Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

I concur with that. It has the advantage over Shanghai Palace of not using the same names for different pieces. In terms of play the FIDE King is also the Shogi Jewelled General, and the Xiang Qi Chariot also the FIDE Rook (the Shogi Flying Chariot differs in being promotable). Thus an army of only 14 pieces includes 9 FIDE, 4 Shogi, and 3 XQ pieces!

This reminds me of Gary Glifford's excellent Shanghai Palace Chess.

- Sam

I am considering a 9x9 version of this game. In the meantime I encourage people to play this one and give me their thoughts.

You can probably use the Zillions of Games file for Shanghai Palace Chess as a basis to make your own Zillions' file.

- Sam

Yes, I probably could -- if I could program Zillions files.

Jared, you say pawns may not capture en passant but they move like FIDE pawns. Do they have an initial double step option. I don't know whether you addressed that in the rules. If not, would you mind if I added that in there? '...like FIDE pawns except with no initial double step'

Yes, pawns may make a double-step opening. In fact, en passant is disallowed for this very reason - since the board is 7x7 instead of 8x8, it could happen much more frequently, and I did not want this.

Probably illegally, I tried to put a cannon in my pocket but since it is not a shogi piece, I guess it can't be dropped? Since rules state that 'If you capture one of your opponent's Shogi pieces...' Right?

Yes, that is correct. Only Shogi pieces can be held and dropped.

Great! You'v used the most intersting pieces from these games! By the way, maybe also use different pawns? On the other hand, game with is pretty playable if you have only chess set...

Technically the King can be considered both FIDE and Shogi (as Kings cannot be either captured to return from or promoted in either), and the Rook both FIDE and Xiang Qi (though not Shogi as it cannot return fromcapture or be promoted). Therefore the sum of the types of piece from each game - 3 FIDE plus 4 Shogi plus 3 XQ, making 10 - is greater than the total 8 piece types. Note that I have rated this game previously.

The pawns are FIDE pawns. They may only promote to lost pieces. So, in that case, you could only promote to silver.

Not suits promotion to gold if lance is lost, but ok. I knew that pawns are FIDE, it's clearly described, i just was talking about subvariant with different pawns. For example: Xiang-qi pawns in front of cannons and chariots, Shogi pawns in front of gold generals and lances, others are FIDE. XQ pawns gets sideways move on 3th rank, Shogi pawns promotes as other Shogi pieces here (to gold generals, of course).