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I was just browsing through Pritchard's Encyclopedia of Chess Variants and noticed a listing for Degraded Chess by V. R. Parton. This game is similar to Mortal Chessgi. Captured pieces degrade in the same way. The two differences are that captured pieces do not change sides, and the captured piece gets put back on the board right away. Pritchard's description did not make it clear which player puts the piece back on the board. This is not the first time I've made a game similar to one of Parton's without knowing of his game first. Wormhole Chess is based on the same idea as Parton's Cheshire Cat Chess. In this case, it may not have made a difference, since Degraded Chess is more like Hydra Chess, one of the inspirations for this game, and in fact Degraded Chess is even less like Mortal Chessgi than Hydra Chess is. In Hydra Chess, a captured piece is returned to its player, who holds it in hand and may drop it later as in Chessgi.
One way to represent all possible pieces would be with 32 identical dice. They could be placed with faces parallel to the cell edges for one player and at 45° to them for the other. 1 would represent Pawn, 2 Knight, and so on upward. This could also be applied to Mortal Shogi, but with 40 dodecahedral dice. In that case the top face could be treated as the conventional (though irregular) pentagon that Shogi pieces are with a side facing its own player and a corner the enemy. Of course faces 11 and 12 would nveer be needed. Face 10 would be used only for array Kings, which would stay at that number - likewise face 6 in Mortal Chessgi. That gives me an idea for further variants. Start with either array, use dodecahedral dice for capturable pieces and something completely different for Kings, and have pieces return by the Mortal Shogi sequence but with the 'missing' Chessgi pieces inserted appropriately. Intuitive positions are Queen at the top, Knight just below Bishop, and Pawn second to bottom - numbers 12, 7, and 2 on the dice with other pieces upped by 1 or 2. Pawns would be promoted to Queen (possibly with the alternative of Knight as Knights are also unpromotable) and the rest as in standard Shogi. As Queens would have so far to fall before being lost, these variants might be called Vivat Regina Chessgi and Vivat Regina Shogi.
Flippable pieces won't be sufficient for playing Mortal Shogi, because they won't be enough to cover all possible combinations of pieces that could exist in the game. Except for some uninvented possibilities, any set for Mortal Shogi would require multiple pieces. At best, using flippable pieces would just reduce the total number of pieces that need to be on hand. Not counting Pawns that promote and then demote, one may have up to 7 Knights. For example, (BQ -> WR -> BB -> WN) + 2 * (WR -> BB -> WN) + 2 * (BB -> WN) + 2 * WN. The other pieces could eventually demote to Black Knights but not White Knights. Four Chess sets would cover this. The number needed of other pieces would be less and so would be covered by the four sets. The number of possible Pawns would be 7+8=15, which would also be covered. Since each side could have a different 7 Knights, flippable pieces would not seem to reduce how many extra pieces are needed on hand. Including the possiblity that all one's Pawns will promote into Knights, a player could have up to 15 Knights, which can be covered by eight sets. So, eight sets, not the mere three I said before, is what it takes to cover all possibilities, and flippable pieces won't really help. Unless you're rich, it is probably best to go buy eight small plastic sets from a dollar store. Okay, now for the uninvented possibilities. I look forward to pieces made out of nanobots that will be able to take on any shape programmed into them. A less technically advanced possibility would be disk or wedge shaped pieces with LCD displays that change at the flick of a button and can be programmed for different games. Something between these two possibilities would be flat disks that project programmably changeable holograms, assuming that it would be safe to touch the LASER light coming out of them. If need be, they could have some kind of elongated glass dome that contains the hologram and also makes the tactile sensation of picking up the pieces more like picking up regular pieces.
Thanks for your replies Fergus which I just noticed. I have played Mortal Chessgi on zillions and do end up hoopin' and hollarin' at the computer when it outsmarts me. I have a better chance of beating the computer than with straight Chessgi, another reason to cheer for this variation. Also I love dropping those pesky pawns. Sadly I don't always have room for Zillions on my computer. I enjoy Mortal Chessgi more than straight Chessgi, but Chessgi has the aesthetic and palpable merit of being easer to physically exist as a chess set. I know companies have sold versions of it and maybe still do (flippable pieces of different color on each side). As far as I can see right now, Mortal Chessgi would take extra pieces. Wait a minute, potential solution: use the Shogi method, all pieces of the same color, but use a directional orientation to determine the ownership of the piece. Hmm... would that work? Proposal for a variation: 'Boris Chessgi' (Mortal Chessgi + Moscow King Chess + Boris Yeltsin). Like Mortal Chessgi, but with the opening set up and piece introduction method of Moscow King Chess. (I like Moscow King Chess rules better than the similar Parachute and Unachess versions.) description-- http://www.chessvariants.com/diffsetup.dir/kingchess.html java-- /play/erf/KingChss.html So Boris Chessgi would start out like Moscow King Chess, but captured pieces would join in the fashion you invented for Mortal Chessgi. Thanks, Peter
If you really want to play Mortal Chessgi by yourself in solitaire or against a computer opponent, I can't recommend anything better than Zillions of Games. I implemented Mortal Chessgi for Zillions of Games back when I created the game. Here is a link to the page that Zillions of Games keeps on this game: http://zillions-of-games.com/games/mortalchessgi.html
Mortal Chessgi is a lot of fun. I like the combination of the shogi drop-captured-pieces rule, with their demotion for two reasons: 1) Here, powerful pieces decline in number over the course of the battle. This retains their feeling of value. There is little 'inflation' that weakens their feeling of value. 2) The course of Mortal Chessgi retains something of the decline of number of pieces as the game progresses. This leads to endgames which can be something like FIDE endgames, made weird by parachuting small-value pieces. 3) I like the feeling of the game. How about offering a Java version for web solitaire play? Thanks!
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To follow up on the comment Roberto Lavieri left 6 1/2 years ago, he and I did subsequently collaborate on Mortal Shogi, which was followed by Kamikaze Mortal Shogi, one of my favorite Chess variants ever. I never followed up on his comment here, because he also brought up the idea in this Mortal Chessgi game we played together on Game Courier, and we collaborated on it together in the comments of that game. While many people already know about these games, this comment is placed here for those who may come across this page first.