From: Steve Evans NETSPACE NET AU> Date: 10 nov 1999 Subject: Re: Kokusai Sannin Shogi Hi Jochen, Kokusai Sannin Shogi was invented in about 1930 (as you say by Tanigasaki Jisuke). The game is for 3 players each with 18 pieces and is played on a board of 127 hexagons. The names of the pieces are interesting (and different), translating to "Public Opinion" (King equivalent), "Military Training" (Rook equivalent), "Diplomacy" (Bishop), "Financial Influence" (Gold), "Industry & Trade" (Silver), "Customs" (Knight), "Propaganda" (Lance) and "Pioneer" (Pawn). While the powers of the pieces are broadly what you'd expect if you adapted the normal shogi movement powers to a hexagonal board, the promoted pieces, with names like "Dollar", "Treasure", "Witchcraft", "Heroism" and "Rising Sun" have non-standard moves. The central square is intriguingly alluded to as the "Pleasure Garden". The rules are very involved and a bit difficult to describe in a post such as this, but I'd be happy to send you some more detailed information if you are interested. The game was described in an article by John Fairbairn in "Shogi" magazine, January 1982. John's article was a translation based on a rules booklet by Maruo Manabu. Incidentally, Roland Marounek (author of Shogi++) has written a Kokusai Sannin Shogi program for DOS, that allows three human players to play this strange variant. Although, I'm not sure whether Roland has his program available for download anywhere. Cheers, Steve Jochen Drechsler wrote: > Hello! > > Can someone tell me anything about Kokusai Sannin Shogi (from Tanigasaki > Jisuke)?? > > I found a comment on it in Schmittberger: New Rules for Classic Games > but no rules or recommended source. > > Thank you, Jochen Drechsler.