Comments by Ed

Hi,

Can someone state the rule regarding when the King is checked three
consecutive times and it moves to the same two squares back and forth? 
Does this result in a draw?  

Suppose the King had other squares that he could have moved to but chose
the same ones to force a draw. Is this valid? Would this be a draw?

Does it matter which of the opponent's pieces were involved in giving
check? 

If I am not being very clear in my question, I do apologize, but therein
lies the problem: I do not clearly understand this rule; though, I do know
that such a rule exists.  Would someone clarify?

Appreciatively,

This looks like a very interesting variant.  I sure hope that someone can
ZRFolate it!

In the Mate-in-2 problem, is it not possible in response to both moves 1
and 2 that the king could mount the catapult?  Or should one assume that
there is a rule that forbids mounting a catapult to escape check?

Hello, 

As a boy back in the 60’s I owned Robert Abbott’s book and learned of
Ultima from it. I was so impressed by the game, that I made my own
physical board and pieces and have taught a few people the rules from
memory. In fact, not more than 2 days ago, I taught the game to my new
wife. However, I had run across a couple of sticky problems and did not
remember if they were addressed in the rules. I told my friend about this
game yesterday at work and to my surprise I found an email with a website
with information on the actual game. It lives!

 I looked through everything and did not see the complete rules but it
alluded that they were expounded on by Mark-Jason Dominus. I would
appreciate any more info I could obtain, the more detail the better. I
remember from memory that Abbott had even mentioned the historical
sources
for some of the pieces (Greece, Rome, Madagascar, etc.). I found this
interesting because one of the things that appealed to me about chess was
its historical aspect.  

Also, the site mentioned that Abbott had changed the rules, but that
everyone liked the original version better and still plays that one. Was
this rule change that he wanted to remove the distance limitation (if on
the 1st row, you can move only 1 space, if on the 2nd row, you can move
only 2 spaces, etc.)? Were there other changes also? Any info you can
e-mail to me would be thankfully received.

Looking forward to hearing from you,
Ed Kennedy

I had not thought of the idea of a variant with a met having the move of
the gold from shogi, as Mr. Gilman suggests, but my son compiled a ZRF
for
makruk-gi.  The game was surprisingly more playable than chessgi.

As to wooden sets, I wonder if Poompat knows a way to contact the Thai
Department of Corrections who list a board and pieces on their website:
http://www.thaicorrect.moi.go.th/sst93.html.  I have tried writing to the
site coordinator (although in English) and had no success.

I have seen that there are books and websites in Thai on various aspects
of play -- I found some endgame exercises with diagrammatic solutions
very
easy to read and quite instructive.

I wish that there were more instructive literature available to English
readers.  Some of those endgames with a couple of mets look very complex.

I think promoting Tori Shogi is great and agree that the graphics on the
site you mention are appealing.  There is a do-it-yourself Tori Shogi set
at http://www.hollandnumerics.demon.co.uk/pdf/TORI_SET.PDF with the
traditional characters that readers may like.

It is a pity that there is no venue for play of this wonderful variant in
real-time on the internet.  Games do not take long and the piece
movements
are distinct enough from shogi that it is a separate and quite worthwhile
game.  The fact that it has a handicap system like shogi is also
appealing
for play by opponents of disparate strengths.

The Shocky II engine plays a tough game of Tori Shogi.

I noticed the resemblance of board and some piece movements of Navia
Dratp
to Tori Shogi, although, ultimately, the resemblance seems slight.

Recently on the Shogi-L
(http://www.shogi.net/shogi-l/Archive/2005/Naug05-00.txt) there has been
discussion of a freeware Shogi program called Bonanza.  It is quite
strong
on even play.  An extension has been created that allows playing handicap
games.  Its handicap play is perhaps not as strong as its even game play
(I suspect this is because it does not have book moves for the handicaps,
but that is a guess), but it will prove challenging for most.  It
certainly is for me.  

The link for Bonanza is:
http://www.geocities.jp/bonanza_shogi/bonanza1.1_csawin.zip

and for the extension:
http://homepage3.nifty.com/floatinghome/csa_xt122.zip

The listing from Shogi-L describes how to use the extension.

Non-Japanese shogi players should truly appreciate this gift from Messers
Masumoto and RaumNaum; I sure do!

The reason I used Pink and White for the Prototype originally was to try
and make it appealing to more women. Women tend generally to not play
Chess to the extent men do. So that was the intention from a commercial
marketing perspective. But it is a mute point now. It could I suppose be
on an ordinary coloured board. I won't rate my game again here, maybe
for
fun I will in later months. 

Anyone interested can make their own test board. Just take a standard
Chess board and draw in the rest of the squares on your coffee table
around the Chess board. Then take 2 sets of chess pieces and paint one
set
pink and grey. 

Then go online to print out the rules in your language.

Then make 4 more boards ( or buy some from me ) and have a Tourny. The
ultimate final 2 players of the Tourney will be playing 'as Chess' ,
which is how Bishops the long game ends. Which is only fitting for an
excellent Chess Variant, to end 'as Chess'.

oops , sorry I rated my game excellent again. sorry.

Any investors out there with $750,000 , kindly contact me and lets get
making this game commercially in China and sell it at Walmart. Its the
only way to go. It has to be in a white and pink box however to attract
the lady consumer. Also it has to be quality looking for about 39.95 or
49.95 . Also it has to be storeable, like using a folding board like
Trivial Pursuit, in a nice neat Box.

Ok, maybe $650,000 will suffice. .. :) 

Any takers ?

Contact me asap at sales@yellowmall.ca 

Ed

This sounds great!  If possible, could you add some game scores, or at
least some descriptions of what you think the best method for seeking
checkmate is according to the handicaps?  Is there a technique of play
that they encourage a junior player to develop?

As to Mr. Gilman's question, doesn't a popular 4-player shogi variant with a reduced array of pieces on a standard shogi board (Yonin Shogi) already exist?

A house-rules version of 4-handed chaturanga and Chess of the Four Seasons that I know replaces the move of the ship/alfil with the move of the shogi elephant, a move that al-Beruni described as the movement of the piece in 10th-century chaturanga. Both games play much better that way.