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This page is written by the game's inventor, Daniil Frolov.

All pieces of classic chesses

There are many games, wich combines pieces of FIDE chess, Xiang-qi and Shogi. But there are no games, wich combines ALL pieces from these chesses! And even if such game exists, it should be very large.
Here is funny way to use all pieces (including royal pieces!) On normal Xiang-qi board:

Setup

As was stated above, this game is played on Xiang-qi 9x10 board with it's normal palace and river. It uses each non-pawn piece from these games once. Only rook is used twice, because it's used in both FIDE chess and Xiang-qi.
Here is setup of one of players (other player  may use either reflect or reverse symmetry):

CP CP CP XP XP XP SP SP SP
CR CN CB CK CQ JG AW CA FC
CR MA EL AD XG GG SG HH IC

CP - chess pawn;
XP - XQ pawn;
SP - shogi pawn;
CR - chess rook (or "ChaRiot");
CN - chess knight;
CK - chess king;
CQ - chess queen;
JG - shogi king (jewelled general);
AW - angle walker;
CA - cannon;
FC - flying chariot;
MA - XQ horse (mao);
EL - elephant;
AD - advisor;
XG - XQ general;
GG - gold general;
SG - silver general;
HH - shogi knight (honourable horse);
IC - lance (incense chariot).

Pieces

King, chess pawn, queen, bishop, knight, rook are from FIDE chess. King may castle with second rank rook as in normal chess, normal conditions apply. Pawns may make initial double step, may be captured en-passant by other FIDE chess pawns. They may promote on rank, where opponent's chess king started, but it's optional, they may promote on next move, and it will be obligatory. For promotion rules, see below.

XQ general, XQ pawn, cannon, advisor, elephant, mao and rook (again) are from XQ. General and advisor are still restricted by palace, elephant is still restricted by river. Pawns still can move sideways only after crossing river and they don't promote. Ganeral can capture other general without moving if they are on same file and there is no intervening pieces ("bare facing" rule).

Jewelled general, shogi pawn, gold general, silver general, honourable horse, lance, angle walker and flying chariot are from shogi. They promotes on one of last 3 ranks, according to shogi rules. For drop rules, see below.

Rules

Game have several optional rules, wich makes several absolutely different games. But first, i'll describe rules, wich are not optional. If royal pieces are in check, one must save the highest possible number of them. Shogi and XQ kings may be moved to check or left in check if and only if there is no way to move without putting or leaving them in check. When opponent may capture them. Similar rules are used for chess king, but with one expection: it can be moved into check if conditions, described above apply AND if it is already in check. If it is not check, but any move will put him in check, it's draw (it means that in XQ and shogi stalemate is lose, but in FIDE chess it's draw). Capture all 3 opponent's royal pieces to win. Royal pieces cannot be dropped, whatever drop rules you are using. Now, optional rules: I have 2 main variants of drop rules, wich are quite different. You must choose one before playing. 1. When shogi piece is captured, it may be dopped. Such rules was already used in some variants, wich combines pieces of shogi and chess (for example: Little trio , 3 few chess , Do Sho Chess ...). This variant may be easely played if you have shogi set, but, i think, most of European CV members (and me to) have no shogi set, and wich drop rules to use is all the same for them for them. But this variiant is still little easier to played if you have 4 chess sets, see below. 2. When shogi piece captures another piece, it's victim may be dropped. Chess pawn may not be dropped on last rank, but XQ pawn may. Chess pawn may make double step from 1st, 2nd and 3rd rank. Elephant may not cross river, advisor may not cross palace walls. Promoted chess pawns DO NOT demote back to pawn when dropped. Shogi pawn may not be dropped to rank wich already have another shogi pawn, but no such restrictions for chess and XQ pawns. I know only 2 variants, wich uses such drop rules: WWII and my own game, described in this comment. It's not allowed to attack any royal piece with drop of any pawn, wich cannot be escaped. Another optional rule is pawn promotion. 1. Pawns may be promoted only to FIDE pieces. 2. Pawns may be promoted to any non-royal, non-pawn, non-promoted piece (they cannot be promoted to honourable horse, only). If promotes to shogi piece, may be further promoted (and demoted back when dropped). Third optional rule is duble step for XQ pawns (i added this because in standart XQ they need only 2 steps to cross river, but here they need 3 steps if played without double step. If you playing with this rule, XQ pawns may make initial non-capturing double step. Other XQ pawns may capture them en-passant by moving sideways. If you are playing with 2nd variant of drops, they may make double step from 1st and 2nd rank to.

Notes

Some people might not like my opening setup (i used this setup first, because all pawns are protected, and second, it uses "funny symmetry": if you'll think that related pieces are identical and give angle walker for bishop family, flying chariot for rook family and cannon to knight family (isn't it only leaping piece in XQ, while only leaping pieces in chess and shogi are knights?), you'll see "perfect symmetry").
For these people, i have this variant with setup phase:
before playing, each player must set his pieces (you may set them secretly, alternating drops, by agreement or first player puts all his pieces so that second player can see). Put pieces according to these restrictions:
pawns must be dropped on 3rd rank. other pieces must dropped on 1st and 2nd ranks. XQ general must be dropped within palace. Advisor and elephant may be dropped only to squares, wich they can reach in normal XQ.

If you have 4 chess sets, you can easily play with them: pieces from 1st set for FIDE chess, pieces from 2nd set for Xiang-qi, pieces from 3rd set for shogi, from 4th set for angle walker, cannon and flying chariot (knight for cannon). If you chosen 1st variant of drop rules, you can use queen from 4th set for dropped gold general.

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By Daniil Frolov.
Web page created: 2010-06-22. Web page last updated: 2010-06-22