A Game Courier Preset for Yangsi
Rules of Yangsi
Yangsi is played like Chess is except for the addition of extra pieces and some differences regarding Pawn promotions and castling.
In this game, either side can move first. This preset gives Black the first move.
Piece Movements
The King moves one square in any direction but not into check. A special move called castling is allowed once per player, per game.
The Queen moves arbitrary number of free squares in any horizontal, vertical or diagonal direction.
The Rook moves arbitrary number of free squares in any horizontal or vertical direction. The Rook is also involved in castling.
The Bishop moves arbitrary number of free squares in any diagonal direction.
The Knight makes a (1,2) leap in any direction. It is not blocked by other pieces: it jumps to the new location.
The Pawn moves one square directly forward without capturing or captures one square diagonally forward. It may also move two squares straight forward on its first move, provided both squares are vacant. Pawns cannot move sideways or backwards.
The Champion makes a (0,1), (0,2) or (2,2) leap in any direction. It is not blocked by other pieces: it jumps to the new location.
The Wizard makes a (1,1) or (1,3) leap in any direction. It is not blocked by other pieces: it jumps to the new location.
The Marshall moves as a Rook or as a Knight.
The Archbishop moves as a Bishop or as a Knight.
The Cannon moves as a Rook but must jump over a single intervening piece, friend or foe, along the line of attack to capture. The piece the Cannon jumps over is called the screen. Any number of spaces, including none, may exist between the Cannon, the screen, and the piece to be captured.
The Vao moves as a Bishop but must jump over a single intervening piece, friend or foe, along the line of attack to capture. The piece the Vao jumps over is called the screen. Any number of spaces, including none, may exist between the Vao, the screen, and the piece to be captured.
Pawn Promotion
When a Pawn reaches the last rank, it must promote to a Queen, Marshall, Archbishop, Rook, Champion, Cannon, Knight, Bishop, Vao, or Wizard. It cannot promote to a King or another Pawn. Promotion is always mandatory.
Castling
A King may castle with a Rook once per game by moving the King two or three spaces towards the Rook, with the Rook leaping over the King to the space adjacent to it. Castling is only permissible if all of the following conditions hold:
- There must be no pieces in between the King and the chosen Rook.
- Neither the King nor the chosen Rook may have previously moved.
- The King may not castle out of, through, or into check.
En passant
When a Pawn makes a double move and lands on a square that is adjacent to an enemy Pawn on the same rank, that Pawn may capture the Pawn that has just moved as if it had only advanced one square. En passant is only permissible on the move immediately following the double move.
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 five ways, depending on the situation:
1. Moving the King to a safe square
2. Blocking the check
3. Capturing the attacking piece
4. Removing the screen from the line of attack.
5. Capturing the screen with the King
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 in in stalemate. Stalemate counts as a draw.
Threefold Repetition
If the same position occurs three times with the same player to move each time and all pieces having the same rights to move, including castling and en passant, the game is automatically a draw.
Sixty-Four Move Rule
If no Pawn has been moved and no capture has been made within the last sixty-four moves by each player, the game is automatically a draw.
Draw by Impossibility of Checkmate – If neither player can checkmate the other player’s King through a series of legal moves, the game is automatically a draw. This is usually due to insufficient mating material, though it is possible in other positions too.
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.
These pieces come from a set containing more pieces, but this preset has had the set of pieces reduced to those used in the game.
Credits
This preset uses the blackabstract settings file for Yangsi, 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