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This page is written by the game's inventor, Charles Gilman.

Gyokugi

Shogi differs from other major forms of Chess in many ways. One is the reintroduction of pieces from capture, but another is the relatively small proportion of symmetric pieces. Shogi generals, with their combination of all forward moves and fewer backward ones, particularly distinguish Shogi from Chatutranga, Xiang Qi, and FIDE Chess. Using the combinaton of these pieces and return from capture in a square-board variant is more than enough for it to count as a Shogi variant.

When I created the idea of Chevron Ranks, it occurred to me to devise Chevron Rank analogues to the Shogi generals. The generals themselves are Gold, Silver, and in some traditional Shogi variants Copper, while the King is known as a Jewelled General. For this reason I decided to name their Chevron Rank analogues after individual jewel types not already used in 3d Generals' Man and Beast names, with a bluer hue than the corresponding general's metal. This gave an overall title for a Chevron Rank analogue to Shogi, Gyokugi - literally, the game of the jewels.

It took me even longer to decide on suitable images from here for Gyokugi's jewel pieces than for other Chevron Ranks pieces. I eventually settled on the dice images as they display both the number of destinations and the more random-looking nature of them as they are not the same directions from every cell.

Setup

2-player forms of the game are shown below. 3-player ones can be deduced by moving one army round by 60° and adding a third in the obvious gap.

Shogi-style Gyokugi:

Radial-only Gyokugi:

Amethyst-file Gyokugi

Okisaki-style Gyokugi

Invegi

Framed Chevron Chess

Radial-only Framed CC

This can be played with either FOH or Invegi promotion.

Pieces

Piece names are fully explained in Man and Beast 15: Strengthened Across the Board, except for the diveregent Corporal and Batman, which are explained in Man and Beast 16: Diverging Further.

The following one-step pieces cannot, in this page's games, be promoted or return from capture:

The GENERALISSIMO, Chevron analogue to King, moves along any orthogonal, the forward half-inward hex diagonal, or the backward half-outward hex diagonal and must be kept out of check.
The WARRANT, Chevron analogue to Wazir, moves along any orthogonal except outward half-forward and inward half-backward.
The INSPECTOR, Chevron analogue to Ferz, moves along the outward half-forward and inward half-backward orthogonals and forward half-inward and backward half-outward hex diagonals.

FIDE-analogue pieces can be promoted and/or return from capture in Invegi and Framed Chevron Chess:

The WARLADY, Chevron analogue to Queen, is the compound of the next two pieces. It is unpromotable. It returns as whatever it started as in Inspegi, and as a Sergerider in FOH.
The WARRARIDER, Chevron analogue to Rook, makes repeated Warrant moves through empty intervening cells in the same direction, save that when crossing the middle file the half-forward switches to half-backward. It is promotable to Warlady in Inspegi and Warradragon in Invegi. It returns as itself in those games, and as a Wing in FOH.
The INSPERIDER, Chevron analogue to Bishop, makes repeated Inspector moves through empty intervening cells in the same direction, save that when crossing the middle file during orthogonal switches to hex-diagonal or vice versa. It is promotable to Warlady in Inspegi and Invesdragon in Invegi. It returns as itself in those, and as an Invesrider in FOH.
The CAPTAIN, Chevron analogue to Knight, takes a step as a Warrant followed by another outward as an Inspector. It cannot be blocked on the intermediate cell. It is promotable to Warlady in Inspegi. It returns as itself in that, and as a Cadet in FOH and Invegi.

Forward-only pieces return from capture as themselves:

The SERGERIDER, Chevron analogue to Princess, is the compound of the next two pieces. It is promotable to Warlady in FOH.
The WING, on a G/McC board the same piece as in Shogi, is a Warrarider restricted to the straight forward orthogonal. It is promotable to Warrarider in FOH, and Emerald in Invegi.
The INVESRIDER, Chevron analogue to Mitre, is an Insperider restricted to the two forward directions. It is promotable to Sapphire in Invegi and Invesrider in FOH.
The POINT (Pt), on a G/McC board the same piece as in Shogi, moves one step along the straight forward orthogonal. It is promotable to Emerald in Invegi.
The INVESTIGATOR, Chevron analogue to Cross, is an Inspector restricted to the two forward directions. It is promotable to Sapphire in Invegi.
The CORPORAL, Chevron analogue to Pawn, moves like a noncapturing Point or a capturing Investigator. Its move was first described here. It is promotable to Batman in Framed Chevron Chess.
The CADET, Chevron analogue to Helm, takes a step as a Point followed by another outward as an Investigator. It cannot be blocked on the intermediate cell. It is promotable to Captain in Invegi.
The BATMAN of FOH and Framed Chevron Chess, Chevron analogue to Steward, moves like a noncapturing Warrant or a capturing Inspector. It returns as a Corporal.

Invegi's compounds of previous-listed pieces are as follows:

Warrarider+Inspector=WARRADRAGON and Insperider+Warrant=INSPEDRAGON are the Chevron analogues of Chatelaine and Primate and the promoted forms of the corresponding -riders. They return from capture as those -riders.
Warrant+Investigator=EMERALD and Inspector+Point=SAPPHIRE are the Chevron analogues of Gold and Silver. They are unpromotable and return as what they started.
The AMETHYST (Am), Chevron analogue to Copper, is a Sergeant that can also move one step straight backward. It is promotable to Captain.

Rules

Corporals have an optional double-step initial move, except for the outer four in the variants with 20-piece armies. Enemy Corporals can immediately capture it as if they had made only the first step. Points have no double-step move.

There is no Castling.

The promotion zone is the far edge of the board except in games being played Inspegi/Invegi/FOH, in which it is the far edge plus the rank immediately before it. If a piece can still move further unpromoted, promotion is optional, otherwise it is required.

Pieces captured from an enemy can be reintroduced as part of the capturing player's army in place of a normal move. They must return in unpromoted form on a cell where promotion is not required.

Check, Checkmate, and Stalemate are as standard.


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By Charles Gilman.
Web page created: 2014-04-22. Web page last updated: 2016-03-08