Animal Shogi

I will not hide that I am not indifferent to Japanese culture. As a child I was fond of origami , becoming older, I went to karate . I excitedly read Vurdov , trying to grasp the meaning of the kanji and at least a little understanding of the Japanese language. Over the years, my hobbies have become less extreme (although I still continue to practice aikido ). Currently, I am most interested in board games, and this is an area in which the Japanese, too, have something to please. I have already written here about Go (and maybe I will continue to write), but today I want to tell you about another great game. This game was invented for children (from 2 years), but it can not be called simple. Like in a drop of water, all features of her more adult sister were oddly reflected in her. The small size makes it look like a puzzle, and the possibility of a long game (more than 70 moves, with a perfect game) inspires respect.

This game was developed by professional shogist Madoka Kitao (2 female dan) in collaboration with Maiko Fujita (1 female kyu), especially for teaching children to play in Shogi . This is not the most minimal version of the game ( Gufuu Shogi is played on a 2x3 board, and Busy Shogi is on a 1x2 board), but perhaps the most understandable of all mini-variations.

There are no complicated for understanding rules of the transformation of figures (as in Kyoto Shogi ). Only the pawn (chicken) is transformed, having reached the last horizontal of the board. Unlike Shogi, the transformation is mandatory in all cases (and not only when a non-transformed figure cannot continue to move). There is also no transformation of other figures. Such rules make Dobutsu Shogi related to Chess , but, unlike the latter, the transformation is carried out only into one figure - the “Rooster” (analogous to the golden general in Shogi).

There are no long-range pieces in the game (on such a small board they are of little use). The usual design decision is the indication on the directions of directions in which they can walk. Such design and small size of the board make the game optimal for children to understand. On the figures, usually depicted stylized figures of animals. Another name for the game is Catch the Lion or Animal Shogi. As the name implies, the goal of the game is to catch (eat) the "Lion" of the opponent.
')

Despite the fact that the game was invented for children, it is gaining more and more popularity not only in Japan, but throughout the world (for example, in 2013 a tournament was held in Minsk ). Obviously, it is not as simple as it seems. Of course, it is much simpler than Chess and Shogi and a complete computer analysis has been carried out for it, but it is interesting to play it! First, as in Shogi, there is a reset rule. The eaten pieces do not leave the game, but can be returned to the board by the player who took them.

The second factor is more cunning. The fact is that in Dobutsu Shogi you can win in different ways (as another example of such a game, you can cite a much more ponderous rhythmology ). To win, you must eat the opponent's king or ... get your king to the last horizontal of the board! Moreover, if the next move the opponent can eat this king, then the victory "does not count."

As soon as I included this rule in my implementation of the game, I abruptly stopped winning it. When I tried to catch the opponent's king, he broke through to the last rank, and when he tried to break through himself, he substituted his own king. Yes ... you need to get used to this game. The implementation itself turned out quite good:



Unfortunately, in order to run it, a paid ZoG is needed , but the world did not converge on it. There are a lot of free Android implementations on Google Play, which can be found using the phrase “Animal Shogi”. By the way, in the search process, I came across another great game . I find it difficult to say which version of the Shogi was implemented by the author (I don’t know this), but the result was excellent in all respects. I strongly recommend this game to all fans of the genre, as well as their children.

In my version, I slightly changed the rules. First of all, I returned to the game the concept of the mate (the option in which the king can “eat” was also left). In this mode, AI ZoG behaves much more intelligently. Further, nowhere in the rules did I find a mention of whether it was possible to drop the pawn to the last rank. It was possible to transform the pawn at the fold, but I found this opportunity too “cheat”. I have banned such a discharge by analogy with Shogi. Math didn’t allow him to discard the pawn , because, again, he did not find it in the rules. There is another funny moment:


This is hard to believe, but here is depicted the most natural mate to the King of the Greens. Since all the places "in the hand" are occupied, he cannot "eat" the attacking figure. A similar variant of the game in Shogi (it is forbidden to hold more than 5 figures “in hand”) also exists and has its supporters. I did not increase the size of the "reserve" because I believe that in this form the game was only more interesting (besides, it would break the "picture").

On this positive note, I finish.
All happiness and joy, and I will congratulate the ladies on the upcoming holiday!