How about a game of Japanese Chess, i.e. Shogi? Now playing Shogi4 — Page 105

R-3e

Hmmm...I think if I understand the rules correctly, I am in check :(

P-5d

According to what you wrote on the spreadsheet, we can only jump over our own pieces, so I don't think you're in check. I assume your move will change.

Of course you are right.  Silly me!

F-4e

Funny thing is I could have forced a mate I see now, but instead I was aiming to capture material and now it's too late.  Oh well, we can carry on this way.

That would have been a short game.

darth_ender said:

Of course you are right.  Silly me!

F-4e

We aren't playing checkers. ;)

Fx4e

Tx4e

So since I just killed your fox, I have to ask, what does the fox say?

But you didn't kill it, you just invited it to your farm! ;)

R-4f

Rx4f

Cx4f

F*3f

P-e2

R*3e mate?

Double check me, but I think you have no moves available, considering the jump ability.  I don't think I really like that ability, or this game much.

But I can't check you if I'm already in check myself. ;)

The game is designed to be played by little kids, so I'm not surprised it ended quickly. I kept thinking of the raccoon as being akin to a rook, so I thought I was going to be able to save myself this move.

We could try another small variant. I've got two weeks left to play.

Well, it's up to you.  We could try another game of Ito Shogi, or we could try Gufuushogi, which deviates so far from real shogi to hardly count in my mind, yet one could consider it anyway.  I will let you choose and make the first move.

I would certainly enjoy another game of Ito Shogi. It's been a while since we played.

G-22

Goodness, that's a long board. How does it work in Zillions? Zillions doesn't seem to allow scrolling, necessitating visibility of the whole board, which I can't imagine would work well with such a long one.

Also, are we allowing only weak-side-up drops? That seemed to be our consensus last time we played, but I'm not sure if the rules you sent me had an error in that regard, or if you had changed your mind about it.

Sorry, took a little longer than I should have.  P-14

The Zillions game is much shorter and better fits,  Remember, it started at 21 cells.  I just emailed the guy who programmed it and he said he would program this new version sideways.  Yes, I believe we decided weak side drops was best, and we can stick with that.  You were right.  I don't know how you remembered so much, but you were correct.

T-21

I can't take credit for remembering...I had all the rules written down in the Excel file, so I checked with them. When I saw that our last version didn't agree with the rules you sent me, I hunted down our decision about it.

Well thanks for checking it so thoroughly :)

T-11

G-18

One nice thing about Ito Shogi is that the players begin interacting with each other right away, but the first player doesn't get a big advantage, since it isn't too hard to defend oneself.

T-10

Gx14(+)

I am surprised you would do that, as my silver cannon is protecting that pawn...unless we're looking at different boards.

I can't believe it...when I made that move, I had confused the silver cannon and the flying falcon (I wasn't thinking of it as a cannon at all). Now I feel silly.

I'll let you decide whether that merits being taken back or if I just need to pay more attention. ;)

EDIT: To save time if you choose the former, I would move SC-20.