A Game Courier Preset for Seireigi
Rules of Seireigi
Except where contradicted below, all rules are the same as in standard Shogi.
Pieces
| Piece | Promoted Piece | ||
|---|---|---|---|
King (k/K) |
The King moves one square in any direction, but not into check. The object is to checkmate the King. | The King does not promote. | |
Rook (r/R) |
The Rook moves any number of squares horizontally or vertically. It may not leap over pieces. When entering, exiting, or moving within the promotion zone, it may promote to a Dragon King. | 
Dragon King (+r/+R) |
The Dragon King moves as the Rook or one square diagonally. A captured Dragon King demotes into a Rook. |
Bishop (b/B) |
The Bishop moves any number of squares diagonally. It may not leap over pieces. When entering, exiting, or moving within the promotion zone, it may promote to a Dragon Horse. | 
Dragon Horse (+b/+B) |
The Dragon Horse moves as the Bishop or one square orthogonally. A captured Dragon Horse demotes into a Bishop. |
Gold General (g/G) |
The Gold General moves one square in any forward or orthogonal direction. It may not move diagonally backwards. | 
Great Elephant (+g/+G) |
The Great Elephant moves any number of squares diagonally forward. It may not leap over pieces. In addition, it can move one square diagonally backward, sideways, or directly forward. When captured, it demotes to a Gold General. |
Silver General (s/S) |
The Silver General moves one square in any forward or diagonal direction. When it enters, exits, or moves within the promotion zone, it may promote. | 
Running Wolf (+s/+S) |
The Running Wolf moves any number of squares directly forward or backward. It may not leap over pieces. In addition, it can move one square sideways or diagonally forward. When captured, it demotes to a Silver General. |
Knight (n/N) |
The Knight leaps to either of the two squares it could reach by moving two squares forward, followed by one more square left or right. When it enters the promotion zone, it may promote. When it reaches either of the last two ranks, it must promote. | 
Heavenly Horse (+n/+N) |
The Heavenly Horse leaps to the second square in any forward direction, or to either of the two squares it could reach by moving two squares backward, followed by one more square left or right. In addition, it may move one square in any diagonal or forward direction. When captured, it demotes to a Knight. |
Lance (l/L) |
The Lance moves any number of squares vertically forward. It may not leap over pieces. When it moves into or within the promotion zone, it may promote. When it reaches the last rank, it must promote. | 
Free Tiger (+l/+L) |
The Free Tiger moves any number of squares horizontally. In addition, it may move one square vertically or leap to any square it could reach by moving two squares horizontally, followed by one square vertically. When captured, it demotes to a Lance. |
Pawn (p/P) |
The Pawn moves one square vertically forward. When it moves into or within the promotion zone, it may promote. When it reaches the last rank, it must promote. | 
Tokin (+p/+P) |
The Tokin moves one square in any forward or orthogonal direction. It may not move diagonally backwards. When captured, it demotes to a Pawn. |
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.
How to Move Pieces
Full Algebraic Notation
Algebraic notation identifies each space by a coordinate that begins with its file label and ends with its rank label. On the Chess board, files go up and down from one player to the other, and ranks go from left to right. In most games, files are represented by letters, and ranks are represented by numbers, but there is no fixed rule requiring this for all games, and some games, such as Shogi, reverse this convention. If you look at the diagram, you will usually see the file labels going from left to right and the file labels going up and down. And if you hover your mouse over a space, you will normally see the name of the coordinate appear in a tooltip.
It is not uncommon to see algebraic notation being used for Chess, but it is often in an abbreviated format that requires you to know both the rules of the game and the current position to know exactly which piece moves where. For example, the notation "Ne6" indicates that a Knight is moving to e6, but it doesn't indicate which Knight, and it doesn't specify where the Knight is coming from. To figure this out, you need to know how a Knight moves and which Knight on the board can make a legal move to e6.
Although rules may be programmed for individual games, Game Courier itself does not know the rules of any game, and it is unable to parse abbreviated algebraic notation. Therefore, it relies on full algebraic notation, which completely specifies the move without requiring any knowledge of the game's rules or the current position. The most usual type of full algebraic notation indicates the piece that is moving by its label, the space it is moving from, and the space it moving to. In Chess, a typical first move might be written as "P e2-e4". When you hover your mouse over a piece, you will normally see the piece label followed by the coordinate for the space, and when you hover it over an empty space, you will normally see the coordinate label. Including the piece label in your notation allows Game Courier to check that the piece you're moving is the right one, and it makes game notation easier to follow, but it is not mandatory.
You may promote a piece by including a promotion move after your regular move. A promotion move has a piece go directly to a coordinate. Here is an example: "p e7-e8; q-e8".
You may remove a piece from a space by adding an @ to the space or by omitting the destination coordinate. For example, both "@-e4" and "e4-" would remove the piece on "e4". This is useful for en passant when you are playing a game that does not handle this automatically. For example, "P d5-e6; e5-" removes the Pawn on e5 after a Pawn moves from d5 to e6.
You will not need to remove spaces for most games, but if you should need to, you can do this by omitting the first coordinate in a move. For example, "-e4" would remove e4 from the board. To add or return a space to the board, you may add an @ or any other piece to it.
Available Pieces
Pieces are represented by labels, usually using uppercase letters for White and lowercase letter for Black. When you enter a move or specify the starting position for a game, you should remember that piece labels are case-sensitive. Many piece sets are available for use with Game Courier, and this table shows you which pieces belong to the piece set you are currently using.
The inclusion of a piece does not indicate that it is used in the game you are playing. But if your game uses pieces not included here, you should choose a different piece set.
Mnemonic Seireigi Pieces
Credits
This preset uses the seireigi2 settings file for Seireigi, which was made by A. M. DeWitt.
Game Courier was created, programmed and written by Fergus Duniho.
Game Courier, Copyright © Fergus Duniho, 2001-2017
WWW Page Created: 15 August 2001