How about a game of Japanese Chess, i.e. Shogi? Now playing Shogi4 — Page 20

darth_ender said:

The second error, probably more serious, was when I took my rook to 4a and promoted it on turn 21, checking your king.  You moved him to a safe square.  Nevertheless, you had three pieces at your disposal: a silver and two bishops, just waiting to be dropped.  If you'd dropped them next to your king to block the check, it would have been harder for me to checkmate you, as you'd be both building your defenses and replenishing your depleted army simultaneously with pieces you could potentially counterattack with at a later turn.

Yes, that did me in. I had planned to get my king out of the way and then corner your rooks, but you kept me on my toes the whole time after that, so I didn't have any opportunity to do so.

Hope this helps.  You're learning fast, and soon I expect you'll beat me!  I'd love to play Goro Goro.  I've never tried it before, and I'm anxious to give it a go.  I say you go first this time.

 G-1e

Px4d.  Hang in there.  You're doing quite well in all these games :)

^Thank you

S-2e

G-4b

G-1d

Px2d

Gx2d

K-3b

P-2c, check

Presuming you mean Px3c, Gx3c

G-1d

S-5b

Hmmm...My first thought about this variant is that it's like a football game with too many blockers and a slow quarterback.  My next analogy is that it's like the Western Front during WWI, while trying to simply maintain and push the line.  These are not analogies meaning to put down the game, as I find it an interesting way to play, but it's a lot harder than I realized to simply break through or get an advantage.  I kind of like it, actually.

Yes, it does take a while to get going. I personally like it because I like a slow-paced game.

P*3d

I like it too.  It's just very different.  I can't figure out how to get through your line, and I don't see how you can get through mine.  It's fascinating how different a game this is than the last two.

G-4c

I like being able to plan ahead and not having to worry about long range pieces. I found I focused too much on them when they were present. They were less predictable and covered a lot of the board. I also have to worry less about keeping pieces between my king and your pieces, since none of them can move more than one square at a time. Because of that I feel more comfortable pushing farther into your side of the board instead of backing myself into a corner trying to defend myself.

K-3e

I do like that.  Sometimes your defensiveness was your big downfall, and had you played a little more aggressively, you might not have gotten stuck.  My attacks caused you worry, so you'd retreat when you should have countered.  I'm glad you feel like taking a little more initiative in this game.

Remember our last regular shogi game?  Remember how frustrated I was that I couldn't attack with my rook straight ahead because of how forward-oriented the pieces in that part of the board were  I had a powerful force, but your defense could always stand up to any scenario I played out, since they covered so many forward squares.  Well, this game is much like that, only it's the entire game.  I don't see a way of either of us breaking through until we trade golds and silvers.  So we'll see how we go about doing that :)

S-2b

S-5e

Well, I might let you take that one back, because P*5d traps your silver and shifts the balance in my favor too easily.  Try something else ;)  But for now, I'm going to call it a night.

Alright, I'll make my move S-2d instead, but I'll tell you what I would have done had you made that move and you can tell me if it would still have been a bad choice or not.

After you had dropped your pawn, I would have taken your pawn on 4d with my silver general. If you then took my silver with your gold general I would have taken it with my king. If you dropped your captured silver general on 5c, I would have moved my king out of the way, and would have accomplished my goal.

If you hadn't, I would have taken your gold general with my silver.

If you had moved your gold back, I would have achieved what I was trying to do, and would have continued on.

If that makes sense, how would you have taken me down in those scenarios? I imagine you could have countered my moves with clever pawn drops or something, but I think I'll learn fastest if the flaws even in strategies that don't come into play are pointed out.

Hmmm...sounds like you had a plan and I didn't give you enough credit.  I'm at work and don't have a board in front of me, so if you don't mind, could you make a simple diagram like I did before with capital and lower case letters and dashes, plus what pieces remain in hand.  I can then let you know if I like your plan, and we can maybe make a couple of moves.  I'm pretty busy today, but I should have a few moments.

OK, here goes:

If you had dropped your pawn, the board would look like this (your pieces in bold):

---G-
S-KS-
-G---
PPP-G
S-KS-
-G---
captured pieces (yours/mine): PP/P

Then I would have taken your pawn (in square 4d, not the one you dropped).

---G-
S-KS-
-G---
PSP-G
--KS-
-G---
captured pieces (yours/mine): PP/PP

I would expect you to (a) take my piece, (b) move another piece, or (c) move your gold general out of the way. If (a), I would have taken your gold general with my king. If (b), I would have taken your gold general. If (c), I would have continued with my S-2d move. In all three scenarios, I would accomplish my goal. Here is what the board would have looked like after each scenario:

(a (after two moves*)):

---G-
S-KS-
-----
PKP-G
---S-
-G---
captured pieces (yours/mine): PPS/PPG

(b (after two moves*)--for the sake of example, I moved the silver general on the right):

---G-
S-K--
-S-S-
P-P-G
--KS-
-G---
captured pieces (yours/mine): PP/PPG

Continuing with (b (for two more moves), and assuming you took my silver general with your silver, I would have dropped a pawn in front of it (4d):

---G-
--K--
-S-S-
PPP-G
--KS-
-G---
captured pieces (yours/mine): PPS/PG

(c (after two moves*)--assuming you moved your gold general straight backwards):

---G-
SGKS-
-----
PSPSG
--K--
-G---
captured pieces (yours/mine): PP/PP

Hopefully that all makes sense. I think that we should continue on with my alternate move (S-2d) now that you know what I was going to do, unless you don't think the outcome will be any different if I continue as originally planned.

All that work and I have been too busy to play the game.  Sorry.  I'll be home soon and will make a couple of moves then.

Alright, I'm sorry once again that you did all that work and I wasn't able to play.  Busy day, and when I thought I had a few moments and wrote a couple other replies, a sudden serious challenge came up at work and kept me busy for a while longer.  I didn't get home till almost 10:00, close to 15 hours after leaving home.

Anyway, I guess I should have seen your plan because it was wise and I guess I wasn't paying attention.  It was good work, and I'm a little bummed that I made you reconsider your work.  But now I know your secret, so I guess we'll have to play the other route.  It looks like a viable strategy as well.

P*2c

You know, now thinking about it, if you don't like the direction this is going, we can try for the other, and I'll commit to my original plan of dropping a pawn at 5d, though I know the dangers of doing so.

darth_ender said:

Alright, I'm sorry once again that you did all that work and I wasn't able to play.  Busy day, and when I thought I had a few moments and wrote a couple other replies, a sudden serious challenge came up at work and kept me busy for a while longer.  I didn't get home till almost 10:00, close to 15 hours after leaving home.

Don't worry about it. I had a busy evening, so I wouldn't have been able to play either, even if you could have.

Anyway, I guess I should have seen your plan because it was wise and I guess I wasn't paying attention.  It was good work, and I'm a little bummed that I made you reconsider your work.  But now I know your secret, so I guess we'll have to play the other route.  It looks like a viable strategy as well.

Oh, well, I think I can make this strategy work too.

P*2c

S-3c

You know, now thinking about it, if you don't like the direction this is going, we can try for the other, and I'll commit to my original plan of dropping a pawn at 5d, though I know the dangers of doing so.

 I think I'm fine with just continuing as we are. If we went back, you'd know what my plan was, so you might be able to stop me before I can execute it fully. I *think* the way I'm going will work just fine. :)

Sx3c