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H. G. Muller wrote on Mon, Jul 10, 2017 08:02 PM UTC:

>  Lastly, I know that custom variants can be entered to Fairy-Max. Does anyone know off-hand if this variant is within the size limit of Fairy-Max?

Alas, Fairy-Max is not able to handle multiple capture. (Board size (up to 13x16) and number of piece types (up to 15) would have been be no problem. Having more than one promoting type would be, however.)

I have an engine (still under development, but it already plays some variants at a reasonable level) designed for handling large Shogi variants. But I also added the possibility to implement FIDE Pawns, so it could do Shatranj and Makruk (which apart from the Pawn are somewhat Shogi-like: no castling, no promotion choice, wide promotion zone). Note that the Star Cat of Chess and a Half is a restricted version of the Lion Dog piece occurring in Dai Dai / Maka Dai Dai / Tai Shogi. The restriction being that it cannot flip its step direction during the move (out-in for a rifle capture on the adjacent square, or 2out-in). My goal is to have this engine (HaChu) also play Dai Dai and Maka Dai Dai Shogi, and the Lion Dog is already implemented.

So it should not be too difficult to extend HaChu to play Chess and a Half. Promotion choice of the Pawn could be a problem, but I think in practice promotion to Queen would always be preferred. (Jumping or multi-capture becomes rather useless, in the end-game, while crossing the board quickly to stop enemy promotions becomes often crucial.) I will think about it.

> Why play myself, if I can let an engine do the work???

This has always been my philosophy too! :-)


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