From: Peter Banaschak <Peter.Banaschak <at> T-ONLINE <dot> DE>
Date: 29 nov 1999
Subject: Re: Capturing a Chu Lion

Ahoi there!

A to the following problem:

>     Colin> When one side has a King (or Crown Prince), and one other
>     Colin> piece, and the other side has a King (or Crown Prince) and
>     Colin> a (presumed unpromoted, as a tokin is not mentioned) Gold
>     Colin> General, then the instant that the other side captures the
>     Colin> first side's other piece, the game is over, with a win for
>     Colin> the second player.
>
>     Nick> I confess myself to be a little confused. This seems to
>     Nick> confer a special status on the Gold General. In the event
>     Nick> that the first side's K or CP is sitting on one of the enemy
>     Nick> Gold's blind squares and could execute an immediate
>     Nick> retaliatory baring of the enemy K or CP normally achieving a
>     Nick> draw, this rule overrides that and gives the win to the
>     Nick> player with the Gold. Why? (Colin, please don't tell me this
>     Nick> is for historical reasons...;-] )

According to my knowledge of the Japanese texts on Shogi and
Shogi variants, well, I'm afraid there might be a historical
reason for that...
First of all, I personally would read the "Gold General" as
meaning "less than a Gold General"..., thus a K or CP plus
one other piece would actually mean "K or CP plus one piece
worth more than a G" (even though MSM expressly mentions the
G). Thus in given situation the side bared to K or CP plus
FL, S, C, BT, GB, P would have lost.

Peter