What is the difference between Japanese shogi and Chinese chess?

2023-10-28

Speaking of antiquity, it is necessary to understand the origin of Shogi. There are many theories, which are still not settled, but a strong one is that the Japanese shogi originated from the Indian Chaturanka, which is the ancient Indian chess named "army". As for the time of the birth of Shogi, it is uncertain because of the lack of evidence.

In 1993, 16 of Japan's oldest surviving shogi pieces, along with wooden slips with the inscription "Drunk elephant", were excavated at the Kofukuji Temple in Nara. In the way of movement, except that this chess piece can not move backwards, the rest and jade will be the same. After the ascension into a prince, even if one of the jade will be killed, as long as the prince is still in, the game will continue. It is said that after the Emperor Nara canceled the drunken elephant chess piece, it became a popular Japanese chess.

The earliest historical data of shogi is the Heian period "New Sarugakuji". It is generally believed that the author of the book is Fujiwara Akira, and the book contains records on Shogi. The Erzhong Calendar, a custom book compiled from 1210 to 1221, also recorded two kinds of general chess, in order not to confuse the later versions of general chess, now known as Pingan general chess. There are jade general, gold general, Silver general, GUI horse, Xiangche, infantry six pieces, known as small general chess, there are including copper general, iron general, Rampage, Tiger, flying dragon, Ben car, Zhuren and other thirteen pieces of peace general chess *.

There are also many people who believe that Japanese Shogi originated from Chinese chess, or was introduced to Japan through China. Although there is no evidence to support this statement, will chess does have similarities with Chinese chess, and the next is to introduce the difference between Will chess and Chinese chess.

First, the chessboard. Japanese will chess 9 ways, a total of 81 grids, chess pieces walk in the grid. In Chinese chess, there are 9 vertical and 10 horizontal paths, with the pieces walking on the line.

Then there are the chess pieces. The chess pieces are the biggest difference. Will chess is a bit like chess, the most front row are soldiers, but will chess pieces have three rows, the second row is corner line and flying car, the third row is Xiangche, GUI horse, silver, gold, jade (king), gold, silver, GUI horse and Xiangche, the overall account for one-third of the board. Although chess is also three rows of pieces, but the first row of soldiers only 5, the second row is two guns, the rest of the pieces are placed on the bottom line of the board, occupying nearly half of the board.

The use of chess pieces is also different. Take the car as an example. In Chinese chess, the car is a powerful piece, which can move horizontally and vertically without limiting the distance. The game is different, in the game of flying car and car function is similar, but each side has only one flying car, the upgraded flying car can not only move in the horizontal direction of unlimited distance, oblique can also move one grid. The other two fragrant cars are weaker and can only go forward, not backward. After ascending, they could move backward but lost the ability to move long distances. They could move in six directions except the lower left and lower right, but they could only move one space at a time.

Speaking of ascension, this is a small feature of Shogi. In fact, after crossing the river, the soldiers in Chinese chess can move laterally, which is also a kind of promotion, although there is no such name in Chinese chess. In addition to jade generals and gold generals can be promoted, after the promotion of the name and movement will change, some can directly improve the power, some is to change the role of the pieces. For example, the flying car mentioned above was originally the same as the car in Chinese chess, which can only move horizontally and horizontally without limiting the distance, and the name of the flying car has become the Dragon King, in addition to the original way of moving, it can also move one square diagonally and become a chess piece with eight faces.

One more rule difference. Chinese chess has restrictions on the movement of pieces, such as elephants can only move in their own half, can not cross the river, and scholars and generals can not leave the nine Gong grid. Japanese shogi does not have the same range of moves as Chinese chess (but some moves are fouls).

In addition, the biggest difference between Chinese chess and Chinese chess is that after the chess pieces are eaten by the other side, they must be removed from the board and can not be used again. Shogi is even more complicated, with an entry rule that allows a player to return a eaten opponent's piece to the board as his own strength. Of course, there are also many restrictions on entry, such as not allowing the entry of the pieces directly checkmate each other, and so on, here is not a detailed description.

In fact, there are many differences between the two, involving specific layout, rules and other aspects, space is limited, talk about it.

Finally, to give you a little knowledge, people who know a little bit about will chess may feel strange, will chess inside the most important piece is not the king general? Why is it written as a jade general? There is a reason for this difference