| Shanghai Palace Chess is a 2-player chess variant played on a 9x9 square board. The sides red and blue (south and north) each consist of 27 pieces, which are taken from western, Chinese, and Japanese Chess. The object of the game is to checkmate your opponent, or to obtain a position in which the opponent is stalemated. As in Chinese Chess, a stalemated player loses.
The 5th rank is the promotion "river" for Chinese Pawns. These pawns automatically promote as they would in Xianqi, aka Chinese Chess.
The 5th rank begins the promotion zone for Shogi pieces. Standard Shogi rules apply to Shogi piece promotion.
The 9th rank is where western pawns can and must promote. They can only promote to western pieces.
Each of two Palaces consists of 9 squares. For Red these are D1, D2, D3, E1, E2, E3, F1, F2, F3. For Blue the Palace is defined by D9, D8, D7, E9, E8, E7, F9, F8, F7. The Kings cannot leave the Palace, nor can the Guards. As in Chinese Chess, the King can move one space vertical or horizontal, not diagonal. As in Chinese Chess, the Guards move only 1 space diagonally.
Pieces move much as they do in their respective home game. The rules for Chinese, Japanese, and Western Chess will not be repeated here. To play Shanghai Palace Chess, it helps to first know the rules of the three games from which it was derived.
In 1998 Gary Gifford was working on a short story about three students who were arguing over which form of chess was best. In the story, a wise man placed Japanese, Chinese, and western Chess pieces on a Shogi board. He asked the students to play that game for several days, and then tell him which of the three traditional games was truly best. After becoming a member of ChessVariants, Gary decided to bring the fictional game into reality. Almost immediately after the posting of Shanghai Palace Chess in April of 2004, debate started as to whether the game was playable and as to whether the game was aesthetically pleasing or not.
Thanks to L. Lynn Smith, the game can now be played via this Zillions ZRF file. In addition to the setup first posted, Mr. Smith has provided the option for users to play an alternate setup, which better approximates that found in Shogi [where Bishops oppose each other along a long diagonal]. Gary Gifford stated, "In my opinion the L. Lynn Smith setup is very pleasing. You will see this as the "non-mirrored" option. It allows for western pawns to face-off against Shogi pawns and visa versa. In the original [mirrored] setup, it is west meet west and Shogi meets Shogi. Both are fun... both will offer unique opening challenges." |
