From: Colin Paul Adams <colin <at> COLINA <dot> DEMON <dot> CO <dot> UK>
Date: 31 jan 1999
Subject: Re: Taikyoku shogi laboring

>>>>> "Luke" == Luke Merritt <clearobscurity <at> HOTMAIL <dot> COM> writes:

    Luke> I've also gone over a piece-by-piece comparison for all the
    Luke> pieces which seem to have had their moves changed. Many of
    Luke> the moves, in my opinion, appear to be the originally
    Luke> intended moves (for all of the variants they appear in, not
    Luke> just taikyoku),

This is interesting - see below.

    Luke> fire demon is actually transcribed as having the move of a
    Luke> water buffalo, which really doesn't make sense if the water
    Luke> buffalo still promotes TO a fire demon.

It is described this way also for Tenjiku Shogi in Shogi zushiki (date
unknown). George Hodges says this is known to be a badly defective
document. I quote from Appendix A of the Book of Tenjiku (this is
Peter Banaschak's translation):

Fire Demon - (two steps back and forth, ranges to the left and right
in the diagonals)
  [moves] like the Water Buffalo, [makes] three King-like
steps. Enemy pieces on the eight adjacent squares perish by burning.

This DOES make senses (although it is not the move we use), so perhaps
that was also intended in taikyoku??
--
Colin Paul Adams
Preston Lancashire