From: Michael Vanier <mvanier <at> BBB <dot> CALTECH <dot> EDU>
Date: 7 feb 1999
Subject: Re: random shogi stuff

> From: Benjamin Good <bg18+ <at> ANDREW <dot> CMU <dot> EDU>
>
> Excerpts from mail: 3-Feb-99 Re: big shogi by Colin Paul Adams@COLINA.
> >>>>>> "Benjamin" == Benjamin Good <bg18+ <at> ANDREW <dot> CMU <dot> EDU> writes:
> >
> >    Benjamin> matboard, w/ abbreviation and name of the piece at the
> >    Benjamin> top and a diagram of the piece movement, like those in
> >    Benjamin> the hodge manuals, at the bottom (like we're really
> >    Benjamin> going to memorize all the japanese symbols for all the
> >    Benjamin> pieces and how they move; i also put yellow and blue
> >
> >Why not? It's not very difficult, provided you work you're way up the
> >games in order. I learned the Tenjiku pieces (already knowing Chu), in
> >less than a day. (OK - you don't have to remind me that I kept
> >forgetting how the Chariot Soldier moved).
> >
>
>
> well, i don't have access to the japanese characters, for one thing
> (anybody know of a web page that has them?  i can't even remember where
> i got the rules to begin with...).

Roger Hare's shogi page (http://www.ed.ac.uk/~rjhare/shogi/intro.html) has
rules for most of the variants, as well as nice renderings of the japanese
characters (scanned from the Hodges leaflets).  He doesn't have the
characters or rules for Dai-Dai, Maka-dai-dai, and Tai shogi (there is a
link in the latter case) and the Tenjiku entry is a link to Colin's book.

>
> Excerpts from mail: 7-Feb-99 Re: Chu shogi rules update by Patrick
> Davin <at> LYRA <dot> VEGA.
> >
> >Ummmm,
> >
> >Rikard's interpretation is correct.
> >
> >The lion may move to an "A" and return to its starting point,
> >resulting in a "pass".  This clever maneuver is called "jitto"
> >and is available regardless of what pieces surround the lion.
> >
>
> i'm curious as to your source.  my only source is the hodge manual,
> which doesn't say either way, i was tending to agree w/ colin's
> interpretation, altho the hodge manual also left me w/ the impression
> that the inventors never really considered the problem.  a long time ago
> i asked if the lion could igui if he was pinned, i never got a definite
> answer, altho it is extremely likely to be important in a game.
>
> that's all for this post,
> ben
>

Interesting question re the pin; I hadn't thought of that.  By the way, as
I said some time before, George Hodges said in a letter to me that the lion
making a passing move when surrounded by pieces is NOT allowed, so his
interpretation and Patrick's are in conflict.  I personally prefer
Patrick's and Rikard's due to the "symmetry argument"; that way the Lion
move can be described very concisely as a single or double king move, with
the option of jumping over the square first moved to in the latter case.
I'm also curious about Patrick's source...

Mike