Dice-Shogi ”サイコロ将棋” is a new game added uncertainty to mini-shogi by using a dice.
Game equipment
Two players play on a board ruled into a grid of 5 ranks (rows) by 5 files (columns). The squares are undifferentiated by marking or color.
Each player has a set of 6 wedge-shaped pieces. The pieces are of slightly different sizes. From largest to smallest (or most to least powerful) they are:
- 1 king ”王将”（Oushou)
- 1 rook ”飛車”（Hisha)
- 1 bishop ”角行”（Kakugyou)
- 1 gold general ”金将”（Kinshou)
- 1 silver general ”銀将”（Ginshou）
- 1 pawn ”歩兵”（Fufyou)
These are identical to the standard pieces of the same names.
And a dice is used to decide the next move.
Setup
The following figure is the initial position of Dice-Shogi.
The starting setup of a game of Dice-Shogi.
In the rank nearest the player:
- The king is placed in the left corner file.
- The gold general is placed in the adjacent file to the king.
- The silver general is placed adjacent to the gold general.
- The bishop is placed adjacent to the silver general.
- The rook is placed in the right corner, adjacent to the bishop.
- That is, the first rank is |K|G|S|B|R|.
- In the second rank, each player places the pawn in the same file as the king.
Promotion
These are as in standard shogi, except that the promotion zone is the farthest rank away from you.
Pieces promote as they do in shogi.
- Pawn -> Promoted Pawn "と金" (Tokin)
- Silver -> Promoted Silver "成銀”（Narigin)
- Bishop -> Promoted bishop (Horse) ”馬”(Uma)
- Rook -> Promoted rook (Dragon) ”竜”(Ryuu)
Drops
You can drop like you do in shogi as well.
There are two other restrictions when dropping pawns:
- A pawn cannot be dropped onto the same file (column) as another unpromoted pawn controlled by the same player. (A tokin does not count as a pawn.) A player who has an unpromoted pawn on every file is therefore unable to drop a pawn anywhere.
- A pawn cannot be dropped to give an immediate checkmate. However, other pieces may be dropped to give immediate checkmate, a pawn that is already on the board may be advanced to give checkmate, and a pawn may be dropped so that either it or another piece can give checkmate on a subsequent turn.
Sennichite: fourfold repitation
If the same game position occurs four times with the same player to move, either player loses if his or her moves during the repetition are all checks (perpetual check), otherwise "Sente"(Black) loses.
Progress of game
The game proceeds as follows.
- Players shakes a dice one by one. A player has bigger eyes becomes the first player.
For example, if an eye of "4" appears in the initial position, player can select one move from the following four moves; move the gold straight upwards, move the silver above the gold, move the bishop to the third step, move the king above the gold.
- When you have pieces on hand, you can drop a piece you like on the row of dice eye, if there are no pieces on the board placed. This count this as a move.
- If there are no legal moves in the row of eye, or if "6" eyes appear, you can choice a move from all of legal moves.
Prohibited moves (illegal moves)
- Double pawn（Ni-Fu)
- Don't drop more than one pawn on the same row.
- Piece unable to move
- Don't move any pieces on the board in the state that can not be moved. If a pawn enter the farthest rank, it must promote. Also, don't drop a pawn on the farthest rank.
- Checkmate by dropping a pawn
- Don't make checkmate as soon as dropping a pawn.
- Ignoring the check
- If it is checked, player must avoid the check situation. Do not move a piece to the position where it will become checked.
- Stalemate
- If it is not checked but there is no legal moves, such situation called "stalemate". The player who made the opponent "stalemate" will lose.
Victory condition
The player who first checkmate the opponent's king will win. "Checkmate" is the state that can not be avoided from check situation.