Description

"Taikyoku Sh?gi (????) is a large board variant of Shogi (Japanese chess). The game was created around the mid 16th century (presumably by priests) and is based on earlier large board shogi games. Before the rediscovery of Taikyoku Shogi in 1997, Tai Shogi was believed to be the largest playable chess variant (if not board game) ever. It has not been shown that Taikyoku Shogi was ever widely played. One game may be played over several long sessions and require each player to make over a thousand moves." - Wikipedia

Two players, Black and White, play on a board ruled into a grid of 36 ranks (rows) by 36 files (columns) with a total of 1,296 squares. The squares are undifferentiated by marking or color. Each player has a set of 402 wedge-shaped pieces of 209 different types. All pieces are the same color. The orientation of the piece tells which side it is on. The pieces are wedge-shaped with the name of the piece written in kanji on it's face in black. If the piece can promote, then the name of the piece's promoted form is written on the back face, usually in red. Pieces are turned over when promoted.

An opposing piece is captured by displacement: That is, if a piece moves to a square occupied by an opposing piece, the opposing piece is displaced and removed from the board. A piece cannot move to a square occupied by a friendly piece. Unlike standard Shogi, pieces may not be dropped back into play after being captured.

Like other large board Shogi variants, this game uses the promotion-by-capture rule. When a piece first makes a capture, it promotes if it can (this is compulsory, not optional). few important pieces do not promote. Promotion has the effect of changing how a piece moves.

The players alternate making a move, with Black moving first. A move consists of moving a single piece on the board and potentially displacing (capturing) an opposing piece, promoting that piece if it is able to promote.

The object of the game is to capture the opponent’s King and Crown Princes, of which players start with one of each. Both pieces must be captured to win. Also present is a piece called the Drunken Elephant, which if promoted becomes another Crown Prince which would also need to be captured to win.

A player who makes an illegal move loses immediately. (This rule may be relaxed in casual games.)