From: Ivan Tuckwell <Ivan.C.Tuckwell <at> TSY <dot> TREASURY <dot> GOVT <dot> NZ>
Date: 14 feb 1997
Subject: Re: are the shogi variants playable?

I am curious about other's experience with Shogi variants.

>I think Tori shogi should be fun with simuliar feel to Shogi.
Tori shogi is very claustrophobic compared with shogi. The pieces are very
weak
and promoting the pawn (which is mandatori: ) often feels more like a demotion.

I found it somewhat frustrating, although I do intend to play it again.

>Is it played
>in Japan at all? Is there any T.S lore? How old is this variant. Are there
>any common castles or other patterns studied for this form of the game?
It dates from about 1800. There are a number of regular players around
the world, so I imagine that there are proverbs and standard castles.

>I wonder if Chu(Dai,. ..) Shogi can be very fun? Seems to have an awful
>lots of pieces, I wanted to try it as a novelty.
Chu shogi is a very fine game. It does have a lot of pieces, and the opening
is
rather slow, but it is a heap of fun. R Wayne Schmitberger (misspelt I'm
afraid)
is a chess variant fanatic, and at one stage said that best chess games in the
world were chu shogi, ordinary shogi and wa shogi with drops, in that order,
 I think.

Ivan