Dōbutsu shōgi
Encyclopedia
Dōbutsu shōgi is a small shogi variant
for young children. It was invented by female professional shogi player Madoka Kitao (北尾まどか), partially to attract girls to the game. It is played on a 3-by-4 board and generally follows the rules of standard shogi, including drops, except that pieces can only move one square at a time, and with promoting the king as an additional way to win the game.
The pieces are square, like children's blocks, have cartoon figures of the relevant animal rather than kanji to identify them, and often have dots on the sides and corners of the directions the pieces can move. The game has been marketed overseas as "Let's Catch the Lion!"
Each player starts the game with four pieces: a Lion (king) in the center of the home row ("forest"), a Giraffe (rook) to the right of the king, a Elephant (bishop) to the left of the king, and a Chick (pawn) in front of the king. Each moves as in standard shogi, but is limited to moving one square per turn. If the chick advances two squares to reach the final rank (the "sky" for the player that started in the forest), it promotes to a Hen (tokin), which can move one square any way except diagonally backwards.
As in shogi, if a Hen is captured, it may only be dropped back into play as a Chick. However, standard restrictions on where one may drop a Chick, such as giving immediate checkmate or having two Chicks on a file, do not apply.
If the players play the same position three turns in a row, the game is a draw. There are two ways to win the game: capturing ("catching") the opponent's Lion, and advancing one's own Lion into the promotion zone (farthest rank), as long as doing so does not place one's Lion in check.
A 9x9 version of this game known as "Dobutsu Shogi in the Greenwood" is launched. There are new pieces and since the board is large, the movements of the Elephant and Giraffe is unlimited.
Shogi variant
Many variants of shogi have been developed over the centuries, ranging from some of the largest chess-type games ever played to some of the smallest...
for young children. It was invented by female professional shogi player Madoka Kitao (北尾まどか), partially to attract girls to the game. It is played on a 3-by-4 board and generally follows the rules of standard shogi, including drops, except that pieces can only move one square at a time, and with promoting the king as an additional way to win the game.
The pieces are square, like children's blocks, have cartoon figures of the relevant animal rather than kanji to identify them, and often have dots on the sides and corners of the directions the pieces can move. The game has been marketed overseas as "Let's Catch the Lion!"
Play
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Each player starts the game with four pieces: a Lion (king) in the center of the home row ("forest"), a Giraffe (rook) to the right of the king, a Elephant (bishop) to the left of the king, and a Chick (pawn) in front of the king. Each moves as in standard shogi, but is limited to moving one square per turn. If the chick advances two squares to reach the final rank (the "sky" for the player that started in the forest), it promotes to a Hen (tokin), which can move one square any way except diagonally backwards.
As in shogi, if a Hen is captured, it may only be dropped back into play as a Chick. However, standard restrictions on where one may drop a Chick, such as giving immediate checkmate or having two Chicks on a file, do not apply.
If the players play the same position three turns in a row, the game is a draw. There are two ways to win the game: capturing ("catching") the opponent's Lion, and advancing one's own Lion into the promotion zone (farthest rank), as long as doing so does not place one's Lion in check.
A 9x9 version of this game known as "Dobutsu Shogi in the Greenwood" is launched. There are new pieces and since the board is large, the movements of the Elephant and Giraffe is unlimited.