Comments by ChessShogi

I'm simply pointing out the h modifier's usefulness on K and Q atoms, because your last comment made it seem like this combination wasn't working as you intended.

If you want feature a large Shogi variant, Chu Shogi is a prime example.

• It has been played on Game Courier a lot, and was the dominant game in Japan for centuries.
• It is playable several other programs as well, including LiShogi.
• The page itself, provides a good example of formatting that is less image-heavy while still meeting the high bar set for the formats of featured variants, adn received editorial approval a long time ago.

The only thing left is for people other than me to nominate and second it (and to not be vetoed).

If you want a choice that is less intimidating, Seireigi is another great pick, as it only changes the promotions of the back-rank pieces in Shogi while keeping everything else the same. Although it is a standard-size Shogi variant, and is still quite new, it does meet many of the requirements already.

• It had been played on Game Courier (albeit only a few times).
• It has also been programmed in Ludii. The piece names in Ludii are slightly outdated as of right now becaue the process of adding and updating games is quite slow, but all the moves are up-to-date.
  • Furthermore, it can even be played over-the-board using a Shogi set. A special PDF file has been made for this purpose.
• The article itself is a good example of how to craft a well-formatted article that is a bit more image-heavy, and has received editorial approval, albeit only recently.

The only thing holding Seireigi back from being eligible is that this post is from its inventor, so it needs to be nominated and seconded (and not vetoed) by people other than me.

I am actually doing an overhaul of this game that has pieces promoting in blocks as in Chu Shogi, in order to reduce the learning curve.

• The Kirin listing describes the Phoenix move; I think you did a copy-and-paste and forgot to edit (as I often do).

I don't see the error you are referring to. Maybe try refreshing your browser cache?

• I'm a little confused by the description of the "stinging moves." I get the part about making a capture and then moving to an adjacent space other than the space of origin, but I do not understand the other option.

Stinging moves are Dai Seireigi's version of Lion moves, specifically weakened to compensate for the drop rule. With a stinging move you can do one of the following:

• Step to the stinging square and do nothing (normal step move)
• Step to the stinging square and then step to any empty adjacent square that is not the origin square, capturing or ignoring what is on the stinging square
• Capture a piece on the stinging square without moving

• Which of these pieces are your own creation? A lot of them look interesting, though I see a fair bit of overlap in names with existing pieces in my collection (though to be fair most of those pieces are fairly obscure).

All of the new pieces used appear somewhere in Taikyoku Shogi, but have different moves and promotions here.

I have changed the Heavenly Horse's move to so that it is a bit stronger, as I thought it was too similar to the Tokin's move.

I have also changed the Running Wolf so that it slides vertically, rather than just straight forward.

Chu Seireigi and Dai Seireigi are temporarily offline, as I am working on a new version of these two games.

The new version of Dai Seireigi is ready.

The new version of Chu Seireigi is ready.

Shogi is perhaps one of the greatest games ever invented by humans. It's drop rule lets players come back much more easily, while the forward bias negates the advantage to defense such a rule would normall imbue. However, it is not without it's problems. The biggest one is easily the fact that the vast of the pieces promote to a Gold equivalent. Although this is a very rare situation, when a lot of Gold/Gold equivalents appear on thee board, it can easily turn Shogi into a very drawish Checkers game, and if an impasse occurs, this amplifies the problem even more.

Seireigi fixes the aforementioned problem to an extent by making all promotions unique. This also helps mitigate impasse situations, as more pieces are capable of stopping a King from reaching the opponent's camp. However, this comes at the cost of having more moves to remember (14 in total).

The nifu rule only applies for pawn drops. It does not change in this game.

Hectochess also fits these requirements quite well.

1. The game has a history of being played, especially since it was featured in 2019's CV tournament.

2. It is playable on Game Courier, and playable on the board, with two mismatched Chess sets and an appropriately sized International Draughts board.

3. The page shows what a good CV page should look like.

4. (Bonus) This game is one of only two of my games as of the writing of this coment to have 5 favorites, alongside Seireigi.

I have added the ability to use entirely custom piece sets in a game. These are defined in GAME Code and do not use an external PHP file. Here is some sample code I wrote:

// A demo of using multiple internal sets that do not match any set file.

// Name the sets you will use by assigning them to the $groupsets array.
// Use capitalized names for the sets. These do not match any file names.
setsystem groupsets array Abstract Alfaerie AlfaeriePNG Magnetic Motif;

// Define pieces in an array variable called mypieces.
// Start by creating an associative array of all pieces shared in common.
// The key should be a label, and the value should be a filename.
// A single line of code is broken into multiple lines of text for legibility.
set mypieces assoc 
  K "WKing.gif"   k "BKing.gif" 
  Q "WQueen.gif"  q "BQueen.gif" 
  R "WRook.gif"   r "BRook.gif" 
  B "WBishop.gif" b "BBishop.gif" 
  N "WKnight.gif" n "BKnight.gif" 
  P "WPawn.gif"   p "BPawn.gif";

// Set the $dir system variable to match the set, and modify filenames as needed.
if == pieceset Alfaerie:
  setsystem dir "/graphics.dir/alfaerie/";
  foreach (k v) #mypieces:
    setelem mypieces #k tolower #v;
  next;
elseif == pieceset AlfaeriePNG:
  setsystem dir "/graphics.dir/alfaeriePNG/";
  foreach (k v) #mypieces:
    setelem mypieces #k tolower str_replace .gif .png #v;
  next;
elseif == pieceset Magnetic:
  setsystem dir "/graphics.dir/magnetic/";
elseif == pieceset Motif:
  setsystem dir "/graphics.dir/motif/";
else:
  // Have a default set for when the set does not match any allowed set.
  // The default is Abstract.
  setsystem dir "/graphics.dir/abstract/";
endif;

// Now that the pieces are defined, copy the #mypieces array to $pieces
setsystem pieces #mypieces;

It seems that this feature is not working. Whenever I try to make a move in the sample preset, GC responds by saying that the selected set does not exist.

I noticed a bug with the matedbypawn subroutine in the fairyshogi include file.

Specifically, if the King is unable to move anywhere (due to moving into check or otherwise), the subroutine thinks that a Pawn cannot be dropped to check the King, even if this does not actually result in mate.

Here's an example of the bug from Shogi:

1. p 5g-5f
1... P 5c-5d
2. g 4i-4h
2... G 6a-6b
3. g 4h-5g
3... G 6b-5c
4. g 5g-4f
4... G 5c-6d
5. g 4f-4e
5... G 6d-6e
6. g 4e-5d
6... G 6e-5f
7. g 5d-5c
7... G 5f-5g
8. s 3i-3h
8... S 7a-7b
9. s 3h-4i
9... S 7b-6a // After this move, Pawn drop checks are not marked as legal, even though 3 pieces can capture the checking Pawn afterward.

To be honest, I didn't expect to see Hectochess featured this soon, but it is nice to see my efforts recognized, at least in a small way, so thank you. When I made my case for the game, I thought of it as less of a nomination and more of a a comment pointing out that Hectochess met the requirements (sans being seconded) for being featured. I expected it to be swept under the rug.

That being said, it seems that the featured variants system is garnering some serious debate among the more senior members. Especially Jean-Louis Cazaux is frustrated by this process of featuring variants. Perhaps during the holiday months we could step back and make some improvements to this system rather than feature a variant through the current system.

No voting system is flawless, but given what some are saying about the voting system, improving the voting system for featured variants, even in a small way, would be a good idea.

That being said. I might make a case for Seireigi in the future, once it gets a few more years under its belt.

Chu Seireigi's GC preset page is ready.

It seems that Game Courier is having trouble displaying legal moves for pieces in certain situations. Take for example this game from Seireigi:

1. p 3g-3f 
1... P 7c-7d 
2. n 2i-3g 
2... N 8a-7c 
3. n 3g-2e 
3... N 7c-8e 
4. n 2e-1c; +n-dest 
4... N 8e-9g; +N-dest // If you click on Black's Heavenly Horse on 1c, it shows only legal mvoes to 1a, 3a, 2b, and 2d. GC should also show legal moves on 2e and 1b, but it doesn't. However, rule-enforcement-wise, there are no problems when the Heavenly Horse moves to the latter two squares.

If you ever get around to a rule-enforcing Game Courier preset for this, send me an invite.

I just finished making a rule-enforcing preset for Chu Seireigi, which is pretty similar.

It might be a little while before I finish a Dai Seireigi preset due to needing to program the hook movers (Hook Mover, Capricorn, Square Mover, and Great Dragon) and promotable stinging pieces (Poisonous Snake and Cat Sword) and their corresponding rule enforcement.

Edit: I figured out how to code the hook-moving pieces with logride. The rest is actually rather simple.

However, in the meantime, I'll send you an invite for Chu Seireigi. Look for it in your GC logs (<User> -> Your Games on Game Courier)

You'll probably take me down within 15 moves (actually, 10 wouldn't surprise me), but I really like the looks of this game.

Your probably right that I will win, but it'll take a lot more than 15 moves. The range-jumpers only jump once, and the hook movers cannot jump at all. Furthermore, there's plenty of chances for mistakes to be made, allowing you at least a small chance of victory. This is also the case for Chu Seireigi, which doesn't have range-jumpers or hook movers at all.