If you enjoy chess, you really should take a look at the world of Shogi – essentially the Japanese equivalent of chess.
There is actually a family of related games with the core Shogi dating back to the mid-1500s. It is played on a 9 by 9 board, and the object is to capture the opponent’s king.
There are, however, differences with Western chess.
Most notably, not only pawns but most pieces can promote if they reach the opponent’s last three rows – effectively broadening the diversity of pieces.
Secondly, captured pieces become property of the capturing player, and during their turn, they can ‘drop’ them back to the board instead of performing a normal move, which really changes the game dynamic.
So that is core shogi in a nutshell.
But, this week, the review about a sister game – Tori Shogi or bird shogi – was created about 250 years after Shogi.
Tori Shogi is what we would term a variant. In this case, it is played on a 7×7 board.
As the name implies, each piece is named after a type of bird. The royal piece (King) is the Phoenix. Other pieces include the Swallow (promotes to Wild Goose), Falcon (promotes to Eagle), Crane, Pheasant, and Quail.
The goal of the game is to capture the opposing Phoenix.
Drops are handled in a manner very similar to modern Shogi, with some oddities such as a third swallow cannot be dropped in a file which already contains two others, nor can one be dropped on the last rank, where it would not be able to move. In addition, a swallow cannot be dropped to give immediate mate.
This one tends to be a quicker shogi; the smaller board with drops still in play makes it feel a bit like the proverbial battle in a phone booth. Unlike the chess North Americans are most familiar with, the board in Tori Shogi – or basic Shogi for that matter – never really opens up as captured pieces tend to cycle back to the board in drops rather quickly.
Since Tori Shogi is quick, er, it’s a great gateway to the world of Shogi variants.
Now, Shogi pieces are generally differentiated by Japanese lettering, which can be a barrier some will wish not to overcome.
But there is good news on that front: Kanare Abstract (kanare-abstract.com) has produced a Tori Shogi set with the actual birds in the background (underscored with their English name), with the Japanese lettering over top. It’s a brilliantly simple solution to easier access to the game, and designer Kanare Kato needs a big pat on the back for creating the set.
The game is a classic, so it is highly recommended.
The Kanare Abstract set gets a positive nod, too. The pieces are wood, the board is cloth, and the packaging is small and easy to get to the coffee shop, as are most games from this publisher, of which many have been reviewed here previously. The only caveat here is that the game seems a bit ‘squished’ with 32 pieces on the small cloth board. Kanare Abstract did a quartet of games in a slightly larger format – Trike, Slyde, Make Muster, and heXantafl – and it would have been nice had Tori Shogi been part of that effort.
The size issue aside – it works, it’s just a tad crowded – this one needs to be in every chess fan’s collection. A solid version from Kanare Abstract.
About Author
Calvin Daniels is a Saskatchewan-born, self-taught journalist. He is currently Editor of Yorkton This Week, with 35-years in the newspaper business.
Tori Shogi a smaller board shogi variant to love
There is actually a family of related games with the core Shogi dating back to the mid-1500s. It is played on a 9 by 9 board, and the object is to capture the opponent’s king.
There are, however, differences with Western chess.
Most notably, not only pawns but most pieces can promote if they reach the opponent’s last three rows – effectively broadening the diversity of pieces.
Secondly, captured pieces become property of the capturing player, and during their turn, they can ‘drop’ them back to the board instead of performing a normal move, which really changes the game dynamic.
So that is core shogi in a nutshell.
But, this week, the review about a sister game – Tori Shogi or bird shogi – was created about 250 years after Shogi.
Tori Shogi is what we would term a variant. In this case, it is played on a 7×7 board.
As the name implies, each piece is named after a type of bird. The royal piece (King) is the Phoenix. Other pieces include the Swallow (promotes to Wild Goose), Falcon (promotes to Eagle), Crane, Pheasant, and Quail.
The goal of the game is to capture the opposing Phoenix.
Drops are handled in a manner very similar to modern Shogi, with some oddities such as a third swallow cannot be dropped in a file which already contains two others, nor can one be dropped on the last rank, where it would not be able to move. In addition, a swallow cannot be dropped to give immediate mate.
This one tends to be a quicker shogi; the smaller board with drops still in play makes it feel a bit like the proverbial battle in a phone booth. Unlike the chess North Americans are most familiar with, the board in Tori Shogi – or basic Shogi for that matter – never really opens up as captured pieces tend to cycle back to the board in drops rather quickly.
Since Tori Shogi is quick, er, it’s a great gateway to the world of Shogi variants.
Now, Shogi pieces are generally differentiated by Japanese lettering, which can be a barrier some will wish not to overcome.
But there is good news on that front: Kanare Abstract (kanare-abstract.com) has produced a Tori Shogi set with the actual birds in the background (underscored with their English name), with the Japanese lettering over top. It’s a brilliantly simple solution to easier access to the game, and designer Kanare Kato needs a big pat on the back for creating the set.
The game is a classic, so it is highly recommended.
The Kanare Abstract set gets a positive nod, too. The pieces are wood, the board is cloth, and the packaging is small and easy to get to the coffee shop, as are most games from this publisher, of which many have been reviewed here previously. The only caveat here is that the game seems a bit ‘squished’ with 32 pieces on the small cloth board. Kanare Abstract did a quartet of games in a slightly larger format – Trike, Slyde, Make Muster, and heXantafl – and it would have been nice had Tori Shogi been part of that effort.
The size issue aside – it works, it’s just a tad crowded – this one needs to be in every chess fan’s collection. A solid version from Kanare Abstract.
About Author
Calvin Daniels
Calvin Daniels is a Saskatchewan-born, self-taught journalist. He is currently Editor of Yorkton This Week, with 35-years in the newspaper business.
See author's posts