Minishogi Kingin (Gold&Silver) / 5五将棋 金銀

Minishogi Kingin (Gold&Silver) / 5五将棋 金銀 

A variant of minishogi that was developed by me several years ago and officially recognized by the Japanese masters of the game in 2022 as one of the versions of minishogi on a 5x5 board.

'Minishogi Gold and Silver' is listed in the online encyclopedia of Shogi Variants on the site shogitter.com - the most extensive and authoritative site on Japanese chess variants. In addition to learning about the different variants of Shogi, this site also allows you to play them live, including this variant of minishogi on a 5x5 board, against a bot or other players.

The idea of ​​creating or rather improving the standard version of minishogi on a 5x5 board, which was invented by Shigenobu Kusumoto around 1970, came to me after playing countless games of this variant.

Anyone who has ever played minishogi on a 5x5 board using Kusumoto's rules knows that the opening stage of the game is straightforward and quite boring. The monotonous actions of the correct deployment of one’s forces on such a mini-board quickly becomes boring and, moreover, with correct and careful play, the whole process strongly gravitates towards drawn positions, where any manifestation of initiative can be severely punished.

Attempts to improve or find an ideal game on a 5x5 board were made more than once, but they all resulted in the invention of games on boards of completely different sizes - 5x6 (Goro-goro, Goro-goro+), 4x4 (Micro-shogi), 3x4 (Dobutsu-shogi) , 3x3 and even 2x3 (Gufu-shogi).

My task was to preserve the geometry of the 5x5 board, which is ideal, in a sense, for composing problems in classical Shogi - Tsume-Shogi, and where the number of striking combat units corresponds to the same classical Japanese chess.

As a result of long searches and experiments, I managed to achieve the ideal game architecture, which harmoniously fits into the 25 squares of the minishogi board and which almost completely preserves not only the concept of playing Shogi on such a small board, but, importantly, allows you to create in in the spirit of Tsume-shogi with an almost complete set of basic Japanese chess pieces.

Minishogi Kingin (Gold&Silver)

Rules of the game

The rules of 'Minishogi Gold and Silver' are exactly the same as those of regular minishogi on a 5x5 board, with the following exceptions:
- there are no pawns in the game
- each player has 1 king, 2 silver and 2 gold generals
- each player has 1 bishop and 1 rook in hand (in reserve)
- the initial arrangement is shown in the diagram below:

The game is played with exactly this set of pieces in the initial arrangement, which is the main difference from the minishogi of Shigenobu Kusumoto. It's easy to guess that this difference is precisely reflected in the name - 'Minishogi Gold and Silver'.

In such conditions, with such a balance of forces, it was possible to obtain a super-aggressive version of Shogi on a 5x5 board. The positions that arise in such a limited playing space seem so phantasmagorical and unreal that it is not possible to find something similar in other types of minishogi, and not only in variants on mini-boards.

Let's look at three positions from three different games against engines of the 6th and 8th levels, which clearly demonstrate the full potential of this minishogi variant.

Position after 50 (!) moves

Position after 34 moves

Position after 22 moves

You can find games against engines of different levels here.

However, the purpose of creating this variant was not at all to give the game acute dynamism or dizzying aggressive actions in the game. The main goal was to bring the gameplay as close as possible to some semblance of creating and solving Tsume compositions in real time, directly during the game. We can say that 'Minishogi Gold and Silver' is a variant for those who love and appreciate Tsume Shogi. Let's look at a few examples that prove this statement.

Let me remind you that the numbering of moves in Shogi is different from chess. A separate progress record is kept for each player. So the odd move number belongs to Sente (the player starting the game), while the even number belongs to his opponent - Gote.

Sente with Gyokusho, 9 moves

If we remove Gyokusho (King 35), then we have a typical Tsume. Lure Osho (King 42) to the center - to the operational space:

We drop Silver at the center, exchange Gold and Osho appears on the central square 33. The first stage is completed. Next is a checkmate final with the participation of two Gold and one Silver General.

1.S*33 2.Gx33 3.Gx33 4.Kx33 5.G-24 6.K-42 7.G*33 8.K-51 9.S*42

The following problem that arose in one of the games against the bot is solved in a similar way:

Sente with Gyokusho, 9 moves

Again we have a 9-move puzzle in front of us and again lure Osho to the center of the board:

1.B*12 2.Kx12 3.S*23 4.Kx23 5.G45-34 6.K-22 7.S*23 8.K-11 9.G*12

Dropping Kakugyo (bishop) from the reserve at 12 looks very beautiful and impressive. Everything else is a matter of technique. If this were not a game, but Tsume, then such an introduction of Kakugyo into the game would only add to the aesthetics of the entire composition.

The effectiveness of Kakugyo in the ending is also shown by the following problem:

Sente with Gyokusho, 9 moves

1.G-24 2.K-32 3.B*23 4.K-43 5.S*44 6.K-52 7.B*43 8.K-51 9.R*41

It would not be entirely correct to compare regular 5x5 minishogi with the 'Gold and Silver'. These are two completely different games in terms of tactics and strategy. Of course, the complexity of my version exceeds Kusumoto's idea many times over, but this was not the goal of improving 5x5 minishogi. The main message of 'Minishogi Gold and Silver' is to increase variety in the limited space of a 5x5 board and give the game the character of creating problems and studies - a chess composition, in our case Tsume Shogi, which reveals all the beauty of the combination game of Japanese chess.

Since a chess composition is a kind of poetry of chess, artistic creativity, then 'Minishogi Gold and Silver' is a real art of figurative expression of thoughts using a set of pieces for Japanese chess on a small canvas measuring 5x5.

Shogi and its many variants are without a doubt a stunningly beautiful intellectual game that delights and surprises us with its unfathomable depth, helping to unlock the limitless potential of the human mind.

And in all this diversity of various games, everyone will find something that will delight them and bring pleasure.