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I have played Yonin Shogi over the board and with the Super Famicom cartridge that Mr. McComb mentions. It is surprising how very much quicker than in shogi the pace is in Yonin Shogi. I think that of the four-player chess variants like four-handed chaturanga and chess of the four seasons, this is by far the most enjoyable, but that is personal opinion (I do like four-handed chaturanga quite a bit, though). <p>George Hodges produced a rules leaflet for this variant that included a sample game. The players were professionals at regular shogi. In that leaflet Mr. Hodges credits the invention of the game to Ota Mitsuyasu, the 1-dan mayor of Hirata City. <p>My usual opponents and I have speculated how one could handicap in this game: alternate piece arrangement, removal of pieces, or substitution of pieces that are out of play from normal shogi, like the knight, lance, or the bishop. <p>I wonder if anyone has ever attempted the three-player shogi that John Fairbairn described in _Shogi_ magazine. The game was presented in a version adapted to an hexagonal board, but the diagram also showed a board arrangement similar to what one sees for three-handed xiangqi. I seem to remember that the game featured a promoted king, a Sun-King, which had a special move: capture by 'illumination.' I seem to remember that this power was gained by reaching a special square at the juncture of three half-boards, or the center of the hexagonal board, the Pleasure Garden. I cannot say whether that game is more or less playable than Yonin Shogi.