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10 <h1>Sho Shogi (precurser of modern Japanese Chess)</h1>
12 <p>Sho Shogi means 'small Shogi', and was one of the smaller
13 variants of Japanese Chess, living in the shadow of its far more
14 popular big brother, Chu Shogi ('middle Shogi'). Until people
15 invented piece drops for the captured pieces. The small game was
16 much more suitable for playing with piece drops, and a small
17 adaptation (eliminating the Elephant) made it into the modern
18 game. While Chu Shogi is in fact utterly unsuitable for playing
19 with drops. And in the end, the drops won the day!</p>
21 <table cellpadding="20">
23 <td><img src="Sho.png"></td>
26 <h3>Initial setup</h3>
32 d1, d8, f1, f8: Gold General<br>
33 c1, c8, g1, g8: Silver General<br>
34 b1, b8, h1, h8: (Shogi) Knight<br>
35 a1, a8, i1, i8: Lance<br>
36 a3-i3, a7-i7: Pawns</p>
41 <h3>Moves at a Glance</h3>
43 <p>Click on a piece below to see its moves</p>
47 <td class="n" id="sq0x9"></td>
49 <td class="n" id="sq1x9"></td>
51 <td class="n" id="sq2x9"></td>
53 <td class="n" id="sq3x9"></td>
55 <td class="n" id="sq4x9"></td>
57 <td class="n" id="sq5x9"></td>
59 <td class="n" id="sq6x9"></td>
61 <td class="n" id="sq7x9"></td>
63 <td class="n" id="sq8x9"></td>
65 <td class="n" id="sq9x9"></td>
69 <td class="n" id="sq0x8"></td>
71 <td class="n" id="sq1x8"></td>
73 <td class="n" id="sq2x8"></td>
75 <td class="n" id="sq3x8"></td>
77 <td class="n" id="sq4x8"></td>
79 <td class="n" id="sq5x8"></td>
81 <td class="n" id="sq6x8"></td>
83 <td class="n" id="sq7x8"></td>
85 <td class="n" id="sq8x8"></td>
87 <td class="n" id="sq9x8"></td>
91 <td class="n" id="sq0x7"></td>
93 <td class="n" id="sq1x7"></td>
95 <td class="n" id="sq2x7"></td>
97 <td class="n" id="sq3x7" onmousedown="down_click(3,7)"
98 onmouseup="up_click()"><img src="sym/WhiteGold.png"></td>
100 <td class="n" id="sq4x7" onmousedown="down_click(4,7)"
101 onmouseup="up_click()"><img src="sym/WhiteAdvisor.png"></td>
103 <td class="n" id="sq5x7"></td>
105 <td class="n" id="sq6x7"></td>
107 <td class="n" id="sq7x7"></td>
109 <td class="n" id="sq8x7"></td>
111 <td class="n" id="sq9x7"></td>
115 <td class="n" id="sq0x6"></td>
117 <td class="n" id="sq1x6"></td>
119 <td class="n" id="sq2x6"></td>
121 <td class="n" id="sq3x6"></td>
123 <td class="n" id="sq4x6"></td>
125 <td class="n" id="sq5x6"></td>
127 <td class="n" id="sq6x6" onmousedown="down_click(6,6)"
128 onmouseup="up_click()"><img src="sym/WhiteKing.png"></td>
130 <td class="n" id="sq7x6" onmousedown="down_click(7,6)"
131 onmouseup="up_click()"><img src="sym/WhiteElephant.png"></td>
133 <td class="n" id="sq8x6"></td>
135 <td class="n" id="sq9x6"></td>
139 <td class="n" id="sq0x5"></td>
141 <td class="n" id="sq1x5"></td>
143 <td class="n" id="sq2x5"></td>
145 <td class="n" id="sq3x5"></td>
147 <td class="n" id="sq4x5"></td>
149 <td class="n" id="sq5x5"></td>
151 <td class="n" id="sq6x5" onmousedown="down_click(6,5)"
152 onmouseup="up_click()"><img src=
153 "sym/WhiteCrownedRook.png"></td>
155 <td class="n" id="sq7x5" onmousedown="down_click(7,5)"
156 onmouseup="up_click()"><img src="sym/WhiteRook.png"></td>
158 <td class="n" id="sq8x5"></td>
160 <td class="n" id="sq9x5"></td>
164 <td class="n" id="sq0x4"></td>
166 <td class="n" id="sq1x4"></td>
168 <td class="n" id="sq2x4"></td>
170 <td class="n" id="sq3x4"></td>
172 <td class="n" id="sq4x4"></td>
174 <td class="n" id="sq5x4"></td>
176 <td class="n" id="sq6x4" onmousedown="down_click(6,4)"
177 onmouseup="up_click()"><img src=
178 "sym/WhiteCrownedBishop.png"></td>
180 <td class="n" id="sq7x4" onmousedown="down_click(7,4)"
181 onmouseup="up_click()"><img src="sym/WhiteBishop.png"></td>
183 <td class="n" id="sq8x4"></td>
185 <td class="n" id="sq9x4"></td>
189 <td class="n" id="sq0x3"></td>
191 <td class="n" id="sq1x3"></td>
193 <td class="n" id="sq2x3"></td>
195 <td class="n" id="sq3x3"></td>
197 <td class="n" id="sq4x3"></td>
199 <td class="n" id="sq5x3"></td>
201 <td class="n" id="sq6x3"></td>
203 <td class="n" id="sq7x3"></td>
205 <td class="n" id="sq8x3"></td>
207 <td class="n" id="sq9x3"></td>
211 <td class="n" id="sq0x2"></td>
213 <td class="n" id="sq1x2"></td>
215 <td class="n" id="sq2x2"></td>
217 <td class="n" id="sq3x2" onmousedown="down_click(3,2)"
218 onmouseup="up_click()"><img src="sym/WhiteKnight.png"></td>
220 <td class="n" id="sq4x2" onmousedown="down_click(4,2)"
221 onmouseup="up_click()"><img src="sym/WhiteLance.png"></td>
223 <td class="n" id="sq5x2"></td>
225 <td class="n" id="sq6x2" onmousedown="down_click(6,2)"
226 onmouseup="up_click()"><img src="sym/WhitePawn.png"></td>
228 <td class="n" id="sq7x2"></td>
230 <td class="n" id="sq8x2"></td>
232 <td class="n" id="sq9x2"></td>
236 <td class="n" id="sq0x1"></td>
238 <td class="n" id="sq1x1"></td>
240 <td class="n" id="sq2x1"></td>
242 <td class="n" id="sq3x1"></td>
244 <td class="n" id="sq4x1"></td>
246 <td class="n" id="sq5x1"></td>
248 <td class="n" id="sq6x1"></td>
250 <td class="n" id="sq7x1"></td>
252 <td class="n" id="sq8x1"></td>
254 <td class="n" id="sq9x1"></td>
258 <td class="n" id="sq0x0"></td>
260 <td class="n" id="sq1x0"></td>
262 <td class="n" id="sq2x0"></td>
264 <td class="n" id="sq3x0"></td>
266 <td class="n" id="sq4x0"></td>
268 <td class="n" id="sq5x0"></td>
270 <td class="n" id="sq6x0"></td>
272 <td class="n" id="sq7x0"></td>
274 <td class="n" id="sq8x0"></td>
276 <td class="n" id="sq9x0"></td>
280 <p id="piece" height="20">:<br>
285 <table cellpadding="5" border="1">
293 <td>Moves (<a href="Betza.html">Betza notation</a>)</td>
319 <td>Promotes to Dragon</td>
331 <td>Promotes to Horse</td>
343 <td><b>Promotes to a second King</b></td>
367 <td>promotes to Gold</td>
379 <td>promotes to Gold</td>
391 <td>promotes to Gold</td>
403 <td>promotes to Gold</td>
407 <td colspan="5">Promoted pieces (not initially present)</td>
435 <h3>Pawn peculiarities</h3>
438 <li>Pawns move <b>and capture</b> straight ahead.</li>
440 <li>It is forbidded to have more than one Pawn in the same
443 <li>It is forbidden to checkmate the opponent with a Pawn
447 <h3>General rules</h3>
450 <li>The game is won by capturing the opponent's only King.</li>
452 <li>Pieces promote at the end of a move into, in or out of the
455 <li>The promotion zone consists of the last three ranks.</li>
457 <li>Perpetual checking is forbidden, and would be ruled a loss
458 on the 4-fold repeat.</li>
461 <h3>XBoard interface issues</h3>
463 <p>Sho Shogi is not a standard variant in XBoard. It has to be
464 played in XBoard by selecting regular Shogi after having set the
465 holdings-size override in the New Variant dialog to 0, to disable
466 piece drops. This is not all, however; the pieceToCharTable has
467 to be changed to tell XBoard that the Elephant participates. This
468 can unfortunately only be done through command-line options.</p>
470 <p>It is therefore best to put all options needed to massage
471 XBoard into playing this variant in a settings file sho.xop. On
472 install .xop files are associated with XBoard, so clicking them
473 would start XBoard with the options in that file. You could then
474 set everything in the file needed to start in Sho-Shogi mode:</p>
478 -pieceToCharTable "PNBRLSE..G.+.++.++Kpnbrlse..g.+.++.++k"
479 </pre>Since the game is just a subset of regular Shogi, legality
480 testing can remain on. You could also specify your favorite
481 Sho-Shogi engine with -fcp in that file.
483 <p>Of course there will always be people that prefer an oriental
484 look, with pentagonal kanji tiles. XBoard comes with a set of
485 kanji pieces in the 'themes/shogi' sub-directory of its data
486 directory (e.g. /usr/local/share/games/xboard). You can select
487 that as -pieceImageDirectory (-pid for short) from the command
488 line, or from the View -> Board dialog. You would also have to
489 tick 'Flip black pieces Shogi style' there (or use the option
490 <b>-flipBlack true</b>) to make sure the pieces won't go upside
491 down when you flip the view.</p>
493 <h3>Differences with FIDE</h3>
495 <p>In stead of Queens you have Silver and Gold Generals, and
496 Lances. The Knight only has the two forward-most moves of a FIDE
497 Knight. Pawns capture straight ahead. There is no castling, Pawn
498 double-push or e.p. capture. Other pieces than Pawns also
499 promote. The promotion zone is three ranks deep in stead of one.
500 You have an Elphant that can promote to a second King.</p>
502 <h3>Strategy issues</h3>
504 <p>Most pieces are quite slow, or not manoeuvrable at all, and
505 their practical value is very dependent on how far they are from
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