class="n" id="sq3x6"></td>
111 <td class="n" id="sq4x6"></td>
113 <td class="n" id="sq5x6"></td>
115 <td class="n" id="sq6x6" onmousedown="down_click(6,6)"
116 onmouseup="up_click()"><img src="sym/WhiteKing.png"></td>
118 <td class="n" id="sq7x6"></td>
120 <td class="n" id="sq8x6"></td>
122 <td class="n" id="sq9x6"></td>
126 <td class="n" id="sq0x5"></td>
128 <td class="n" id="sq1x5"></td>
130 <td class="n" id="sq2x5"></td>
132 <td class="n" id="sq3x5"></td>
134 <td class="n" id="sq4x5"></td>
136 <td class="n" id="sq5x5"></td>
138 <td class="n" id="sq6x5" onmousedown="down_click(6,5)"
139 onmouseup="up_click()"><img src=
140 "sym/WhiteCrownedRook.png"></td>
142 <td class="n" id="sq7x5" onmousedown="down_click(7,5)"
143 onmouseup="up_click()"><img src="sym/WhiteRook.png"></td>
145 <td class="n" id="sq8x5"></td>
147 <td class="n" id="sq9x5"></td>
151 <td class="n" id="sq0x4"></td>
153 <td class="n" id="sq1x4"></td>
155 <td class="n" id="sq2x4"></td>
157 <td class="n" id="sq3x4"></td>
159 <td class="n" id="sq4x4"></td>
161 <td class="n" id="sq5x4"></td>
163 <td class="n" id="sq6x4" onmousedown="down_click(6,4)"
164 onmouseup="up_click()"><img src=
165 "sym/WhiteCrownedBishop.png"></td>
167 <td class="n" id="sq7x4" onmousedown="down_click(7,4)"
168 onmouseup="up_click()"><img src="sym/WhiteBishop.png"></td>
170 <td class="n" id="sq8x4"></td>
172 <td class="n" id="sq9x4"></td>
176 <td class="n" id="sq0x3"></td>
178 <td class="n" id="sq1x3"></td>
180 <td class="n" id="sq2x3"></td>
182 <td class="n" id="sq3x3"></td>
184 <td class="n" id="sq4x3"></td>
186 <td class="n" id="sq5x3"></td>
188 <td class="n" id="sq6x3"></td>
190 <td class="n" id="sq7x3"></td>
192 <td class="n" id="sq8x3"></td>
194 <td class="n" id="sq9x3"></td>
198 <td class="n" id="sq0x2"></td>
200 <td class="n" id="sq1x2"></td>
202 <td class="n" id="sq2x2"></td>
204 <td class="n" id="sq3x2"></td>
206 <td class="n" id="sq4x2"></td>
208 <td class="n" id="sq5x2"></td>
210 <td class="n" id="sq6x2" onmousedown="down_click(6,2)"
211 onmouseup="up_click()"><img src="sym/WhitePawn.png"></td>
213 <td class="n" id="sq7x2"></td>
215 <td class="n" id="sq8x2"></td>
217 <td class="n" id="sq9x2"></td>
221 <td class="n" id="sq0x1"></td>
223 <td class="n" id="sq1x1"></td>
225 <td class="n" id="sq2x1"></td>
227 <td class="n" id="sq3x1"></td>
229 <td class="n" id="sq4x1"></td>
231 <td class="n" id="sq5x1"></td>
233 <td class="n" id="sq6x1"></td>
235 <td class="n" id="sq7x1"></td>
237 <td class="n" id="sq8x1"></td>
239 <td class="n" id="sq9x1"></td>
243 <td class="n" id="sq0x0"></td>
245 <td class="n" id="sq1x0"></td>
247 <td class="n" id="sq2x0"></td>
249 <td class="n" id="sq3x0"></td>
251 <td class="n" id="sq4x0"></td>
253 <td class="n" id="sq5x0"></td>
255 <td class="n" id="sq6x0"></td>
257 <td class="n" id="sq7x0"></td>
259 <td class="n" id="sq8x0"></td>
261 <td class="n" id="sq9x0"></td>
265 <p id="piece" height="20">:<br>
270 <table cellpadding="5" border="1">
278 <td>Moves (<a href="Betza.html">Betza notation</a>)</td>
304 <td>Promotes tp Dragon</td>
316 <td>Promotes to Horse</td>
340 <td>promotes to Gold</td>
352 <td>promotes to Gold</td>
356 <td colspan="5">Promoted pieces (not initially present)</td>
384 <h3>Pawn peculiarities</h3>
387 <li>Pawns move <b>and capture</b> straight ahead.</li>
389 <li>It is forbidded to have more than one Pawn in the same
392 <li>It is forbidden to checkmate the opponent with a Pawn
396 <h3>General rules</h3>
399 <li>The game is won by capturing the opponent's King.</li>
401 <li>Pieces captured change color, and are kept in hand by the
402 side who captured them. In stead of a normal move, such pieces
403 can be dropped at any later time.</li>
405 <li>Pieces cannot be moved or dropped to a location where all
406 their moves would go off board.</li>
408 <li>Pieces optionally promote at the end of a move into, in or
409 out of the promotion zone.</li>
411 <li>The promotion zone consists of the last rank.</li>
413 <li>Pieces obtained by promotion revert to their original form
416 <li>Perpetual checking is forbidden, and would be ruled a loss
417 on the 4-fold repeat.</li>
419 <li><b>On other 4-fold repetitions white loses.</b></li>
422 <h3>XBoard interface issues</h3>
424 <p>Mini-Shogi is (not yet) a standard variant in XBoard. It has
425 to be played in XBoard by selecting regular Shogi after having
426 set the board- and holdings-size overrides in the New Variant
427 dialog all to 5 (i.e. 5x5 board, and holdings for 5 piece types).
428 This is not all, however; the pieceToCharTable has to be changed
429 to tell XBoard that the Lance and Knight do not participate. (In
430 regular Shogi they would, but here they would push Silver and
431 Gold out of the holdings!) This can unfortunately only be done
432 through command-line options.</p>
434 <p>It is therefore best to put all options needed to massage
435 XBoard into playing this variant in a settings file mini.xop. On
436 install .xop files are associated with XBoard, so clicking them
437 would start XBoard with the options in that file. You could then
438 set everything in the file needed to start in mini-Shogi
445 -pieceToCharTable "P.BR.S...G.+.++.+Kp.br.s...g.+.++.+k"
446 </pre>Since the game is just a subset of regular Shogi, legality
447 testing can remain on. You could also specify your favorite
448 mini-Shogi engine with -fcp in that file.
450 <p>You can drop pieces by dragging them onto the board from the
451 holdings displayed beside the board.</p>
453 <p>Of course there will always be people that prefer an oriental
454 look, with pentagonal kanji tiles. XBoard comes with a set of
455 kanji pieces in the 'themes/shogi' sub-directory of its data
456 directory (e.g. /usr/local/share/games/xboard). You can select
457 that as -pieceImageDirectory (-pid for short) from the command
458 line, or from the View -> Board dialog. You would also have to
459 tick 'Flip black pieces Shogi style' there (or use the option
460 <b>-flipBlack true</b>) to make sure the pieces won't go upside
461 down when you flip the view.</p>
463 <h3>Differences with FIDE</h3>
465 <p>In stead of Queens you have Silver and Gold Generals. Pawns
466 capture straight ahead. Captured pieces can later be dropped to
467 augment the army of their capturer. There is no castling, Pawn
468 double-push or e.p. capture.</p>
470 <h3>Strategy issues</h3>
472 <p>Because pieces are dropped back, there will not be a
473 traditional end-game. Trading material does not constitute
474 progress towards winning, even when you are ahead.</p>
476 <p>Because Gold Generals obtained through promotion revert to
477 their original form on capture, they are really different piece
478 types from the primordial Golds that move the same. In notation
479 they are therefore not indicated as 'G', but as the ID of the
480 original piece prefixed with a '+'. Especially the promoted Pawn
481 (aka Tokin) is more valuable: it is much better to lose a Gold
482 that gives the opponent a Pawn in hand, than to lose a Gold that
483 gives him a Gold in hand.</p>
485 <p>It is a big advantage to have a General on the central
488 <p>Pieces in hand are in general worth more than on the board, as
489 they are much more mobile. And you can drop them in the promotion
490 for an easy promotion on the next turn. But pieces in hand cannot
491 capture anything, and don't guard your promotion zone.</p>
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