Dōbutsu shōgi

Dōbutsu shōgi

Shogi variants
Standard shogi (9×9, drops)
Small variants
Nana shogi (3×3)
Dōbutsu shōgi (3×4, for children)
Micro shogi (4×5)
Minishogi (5×5)
Kyoto shogi (5×5)
Judkins shogi (6×6)
Whale shogi (6×6)
Tori shogi (7×7)
Yari shogi (7×9)
Heian shogi (8×8 or 9×8, 12th c.)
Standard-size variants
Sho shogi (9×9, 16th c.)
Cannon shogi (9×9)
Hasami shogi (9×9, 9 or 18 pc.)
Hand shogi (9×9, 19 pc., 10 in hand)
Annan shogi (9×9, neighbors influence movement)
Unashogi (9×9, all drops)
Large variants
Okisaki shogi (10×10)
Wa shogi (11×11)
Chu shogi (12×12)
Heian dai shogi (13×13)
Dai shogi (15×15)
Tenjiku shogi (16×16)
Dai-dai shōgi (17×17)
Maka dai-dai shōgi (19×19)
Kō shōgi (19×19)
Tai shogi (25×25)
Taikyoku shogi (36×36)
Three- and four-player variants
Sannin shogi (hexagonal board, 7 cells on a side, three-person)
Yonin shogi (9×9, four-person)

Dōbutsu shōgi (Japanese: どうぶつしょうぎ "animal chess") is a small shogi variant for young children. It was invented by female professional shogi player Madoka Kitao (北尾まどか), partially to attract girls to the game. It is played on a 3-by-4 board and generally follows the rules of standard shogi, including drops, except that pieces can only move one square at a time, and with promoting the king as an additional way to win the game.

The pieces are square, like children's blocks, have cartoon figures of the relevant animal rather than kanji to identify them, and often have dots on the sides and corners of the directions the pieces can move. The game has been marketed overseas as "Let's Catch the Lion!"

Play

G	L	E
	C
	C
E	L	G

Each player starts the game with four pieces: a Lion (king) in the center of the home row ("forest"), a Giraffe (rook) to the right of the king, a Elephant (bishop) to the left of the king, and a Chick (pawn) in front of the king. Each moves as in standard shogi, but is limited to moving one square per turn. If the chick advances two squares to reach the final rank (the "sky" for the player that started in the forest), it promotes to a Hen (tokin), which can move one square any way except diagonally backwards.

As in shogi, if a Hen is captured, it may only be dropped back into play as a Chick. However, standard restrictions on where one may drop a Chick, such as giving immediate checkmate or having two Chicks on a file, do not apply.

If the players play the same position three turns in a row, the game is a draw. There are two ways to win the game: capturing ("catching") the opponent's Lion, and advancing one's own Lion into the promotion zone (farthest rank), as long as doing so does not place one's Lion in check.

A 9x9 version of this game known as "Dobutsu Shogi in the Greenwood" is launched. There are new pieces and since the board is large, the movements of the Elephant and Giraffe is unlimited.

External links

• Official site
• Rules page
• Zillions of Games - Dobutsu shogi 2.0a
• Online playing site (3x4 shogi)