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How about a game of Japanese Chess, i.e. Shogi? Now playing Shogi4 — Page 22

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G3e-4e

I never like playing against a computer. It really isn't the same. With real people, you can learn their favoured strategies over time and interact with them in ways other than just moving the pieces, but a computer doesn't have a personality or a certain way of playing the game and it can't do anything more than make moves.

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Gx2d

Didn't get to respond to your previous message, but your reasoning is spot on.  Humans are much more fun.

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You're already forcing me into a corner and we're only 11 turns into the game! :P

K-4f

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P-3e+ mate

Yeah, I was pretty brutal this game.  Sorry.  We can go again if you want.

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 (Edited)

That was brutal, but oh well...

Let's take a break from this for a bit and play a game of Kyoto Shogi. I need to figure out how the promoting works though.

Pawns are also rooks, gold generals are also knights, silver generals are also bishops, kings are always kings...what piece is "T"? And when you call a move, do you write the initial of what the piece is before or after it's moved?

EDIT: I guess I do have the promoting just about figured out. :P

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Okay, but just a reminder, every piece promotes every single time you move it.  So you move your pawn one step and it becomes a rook.  You then move the rook and it reverts back to a pawn.  Same with all the other pieces.  When you drop a piece, you may drop it as either the stronger or weaker value.  You may even drop it on a square where it can no longer move (for instance if you wanted to block another piece).  The king of course never promotes.  The T stands for Tokin, which is the Japanese name for promoted pawn.  It's exactly the same thing as a Gold General, just a different character.  When writing piece notation, write the initial of the piece that begins the move, not the piece that it ends as.  I recommend that when you move the piece, you mark what it turns to so that there is no confusion (probably by typing the + and the character of the new face value).  It's not necessary, but is useful.  Hmmm...can't think of anything else.

I will go first this time, but just to get the game going sooner instead of waiting.  Hope you don't mind.  G-4v+N

Let me know if there's confusion.

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I assume you meant G-4iv+N, because your gold starts from square 4v.

P-1ii+R

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D'oh!  First move and I already screwed up the notation.  Yes, you are correct, that is what I meant.  T-1iv+L

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I think I'll be destroyed if I end up stuck on the defensive. It's tough to keep up a defense when your pieces are changing every move.

R-2ii+P

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While this is true, it is equally hard to keep up an offense when you position a great piece in the perfect spot and it then changes to a weak piece.  Heck, it's hard to even give a value to pieces when considering trades.  In chess it's easy: okay, I'm trading a knight for a bishop, no problem.  In shogi it's pretty easy too, since the ranking of values is pretty obvious (R, B, G, S, N/L, P).  But in this game it's really tough to tell, since the pawn is also a rook.  Is it wise to trade that for a silver/bishop?!  I kid you not, this is an unpredictable, difficult game!

S-2iv+B

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T*4ii mate.  I wonder if you want to take back your last move?  It cost you the game, I'm afraid.

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Yeah, thanks, I'll take it back. I'm afraid I wasn't paying much attention to you captured pieces. They're going to cause me a lot of grief. Were it not for them, I could checkmate you in three moves.

K-3ii