Compact Shogi (A New Variant)

This is a "modest" shogi variant. Chessvariants.com uses the word "modest" for a variant in the sense that the variant is relatively simple, can be played using a regular playing set of the main variant (in this case a standard shogi set) etc.



The game is played on a 7x7 board with the usual shogi pieces (except that there is 1 of each non-pawn piece) and the opening setup is as above, although assumably one could use some other startup of their choice. All usual shogi rules apply, except that the promotion zone for each player is the two rows at which the opponent's pieces begin the game.

In a shogi game, usually a king is moved to one of the corners, and a fortress is built around it within the first 10 moves or so. Compact shogi is meant to prevent the need (or the opportunity) to do that, while not losing much complexity from the original game keeping every kind of piece on board.

This game could be played using a regular chess set with some minor inconveniences such as using a reversed rook for the lance, and some not so minor inconveniences such as keeping track of a piece's color when it is placed on the board after being captured.