Check out Balbo's Chess, our featured variant for October, 2024.

This page is written by the game's inventor, Lev Grigoriev.

Seikaku Ni Wanai Shogi

Just one of Shogi variants with no majors, but variated promotions. Its former name was “Ne Sovsem Shogi” because Japanese “それほどでもない” (phrase) and Russian “не совсем” both mean “not really” or “not so much”. Now name is stylized but sense is still as before.

Setup

Normal Shogi setup without Rooks and Bishops, but with additional Knight in front of King. (Variation: this Knight is droppable from hand).

All rules are as in Shogi, incl. drops (placing a captured piece as your own on free space), pawn drop restrictions (not to file where you already have unpromoted pawn, and not to immediately checkmate the opponent), impasse, sennichite, etc.… unless otherwise stated.
Pieces still can’t be dropped to rows where they couldn’t move (Knight on last two rows, Pawn & Lance on the last) or as promoted forms; promotion zone is still the farthest three rows, where foe army starts; captured promotees demote to its starting form.

Differences are above and below

Pieces

(All pieces have normal alphabetic notation, but promotees also have Shogi-like one with + before.)

Honorable Horse / Knight (H)

It moves as chess Knight, but only narrowly forward. It jumps (ignores anything on its way). When it moves into promotion zone, it becomes…

Nightrider (N or +H) !

which moves arbitrary many Knight leaps in straight line, in any of 8 directions, but to reach the dest, it must have the previous one free.

Lance (L)

It moves straight forward until it hits the border or takes a foe piece. Like forward-only Rook. When it comes into promo-zone, it turns into

Rook (R or +L)

which moves also straight but in all four directions. Like Chess Rook.

Silver (S)

It moves one space diagonally or straight forward. When going into or from promo-zone, it upgrades to

Dragon Horse / Ultrabishop (U or +S)

which moves by sliding diagonally until it hits the border or takes a foe piece, or one space in any direction.

Gold (G)

It moves one space straight or forward diagonally. If it moves into or from promo-zone, it promotes to

Flying Stag (F or +G)

which moves any number of spaces vertically (like a vertical Rook), or one space in any direction, or leaps as Chess Knight, but only sidemost.

Pawn (P)

It moves one space straight forward, and in promo-zone it becomes Tokin (notated as T, moves like Gold, but becomes Pawn when captured).

King (K)

As in Chess but cannot castle.

Rules

You must checkmate or stalemate the opposite King to win the game. Otherwise, as mentioned above, all other rules are like in Shogi.

Prices are P < H < L < S < T=G < N < R < U < F.



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 Lev Grigoriev.

Last revised by Diceroller is Fire.


Web page created: 2023-12-29. Web page last updated: 2024-01-26