Draft:Great whale shogi

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Great whale shogi is a modern variant of shogi (Japanese chess). It is not, however, Japanese: it was invented by R. Wayne Schmittberger of the United States in 1981. The game is envisioned as a "complicated 11×11 big brother" to Schmittberger's other shogi variant, whale shogi. In both games, the pieces are named after types of whales. As in that game, each player starts with only one copy of most piece types; however, in great whale shogi, each pawn is a calf that promotes to the piece type of its file, and identically named pieces in whale shogi and great whale shogi do not share the same movements between the two games.

Objective
The objective of the game is to capture your opponent's white whale.

Game equipment
Two players, Black and White, play on a board ruled into a grid of 11 ranks (rows) by 11 files (columns). The squares are undifferentiated by marking or color.

Each player starts the game with a set of 28 wedge-shaped pieces, of slightly different sizes. They are (not listed in order of power):


 * 1 white whale (W)
 * 1 bowhead whale (Bw)
 * 1 bottlenose dolphin (BD)
 * 1 rough-toothed dolphin (RT)
 * 1 sei whale (Se)
 * 1 minke whale (M)
 * 1 fin whale (F)
 * 1 Bryde's whale (B)
 * 1 harbor porpoise (HP)
 * 1 Dall's porpoise (DP)
 * 1 black right whale (BR)
 * 1 sperm whale (S)
 * 2 northern bottlenose whales (NB) (this is the only piece of which there are two starting copies per side)
 * 1 humpback whale (H)
 * 1 pilot whale (P)
 * 1 killer whale (K)
 * 11 calves (one corresponding to each piece except for the white whale, sperm whale, humpback whale. These are abbreviated by suffixing a C onto the corresponding piece type. For example, the bowhead whale calf takes the abbreviation of the bowhead whale Bw and suffixes a C: BwC)

Each piece has its abbreviation written on its face. On the reverse side of the pieces which can promote is another letter, possibly in a different color (red instead of black); this reverse side is turned up to indicate that the piece has been promoted during play. The pieces of the two sides do not differ in color, but instead each piece is shaped like a wedge, and faces forward, toward the opposing side. This shows who controls the piece during play.

Listed below are the pieces of the game and, if they promote, the pieces they promote to.

The promotions apply only to pieces that start out with the ranks in the left-most column. That is, pieces with these ranks written in black; promoted pieces with those same ranks written in red may not be promoted further. Pieces that only appear upon promotion, that is, names that only occur written in red, are marked with an asterisk. The white whale and killer whale do not promote.

Setup
Below is a diagram showing the setup of the players' pieces. The board setup is symmetrical: the way one player sees their own pieces is the same way that the opposing player sees their pieces.

Gameplay
Players alternate moving their pieces, with movements as defined below. Black plays first. A move consists of moving a piece to either an empty square or to a square occupied by an opposing piece, thus capturing that piece, optionally promoting the piece; or dropping a captured piece anywhere on the board.

Promotion
An unpromoted piece may be promoted (flipped over) if it moves into or from the promotion zone, consisting of the 3 farthest ranks from the starting area of the player who controls the piece. Calves are mandatorily promoted upon reaching the last rank. Once captured, pieces are demoted.

Individual pieces
Following are diagrams that indicate the movement of each piece. Pieces are listed roughly in order, from front to back rows, with pieces that only occur in promoted form appearing next to their unpromoted counterparts. Pieces with a grey heading start out in the game; those with a blue heading only appear on the board as a promoted piece. Betza's funny notation has been included in brackets for easier reference, with XBetza extension for lion-type or multistep moves.

Drops
Captured pieces are truly captured in great whale shogi. They are retained "in hand", and can be brought back into play under the capturing player's control. On any turn, instead of moving a piece across the board, a player can take a piece they have previously captured and place it on any empty square, facing the opponent. The piece is now part of the forces controlled by that player. This is termed dropping the piece, or just a drop.

A drop cannot capture a piece; that requires an additional move.

As in Shogi, there are restrictions on the dropping of calves (analogous to pawns in shogi). Calves may not be dropped on the last rank, may not be dropped for checkmate (though they may be dropped for mate), and may not be dropped into files that already contain a calf of that player. The last restriction applies even when two calves are of different types.

Game end
A player who captures the opponent's white whale wins the game.