From: Pieter Stouten <STOUTEN <at> EMBL <dot> BITNET>
Date: 1 jun 1990
Subject: Questions about rules / Suggestion for new E-mail board (part 2)

>From:   EMBL::STOUTEN      "Pieter Stouten"  1-JUN-1990 18:41:40.82
To:     IN%"oluf <at> ifi <dot> uio <dot> no"
CC:     STOUTEN
Subj:   RE: Concept Shogi rules -- please check for clarity.
 
Hi Asle,
 
>>  3) There may be no more than one Pawn per vertical row for each player.
>
>I would say: There may be no more than one UNPROMOTED pawn per file
>for each player.
 
Has been changed, although strictly speaking a promoted pawn ("Tokin") is
not a pawn.
 
>I have also read:
>   4) There may be no more than one unpromoted lance per file for each
>player.
 
I would be interested in the source. This is absolutely untrue.
 
>I have seen that you put a '=' at the end if you can promote but does
>not (e.g S7d=).
 
Has been added. Although the = is optional.
 
>What about promoted pices ?
 
On the board until now in use for e-mail games promoted pieces are
indicated by a + before their symbol:  +----+
                                       |+wP |
                                       +----+
In game scores e.g. pawn promotes after moving to 2c is represented by P2c+
promoted pawn moves to 2b by +P2b.
 
>Before I discovered this list I created the following board which I
>feel is more "clean".
>
>+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
>| \l/ | \n/ | \s/ | \g/ | \K/ | \g/ | \s/ | \n/ | \l/ |  a
>+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
>|     | \r/ |     |     |     |     |     | \b/ |     |  b
>+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
>| \p/ | \p/ | \p/ | \p/ | \p/ | \p/ | \p/ | \p/ | \p/ |  c
>+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
>|     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |  d
>+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
>|     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |  e
>+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
>|     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |  f
>+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
>| /p\ | /p\ | /p\ | /p\ | /p\ | /p\ | /p\ | /p\ | /p\ |  g
>+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
>|     | /b\ |     |     |     |     |     | /r\ |     |  h
>+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
>| /l\ | /n\ | /s\ | /g\ | /K\ | /g\ | /s\ | /n\ | /l\ |  i
>+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
>
>  9     8      7     6     5     4     3     2     1
>
>When the pices gets promoted I use a capital letter.
>
 
I must say that it does not look bad at all. It gets a bit wide, though.
And I miss the place to keep captured pieces.
We have experimented with capital and small letters too, but found it
confusing in complicated situations. The use of + rather satisfies us.
I'll forward your mail to SHOGI-L and also the reply that you are
reading now and ask the other subscribers for their opinion. If the idea
is generally favoured we can replace the standard board that I introduced
with yours.
I do think, however, that we have to come up with a solution to promoted
pieces and especially adopting a standard 1 letter code would be
convenient. Some promoted pieces have standard 1 letter codes already:
  promoted rook (+R)    =  dragon king   =  dragon (D)
  promoted bishop (+B)  =  dragon horse  =  horse (H)
  promoted pawn         =  "tokin" (T)
We might introduce one letter codes for promoted lance, knight and silver
as well. We did something in that direction years ago, but did not really
have a need for it. It might be relevant now. I'll try to retrieve our
solutions from the pile of Shogi material.
 
Cheers,
         Pieter Stouten
         bitnet: stouten@embl