darth_ender said:

Shogi--Not mentioned here that I've see, this is the Japanese version of chess. The pieces are flat and pointed, and all of the same color. What is interesting is that once you've captured a piece, you can turn it around and re-enter it on the board as your own piece! It really is a fascinating game, and I recommend that any chess lover try it out.

I should have mentioned that I played a game of shogi recently. I have a homemade set that instead of using the Japanese Kanji to identify the pieces, has English letters and illustrates the moves of the pieces rather simply on both sides. I taught my bro-in-law how to play and creamed him the first time. The second time I decided to handicap myself by removing the Rook equivalent (The left-side piece in the second, near-empty rank). I had never handicapped myself in previous plays. In many ways it is not nearly as drastic to remove a piece from your side as in classic chess because the pieces are overall much weaker (the Rook being the most powerful on the board) and a player can recover the difference with some good play by capturing and reintroducing enemy pieces. But as the Rook is so powerful, I quickly discovered how difficult it was to recover from this handicap. I had to play an extremely defensive game, creating a fortress essentially with my pieces to prevent the enemy from penetrating my territory. He nearly broke through with an overwhelming force, but he finally made enough mistakes to allow me to turn things around. I dispatched of his strike force, then pushed my own into his territory and checkmated him. It was a good challenge; he's a decent chess player, but was not familiar with shogi at all. The handicap made for a pretty even game, but I suspect that he's already gained enough experience that such a handicap would be a guaranteed defeat for me. I really enjoy this game. You guys should try it out.