From: Frans Roquas <roquas.afrtnl <at> PI <dot> NET>
Date: 30 jan 1996
Subject: Re: More Tai &otherShogivar.

Hi,

Here are some aditional remarks on Pieters remarks about Tai and other variants.

>I thought that Tai Shogi does not have drops? (Although it would probably
>be wicked with them. Also intractible.)

>Chu Shogi and beyond do not have drops. I am not sure about Wa Shogi and
>Tenjiku Shogi, but I do not think they do. My memory is deserting me.

Pieters memory is better than he thinks, he's right..

Tai shogi has no drops, only Shogi and Tori-shogi have drops for certain, about Wa nobody
knows.
Tori, Shogi, Chu shogi have a promotionzone, the bigger games promotes/demotes by taking an
enemy piece.
Demotion is one interesting aspect of Maka Dai shogi. As in Dai Dai shogi it has hookmovers
(Makatsu) a kind of double Hisha and Tengu a kind of double Kaku. It gives the possibility to
take the enemy king if one of his diagonals or orthogonals is unprotected. But you have only
one Makatsu and Tengu to your disposal, as soon as you take a piece with one of them it
demotes to Golden General. So you are wise to save those pieces and use them as a threat
against the king.  It can therefore be a wise tactique besides taking the enemy king to hunt for
those pieces to take them or at least force them to take a piece, thus demoting themselves.. If
they loose their hooking ability your opponent will have lost two big cannons. In Dai Dai shogi,
which also have hookmovers, they don't promote, and the only way to eridicate the threat is to
take the hookmovers.

I have played all variants at least once, even Tai but only into the beginning of the middle game.
I will give a short description about the feelings I had concerning the games.
Tori  nice short game.
Wa boring
Chu interesting, playable.
Tenjiku interesting, the firedemon works like a grenade, if you like wargames you would like
this very much, it's very playable.
The other variants have interesting themes but take relatively long to play.
About Tai, I can only say, it is a magnificent sight to see all those pieces but every time you
move one you have to check what move it has, there are simply to many different pieces. I
played all these variants with Peter Blommers who has all the games exept Tai. Tai I played
against W. Berkenvelder who besides normal shogi and tori-shogi is as far as I know the only
person in Holland who possesses a Tai set. I went to his place on a friday night, I stayed til
Sunday night, we played and we drank the whole time, we ate sometimes. If you are not a
person who likes to drink alcohol I can assure you that when you are trying to find the moves of
a piece for the ...time, you will start to consume unhealthy ammounts. Sundaynight we decided
to call it a draw. So anyone who wants to play Tai and is capable of finishing a game by mating
the enemyking  will have performed a tremendous feat somewhat like reading the famous book
of J. Joyce, unfortunately I forgot the title.


Cheers Frans Roquas-