Jess Rudolf. Shogi - the Chess of Japan: Its History and Variants

50 p.
Выходные данные не указаны.В брошюре кратко описываются правила японских правил сёги и их основных вариантов.
When chess was first invented in India by the end of the sixth century of the current era, probably no one knew just how popular or wide spread the game would become. Only a short time into the second millennium – if not earlier – chess was being played as far as the most distant lands of the known world – the Atlantic coast of Europe and Japan. All though virtually no contact existed for centuries to come between these lands, people from both cultures were playing a game that was very similar; in Europe it was to become the chess most westerners know today and in Japan it was shogi – the Generals Game. Though shogi has many things in common with many other chess variants, those elements are not always clear because of the many differences it also has. Sadly, how the changes came about is not well known since much of the early history of shogi has been lost. In some ways the game is more similar to the Indian chaturanga than its neighboring cousin in China – xiangqi. In other ways, it’s closer to xiangqi than to any other game. In even other ways it has similarities to the Thai chess of makruk. Most likely it has elements from all these lands. It is generally believed that chess came to Japan from China through the trade routs in Korea in more than one wave, the earliest being by the end of tenth century, possibly as early as the eighth. It must be noted that the chess being played in China at the time was not the modern xiangqi of later centuries. Shogi is more similar to the old Chinese chess game played in the
T’ang and Sung dynasties (618 to 1279 c.e.) – which had not yet evolved much beyond the game brought in from India. Most likely the late period form of xiangqi and shogi both grew from this same source but grew fairly independently. In fact, looking at shogi gives an idea of when some changes occurred in China. The earliest shogi was played using flat pieces with characters inscribed upon them – like the flat disks used in xiangqi. Japanese art includes carved figurines so the concept is not unfamiliar to them meaning they probably did not replace the figure pieces with flat pieces but instead inherited them never knowing anything different. Also, if the name xiangqi does translate to “The Figure Game”, it would make little sense to the Japanese who never saw figures played in the game. Shogi means “The Generals Game” – the king pieces are generals as well as other pieces, possibly inspired by the use of a general instead of a king in Chinese chess.