Micro shogi

Microshogi (五分摩訶将棋 gofun maka shōgi "5-minute (scarlet) poppy chess") is a modern variant of shogi (Japanese chess), with very different rules for promotion, and demotion. Kerry Handscomb of NOST^{[note 1]} gave it this English name. Although not confirmed, he credits its invention to the late Oyama Yasuharu, one of the most famous professional shogi players in history. In the mid-1980s, Handscomb was gifted a set custom made by a Japanese craftsman. Therefore, the game must have been invented before this time.

Equipment

Two players play on a board ruled into a grid of 5 ranks (rows) by 4 files (columns). The squares are undifferentiated by marking or color.

Each player has a set of 5 wedge-shaped pieces. The pieces are of slightly different sizes. From largest to smallest (or most to least powerful) they are:

1 king
1 bishop
1 gold general
1 silver general
1 pawn

The king is blank on the opposite side, the silver has a lance on the opposite side, the gold a rook, the bishop a tokin, and the pawn a knight.

The pieces all move like their shogi equivalents.

Game rules

The game is identical to standard shogi with the following exceptions.

Setup

4	3	2	1
王将	角行	金将	銀将	一
歩兵				二
				三
			歩兵	四
銀将	金将	角行	玉将	五

4	3	2	1
K	B	G	S	a
P				b
				c
			P	d
S	G	B	K	e

Each side places his pieces in the following positions, pointing toward the opponent. For more information see the ChessVariants.com page on micro shogi.

In the rank nearest the player:
- The king is placed in the right corner
- The bishop is placed in the adjacent file to the king.
- The gold general is placed adjacent to the bishop.
- The silver general is placed adjacent to the gold general in the left corner.

That is, the first rank is |S|G|B|K|.

In the second rank, each player places the pawn in the same file as the king.

Promotion

Unlike standard shogi, microshogi has no promotion zone. Instead, a piece promotes when it captures, and promotion is mandatory. When a piece captures, it is flipped over to show the value on the other side.

Promotion values are entirely different from standard shogi:

A king does not promote: K
A silver general becomes a lance and vice versa: S ↔ L
A bishop becomes a tokin (T) and vice versa: B ↔ T
A gold general becomes a rook and vice versa: G ↔ R
A pawn becomes a knight and vice versa: P ↔ N

Likewise, when a lance, tokin, rook, or knight makes a capture, it flips back to its former state.

A piece can flip back and forth during the game as it makes captures.

A knight which reaches one of the two far ranks is trapped, as is a pawn which captures and thus promotes there. Likewise, a pawn that reaches the far rank is trapped, as is a knight which captures there. A lance is also trapped at the far rank, but can escape if it captures there and thus promotes to a silver. A silver which captures in the far rank and therefore promotes to a lance is trapped.

Any trapped piece may be captured and returned to play as part of the opposing army.

A tokin moves the same way as a golden general.

Drops

Drops are similar to standard shogi, except that:

A player may drop a piece with either side facing up.
There are no restrictions when dropping pawns. That is, a player may have two unpromoted pawns on the same file, a piece can be dropped with no legal moves later, and a pawn can be dropped to give immediate checkmate.

Notes

^ NOST (kNights of the Square Table), a (now defunct) correspondence game club formed in 1960 by Bob Lauzon and Jim France, enjoyed several hundred active members.