Community variant
Whale Shogi
A 6x6 Shogi variant designed by Wayne Schmittberger. In Whale Shogi players have a very weak piece (the Porpoise) that if captured gives the capturing player the strongest piece of the game in hand: the Killer Whale.
Detailed rules are available on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale_shogi In this modified version, Dolphins (pawns) promote on the last rank and gain the ability to move and capture diagonally backwards.
This is a user-catalogued casual variant. Technical details such as board size,
FEN, pieces, and hand rules are defined in the Fairy-Stockfish
variants.ini block below.
Generated rule overview
This variant is defined directly from a Fairy-Stockfish rule block. The text below is generated from the available configuration and may omit details that are only implicit in piece movement notation.
Board and setup
Pieces and movement
- The piece set used on the board is: White Whale (k), Blue Whale (b), Narwhal (n), Killer Whale (w), Humpback (h), Grey Whale (g) and Dolphin (d).
- Humpback (h) is a custom piece with Betza movement `FbW`.
- Grey Whale (g) is a custom piece with Betza movement `fRbB`.
- Porpoise (p) is a custom piece with Betza movement `lrW`.
- Killer Whale (w) is a custom piece with Betza movement `RF`.
- Narwhal (n) is a custom piece with Betza movement `fDlrbW`.
- Blue Whale (b) is a custom piece with Betza movement `fFfbW`.
- Promoted Dolphin (o) is a custom piece with Betza movement `fWbB`.
Move rules
- Castling is not allowed.
- Pawn double-step moves are disabled.
- A piece may not move to a square where it would have no legal future movement.
Drops and hands
- Pieces in hand can be dropped back onto the board. Droppable pieces are: Blue Whale (b), Narwhal (n), Killer Whale (w), Humpback (h), Grey Whale (g) and Dolphin (d).
- Captured pieces go to the capturer's hand.
- Drops of Dolphin (d) are restricted on files that already contain 2 such piece(s).
- Checkmate by dropping a shogi pawn is illegal.
Promotion
- Promotions are available in the configured promotion zones. The the promotion region for White is all squares on rank 6 and the promotion region for Black is all squares on rank 1.
- The pieces that can promote are: Killer Whale (w) and Dolphin (d).
- Promotion choices are both sides: no pieces.
- Fixed promotion mappings: w promotes to p and d promotes to o.
Winning and losing
- Stalemate is scored as a loss for the side to move.
Draws and adjudication
- There is no automatic n-move/50-move draw rule.
- Position repetition is adjudicated after 4-fold repetition as a loss for the side to move.
- Perpetual check is illegal.
Piece movement
These diagrams show custom pieces and known Fairy-Stockfish built-in fairy pieces from White's perspective on a compact preview board. Some special moves, especially hoppers and game-state-dependent moves, can still depend on blockers or game state.
FbW
fRbB
lrW
RF
fDlrbW
fFfbW
fWbB
move
capture
move or capture
initial only
hopper target
Fairy-Stockfish rules
[whaleshogi]
maxRank = 6
maxFile = 6
king = k
shogiPawn = d
customPiece1 = h:FbW
customPiece2 = g:fRbB
customPiece3 = p:lrW
customPiece4 = w:RF
customPiece5 = n:fDlrbW
customPiece6 = b:fFfbW
customPiece7 = o:fWbB
startFen = hgk+wnb/dddddd/6/6/DDDDDD/HGK+WNB[-] w - - 0 1
pieceDrops = true
capturesToHand = true
promotionPieceTypes = -
promotedPieceType = w:p d:o
promotionRegionWhite = *6
promotionRegionBlack = *1
doubleStep = false
castling = false
dropNoDoubled = d
dropNoDoubledCount = 2
immobilityIllegal = true
shogiPawnDropMateIllegal = true
perpetualCheckIllegal = true
nFoldRule = 4
nMoveRule = 0
nFoldValue = loss
nFoldValueAbsolute = true
stalemateValue = loss