From: Colin Paul Adams COLINA DEMON CO UK> Date: 5 jan 1998 Subject: Shogi variants joke "It takes so long to play, the rules have changed before you finish" - Andrew Jones This little quip was made as a result of a game of Maka-Dai-Dai Shogi that I tried to play with Francis Roads over the new year. Francis had made himself a set - the folding board had the initial setup marked upon it - quite a useful idea. The pieces were cut out fron cardboard and had the official abbreviation, and a diagram of the move, marked upon them. This too was a good idea, as I had only just been trying to learn the rules on the train journey down to London (the game took place between rounds at the London Go congress). As the game progressed, I realised that some of the pieces did not move according to the rules I had been learning. After some discussion, it appears that when Francis made the set, some 10 years or so ago, the supposed known rules were somewhat different. Hence the joke above. We abandoned the game in disgust (both agreeing that it was a very silly game anyway), while Francis prepared to make a new set. -- Colin Paul Adams Preston Lancashire