Gi-Qi-Game

Another attempt to blend classic European, Chinese and Japanese chess.
Unlike other my crossovers of these games - Classic sum, All pieces of classic chesses and Battle of Titans, this one don't simply dump everything from three games in itself, but tries take the most interesting things from these classic chess forms and (lightly) their closest relatives.
From European chess there are truality of bishop-knight-rook, divergent pawns, strong pawn promotion, queen-like compounds and castling. From Xiang-Qi there are cannons, blockable steppers, augmenting river, palace-like restrictions and bare facing rule. From Shogi - way of promotion, losing some of piece's original moves after promotion, forward-only and general-like pieces. Drops? Game may be played with or without drops. But proably version with drops is better...
Name is a kind of triple tautology: words "Gi", "Qi" and "Game" means same things in Japanese, Chinese and English, respectively.

Setup

Board is 9x9, as in Shogi.
And, similar to Shogi, it's promotion zone consists of last 3 ranks for each player. And promotion rules are same as in Shogi - piece may be optionally promoted after moving to, within, or out of promotion zone. Pieces, that can't retreat (or at least move within same rank, in case of this game), are obliged to promote on last rank (there are no pieces that stucks on 8th rank, only on the latest), and, if game is played with drops, these pieces may not be dropped on the last rank. Captured promoted pieces demotes.
Also, as in Xiang-Qi, there is a river, wich augments certain pieces (there are no pieces, restricted by the river). Since number of ranks is odd, here river is not line between ranks, but the entire rank. And this river have different kinds of squares: odd ones (on files a, c, e, g and i) are "strong", while even (b, d, f, h) are "weak". On strong squares piece acts as if it would already cross the river, while on weak squares it acts as before crossing the river.
Augmentation by river is not considered promotion: piece don't change it's form, it only depends on the position.

1 - normal squares;
2 - promotion zones;
3 - strong river squares;
4 - weak river squares.

There are no palaces, but board is divided into 9 3x3 zones, playing palace-like role (see description of kings below).

Now, opening position of pieces:

K - king;
G - bodyguard;
E - elephant;
H - horse;
L - lance;
R - rook;
N - knight;
B - bishop;
P - peasant;
F - foot soldier;
Y - yeoman.

Pieces

Rook, knight and bishop moves as in European chess.

They promotes to Dragon Rook, Dragon Knight and Dragon Bishop, respectively - their original moves retaines, but additional king step is added (as in Shogi, but here applied for knights as well).

Before crossing the river and in weak river squares, lance moves as in Shogi - forwad-only rook.

After crossing the river, or in strong river squares, it may also move sideways.

Not obliged to promote upon reaching the last rank, being able to move sideways. Promotes to cannon.
Cannon is same as in Chinese chess: moves without capturing as rook, but need to hop over exactly one piece to capture.
"=" - move only, "+" - capture only.

Elephant moves as forward-only bishop. Not affected by river.

Obliged to promote on last rank. Promotes to arrow (vao), diagonal counterpant of the cannon.

Horse, before crossing the river, or on weak squares of river, moves as Shogi Honourable Horse - leaps in knight's two fordwarmost directions.

After crossing the river, or in it's strong squares, it move in any of knight's four forward directions.

Obliged to promote on last rank. Promotes to heavy cavalry.
It's compound of Chinese (Korean) horse and Korean elephant: steps to horizontally or vertically adjecent vacant square, and then must make one or two diagonally-outward steps, may not leap.
"!" - squares, wich must be vacant to make certain moves.

Peasant is pawn of European chess. Before crossing the river or in it's weak sqares, it moves without capturing one square straight forward, captures diagonally forward.
There is no initial double step.

After crossing the river, or in it's strong squares, it may move without capturing one square sideways.

Not obliged to promote on last rank, but remember that it can make only non-capturing moves here. Promotes to Marshal.
Marshal moves as rook or knight.

Foot soldier is oriental-style pawn. Moves and captures one sqaure straight forward.

After crossing the river (and, of course, in it's strong squares) may also move and capture one sideways.

Not obliged to promote. Promotes to Queen.
Queen is as in European chess - that is, compound of rook and bishop.

Yeoman is well-known fairy piece - Berolina pawn. Moves without capturing diagonally forward, captures straight forward.

After crossing the river also can capture sideways.

Not obliged to promote, but usually it's highly recommended to do in on last rank, because if it will not promote here, it will have to make capturing move to promote thereafter.
Promotes to Adjutant, compound of bishop and knight.

If you are playing with drops, unlike Shogi, any pawn-like piece may be dropped to file, containing another pawn-like piece of any kind, and pawn may be dropped to deliver checkmate.

Bodyguard, before crossing the river (and yes, on it's weak squares) moves as copper general: that is, one square directly backward or forward, or diagonally forward.

On opponent's half of board, and on strong river squares, it gets additional sideways moves (it makes gold general's move), and loses it when retreats to own half of board or weak river squares.

Promotes to warrior. It's the only promoted piece, wich is still affected by the river.
On opponent's half of board moves as drunk elephant from some historical Shogi variants - that is, in any of king's directions, expect for directly backward.

Once retreated to river's weak square or beyond, it loses sideways moves (and it makes silver general's way of movement).

Bodyguard and warrior have a special move: from any board position, they may teleport to square, adjecent to king, provided that it's empty, and that bodyguard/warrior don't attack king's square.
That is, if bodyguard will have copper general's move on destination square, it's able to jump on sideways-adjecent or diagonally-in front of king.
If it will have gold general's move, it's able to jump diagonally-in front of king.
Warrior, if will be able to move as silver general, may jump sideways-adjecent, or directly in front of king.
If warrior will be able to move as drunk elephant on destination square, it's able to jump only directly in front of king.

Bodyguard and warrior also have another one relation with the king, see it's description below.

King moves as in European chess and Shogi - one square in any direction. May not face opposing king along vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines (as in Xiang-Qi, but here applied for all directions).
Here King have special palace-like restrictions. When he moves, destination square must be within 3x3 zone (see Setup paragraph), containing at least one bodyguard or warrior.
King can be immobile. But King can move to another zone, containing bodyguard or warrior, even if the zone, King currently in, is empty.
If game is played with drops, there can be up to four active zones (36 squares). If game is played without drops, king will become immobile for the rest game, once both friendly bodyguards/warriors are captured.

King may castle with either lance. To do it, king moves 2 or 3 squares towards it, and lance lands directly behind king.
Unlike other king moves, it don't require bodyguard or warrior in respective zone (however, bodyguard is still needed for later normal moves). It's also only move, when lance can move sideways before crossing the river.
As in FIDE chess, castling is not allowed, once it's either participant has moved, not allowed to escape or cross check, and here it's also not allowed to cross bare facing of opposing king.
Possible destination squares after castling (for left lance, for right one they are symmetrical, of course):

Win by checkmating or stalemating opponent's king.
Or by forcing opponent to repeat previous position.

Notes

Optionally cannons and archers can be replaced with Korean-style ones: must hop over one piece, whether capturing or not. Unlike Korean chess, they may hop over pieces of same kind, and may capture them.
Another optional change - if game is played without drops, pawn-like pieces may choose to promote to warrior (but still may promote to Queen, Marshal or Adjutant, depending on it's kind).
Also one may swap weak and strong river squares (in this case horses can be augmented earlier without being captured and dropped).