Tenjiku shogi ('exotic chess') is a large-board variant of shogi (japanese chess).
It is played on a board of 16 x 16 squares and each player has 78 pieces from 36 different kinds.
The objective of the game is to capture the opponent's King and, if present, the Prince, which counts as a second king.
Unlike standard shogi, captured pieces can not be dropped back into play.
Note that there is no concept of 'check' for the royal pieces in Tenjiku-Shogi! (see the description of the King piece for that)
To learn the movement of a piece, you can hover the mouse on it to show the line of explanation/help at the bottom of ZOG window;
For a more in depth description, right-click on the piece and select 'properties' to read it.
For a modern gameplay on ZOG, the promotion rules are as follows:
- When a piece than can promote (all except King, Lion-Hawk, Free-Eagle, Great-General, Vice-General and Fire-Demon) ends its
move within the promotion zone of the enemy (ranks 12 to 16), it may promote.
- If a promotion is skipped, the piece must leave and enter again the promotion zone (unless making a capture into it) in order
to gain it again. An exception exists for the Soaring-Eagle, Horned-Falcon and Lion which can be just outside the zone...
make a capture into the zone with their partial-move, then step outside of it on the same turn and be promoted nonetheless!
- Pieces which can not go backwards and sideways (Pawn, Lance, Iron-General and Knight) are forced to promote on the spot when
they haven't further legal moves on the board.
*Note that the Water-Buffalo when promoting, becomes a newborn Fire-Demon (in grey colour) and doesn't burn on the spot all
enemy pieces around him until its next turn. A player must activate manually his newborn Fire-Demon on the very next turn by
dropping the piece into its square (it activates its normal passive burn at that moment,
and it becomes a full Fire-Demon afterward!) |