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Rules of Shogi with Impassable Kings
This game is played exactly like Shogi with the one exception that Kings may not occupy the same rank. This prevents Kings from passing each other, which makes it impossible for the players to create an impasse situation in which each King has moved to the opposite end of the board, and neither player can easily checkmate the other. Accordingly, the usual rule for resolving impasses by counting pieces is never needed and is effectively absent from this game.
King |
The King may move one space in any direction, but not into check or to a rank occupied by the opponent's King, which technically counts as check, as this is handled by extending each King's checking power to its whole rank. The object is to checkmate the King. | Gold General |
The Gold General moves one space in any forward or orthogonal direction. It may not move diagonally backwards. |
 Rook |
The Rook moves any number of spaces 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 |
The Dragon King moves as the Rook or one space diagonally. A captured Dragon King demotes into a Rook. |
 Bishop |
The Bishop moves any number of spaces 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 |
The Dragon Horse moves as the Bishop or one space orthogonally. A captured Dragon Horse demotes into a Bishop. |
Silver General |
The Silver General moves one space in any forward or diagonal direction. When it enters, exits, or moves within the promotion zone, it may promote. |  Promoted Silver General |
The Promoted Silver General moves as a Gold General. When captured, it demotes to a Silver General. |
Lance |
The Lance moves any number of spaces 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. |  Promoted Lance |
The Promoted Lance moves as a Gold General. When captured, it demotes to a Lance. |
Knight |
The Knight leaps to either of the two spaces it could reach by moving two spaces forward, followed by one more space left or right. When it enters the promotion zone, it may promote. When it reaches either of the last two ranks, it must promote. |  Promoted Knight |
The Promoted Knight moves as a Gold General. When captured, it demotes to a Knight. |
Pawn |
The Pawn moves one space vertically forward. When it moves into or within the promotion zone, it may promote to a Tokin. When it reaches the last rank, it must promote to a Tokin. |  Tokin |
The Tokin moves as a Gold General. When captured, it demotes to a Pawn. |
Captures
Whenever any piece is captured, it changes sides and is held in hand by the capturing player, who may drop it on a subsequent turn. If it was a promoted piece, it demotes to its unpromoted form upon capture.
Promotions
Certain pieces may promote by entering, exiting, or moving within the promotion zone, which is for each player the last three ranks from his own perspective. Only Kings, Gold Generals, and already promoted pieces don't get to promote. What each piece promotes to is described in the piece descriptions.
Dropping
With certain restrictions, a piece may be dropped on any empty space. An obvious restriction on any drop is that the resulting position must be legal. A second restriction on each piece, though applicable to only a few, is that there must be spaces remaining on the board to which it could legally move. Thus, Pawns and Lances may not be dropped on the last rank, and Knights may not be dropped on either of the last two ranks. Finally, there are a couple more restrictions for dropping Pawns. First, a Pawn may not be dropped in any file that already has a Pawn belonging to the same side. Second, a Pawn drop may never be used to checkmate the enemy King.
Miscellaneous
As in Chess, the object is to checkmate the enemy King. Unlike Chess, Black moves first.
Notation
Game Courier does not use standard Shogi notation. It has been designed for general use with any of several different Chess variants, and it accordingly uses a generic system of notation. This system is described in detail in the User's Guide. Here are the basics you need to know. Move a piece by writing its present coordinate, a hyphen, and its destination coordinate. For example, "8h-2b". As a courtesy to your opponent, and for the sake of some extra move checking, identify which piece you're moving before writing the move, as in "b 8h-2b". Use lowercase letters for Black pieces and uppercase letters for White pieces. Promote a piece by adding the type of piece it promotes to onto the space it just moved to, as in . The label used for each piece is given in a table at the bottom of this page. Any promoted piece can be identified by prefixing a + sign to its unpromoted label.
This preset enforces rules. It should allow all legal moves, and it should forbid every illegal move except perpetual check. It also spots and notifies you of check, checkmate, and stalemate. It automates forced promotions and the transfer of captured pieces, and it allows the use of the * operator for piece drops.
To capture a piece, you don't have to do anything more than move to its space. The captured piece will automatically move off-board and switch sides, and if it was a promoted piece, it will automatically demote. To drop a captured piece, write the label for the piece, an asterisk, and the destination coordinate of the move, as in "b*5e", which would drop a Black Bishop onto 5e.
To promote a piece, end the first part of the move with a semicolon, then add a new piece type to the space using a hyphen. For example, "S 5f-5g; +S-5g". To a move a piece that could be promoted without promoting it, you can add "skip" as the second part of the move. For example, "S 5f-5g; skip". This will make it explicit that no promotion is intended. If you enter the piece move by itself, as you would when moving by mouse, you will be asked if you want to promote the piece. A "skip" will be added to the move if you don't promote, so that you won't be asked again each time it processes that move. When you move a Pawn, Knight, or Lance to a space on which it must promote, it will automatically promote. You may still include a promotion in your move, such as "p 2h-2i; +p-2i", but it won't be necessary.
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.
These pieces were made by Fergus Duniho, mainly from Armando Marroquin's Chess Motif font. The Lance, Silver General, and Gold General were drawn by Fergus. The Lance is represented by a one-way arrow. The Silver General is represented by a crescent moon ☽, the alchemical symbol for silver. The Gold General is represented by a circle with a dot in the center ☉, the alchemical symbol for gold (and also the astrological symbol for the sun). Think of the silvery moon and the golden sun.
Credits
This preset uses the default settings file for Shogi with Impassable Kings, which was made by Fergus Duniho.
Game Courier was created, programmed and written by Fergus Duniho.
Game Courier, Copyright © Fergus Duniho, 2001-2017
WWW Page Created: 15 August 2001
Kibbitzing Etiquette
Kibbitzing is the practice of commenting on a game you are not playing. In commenting on a game, please follow these rules of etiquette.
(1) If you notice that someone has made an illegal move, please mention it. Some Game Courier presets cannot enforce rules, but Game Courier does enable players to take back any previous move. Details on how to take back a move are provided in the User's Guide, linked to above the board.
(2) Unless otherwise specifically asked to, do not offer hints or suggestions to players on what moves they should make. In general, avoid coaching comments.
(3) Once a game is over, it should be alright to offer your analysis of the game and your specific comments on what moves players should have made. If some players don't want this, they may mention it in the Kibbitzing section, and you should honor this request by not commenting on the game.
(4) Be polite. At the appropriate time, offer any criticism you have in a constructive manner. Avoid heckling players for bad moves.
(5) Don't spam this space with irrelevant comments. If you have a comment about Game Courier, rather than about the specific game you're viewing, please post it on Game Courier's Index page to give it.