From: Larry Kaufman WIZARD NET> Date: 16 feb 1999 Subject: Re: shuffle chess(or shogi) -----Original Message----- From: The Shogi Discussion List [mailto:SHOGI-L techunix technion ac il]On Behalf Of Manabu Terao Sent: Tuesday, February 16, 1999 4:50 AM To: SHOGI-L techunix technion ac il Subject: shuffle chess(or shogi) Could someone tell me what 'Shuffle' chess(or shogi) is like? I'm not familiar with it. How would it be solve the problem of memorized opening theory? Cheers Manabu In shuffle-chess the arrangement of the pieces on the back rank for one side is determined randomly (by cards, dice, or computer program), with the restriction that the bishops must be on opposite color squares. Then the other side copies this setup, and play proceeds as in normal chess. One version of shuffle-chess, called Fischer-random, has the further restriction that the king must be between the rooks, and allows castling by moving the king to c1 or g1 (regardless of where it started) and moving the appropriate rook to the square next to the king towards the center. There are nearly one thousand starting positions, so it is unlikely that anyone will ever learn much theory about any one position. By analogy, shuffle-shogi would randomly shuffle the position of the back rank pieces for one side (and perhaps also the rook and bishop would be assigned squares on the second rank randomly), with the other player then copying the setup. Whether any restrictions on the setup would be necessary or advisable is an open topic for debate. Perhaps knights should not be allowed in the corners, as they would then have only one move instead of the normal two. Perhaps the rook and bishop should never be placed in front of a lance, as that would prevent the lance from having any effect until the blocking piece moved. As to how to actually do the randomizing, a simple computer program would be best, but in the absence of a computer it could be done like this: Take cards numbered 1 (or Ace) through 9. Then draw cards for the position of the king, draw from the remaining cards for the position of the golds, and continue until all the back rank is filled. Then repeat the procedure for the rook and for the bishop. If any pieces are prohibited from occupying certain squares, draw their cards first and if the card number is a prohibited square just draw again, then replace the first-drawn card. Shuffle-shogi would certainly eliminate opening theory (the number of starting positions would be somewhere around a million I imagine, with two ranks randomized), but whether it would be a good game or not I can't say, since I've never tried it. I have tried shuffle-chess, and believe that it is a good game. Three world champions (Fischer, Karpov, and Kasparov) have all spoken favorably of it and/or indicated a willingness to play it professionally. By the way, in an unrelated matter, I thought I'd mention to shogi-l readers that Mr. Moriuchi 8 dan, currently still in the race to become Meijin this year, earned a provisional United States Chess Federation rating of 2306, around the middle of the U.S. Master class, in the American Open chess tournament about three months ago. He apparently has little experience with chess, since after drawing a rook and pawn ending he should have won against a top ranked International Master (Jack Peters) he explained that he had never played such an ending before, yet it is the most common endgame in chess! Since Habu has already proven himself a master-class chess player by winning the Japanese chess championship, we now have two of the very top shogi pros with reasonable claims to being chess masters as well! Regards, Larry Kaufman