Check out Modern Chess, our featured variant for January, 2025.

Enter Your Reply

The Comment You're Replying To
H. G. Muller wrote on Tue, Feb 13, 2024 09:13 AM UTC in reply to François Houdebert from 08:37 AM:

The representation of promoted shogi pieces as pictograms is one of the things I am in general unhappy with. It has some advantages to make a promotable piece distinguishable from a non-promotable piece with the same move. But using an entirely different pictogram in a game that already has so many different piece types is hugely confusing. So much that I even wonder if it would not be better to leave the difference invisible. (In over-the-board Bughouse players are used to having to remember whether Queens resulting from promotion revert to Pawns when captured, or just leave the Pawns on the board, having to remember they are Queens...) When I implemented Chu Shogi in pictogram representation if XBoard, I added special pictograms for promoted (Crowned) Rook and Bishop, Vertical and Side Mover, which were slightly less detailed versions of the normal pictograms. (Which for the Movers I took to be (standing or lying) Swords, because their shape is a good reminder for the move. In a similar spirit I took standing and lying narrowed Queen symbols for the Flying Ox and Free Boar.)

I think we should give Chu Shogi its own set of pictogram sprites. We could then take pictograms with red outlines or details for the non-promotable equivalents, like the kanji pieces do. And add a horizontal sword to it for the Side Mover. That set should then also made to be optimal for Tenjiku and Minjiku Shogi. (So the flying pieces should be in there too, some also in red.) Most pictograms can simply be copied from the wikipedia-fairy-sprites, and then reoriented or recolored as needed.


Edit Form

Comment on the page Play Chess Variants with Jocly

Conduct Guidelines
This is a Chess variants website, not a general forum.
Please limit your comments to Chess variants or the operation of this site.
Keep this website a safe space for Chess variant hobbyists of all stripes.
Because we want people to feel comfortable here no matter what their political or religious beliefs might be, we ask you to avoid discussing politics, religion, or other controversial subjects here. No matter how passionately you feel about any of these subjects, just take it someplace else.
Avoid Inflammatory Comments
If you are feeling anger, keep it to yourself until you calm down. Avoid insulting, blaming, or attacking someone you are angry with. Focus criticisms on ideas rather than people, and understand that criticisms of your ideas are not personal attacks and do not justify an inflammatory response.
Quick Markdown Guide

By default, new comments may be entered as Markdown, simple markup syntax designed to be readable and not look like markup. Comments stored as Markdown will be converted to HTML by Parsedown before displaying them. This follows the Github Flavored Markdown Spec with support for Markdown Extra. For a good overview of Markdown in general, check out the Markdown Guide. Here is a quick comparison of some commonly used Markdown with the rendered result:

Top level header: <H1>

Block quote

Second paragraph in block quote

First Paragraph of response. Italics, bold, and bold italics.

Second Paragraph after blank line. Here is some HTML code mixed in with the Markdown, and here is the same <U>HTML code</U> enclosed by backticks.

Secondary Header: <H2>

  • Unordered list item
  • Second unordered list item
  • New unordered list
    • Nested list item

Third Level header <H3>

  1. An ordered list item.
  2. A second ordered list item with the same number.
  3. A third ordered list item.
Here is some preformatted text.
  This line begins with some indentation.
    This begins with even more indentation.
And this line has no indentation.

Alt text for a graphic image

A definition list
A list of terms, each with one or more definitions following it.
An HTML construct using the tags <DL>, <DT> and <DD>.
A term
Its definition after a colon.
A second definition.
A third definition.
Another term following a blank line
The definition of that term.