The original Unashogi is quite interesting, but has a fatal flaw. Because King drops are unrestricted, impasses are easily attained by dropping the King into the promotion zone, making draws very common, as most pieces have a forward bias to them making a King on the far side of the board very difficult to mate, especially if surrounded by friendly pieces.
I am working on a variant that will fix these problems, called Unashogi II. It solves the impasse rule by restricting King drops to the first three ranks. However, this also requires a second rule restricting entering the promotion zone while the King is in hand to prevent players from simply stalemating an in-hand King. I am currently testing two different versions of the rule, one only allowing entry when the friendly King is placed, and the other only allowing entry if the enemy King is placed.
The original Unashogi is quite interesting, but has a fatal flaw. Because King drops are unrestricted, impasses are easily attained by dropping the King into the promotion zone, making draws very common, as most pieces have a forward bias to them making a King on the far side of the board very difficult to mate, especially if surrounded by friendly pieces.
I am working on a variant that will fix these problems, called Unashogi II. It solves the impasse rule by restricting King drops to the first three ranks. However, this also requires a second rule restricting entering the promotion zone while the King is in hand to prevent players from simply stalemating an in-hand King. I am currently testing two different versions of the rule, one only allowing entry when the friendly King is placed, and the other only allowing entry if the enemy King is placed.