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Taikyoku Shogi. Extremely large shogi variant. (36x36, Cells: 1296) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

John Lawson wrote on Mon, Jun 16, 2003 12:57 AM UTC:

Has anyone actually attempted to play this?

Mark Thompson wrote on Mon, Jun 16, 2003 01:31 AM UTC:

This game is played not by individuals, but by two competing monasteries,
deep in the Pazomian hills, where monks devote their lives to the study 
of Shogi and its variants. The first (and so far, the only) game was
started over 600 years ago, and each monastery has been making two moves a
year (with interruptions for crises such as famines and wars); one delivers
its moves on the equinoxes, the other, on the solstices. Books have been
written analyzing the status of the game; novices study the thinking of 
the players who have gone before them for years before their opinions are
sought for current moves. Most experts feel that they are nearly finished
with the opening now.

Anyway, it's a nice legend, I think. Course, I did make it up myself.

Tony Quintanilla wrote on Tue, Jun 17, 2003 05:21 PM UTC:

The 'legend' is very creative indeed. Maybe its 'true'. It harkens to the appeal of games in the first place, as models of reality which can serve at many levels, simple enjoyment, mechanics, history, philosophy.... It reminds me of Hesse's 'Magister Ludi'.

Roberto Lavieri wrote on Sun, Jun 22, 2003 04:00 AM UTC:

This is a message to everybody: Please, don´t try a computer implementation of this game. I don´t think the Monks in Pazomian hills are interested on. Neither I am. How many moves are needed for finish a game?. I have not an stimation of the media number, but, gross thinking, it would be more than 20.000 moves, perhaps much more.

RJ wrote on Thu, Jul 10, 2003 04:56 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

Here goes my ranting: I wish I has a way to 'see' the way the pieces move. I could write up the zillons file, but where would i get the graphics for the pieces? I would like to know if this is at all playable! Or is it going to take a week to finish a resonably thought out game? I didn't think tenjiku would be, but I was proved wrong. There's a lot of pieces to sift though here. Are there any pieces that direct the game? (like the lion in chu?)Is George H. planning on selling sets now that there are rules? My carpet needs to be replaced. :)

Anonymous wrote on Sun, Aug 10, 2003 12:51 PM UTC:

I somewhat doubt that George H. will sell sets for this one, since the
rules presented here contradict the rules he published for Tenjiku Shogi
at a couple of points.  First, under Hodges' rules, the ranging pieces
could not capture or leap over pieces higher in the heirarchy, while as
presented here the ranging pieces may not leap over higher pieces, but may
capture them.

Second, this document sort of re-ignites the Lion Hawk controversy. 
George Hodges' rules let the Lion Hawk leap to any square within two
spaces, but when Colin Adams published his book on the Tenjiku Shogi
opening, he noted that it made more sense if the Lion Hawk (a promoted
Lion), had full the full doublemoving Lion power.  This translation says

'The Lion Hawk, as in Tenjiku Shogi, may move like the Lion or leap to
any square which would be attacked by the Lion.'

'move like the Lion' is Colin Adams' interpretation, while 'leap to
any square which would be attacked by the Lion' is George Hodges...

Ben Good wrote on Wed, May 5, 2004 12:18 AM UTC:

i don't know that this game necessarily ignites any controversy for
previous games.  there are a lot of pieces in this that are different from
the pieces of the same name in other shogi variants, so nothing in this
game helps prove anything one way or another. <P>

i began making a set a couple years ago but i lost interest because of
uncertainties in the rules and because it seems to be mostly a collection
of pieces from other variants thrown together with little new.  <P>

Jeff Rients wrote on Wed, May 5, 2004 04:39 PM UTC:

I see no reason to consider this chess variant intimidating to play when considered alongside modern board wargames, some of which have maps using maybe ten thousand hexagonal cells, involve the deployment of literally hundreds of pieces, and require hundreds of hours to play. I believe a veteran wargamer (or 'grognard') would quickly devise a good abstract system to aid in identification of the abilites of each piece and play 'Ultimate' Shogi with no difficulties.

📝Larry Smith wrote on Mon, May 31, 2004 10:40 PM UTC:

A small omission in the description of the Running Horse, it should read:

'Running Horse		steps 1 backward orthogonal, leaps to the second backward
diagonal, slides forward orthogonal or forward diagonal'

My apologies but with a document of this size there are bound to be a few
errata.  Hopefully, they are few.

Chris Witham wrote on Fri, Jun 4, 2004 09:14 PM UTC:

I have not read all of the pieces, and don't claim the ability to remember them, but I believe there is another way to play the game. Adrian king created a visual representation of the moves of a variety of pieces, it should be possible for someone to do the same thing here. <p>I’m not sure if anyone has that much free time and patience, but the possibility does exist. The promoted picture would be on the other side and you would flip when promoting.

📝Larry Smith wrote on Wed, Jun 9, 2004 12:56 PM UTC:

Some sources note that the ranging move in Taikyoku can involve the capture
of each and every piece, both friend and foe, which the ranging piece
leaps.

And believe it or not, there are a few individuals in Japan actually
attempting to play this game.

Tim Stiles wrote on Wed, Sep 15, 2004 06:57 AM UTC:

How come two pieces seem to have the exact same move?

Long-Nosed Goblin   diagonal hook-move
Capricorn   diagonal hook-move

Or are there lots of duplicates and I just haven't noticed since they're
hidden among the masses of different pieces?

Heh, I'd like to see a zillions implementation of this.

📝Larry Smith wrote on Wed, Sep 15, 2004 11:43 AM UTC:

The basic difference between the Capricorn and the Long-Nosed Goblin is the
potential promotion.

The Capricorn promotes to the Hook Mover, an orthogonal hook-move piece
and more powerful piece as it is no longer bound to a diagonal pattern.

The Long-Nosed Goblin does not promote.

The promotion potential is what often differentiates pieces of similar
initial types of moves.  This allows for particular tactics during play,
obviously making the promote-able piece more desired than the
non-promote-able.

And this applies to pieces with similar initial moves which promote to
different potential promotions.

Jason wrote on Tue, Sep 21, 2004 05:04 PM UTC:

There is a flash version of Taikyoku out there... Anyone interested in the link or do you all already have it? Kind of a late comer...

Jared McComb wrote on Tue, Sep 21, 2004 09:42 PM UTC:

No, we don't have it. Please post it!

Jason wrote on Wed, Sep 22, 2004 05:33 PM UTC:

Here we go... This is the link to the 'big' version... Click on
Taikyoku.swf beneath the board to play on a smaller version if you need
to... Clicking (i think it's right click) on a piece will show you the
move set in the upper right of the board area... etc.. ENJOY!

http://taikyokushogi.hp.infoseek.co.jp/taikyoku.html

That's the bigger board.... AFAIK there's no AI though.... Or none that
I could find.... 

http://taikyokushogi.hp.infoseek.co.jp/taikyoku.swf

this is the smaller version...

ENJOY I SAY!