Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

I agree; this game is interesting.  I would like to see a ZRF; the question
is what graphics to use for the pieces.

Question:  does this game have drops?

With the Sho able to spawn Pawns, and Pawns able to promote to any other
piece, there really does not appear that drops are needed.

Unless the author has an idea for the graphics of these pieces, I would be
happy to give it a go.  Maybe something symbolic and oriental, without
using Kanji.  How about Katakana?

I don't like pieces with oriental characters; or any other characters for
that matter.  That makes it harder to see what is going on.  Imagine
playing Chess with Scrabble tiles - 'R' for Rook, 'B' for bishop, etc.
 It would be much harder to see what is going on.  

For this game I would like to see pieces with movement diagrams, like the
pieces in Scirocco.  And, since the pieces are so short-range, it should
be easy.  In fact I will probably whip up some piece graphics in the next
couple of days.

We've been playing without drops; as Larry Smith implied, the Sho's
ability to create pawns makes draws uncommon.  A Sho on it's seventh rank
is a dangerous beast.  'Drop Kozune' could be a fine variant, however.

We've been using plain old rooks, bishops, and knights for pieces.  It's
easy enough to remember, 'This piece looks like a rook, so it moves like a
rook, but only two spaces.  And it leaps.'  Well, perhaps not so easy.  It
does challenge our Chess-based pattern recognition.

You could use graphics from the Alfarie collection on Game Courier.  I
know there is a Wazir-Dabbaba graphic (the 'Woody Rook' from The
Remarkable Rookies), and there's probably a Ferz-Alfil.  An ordinary
knight should suffice for the Ne, since they are identical.

For symbolic representation, I like a modified Parham notation:

ko: +
zu: x
ne: o

A kozu would be a + and x combined, a zune an x in a circle, etc.

Sadly, I can't use Zillions; I don't run Windows.  Even so, I would be
thrilled to see a ZRF.

yes there is dabbaba/wazir graphic, but not a fers/alfil but most that use
that combo use the elephant, which would suit more than bishop, seeing
dabbaba is old piece etc
brilliant idea about the king spawning pawns!

A small inner-game dynamic question:  Can a Sho actually spawn other pieces
on its seventh, eighth and ninth ranks?

It would be similar to a Pawn moving onto these ranks and then promoting. 
Granted that the file restriction ought to be enforced.

(zzo38)A.Black, did you know that hiragana is often used to denote a 
feminine form?  This is not to say that it would not be proper to use but 
it might convey that meaning.  Katakana(sword strokes) are slightly more 
aggressive.

Yes I knew that hiragana was the feminine form, although today most documents use hiragana for japanese words and katakana for words transliterated to japanese. I agree katakana would be better for this game though, also the symbols look kind of better for this game. The symbols in katakana almost look like their movement types, but not quite (it would make it easier for non-japanese people to remember how the pieces move). I was just saying hiragana could be used, but it probably is better to use katakana. But, the compounds would require more than one symbol.

>
> A small inner-game dynamic question:  Can a Sho actually spawn
> other pieces on its seventh, eighth and ninth ranks?
>


I think it's better to let the Sho spawn only pawns.  This way, it takes
at least two moves to create a powerful piece - one to create the pawn and
one for the pawn to take a step.  This gives the opponent a chance to do
something about it.

(There should probably be a rule that pawns can't be created on the 9th
rank, but that seems obvious enough to go without saying.)

On the other hand, I can envision a 'Summoner's Duel' type of variant
where all pieces begin in-hand and enter the board only when summoned by
the Sho.

Thanks to everyone for the kind words.  I hope the gameplay lives up to
your expectations.

The question that would then arise about dropped pieces is 'what about
promoted Pawns?'  Would the player be allowed these new pieces if
captured?  Or would the promoted pieces by reduced to Pawns and
discarded(since the Sho can spawn them anytime).

If the promoted pieces were allowed to be played by the captor, this could
make for a potentially crowded field(though unlikely no more so than the
standard game).  If not, the promoted piece could be sacrificed, knowing
that the captor would not be able to take advantage of the capture.

I would opt for not allowing the player to drop promoted pieces.

*********************

Another idea: Restricting promotion to capture pieces. A player would only
be allowed to promote to a piece which had been previously captured by the
opponent. This would mean that unless the proper piece was available, the
player would not promote when entering the seventh and eighth rank. But on
the ninth rank, the Pawn could freely promote to the Kozune since it is not
part of the initial setup.

Pieces would demote on capture, just like in Shogi. But my idea says
pawns cannot be dropped at all, only spawned, so this won't make a
difference. Kozune's (promoted pawns) cannot be dropped. I would make the
Kozune the back-side of the pawn tile, like the Tokin is on Shogi.

The promoted pieces are reduced to Pawns and discarded(since the Sho can
spawn them anytime). This was what I was thinking of as well, maybe I just
didn't write it and it is confusing.

Joshua, sorry I didn't pay attention to this when it first came out. My only excuse, a poor one, is that I am still new enough to any chess variants that I avoid the non-Western ones, frankly because drops terrify me. But as far as pieces go, you posted a good chunk of the pieces I developed for 'Two Large Shatranj Variants' 2 months before I posted 2Large. So we're at least even, as I thought/hoped I had come up with 'my' Minister [Kone] and High Priestess [Zune] first, at least in print. Hope this makes up for me beating you to 'Hyperchess'. Eric Greenwood beat us both to the Squire -> Kozu/Jumping General.
I will state that I was unaware of your pieces when I posted 2Large, and, if not for David Paulowich [who enjoys finding previous examples of my 'new' pieces - he mentioned the Squire to me] I would still be unaware that you do have precedence in those pieces. They *are* nice little pieces, aren't they? Very vicious; the kind that come right up to you and kick you in the shins while whacking you with a stick. Few people respect them until after they've been left battered and bleeding.

Drops *are* terrifying, especially to the newcomer; I've played enough
Bughouse to know that.  I think drops explain why Shogi masters are
naturally good at Chess whereas Chess masters often struggle with Shogi.

Regular Kozune doesn't use drops, however, unless one counts the Sho's
ability to create pawns.

I think it's natural for these 'new' pieces to be rediscovered
independently over and over, especially if the 'inventors' have
read Betza's articles here on CV.  If one likes short-range pieces, the
Wazir-Dabbabah and Ferz-Alfil are the natural complements to the standard
Knight.

And they are vicious little pieces.  One of the things we discovered while
playing Kozune was that checks can never be blocked - if the Sho is in
check, he *has* to move.  This is obvious in hindsight, but came as an
amusing surprise during playtesting.

My local ChessVar club has plans to play Chess vs Kozune on a 9x9 board. 
We'll see just how vicious these shorties can be when put up against the
much heavier firepower of the Orthodox Chess army (plus an extra Queen!). 
Perhaps the Kozune army's agility can overpower the Chess army's brute
strength.  I'll post here when it's been tried.

In fact the Wazir-Dabbabah and the Ferz-Alfil have already been invented by T.R. Dawson.

To quote :

--
A compound leaper is a piece that can make two or more different, non-null, patterns of leap. The simplest and best known of course is the king. Names for all combinations using coordinates less than 3 are:
{0,1} + {1,1} = king,
{0,1}+{0,2} = wazaba, {1,1}+{0,2} = diamond,
{0,1}+(1,2} = emperor, {1,1}+{1,2} = prince, {0,2}+{1,2} = templar,
{0,1}+{2,2} = caliph, {1,1}+{2,2} = ferfil, {0,2}+{2,2} = alibaba, {1,2}+{2,2} = hospitaler.

Some other combinations named by chess problemists are:
{0,2}+{1,2}+{2,2} = squirrel, {1,2}+{1,3} = gnu, {1,3}+{2,3} = bison. 
--
from : http://www.ktn.freeuk.com/9a.htm#(3)

On a different note :
Ralph Betza's Waffle and Chu Shogi's Phoenix are also called the Caliph. Charels Gilman's piece of the same name is a misnomer, because the Caliph is not a religious title. (It means successor.)

The Kirin (Kylin) in Dai Shogi moves {1,1}+{0,2} just like the 'diamond'.  Dai Shogi also has a variety of nonleaping pieces.  The Hiryu (Flying Dragon) combines the moves of the two diagonal pieces in Xiangqi, making it a 2-step Bishop.  The Mogyu (Violent Ox) is a 2-step Rook.