I have played Shogi for quite a few years. I love the dynamics of it! Draws are quite rare for example, it is very much a win/lose thing. Also, the fact that all pieces stay in play (whatever the enemy captures off you, can be used against you), so you have to be mindful of trades you make and gaps in your position. The board is also slightly bigger (9x9 if you play the standard game), allowing for simultaneous attacks going on, and then the player who is faster / more efficient usually wins. Tempo is very important.
What I also really liked about Shogi is its extensive handicap system, which allowed me to play 1-on-1 against top professional players, and still have a chance to win. In this handicap system the stronger player will remove some of his stronger pieces, and the game will still be balanced due to the difference in player strength (efficiency of handling the pieces etc.) I cannot really imagine a good handicap system for International chess (what? take away a pawn?)
I have also played Xiangqi (Chinese chess), and although it does have interesting tactics (pieces are not near as powerful, pieces can often block each other, and then there is the Cannon, a rather unique piece which attacks using a piece in between, which can also be a piece of your opponent), I rather disliked the imbalance for the players. The player who begins (Red) generally wins 50%, the opponent (Black) around 25%, and 25% ends in a draw. Playing as Red has a definite advantage there.
I do have to agree that the Chinese characters used on these chess pieces may look daunting, but there are only a few to learn. Alternate versions do exist (with some symbolic diagrams or graphical representations of the usual chess pieces like King, Rook, Bishop, Knight, Pawn (the Queen was no doubt invented by the French and is only present in International chess), but I never used those sets.
In Shogi, all pieces have the same color. But they have a pointed shape, and the pieces of a player point towards the enemy. Most pieces are flipped when they promote (when they make a move in enemy territory), giving them additional powers.
Other versions include time odds, or even draw-odds e.g. white must win, or even black must win! The second gives an interesting dynamic at higher levels where you can try to steer the game to a draw.
Another possibility is having one side play a weak opening.
Oh, 27 moves…! I can’t solve this, but I think the black rook is placed very well, it defends the king and the pawn on its line. Quickly forced checkmate is not possible, but having two rooks should be the final advantage for White to win.
Edit: Maybe this: Move the rook from c8 to c4. And the king one field closer to the black king and pawn. Then checkmate. Problem: Black won’t be passive.
Sorry, but edit 2: Maybe do the rook exchange following 40. Rh8+. And then eat the a-pawn. Win???
Edit:
An easy mate, assuming that you don’t have to premove is to capture the h pawn with the king, and walk the king over to f column around the rook for a KR mate. You can shuffle the rook between 1-2 rank, to get the necessary cadence for King Opposition.
The a pawn is covered by the b pawn, so you don’t have to worry about it.
I gave up and yielded to temptation. I subscribe at Platinum level. I have been analyzing old games, February 2022, and I note that my Elo was pegged at 600! That’s pretty bad.
There’s that game where I resigned a mate in 2 position. Yikes! Kind of hard to notice that.
But I guess I’m much better now. I keep looking some of my recent games, and a lot of them are rather nice!
I wonder if I should collect the most interesting ones and put out a games book? It’d be nice if I can make money from this hobby!
I think it is generally a good idea. But I’m not sure if you will sell enough copies to make a profit. You could make it a “book on demand”. But book on demand are a bit more expensive (for the end costumer) than normal ones.
Some more experiments. I think the checkerboard pattern is unnecessary since Shogi doesn’t use it and it seems fine. Either way, the white pieces will show the background color since it’s only an outline, after all.
The pieces are pretty much finalized. I also have a couple of sets that is symmetrical. Good if you want to actually draw these on cards as portable chess set.
When we were creating our Shogi magazine in The Netherlands, we originally used sheets with printed empty diagrams on it, and used piece stamps to add the pieces. Later I wrote a software program where you could fill in the pieces and print it out. But for manually writing down positions, creating a sheet with empty boards might still help? At least saves the trouble of manually drawing the board each and every time…
I suppose nowadays it’s easy enough to take picture of travel chess set and print it on portable mini printer. But it’s useless when the goal is to put it on a journal such as Leuchtturm.
Rubber stamp correspondence chess set would be ideal, but they don’t make those anymore.
You could perhaps take a piece of paper cardboard (or just normal paper) and cut the outlines of the chess pieces. Then you have jigs or gauges or whatever is the correct English word.
The straight line angular King’s crown makes it easy to draw. Maybe I can use a pastel highlighter to color the squares? Otherwise, I’m pretty happy with it. No problem hand drawing the pieces.
