Shosu Shogi (小数将棋) is played like Shogi is except for the addition of a new piece (the Queen) and some differences regarding piece moves, promotions, and drops.
Piece Movements
Unpromoted Pieces
The King moves one square in any direction but not into check. The Black King is labeled 玉将 (gyokushō, meaning jeweled general in Japanese) and the White King is labeled 王将 (ōshō, meaning king general in Japanese).
The Queen moves any number of free squares horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. This piece is labeled 妃将 (okisaki, meaning princess in Japanese).
The Rook moves any number of free squares horizontally or vertically. This piece is labeled 飛車 (hisha, meaning flying chariot in Japanese).
The Bishop moves any number of free squares diagonally. This piece is labeled 角行 (kakugyō, meaning angle mover in Japanese).
The Gold General moves one square horizontally, vertically, or diagonally forward. This piece is labeled 金将 (kinshō, meaning gold general in Japanese).
The Silver General moves one square diagonally or vertically forward. This piece is labeled 銀将 (ginshō, meaning silver general in Japanese).
The Knight moves two squares forward and one square sideways. The Knight is not blocked by other pieces: it jumps to the new location. This piece is labeled 桂馬 (keima, meaning laureled horse in Japanese).
The Lance moves any number of free squares vertically forward. This piece is labeled 香車 (kyōsha, meaning incense chariot in Japanese).
The Pawn moves one square vertically forward. This piece is labeled 歩兵 (fuhyō, meaning foot soldier in Japanese).
Promoted Pieces
The Dragon King (promoted Rook) moves any number of free squares horizontally or vertically, or one square diagonally. This piece is labeled 龍王 (ryūō, meaning dragon king in Japanese).
The Dragon Horse (promoted Bishop) moves any number of free squares diagonally, or one square horizontally or vertically. This piece is labeled 龍馬 (ryūme, meaning dragon horse in Japanese).
The Drunk Elephant (promoted Gold General) moves one square horizontally, diagonally, or vertically forward. This piece is labeled 酔象 (suizō, meaning drunk elephant in Japanese).
The Gold General (promoted Silver General) moves one square horizontally, vertically, or diagonally forward. This piece is labeled 金将 (kinshō, meaning gold general in Japanese).
The Jumping Horse (promoted Knight) moves two squares horizontally and one square vertically, or two squares vertically and one square horizontally. The Jumping Horse is not blocked by other pieces: it jumps to the new location. This piece is labeled 跳馬 (chōma, meaning jumping horse in Japanese).
The Vertical Mover (promoted Lance) moves any number of free squares vertically, or one square sideways. This piece is labeled 竪行 (shugyō, meaning vertical mover in Japanese).
The Tokin (promoted Pawn) moves one square vertically, horizontally, or diagonally forward. This piece is labeled と金 (tokin, meaning reaches gold in Japanese). It may also be labeled と (an abbreviated version of tokin) or 个 (another abbreviated version of tokin).
Promotion
When a piece moves to, from, or within the owner’s promotion zone, the owner may promote that piece. The promotion zone is the last three ranks of the board - the three ranks occupied by the opponent’s pieces at the start of the game. Promotion is optional – a player need not promote a piece immediately upon entering the promotion zone. However, a piece must promote if it would otherwise have no legal moves left on a subsequent turn. The promotions for each piece are as follows.
Rook => Dragon King
Bishop => Dragon Horse
Gold General => Drunk Elephant
Silver General => Gold General
Knight => Jumping Horse
Lance => Vertical Mover
Pawn => Tokin
A promoted piece that get captured reverts to its unpromoted state. Otherwise, a promotion is permanent. Promoted pieces cannot be demoted in any other way. Pieces can only promote once – promoted pieces cannot promote any further. The King and Queen do not promote.
Lances, Knights, and Pawns
If a Lance, Knight, or Pawn reaches the last rank, it must promote because it would otherwise have no legal moves left on a subsequent turn. A Knight that reaches the penultimate rank must promote for the exact same reason.
Drops
Captured pieces get retained in hand and can be brought back into play under the capturing player’s control. On any turn, instead of moving a piece on the board, a player may return a captured piece to any empty square on the board. This is called dropping the piece, or simply a drop. A drop counts as a complete move. The rules regarding drops are as follows.
A piece may not be dropped onto an occupied space.
Pieces that are dropped within the promotion zone do not promote immediately.
A piece may not be dropped onto a space where it would have no legal moves left on a subsequent turn.
Captures and promotions may occur normally on a subsequent move of the piece.
Lances, Knights, and Pawns
Lances, Knights, and Pawns may not be dropped onto the last rank, as they would have no legal moves left. Knights may not be dropped onto the penultimate rank for the exact same reason.
Pawn Restrictions
In addition to the rules mentioned above, there are special rules concerning pawn drops.
Two Pawns (Japanese: 二歩 nifu): A Pawn cannot be dropped on a file that already contains an unpromoted Pawn belonging to the same player (promoted pawns do not count).
Drop Pawn Mate* (Japanese: 打ち歩詰め uchifudzume): A Pawn cannot be dropped to give immediate checkmate (although other pieces may be dropped to give immediate checkmate). A Pawn may, however, be dropped to give immediate check as long as it is not also checkmate. A Pawn may also be dropped to give immediate stalemate. This rule does not apply to Pawns that are already on the board.
Check, Checkmate, and Stalemate
When a King is threatened with capture on the next turn, it is in check. A King that is in check must immediately get out of check. This can be done in one of three ways, depending on the situation:
Moving the King to a safe square
Blocking the check
Capturing the attacking piece
If the king is in check and cannot escape capture, it is in checkmate. Checkmate counts as a loss for the checkmated player. If a player's king is not in check but has no legal moves, it is in stalemate. The result of a stalemate is the same as that of checkmate – it is a loss for the stalemated player.
Illegal Move
A player who makes an illegal move loses immediately. Illegal moves include:
Violating the Two Pawns (nifu) restriction
Violating the Drop Pawn Mate (uchifuzume) restriction
Dropping or moving a piece to position where it cannot move
Making more than one move per turn
Moving one's king into check
Moving a piece contrary to how its movements are defined
Repetition Draw - If the same board position occurs four times with the same player to move and the same pieces in hand for each player, the game ends in a draw.
Impasse - If both kings have advanced into their respective promotion zones and neither player can hope to mate the other or to gain any further material, the players may agree to a draw.
*If there is a space where a Pawn can be dropped to give immediate checkmate, the preset will show that space as a legal destination square when you select a Pawn in your hand. However, if you do drop a Pawn to give immediate checkmate, the preset will still deem the move as illegal and exit the program with an error message.
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.
