THE NEW ABSTRACT GAMES
  • Home
  • New Issues
    • Issue 20
    • Issue 19
    • Issue 18
    • Issue 17
  • Archives
  • Print on demand
  • Print back issues
Previous

Problem contest

Picture
Chu Shogi Lion by Daniel Bauer.
Picture
by H. G. Muller
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.
🔶🔶🔶
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.
lightShade=#FFFFA0 darkShade=#FFFFFF startShade=#FFFFA0 files=12 ranks=12 graphicsDir=/uploads/1/1/6/4/116462923/ graphicsType=png whitePrefix=w blackPrefix=b squareSize=33 promoZone=4 maxPromote=2 promoOffset=16 promoChoice=+ royal=16 symmetry=none 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:

For the non-Chu-Shogi player (click)

Most pieces in this problem are rather normal chess pieces, which slide or make single steps in the various directions, or (occasionally) can jump to the second square. The soaring eagle has peculiar moves diagonally forward, though. There it can step to the adjacent or jump to the second square, but when it jumps it can optionally capture an enemy it jumped over. It can also capture what is on the adjacent squares diagonally forward without moving.

    Many pieces can (optionally) promote to stronger ones, when they enter the 4-rank-deep promotion zone, or make a capture starting in that zone. In the problem the only pieces of the winning player that are promotable are the leopards, which promote to bishop. The defending pieces do not get anywhere near their promotion zone.

    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.
    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.
    Next
    Table of Contents
    Publishers: Connie & Kerry Handscomb
    ​Editor: Kerry Handscomb
    Creative Director: Connie Handscomb
    Copy editor: Don Kirkby

    Game tester: Robert Best, Don Kirkby
    Photography: Connie or Kerry Handscomb, unless otherwise indicated.
    Artwork and photo processing: Connie Handscomb
    Contributors:  Valentin Chelnokov, Fred Horn, Phil Leduc, Thibault Pillon, David Ploog, Francesco Salerno, Pablo Schulman, Enrique Sedano, Stephen Tavener, Martin Tompa,
    ​Published by
    C&K Publishing (formerly Carpe Diem Publishing)
    ​P.O. Box 33005, West Vancouver, BC, Canada V7V 4W7

    ​Print ISSN: 1492-0492; Web ISSN:: 2562-9409
    Game fonts: Alpine Fonts
    ©️ 2020 C&K Publishing

    All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the written permission of the publisher. Archival issue PDF's are available for personal use only, and may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, for commercial gain or otherwise.

    Printed magazines

    Print back issues
    Print on demand new issues
    • Home
    • New Issues
      • Issue 20
      • Issue 19
      • Issue 18
      • Issue 17
    • Archives
    • Print on demand
    • Print back issues