Problem contest
Chu Shogi Lion by Daniel Bauer.
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by H. G. Muller
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Chu Shogi is thought by Chess and Shogi variant aficionados to be the greatest of the historic large chess variants. Chu Shogi is still played by a small number of hobbyists in its native Japan, and by a few other enthusiasts around the world. The Chu Shogi Lion is a special, powerful piece that is usually the focus of attack and defence. Chu Shogi deserves to be better known, although the traditional piece designations with kanji characters will impede its further spread beyond Japan.
Unlike Shogi itself, in which pieces can change sides through capture, the Chu Shogi pieces do not change sides, and Chu Shogi is in this sense closer to Chess than it is to Shogi. For this reason, Shogi-style uniformly coloured pieces are not strictly necessary for Chu Shogi, and pieces of the two sides could be distinguished by colour. Most Chu Shogi pieces promote, and so they do need to be flat and reversible. However, some representation of the moves, as in the diagrams below, would, in my opinion, make the game much more accessible. Purists would always still be able to use traditional pieces inscribed with kanji characters.
We ran columns on Chu Shogi in AG4, AG6, AG7, and AG8. We never included the rules, although the rules are easily available on the Internet. Moreover, H. G. Muller's clever presentation below makes it unnecessary to know the Chu Shogi rules in advance. I hope even non-players of Chu Shogi can get a sense of the game from the puzzle below. Of course, one Chu Shogi problem alone cannot properly illustrate the attractions of Chu Shogi, but perhaps it will inspire people to take a closer look at this ancient Japanese "Game of Lions."
Chu Shogi was introduced to the non-Japanese world by George Hodges through the sets that he manufactured and sold and through his book, Middle Shogi Manual (1992, 2nd. edition 2002). George's book contains the rules, some annotated historical games, discussions of strategy, and a large collection of mating problems. Some of these problems remained unsolved until they could be tackled by computer engines. This is where H. G. Muller enters the arena, because his Chu engine, HaChu, has solved many of the difficult problems.
Please feel free to try the puzzle below. We will present the solution in the next issue. The first correct solution emailed to me before AG19 goes live, in Spring 2020, will receive a free copy of the print-on-demand edition of AG18. ~ Ed.
Unlike Shogi itself, in which pieces can change sides through capture, the Chu Shogi pieces do not change sides, and Chu Shogi is in this sense closer to Chess than it is to Shogi. For this reason, Shogi-style uniformly coloured pieces are not strictly necessary for Chu Shogi, and pieces of the two sides could be distinguished by colour. Most Chu Shogi pieces promote, and so they do need to be flat and reversible. However, some representation of the moves, as in the diagrams below, would, in my opinion, make the game much more accessible. Purists would always still be able to use traditional pieces inscribed with kanji characters.
We ran columns on Chu Shogi in AG4, AG6, AG7, and AG8. We never included the rules, although the rules are easily available on the Internet. Moreover, H. G. Muller's clever presentation below makes it unnecessary to know the Chu Shogi rules in advance. I hope even non-players of Chu Shogi can get a sense of the game from the puzzle below. Of course, one Chu Shogi problem alone cannot properly illustrate the attractions of Chu Shogi, but perhaps it will inspire people to take a closer look at this ancient Japanese "Game of Lions."
Chu Shogi was introduced to the non-Japanese world by George Hodges through the sets that he manufactured and sold and through his book, Middle Shogi Manual (1992, 2nd. edition 2002). George's book contains the rules, some annotated historical games, discussions of strategy, and a large collection of mating problems. Some of these problems remained unsolved until they could be tackled by computer engines. This is where H. G. Muller enters the arena, because his Chu engine, HaChu, has solved many of the difficult problems.
Please feel free to try the puzzle below. We will present the solution in the next issue. The first correct solution emailed to me before AG19 goes live, in Spring 2020, will receive a free copy of the print-on-demand edition of AG18. ~ Ed.
🔶🔶🔶
This page contains a checkmating puzzle for the ancient game of Chu Shogi, a Chess variant that was popular in Japan frrom 1350 AD to 1750 AD. The solution will be published in the next issue.
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pawn:P:fW:p:,,b8,c6
ferocious leopard:FL:FvW:fl:b9,g10,,g12
silver general:S:FfW:s:,,d9,e10
gold general:G:WfF:g:,,c8
blind tiger:BT:FsbW:bt:,,d11
kirin:KN:FD:kn:,,e12
side mover:SM:sRvW:sm:,,d7
rook:R:R:r:,,g11,h7
drunk elephant:+GB:FfsW:de2:b11
flying stag:+BT:vRsWF:fs2:f2,,g6
white horse:+L:vRfB:wh2:,,c11
whale:+RC:vRbB:wl2:,,f8,j8
flying ox:+FO:BvR:fo2:b12,,j12
dragon horse:+B:BW:dh2:f6
soaring eagle:+DH:RbBfFfAfcavFfmabF:se2:h10
king:K:K:k:,,f10
tokin:+P:WfF:g2:e11,i6
bishop:+FL:B:b2:
crown prince:+DE:K:k:
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For the non-Chu-Shogi player (click) |
The diagram above shows a historic mating problem for Chu Shogi. It is the 49th problem out of a collection of 100 known as the Chushogi Tsukurimone, of unknown authorship and date (estimated around 1700 AD). George Hodge's Middle Shogi Manual, which published all the problems, refers to this collection as the D-series.
No solutions were included in the historic document, and because the problems are rather hard there was initially some doubt as to whether they were indeed mating problems. After much effort, it was found that they are in fact tsume problems, a class of puzzles common in Shogi, where the purpose is to force a checkmate through checking moves only. The Middle Shogi Manual published solutions to some 70 of them. The puzzle presented here was still unsolved at the time; it is a mate in 7.
Good luck! ◾️
Reference
Hodges, George (2002). Middle Shogi Manual. 2nd. edition, originally published 1992.
No solutions were included in the historic document, and because the problems are rather hard there was initially some doubt as to whether they were indeed mating problems. After much effort, it was found that they are in fact tsume problems, a class of puzzles common in Shogi, where the purpose is to force a checkmate through checking moves only. The Middle Shogi Manual published solutions to some 70 of them. The puzzle presented here was still unsolved at the time; it is a mate in 7.
Good luck! ◾️
Reference
Hodges, George (2002). Middle Shogi Manual. 2nd. edition, originally published 1992.
Dr. Harm Geert Muller was born in 1956 in Amsterdam. Following a career in atomic physics research, H. G. retired to focus on Chess programming in 2008. His recent area of interest is chess and shogi variants. His Shogi engine Shokidoki was particularly successful in Mini Shogi, where it won the UEC Cup and ICGA Computer Olympiad several times. The engine HaChu was especially designed for handling chess variants on large boards with many pieces (but without piece drops), such as the large historic shogi variants. The original plan was to make it support all shogi variants, from 9x9 Sho Shogi up to 25x25 Tai Shogi, and perhaps even the 36x36 Taikyoku Shogi. So far only Sho, Chu and Dai Shogi work, the larger variants requiring special move types (such as Hook Movers) that are not yet implemented. An attempt to add 16x16 Tenjiku Shogi to HaChu’s repertoire failed due to the great complexity of this game, and an (as yet unreleased) separate engine was written for Tenjiku in 2017. The latter works so well that H. G. may scale it down also to play Chu Shogi and release it as HaChu 2.0. ~ Ed.