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

Classic sum - light version

Variant of my own Classic sum with simplier rules.

Setup

rnbqkqbnr -f-----a- ppppppppp --------- --------- --------- --------- PPPPPPPPP -A-----F- RNBQKQBNR P - pawn; K - king Q - queen; B - bishop; N - knight; R - rook; A - angle walker; F - flying chariot. It's Xiang-qi board with normal palace and river.

Pieces

King:
As in chess and shogi. May not cross (either player's) palace walls with orthogonal step, expect castling. Both castlings works as queen-side castling, normal conditions apply. All captures are passive (see "rules"). If both kings are in different palaces, bare facing rules apply.

Queen:
As in chess. May not cross palace walls with single diagonal step (if moves further, may cross walls). Captures passively as gold general.

Bishop:
As bishop in chess or 1 step orthogonally forward. May not cross river when moves 2 steps. Promotes (see "rules") and captures passively when moves as silver general. Promoted piece is queen.

Knight:
As in chess. Promotes and captures passively when moves as shogi knight (in 2 forwardmost directions. Never have to promote. Promoted piece is queen.

Rook:
As in chess. Promotes and captures passively when moves as lance (that is, forward). Never have to promote. Promoted piece is queen.

Flying chariot:
As rook or Xiang-qi cannon (that is, may leap 1 piece when capture). Promotes and capture passively when moves as rook. After promotion can also move and capture (passively) 1 diagonally.

Angle walker:
As bishop or Xiang-qi cannon. Promotes and captures passivelt when moves as bishop. After promotion can also capture (passively) with single orthogonal step.

Pawn:
Moves and captures 1 orthogonally forward. Can also capture 1 diagonally forward. On first move, can make non-capturing  double step. En-passant diagonally. After crossing river, can move and capture 1 sideways. Passive captures are orthogonally forward only. In shogi promotion zone, can promote (by moving orthogonally forward) to tokin. As there is no corresponding piece in chess and xiang-qi, it can move only as gold general (all captures are passive). It's, of course, not correct, because promotion to tokin is related to promotion to ferz, wich is related to promotion to queen, but it makes game more interesting (if you want, you can chose other rules, for example, promote only to queen). In chess promotion zone it promotes (by moving non-capturing orthogonally forward or diagonally) to queen, bishop, knight, rook, flying chariot, angle walker, promoted flying chariot, promoted angle walker. Promoteable piece can promote again. Neer have to promote (but it's recomended to do it on last rank)

Rules

Shogi promotion zone is last 3 ranks. Chess promotion zone is last 2 ranks, only pawns uses it. Promotion is according to shogi rules.

When piece captures passively, captured piece is moved to reserve, as in shogi. Pawns may not be dropped to rank, wich already have 1 or more friendly pawns. It's not allowed to checkmate with pawn drop (expect when only cannon-moving piece checking in this move). All promoted pieces, expect pawns, promoted in ches pr. zone (to piece other than tokin) demotes when dropped. There are no other dropping restrictions.

Stalemate is lose for stalemated player.


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By Daniil Frolov.
Web page created: 2010-06-21. Web page last updated: 2010-06-21