Uchi Chu Shogi
Ever since I had heard of Chu Shogi, I had wanted to make a version that was playable with drops. My first attempt at this was with the Seireigi family of games, particularly Chu Seireigi. However, that game and its bigger sibling Dai Seireigi fail to do this successfully due to two reasons - there were too many pieces on the board (making successful attacks more difficult) and the pieces themselves were too powerful (providing extra advantages to the defender), resulting in a rather drawish game.
Uchi Chu Shogi (打中将棋 uchi chū shōgi, "drops middle chess") is my attempt to improve Chu Seireigi. It solves both of the problems above, since the armies only cover at most exactly half the board, and the pieces in said armies are overall much weaker and more forward-biased, making the game more decisive.
Play Uchi Chu Shogi against others via Game Courier
Setup
An interactive diagram has been provided (The Javascript source code was written by H. G. Muller) to make it easier to understand how each piece moves. The images are from Bob Greenwade's graphics set, and were made using H. G. Muller's Diagram Editor with scalable graphics.
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Only the location of the pieces of one side are mentioned below. The setup for the other side can be obtained by rotating the board 180 degrees. The promotion and XBetza notation of each piece has been included for easier reference. Lines below can be clicked to see how the pieces move: |
First Rank
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Second Rank
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Third Rank
Fourth Rank
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Pieces
The following table shows the moves of the pieces (XBetza notation is included for easier reference) and the picture below shows the piece promotions (Pieces promote to the piece on the square directly above them, if present).
| Piece | Promoted Piece | ||
King 王将/玉将 ōshō/gyokushō |
The King moves one space in any direction, but not into check. (K) |
The King does not promote. | |
Lion 獅子 shishi |
The Lion can slide up to three squares diagonally or jump anywhere within a distance of exactly two squares. (FafafFNS) |
The Lion does not promote. | |
Rook 飛車 hisha |
The Rook moves as it does in Chess - it slides orthogonally. (R) |
Dragon King 龍王 ryūō |
The Dragon King moves as it does in Shogi - it can move as a Rook or as a King. (RF) |
Bishop 角行 kakugyō |
The Bishop moves as it does in Chess - it slides diagonally. (B) |
Dragon Horse 龍馬 ryūma |
The Dragon Horse moves as it does in Shogi - it can move as a Bishop or as a King. (BW) |
Venomous Wolf 毒狼 dokurō |
The Venomous Wolf can slide up to three squares vertically, or step one square sideways or diagonally forward. (vW3sWfF) |
Rushing Boar 行猪 gyōcho |
The Rushing Boar can slide up to three squares diagonally or sideways, or step one square vertically. (F3sW3vW) |
Great Leopard 大豹 daihyō |
The Great Leopard can slide up to three squares sideways, or step one square backward or diagonally forward. (sW3bWfF) |
Plodding Ox 歬牛 sengyū |
The Plodding Ox can slide up to three squares diagonally or vertically, or step one square sideways. (F3vW3sW) |
Gold General 金将 kinshō |
The Gold General moves as it does in Shogi - it steps one square orthogonally, or diagonally forward. (WfF) |
Fragrant Elephant 香象 kōzō |
The Great Elephant can slide up to three squares diagonally forward, or step one square diagonally backward, sideways, or directly forward. (fF3fsWbF) |
Silver General 銀将 ginshō |
The Silver General moves as it does in Shogi - it steps one square diagonally, or directly forward. (FfW) |
Venomous Wolf 毒狼 dokurō |
The Venomous Wolf can slide up to three squares vertically, or step one square sideways or diagonally forward. (vW3sWfF) |
Copper General 銅将 dōshō |
The Copper General moves as it does in Chu Shogi - it steps one square vertically, or diagonally forward. (vWfF) |
Great Leopard 大豹 daihyō |
The Great Leopard can slide up to three squares sideways, or step one square backward or diagonally forward. (sW3bWfF) |
Iron General 鉄将 tesshō |
The Iron General moves as it does in Dai Shogi - it steps one square orthogonally or diagonally forward. (fWfF) |
Golden Bird 金翅 kinshi |
The Golden Bird can jump two squares directly forward, or step one square diagonally or vertically. (FvWfD) |
Flying Swallow 飛燕 hien |
The Flying Swallow jumps two squares diagonally forward. (fA) |
Rook 飛車 hisha |
The Rook moves as it does in Chess - it slides orthogonally. (R) |
Knight 桂馬 keima |
The Knight moves as it does in Shogi - it jumps one square forward and then one square diagonally outward. (fN) |
White Horse 白駒 hakku |
The White Horse moves as it does in Chu Shogi - it slides vertically, or diagonally forward. (vRfB) |
Enchanted Badger 変狸 henri |
The Enchanted Badger jumps two squares, or steps one square, directly forward. (fWfD) |
Bishop 角行 kakugyō |
The Bishop moves as it does in Chess - it slides diagonally. (B) |
Ram's-Head Soldier 羊兵 yōhei |
The Ram's-Head Soldier can slide diagonally forward. (fB) |
Prancing Stag 踊鹿 yōroku |
The Prancing Stag can jump one square vertically and then one square diagonally outward, or step one square diagonally backward, sideways, or directly forward. (sfWbFfN) |
Lance 香車 kyōsha |
The Lance moves as it does in Shogi - it slides directly forward. (fR) |
Treacherous Fox 隠狐 inko |
The Treacherous Fox can jump two squares diagonally forward, or step one square diagonally forward, sideways, or directly backward. (sbWfFfA) |
Pawn 歩兵 fuhyō |
The Pawn moves as it does in Shogi - one square orthogonally forward. (fW) |
Tokin と金 tokin |
The Tokin moves as it does in Shogi - as a Gold General. (WfF) |
Rules
All rules, unless stated otherwise, are identical to those of standard Shogi.
Board Style
The board may be either a traditional uncheckered Shogi board, or a checkered board with a dark square at each player's left-hand corner.
Promotion Zone
The promotion zone is the farthest four ranks of the board.
Promotion and Drop Restrictions
These rules are the same as in standard Shogi. However, the ones that do not specifically apply to Pawns apply to more pieces due to them becoming trapped on certain squares. Specifically, they are as follows:
- Pawn, Lance, Ram's-Head Soldier, Enchanted Badger, and Iron General - cannot be dropped onto the last rank, and must promote upon moving to it
- Knight and Flying Swallow - cannot be dropped onto the last two ranks, and must promote upon moving to either of them
Impasse
This rule is the same as in standard Shogi, except that the minimum number of points needed to not lose is 49, and promoted pieces use the point value of their unpromoted counterparts. The scoring is as follows.
- King - 0 points each
- Promoted Pieces - point value of unpromoted counterparts
- Lion - 5 points each
- Great Leopard, Venomous Wolf, Bishop, or Rook, promoted or not - 5 points each
- All other pieces - 1 point each
This 'user submitted' page is a collaboration between the posting user and the Chess Variant Pages. Registered contributors to the Chess Variant Pages have the ability to post their own works, subject to review and editing by the Chess Variant Pages Editorial Staff.
By A. M. DeWitt.
Last revised by A. M. DeWitt.
Web page created: 2025-03-01. Web page last updated: 2025-03-01