From: Michael Vanier <mvanier <at> BBB <dot> CALTECH <dot> EDU>
Date: 1 feb 1999
Subject: Re: big shogi

[Colin Paul Adams]
>     Michael> Multiple moves per turn would make games like Tai much
>     Michael> like large wargames, which are very difficult to play
>     Michael> face-to-face but are playable by mail.  Perhaps what's
>     Michael> needed is a large shogi variant specifically designed for
>     Michael> multi-move play.  Any game inventors interested? :-)
>
> I doubt it could be done. The pieces just aren't designed for that
> sort of game.
>
> If it's the length of playing time that's the problem, then I would
> suggest altering the starting positions - move the front lines much
> closer together.
>

I was mostly thinking about the feasibility of email play.  My problem with
really huge shogi variants is that there's so much going on that I despair
of being able to make even a superficial analysis of the position unless
I've got, say, an hour to spare (I imagine the same would apply to Tenjiku
shogi, but then I've never played it).  This would suggest that email play
would be optimal.  But if a Tai game (say) takes 1000 moves per player then
even playing one move per day by email will require about five and a half
years to complete the game, which is longer than most people are willing to
tolerate.  Whereas if you could move, say, 10 pieces at a time then the
total number of turns would be much less and email play would be feasible.

However, your point is well taken: the games weren't designed for this mode
of play.  In fact, if what George Hodges has written is correct, they
weren't really designed to be played at all, just to be marvelled at.  They
certainly succeed in this goal :-)

Here's a question: in The Book of Tenjiku, all the games listed are quite
short (of the order of 100 moves per player).  Is this typical for Tenjiku
games?  My impression is that Chu games average about 150 moves per
player.  It's curious that a larger game would end faster, although of
course Tenjiku has much stronger pieces.

Mike