From: Michael Vanier <mvanier <at> BBB <dot> CALTECH <dot> EDU>
Date: 31 jan 1999
Subject: Re: big shogi

> From: Colin Paul Adams <colin <at> COLINA <dot> DEMON <dot> CO <dot> UK>
>
> >>>>> "Michael" == Michael Vanier <mvanier <at> BBB <dot> CALTECH <dot> EDU> writes:
>
>     Michael> pieces per turn.  This would mean 2 moves per turn for
>     Michael> Chu Shogi, 4 moves per turn for Tenjiku Shogi, 9 moves
>
> This would be fairly insane for Chu, and completely stupid for
> Tenjiku. The way to tackle the
> length of the game is to play in real time (across the board or via
> the Internet).

I agree that for both of these games multiple moves are not necessary, but
I'm not sure why you characterize it as "insane".  Is there some way that
it would break the games?  Multi-move variations have a long history in
western chess and they are generally considered playable, although
sometimes special rules have to be made up to cover certain situations.
For instance, I could imagine that the rules governing lion captures would
get even more complex with double-move Chu shogi.  Note that my stipulation
is that no piece may move more than once in a turn.  Thus you couldn't make
two Fire Demon moves per turn, which would obviously lead to unbalanced
play if it were permitted.

>
>     Michael> per turn for Tai Shogi and 10 moves per turn for Kyoku
>     Michael> Tai Shogi.
>
> On the other hand, for these games it might make them real games
> (which they certainly aren't in their present format).
> --
> Colin Paul Adams
> Preston Lancashire
>

Multiple moves per turn would make games like Tai much like large wargames,
which are very difficult to play face-to-face but are playable by mail.
Perhaps what's needed is a large shogi variant specifically designed for
multi-move play.  Any game inventors interested? :-)

Mike