Rules and Overview

Last updated: 00:11 UTC 12-01-2022

To allow time for members to read and process updates, updates shall not take effect for 7 days after posting.

I have no trouble with Kanji to represent the board, but I find it very difficult to read move notation in non-western writing. Can my opponent nonetheless use move notation in non-western writing?

This is a club for a Japanese game. The majority of chu shogi games are played and analyzed using Japanese notation. I feel bad enough that there isn't a Japanese version of these rules. To disallow that would be like disallowing algebraic notation for chess in favor of descriptive notation - simply impossible.

1. Learn Japanese notation. I am working on a guide for this.
2. Request WFB after every move. This admittedly sounds tedious, but there is nothing fundamentally wrong with it.
3. I can personally moderate any games where this is a problem and produce board diagrams very quickly.

This shouldn't be a major concern, nor should you worry about it too much. Most of the advertisement for this club so far has been done in English. Therefore, I think it's safe to assume any current member who understands notation is familiar with the western style of notation. We can address the issue, once it arises.

Barring objection from multiple members, the following amendment to the above rules shall be official within 2 days of this comment being posted:

[Time Control] 4e. The player to move shall forfeit any game, in which thread they have not commented within 8 days of their opponent's latest move or their own latest comment, whichever was more recent. In the case of an anticipated leave of absence of a period longer than 8 days, such as vacation, the player should announce this along with the last move intended to be played before this absence, to prevent forfeiture.

If you have the rules as text, is it possible to copy-paste it here as text? That helps with searching for certain words like "extension"

Proposed amendment: 3c. "three times" to be changed to "five times".

This shall be effective in 24 hours, if there is no objection.

2c is invalid, you mean 3c? Careful, if I notify you of 4 more invalid rule changes you lose!

I think so that it's better to publish rules as a text, if possible. Because of the point, that some players might not be native english-speakers, and large amounts of complicated text might be a bit difficult to read through.

If the entire rules is impossible to publish as a single post, it would be fine if at least publish it as a text document (doc/rtf/epub etc), to make possible copy-pasting some parts of text into online translations.

For example, I still haven't read the rules because of that reasons, and I have no motivation to read it, if rules are stored as an image

I'll see what I can do. Most of the document is about procedural matters and for the most part shouldn't be of any concern to the players. The key notes to know about:

• Repetition rule
• Sole defender rule
• Time control, calling time

Amendment to the rulings provided in comment #8:

(to be added)

• The player to move, after having played a repetition judged to be illegal, is allowed to move any piece, not being limited to the piece responsible for the repetition.

Updates:

• [2f] Repetition rule - reformatted and minor additions for rare occurences.
• [3c.i] After notification of illegal move - added list of cases.
• [4f] Time control, vacation - enacted vacation protocol.
• [13c] Tiebreaker challenge - revised case descriptions for clarity.
• miscellaneous word changes

Updates:

• [4b] Approved rated time controls - 2d byōyomi now approved for 10-15 extensions (previously only 10).
• [4g] Long game compensation - added.
• [12d] Game ended by vote - minimum number of votes now required for validation.

Updates:

• Removed erroneous info; general rewording, shuffling
• <[2f.i] Repetition, subjective>: simplified definition; further explanation of "necessary" and "unnecessary"
• <[2f.iv] Repetition, attacked royal>: loophole fixed
• <[2f.vi] Repetition, mutually beneficial>: changed requirement from single occurence to combined target
• Old <[2f.iii] Repetition, multiple legality> removed
• <[3c] Illegal move>: penalty info dropped to subpoint <[3c.i] Illegal move, penalties> with new penalty system
• <[3c.ii.1] Illegal capture>: capture by another piece now allowed
• New <[3c.iii] Illegal move, unnoticed>: system defined
• <[3d] Editing move comments>: edits for illegal moves must now be done in new comments
• <[4c.iii] Extension time, final claims>: "0" claim must be in new comment; moderator can now claim timeout win (with delay)
• <[4e] Vacation>: set time limit to use vacation pass for all active games, must now declare in every single intended game thread
• <[6a] Board requests, standard>: standard request now for current move
• <[7c] Moderator, repetition>: can now rule on all repetitions except covered by [2f.i]
• <[8b] Grace period>: proper warning defined
• <[9b] Elo system>: K cannot drop below 24
• <[9c] WDL scoring>: defined for replayed games
• New <[9d] Title match scoring>
• <[10d] Title match format>: new system explained
• <[12b]>: voting now open to all non-player members
• <[12c] Challenge procedure>: new voting schedule
• <[12d.ii]>: cooldown time before new vote reduced from 150 to 100 moves
• New section <[14] Drawn Game Replays>

Updates:

• [2f.iv] Noted exception
• [12c.iii] Penalty for failed challenge set at 2 extensions
• [12d.iii] Limited non-player vote requests to 1 per member per game

From now on, rule changes are only allowed on 4 days out of the year: January 11th, April 11th, July 11th, and October 11th. This is to prevent the need for members to constantly be checking for changes. 

Winter 2022 Updates:

• [4f] Extensions now added after the 500th move (400th move in title matches)
• [13] Tiebreak Challenge changed to a 2-game tiebreak match of aozora chu shogi 

Clarification: If your 獅 is adjacent to an enemy 獅 and initiatially captures a 歩 or 仲, your lion cannot capture the enemy 獅 on its second step, if the enemy 獅 is defended at that point.

Reasoning: Legality of captures in a double-move must be considered intermittently (after the first step), since the second step is an independent choice. Declining to capture a 獅 on your first step forfeits the right to capture on the basis of adjacency, as there is no valid distinction from if you had captured the connecting piece from a square not adjacent to the enemy 獅.

Interesting. On the English wikipedia page I can't find any words that second your statement.

Winter 2023 Update (effective Jan 11):

• 2d rewritten to: "A game can be won by: capture of all enemy royals, resignation, timeout, illegal moves, forfeit, penalty, or the bare king rule."
• 2d.i: When the opposing army is reduced to only one royal, a player with any of the following pieces or combinations of pieces in addition to a royal shall win by rule, if the player with a lone royal fails to capture a piece on any move: 太, 反, 横, 竪, 鹿, 鯨, 駒, 飛, 馬, 竜, 猪, 牛, 鷹, 鷲, 奔, 獅, 角+金, 角+象, 3×金*, 2×象*, 象+金*, 2×角**. This shall be referred to as the "bare king rule". [* All must either be defended or on a lower rank than the enemy royal] [** Must not be able to move to the same squares].
• 2d.ii: When the opposing army is reduced to only one royal, and the player has only [1 gold, promoted from pawn] or [1 bishop, promoted from leopard] in addition to their royal, the opponent may claim a draw by insufficient material. The player may elect to play on (due to imminent capture of the lone king) but shall lose by penalty if the lone royal is not captured within 15 moves.