Check out Janggi (Korean Chess), our featured variant for December, 2024.

This page is written by the game's inventor, H. G. Muller.

Minjiku Shogi

Minjiku Shogi is a variant in the spirit of the historic Japanese game Tenjiku Shogi, but on a much smaller board (10x10 instead of 16x16). In still qualifies as a large variant: each player starts with 32 pieces of 17 different types, many of which can promote, sometimes to pieces of type nor originally present.

The iconic pieces in Tenjiku Shogi, which give that variant its unique flavor, and dominate the opening play, are the Fire Demons and the jumping generals. The Fire Demons capture ('burn') every enemy piece in the 3x3 area surrounding their location, even passively during the opponent's turn. The jumping generals can hop over arbitrary many pieces for capturing or checking, which make smothered checkmates a major opening theme, as the King starts so deeply buried in its own camp that it takes a long time to provide any 'breathing space' for it.

The Tenjiku pieces were perceived as too powerful for a mere 10x10 board, however. So Minjiku Shogi is designed with original pieces, which can be viewed as 'caricatures' of their original Tenjiku-Shogi counterparts: they still have the capabilities that are characteristic for these originals, but often in a more modest amount. E.g. where some of the pieces in Tenjiku Shogi can make 'area moves' consisting of three independent King steps, this is reduced to two steps in Minjiku Shogi. And where the Tenjiku Fire Demon burns its eight neigbors, the Minjiku Fire Dragon only burns the four diagonally adjacent ones.

Setup

Pieces

Pieces can always capture as they move, but some pieces have additional 'capture-only' moves:

Fire Dragons capture all diagonally adjacent enemies as an automatic side effect of their move. This happens in addition to any ordinary capture they might make with that move.

The jumpers can capture behind obstacles in their path. They are not always able to hop over each other, though. There is a ranking for them (which also includes the King), and they cannot hop over pieces of equal or higher rank. The ranking is King > Jumping General > Area Jumper > Orthogonal Jumper = Diagonal Jumper > any other piece.

Several pieces can capture adjacent enemies without moving. This does take a turn, and the adjacent enemy is simply removed from the board.

Some pieces can make an 'area move' consisting of up to two King steps. The directions of these steps can be chosen independently. The second step is only allowed if the first went to an empty square, so it is not possible to capture two pieces in one move by this.

pawnsteps one square straight aheadpromotes to gold
silversteps one square, or straight aheadpromotes to
goldsteps one square orthogonally, or diagonally forwardpromotes to
ministersteps one square in all 8 directionspromotes to
kirinsteps one square diagonally, or jumps to the 2nd square orthogonallypromotes to
phoenixsteps one square orthogonally, or jumps to the 2nd square diagonallypromotes to
lateral moverslides sideways, or steps one square forward or backwardpromotes to
bishopslides diagonallypromotes to
rookslides orthogonallypromotes to
diagonal jumperslides diagonally, and can jump over arbitrary many pieces on the diagonal for capturingpromotes to promotes to
viperslides diagonally, or captures an orthogonally adjacent enemy without movingpromotes to
cobraslides orthogonally, or captures an diagonally adjacent enemy without movingpromotes to
queenpromotes to slides in all 8 directions
diagonal jumperslides diagonally, and can jump over arbitrary many pieces on the file or rank for capturing
samuraimakes a knight's jump, or captures an adjacent piece without moving
ninjasteps one square diagonally, or leaps to the second square sideways, from where it can go on sliding outward. In addition it can capture an orthogonally adjacent enemy without moving,
area jumperslides diagonally, and can jump over arbitrary many pieces on the diagonal for capturing. In addition it can make up to two king steps with independently chosen direction. The second such step can only be made if the first was not a capture.
jumping generalslides in all 8 directions, and can jump over arbitrary many pieces on the diagonal for capturing.
fire dragonslides in all 8 directions. In addition it can make up to two king steps with independently chosen direction. The second such step can only be made if the first was not a capture. Burns all enemies diagonally adjacent to its destination if it doesn't get burned itself
kingsteps one square in all 8 directions

Rules

The goal is to checkmate the enemy King.

Fire Dragons also burn passively: pieces arriving on a square diagonally adjacent to an enemy Dragon during their own move disappear. This is automatic, and and doesn't count as a move of the player who's Dragon does the burning. It even applies to a moving Fire Dragon itself, and in this case the moving Dragon will not burn any of its own neighbors when it gets burned.

Three-fold repetition is a draw.

After 50 moves without capture or promotion the game ends in a draw. (Note that Pawn moves, or moves of other promotable pieces, do not reset the counter.)


This 'user submitted' page is a collaboration between the posting user and the Chess Variant Pages. Registered contributors to the Chess Variant Pages have the ability to post their own works, subject to review and editing by the Chess Variant Pages Editorial Staff.

By H. G. Muller.

Last revised by H. G. Muller.


Web page created: 2023-02-08. Web page last updated: 2024-09-18

Revisions of MSminjikushogi