Mitred Framing 3: 6x6 to 8x8

When I launched my Mitred Framing series by expanding FIDE-board variants to 10x10 I expected boards to get bigger and bigger. In fact the second page expanded 9-file variants, but still only to 10x10. Then when I extrapolated to my first page doing something similar to hex boards it struck me that I might follow that one up by expanding on smaller initial hex boards, and I realised that I could expand on smaller square boards as well. This is what prompted me to review my 6-file variants a few weeks before posting this page. This page mitres those which are also 6-rank - plus two of the variants inspiring them in the first place, Diana and Haynie's Primary Chess. As with Mini Fivequarters, I implement my suggestion of the name Ariana (All-radial Diana) for my own spinoffs of the last. Los Alamos Chess has to have the Bishops added back in first to be truly Mitred rather than just Helmed (does this make me a Bishopper?), but there is room behind the King and Queen to do that in place of the usual Shogi generals.

Setup

All these variants have an intimate connection between how pieces are represented and how they are promoted. In particular, only pieces represented by Shogi pieces are promotable and only those and Silvers represented by Pawns (which are in sufficient supply to represent with a switch of opposite-coloured ones) can return from capture. For this reason unpromoted Points always represent Pawns (except in Sylvia variants, which have no Pawns) and unpromoted Silvers Mitres. Unless otherwise stated other pieces represent themselves.

1 MITRED ARIANA uses one FIDE and one Shogi set minus oblique pieces and Shogi one-aside pieces. Pawns represent Silvers.
2 MITRED BISHOGI ARIANA uses two Shogi sets. A Gold represents the Queen, and promoted Wings/Silvers Golds/Silvers.
3 MITRED FRONTOFHOUSE ARIANA uses two Shogi sets. A Rook represents the Queen, Bishops Silvers, and promoted Wings/Silvers Rooks/Bishops.

1 MITRED DIANA uses one FIDE and one Shogi set minus the Queen, one Knight, Shogi one-aside pieces, and both Helms. Pawns represent Silvers.
2 MITRED BISHOGI DIANA uses two Shogi sets. A Gold represents the Queen, and promoted Wings/Helms/Silvers Golds/Knights/Silvers.
3 MITRED FRONTOFHOUSE DIANA uses two Shogi sets. Bishops represent Silvers, and promoted Wings/Helms/Silvers Rooks/Knights/Bishops.

1 MITRED ELECTRA uses one FIDE and one Shogi set minus both sets' one-aside pieces. Pawns represent Silvers.
2 MITRED BISHOGI ELECTRA uses two Shogi sets. Promoted Wings/Helms/Silvers represent Golds/Knights/Silvers.
3 MITRED FRONTOFHOUSE ELECTRA uses two Shogi sets. Bishops represent Silvers, and promoted Wings/Helms/Silvers Rooks/Knights/Bishops.

1 MITRED MINERVA uses one FIDE and one Shogi set minus both Kings, one Knight, and the Shogi Bishop/Rook/Helms. Pawns represent Silvers.
2 MITRED BISHOGI MINERVA uses two Shogi sets. A Gold represents the Queen, and promoted Wings/Helms/Silvers Golds/Knights/Silvers.
3 MITRED FRONTOFHOUSE MINERVA uses two Shogi sets. A Rook represents the Queen, Bishops Silvers, and promoted Wings/Helms/Silvers Rooks/Knights/Bishops.

1 MITRED REBISHOPPED LOS ALAMOS uses one FIDE and one Shogi set minus the Shogi one-aside pieces. Pawns represent Silvers.
2 MITRED BISHOGI RLA uses two Shogi sets. A Gold represents the Queen, and promoted Wings/Helms/Silvers Golds/Knights/Silvers.
3 MITRED FRONTOFHOUSE RLA uses two Shogi sets. A Rook represents the Queen, Bishops Silvers, and promoted Wings/Helms/Silvers Rooks/Knights/Bishops.

1 MITRED SYLVIA uses one FIDE and one Shogi set, minus the Shogi one-aside pieces. Pawns represent Knights and Knights Silvers.
2 MITRED BISHOGI SYLVIA uses two Shogi sets. A Gold represents the Queen, Points Helms, and promoted Wings/Points/Silvers Golds/Knights/Silvers.
3 MITRED FRONTOFHOUSE SYLVIA uses two Shogi sets. A Rook represents the Queen, Bishops Silvers, Points Helms, and promoted Wings/Points/Silvers Rooks/Knights/Bishops.

Pieces

Pieces are listed by my preferred English name for them, with an actual or suggested Japanese name and its translation in brackets. If someone who knows the Japanese for Crab can fill in this gap in my knowledge please do so in a comment. Pieces returning as a lesser piece can be promoted back to their array piece type, and promotees always return unpromoted.

	The KING (Japanese name varies between armies) moves one cell along any of the eight radials, and must be kept out of Check. It is unpromotable, and return from capture does not arise.
	The QUEEN (Japanese name varies between variants) moves any distance through empty intermediate squares along any of the eight radials. It is unpromotable, cannot return from capture in variants numbered 1, and returns as itself in the rest.
	The ROOK (Hisha=Flying Chariot) is the Queen restricted to the four orthogonals. In variants numbered 1 it cannot be promoted or return from capture. In variants numbered 2 it is promotable to a CHATELAINE (Ryuo=Dragon King) by the addition of the remaining King moves, and returns as itself. In variants numbered 3 it is unpromotable and returns as a Wing (see next).
	The WING (Kyoosha=Fragrant Chariot) is the Queen restricted to the single forward orthogonal. It is promotable to Rook in variants numbered 3 and to Gold in the rest. It always returns from capture as itself.
	The GOLDGENERAL (Kinsho), Gold for short, moves like a King restricted to orthogonals and forward diagonals. It is unpromotable. It returns as itself in variants numbered 3 and as a Wing in the rest.
	The BISHOP (Kakugyo=Angle Mover) is the Queen restricted to the four diagonals. In variants numbered 1 it cannot be promoted or return from capture. In variants numbered 2 it is promotable to a PRIMATE (Ryuma=Dragon Horse) by the addition of the remaining King moves, and returns as itself. In variants numbered 3 it is unpromotable and returns as a Mitre (see next).
	The MITRE (Yohei=Ramshead Soldier) is the Queen restricted to the two forward diagonals. It is promotable to Bishop in variants numbered 3 and to Silver in the rest. It always returns from capture as itself.
	The SILVERGENERAL (Ginsho), Silver for short, moves like a King restricted to diagonals and the forward orthogonal. It is unpromotable. It returns as itself in variants numbered 3 and as a Mitre in the rest.
	The KNIGHT (Choma=Jumping Horse) makes any 2:1 leap and cannot be blocked. It is unpromotable. In variants numbered 1 it cannot return from capture. In the rest it returns as a Helm (see next).
	The HELM (Keima=Honourable Horse) is the Knight restricted to the two leaps taking it 2 ranks forward. In variants numbered 1 it is promotable to a CRAB (sugg. direct translation) by the addition of the two leaps taking it 1 rank backward. In the rest it is promotable to Knight. It always returns from capture as itself.
	The PAWN (sugg. Sekijin=Stone Sword) moves one step forward at a time, diagonally if capturing otherwise orthogonally. In all variants it is promotable to a STEWARD (no suggestion), which moves one step along any diagonal if capturing otherwise along any orthogonal.

Rules

There are no initial double-step moves and no Castling, although Mitred Sylvia instead allows an unmoved King to swap place with any other unmoved piece on the same rank to prevent immediate checkmate. Victory is by Checkmate, except in Mitred Electra and Mitred Minerva where it is by capturing the entire enemy army.

At the end of a move entering, moving within, or leaving the enemy camp a player may promote that piece, if it is of a promotable type and not already promoted. If the piece can move no further unpromoted, promotion is required. A player capturing an enemy piece may reintroduce it unpromoted in place of a normal move.

Check, Checkmate, and Stalemate are as in FIDE Chess, except in Mitred Electra and Mitred Minerva. Victory in those two is by capturing the entire enemy army.

Subvariants include playing Mitred Diana with Bachelor Chess rules, Mitred Camilla with Bachelor Kamil rules, and Mitred Electra and Mitred Minerva with Kinglet rules.

Notes

Intermediate games do not strictly belong in the main part of this page, but nor do they warrant their own page(s), so I include them as a note. Adding pieces to Los Alamos in the way done for the rest, including the Shogi generals rather than substituting the Bishops absent from the original and Mitres, gives a game with striking echoes of Shogi. Like Shogi it goes straight from Helm to Silver with no Mitre in between. Both long diagonals resemble one Shogi long diagonal in having Rooks on it. For these similarities I term it LOS GENERALES (pron. Khenneraaless). Here is the array:

This can be played plain, with one FIDE and one Shogi set, Pawns representing Silvers; or Frontofhouse, with two Shogi sets, a Rook representing the Queen and promoted Wings/Helms Rooks/Knights. In theory Cybele could have Shogi-style pieces added the same way:

but getting from a variant that doesn't have linepieces at all to a Mitred variant in a meaningful way proved too difficult.

This 'user submitted' page is a collaboration between the posting user and the Chess Variant Pages. Registered contributors to the Chess Variant Pages have the ability to post their own works, subject to review and editing by the Chess Variant Pages Editorial Staff.

By Charles Gilman.
Web page created: 2010-06-14. Web page last updated: 2016-03-24

Comments

Mitred Framing 3: 6x6 to 8x8. Adding a rim of forward-only pieces around a 6x6 board. (8x8, Cells: 64)

(zzo38) A. Black wrote on Sun, Mar 27, 2016 11:29 PM EDT:

Apparently è·³é¦¬ (pronounce ã¡ã‚‡ã†ã¾) is meaning a jumping horse.

💡📝Charles Gilman wrote on Wed, Jun 30, 2010 02:25 AM EDT:

Having had another look at the Okisaki Shogi page, and some others that I found using a search engine, I haven't found one showing the array. I would assume that each Queen would be one the same side of the board as the same player's Bishop, to balance the Rook on the other side. This would give the array
where

represents the Rookranker (a Rook that can move forward and backward but not sideways). Does anyone know if this array is correct?

💡📝Charles Gilman wrote on Sun, Jun 20, 2010 04:14 AM EDT:

At first sight the transliteration Choma appeared to mean 'Boar Horse', but the Cho character on the wiki page seems to be a different one from that used in Honcho (free boar - a Goldfilerider in my terminology). So does anyone know the translation?

Daniil Frolov wrote on Thu, Jun 17, 2010 04:07 AM EDT:

Ko shogi:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ko_shogi
Okisaki shogi:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okisaki_shogi

💡📝Charles Gilman wrote on Thu, Jun 17, 2010 01:24 AM EDT:

I notice that, like Ko Shogi, Okisaki Shogi is not on this site. Do you have a link to a page elsewhere? As the last comment referring to Ko Shogi was some time ago it could be worth repeating the link to that. Have you thought of posting link pages? These are used where someone knows of a variant explained on a page of another site, and does not want to duplicate the text on this aite. Here is an example.