Tenjiku Shogi, the wild Chess game
Tenjiku Shogi, (exotic Shogi), is a wild extension of Chu Shogi.
It is played on a 16x16 board.
All pieces of Chu Shogi (the 18 promotable pieces and the 18 they promote to) participate in Tenjiku as well.
Tenjiku has 12 additional promotable piece types, promoting to 12 novel promoted types, though.
Like with Chu Shogi, some of the promoted types also occur in the initial setup as promotable types,
while some appear in the initial setup as unpromotable types.
The Queen and Lion, which were unpromotable in Chu,
now can be promoted to even stronger pieces.
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Most of the new Tenjiku pieces have extremely powerful moves and properties.
The worst of these is the Fire Demon: it destoys (captures) not only the piece on the square it lands on,
but also every enemy piece bordering that square!
It could thus potentially capture 8 pieces in a single move.
And it is suicide for enemy pieces to land next to it during their own turn: any piece that attempts this disappears after its move.
(But this could still be worth it if it captured a higher piece.)
As if this is not bad enough, the Fire Demon has very powerful moves:
it slides in six of the eight possible directions,
and in addition it could do three King steps from where it stands.
It has to stop at the first capture (so no Lion powers for multiple capture, but it burns all opponents around it as well),
but as it can alter direction between steps, it can move around obstacles.
Then there are four different kinds of 'jumping generals'.
These are basically Bishops, Rooks or Queens that can not only capture the first piece they encounter,
but are allowed to jump over an arbitrary number of friends and foes in order to capture something further downstream.
The 'Vice General' is like the Bishop General, but also has the 'area move' of three King steps (stopping at the first capture).
But although these jumping generals can jump over all ordinary pieces, they can block each other.
To this end the are ranked: Bishop & Rook General < Vice General < Great General < King.
They are not allowed to jump over a friend or foe of higher or equal rank,
and in case of a King they are not even allowed to capture it by jumping.
So in they cannot give check to a King that hides behind another piece.
Other pieces with weird moves are the 'Free Eagle' and the 'Heavenly Tetrarchs'.
The latter moves as a Queen, except that it jumps over the first square of its path before moving on in that direction,
so it can never make a step of one.
But it can capture any piece next to it without moving!
The Free Eagle, to which a Queen promotes, still moves as a Queen, but can also make a double-move reminiscent of that of the Lion.
Except that it is only allowed to do two single diagonal step moves, rather than two sucessive King steps.
The Lion Hawk, which is the promoted version of the Lion,
similarly combines the power to do a Lion's double King move with that to move as a Bishop.
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There are also some new weaker pieces,
and they have moves (in some directions) that do not occur in Chu Shogi.
(These moves do occur in Dai Shogi, though.)
One is the Knight, which jumps like a Knight of orthodox Chess, but only in the two forward-most directions.
(This is the typical Knight move in Shogi.)
The other new move is a limited range move of two squares, the second square only reachable if the first is empty.
The initial position of Tenjiku Shogi is well designed:
the Fire Demons in their 'boxed-in' initial positions cannot be attacked by jumping generals
(which would be a winning trade, as a Fire Demon is worth at least 3 such pieces),
because the shield of jumping generals in front of them would be able to capture any such jumping attacker.
Trading these generals will 'auto-recapture' because the capturer will be roasted by the neighboring Fire Demon,
and the resulting hole plus a Pawn move will then be enough to break the enclosure and allow the Fire Demon to escape in the open
when it would be attaked on the next move.
The initial setup has almost all Pawns protected from a distance, so that they are protected from Fire-Demon capture
(which wold immolate all contact protectors at the same time).
Only the Pawns in front of the Rooks are an exception, but these can be protected in a single move
by withdrawing the Bishop to the 'hole', so that the 'Charriot Soldier' behind it gets a clear view on that Pawn.
So despite the immense tactical power of Fire Demons and jumping generals,
the initial position is tactically quiet.
Overview of piece types and their promotions
The list below contains the Tenjiku pieces that do not occur in Chu Shogi,
or promote in a different way (in practice: promote in Tenjiku, but not in Chu).
Note that all piece types occurring in Chu also occur in Tenjiku.
Pieces in the left column promote to the piece right of them on the same line.
Pieces in the right column do not promote.
If a piece is said below to 'step two', it means it can step one square, and continue for a second step if it did not capture anything there.
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Dog - steps forward or diagonally backward
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Multi-General - slides forward or diagonally backward
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Knight - Has the two forward-most moves of the Chess Knight
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Side Soldier - steps one backward or two forward; slides sideways
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Iron - steps straight or disagonally forward
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Vertical Soldier - steps one backward or two sideways, slides forward
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Side Soldier - steps one backward or two forward; slides sideways
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Water Buffalo - steps two forward or backward, slides sideways or diagonally
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Vertical Soldier - steps one backward or two sideways, slides forward
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Chariot Soldier - steps two sideways, slides forward, backward or diagonally
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Water Buffalo - steps two forward or backward, slides sideways or diagonally
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Fire Demon - slides forward, backward and diagonally; 3-step area move; (burns! (#))
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Chariot Soldier - steps two sideways, slides forward, backward or diagonally
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Heavenly Tetrarchs - jumps over first square, and then does two steps sideways, or slides in other directions.
Can destroy (one) neighbor without moving.
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Queen - slides in all directions (as in Chu, but promotes in Tenjiku)
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Free Eagle - slides in all 8 directions, or can make a double-move of two diagonal steps
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Lion - double-move of two King steps, or jumps to any square in that range
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Lion Hawk - Moves as Lion or Bishop
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Horned Falcon - Moves as in Chu, but can promote in Tenjiku
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Bishop General - slides diagonally, and can jump any number of pieces when capturing (*)
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Soaring Eagle - Moves as in Chu, but can promote in Tenjiku
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Rook General - slides orthogonally, and can jump any number of pieces when capturing (*)
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Bishop General - slides diagonally, and can jump any number of pieces when capturing (*)
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Vice General - Moves as Bishop General (*), or can do a 3-step area move
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Rook General - slides orthogonally, and can jump any number of pieces when capturing (*)
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Great General - slides in all 8 directions, can jump any number of pieces when capturing (*)
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(*) The jump-capturing generals cannot jump over a general of higher rank, or capture royalty when jumping.
(#) All pieces neigboring a square bordering an enemy Fire Demon are removed, at the end of their own move as well as after a Fire Demon's move.
(The latter only if the Fire Demon survives its own move, and was not obtained by promotion on that move.)