Daçezzhi

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Daçezzhi, sometimes pronounced Dashezzhi, is a popular game, originating in the old Kasshi Empire, derived from the game of Fives, among the Traders. This page describes the game as played in the early days of the Old Empire. This version remained popular well into modern times, but several other variants are common as well.

Daçezzhi is played on an 11x11 board, as seen to the right. The top half is called East, the bottom half West, the left half North, and the right half South. The middle row and middle collumn divide the board into four quadrants. The middle collumn has no role in the classic game or its descendants, but it did have an important role in Fives. The blue squares in the middle row are called the River, while the grey squares are called Bridges. No piece may occupy a River square, though they may pass over them.

There are two players, East and West, sometimes referred to as Red and Blue. West makes the first move. Victory can be achieved by either checkmating the opponent's General, or by leaving one's opponent with no legal moves.

Pieces

Each player starts with 22 pieces, as follows:

• 1 General (G on the diagram)
• 2 Aides (A)
• 4 Knights (K)
• 2 Chariots (C)
• 2 Dragons (D)
• 5 Archers (Ar)
• 6 Soldiers (S)

The General moves one step in any direction, but must remain on its own half of the board, that is, they cannot cross the River

The Aide steps in a single diagonal direction. The Aide and the General share a special move. When adjacent, they can swap spaces

The Knight moves one space orthogonally and one or two spaces diagonally, leaping over intervening pieces

The Chariot moves any number of spaces orthogonally. It captures by leaping over an enemy piece the space immediately after it. It therefore cannot capture a piece if there is not an empty space behind it.

The Dragon moves up to five spaces in any direction, leaping over friendly pieces, but not hostile ones.

Note that Chariots and Dragons are capable of threatening each other from positions in which they are completely safe, if a Chariot has another piece behind it, or if a Dragon hides behind a friendly piece, they are safe from their counterparts

The Archer moves one space directly ahead or diagonally ahead. It captures differently, however. It has two ways of capturing. It can capture a piece adjacent to it directly ahead, diagonally ahead, or to the side without moving (stationary shooting). Alternately, it can capture the piece directly in its line of movement after making a move, either as usual or by moving left or right. After crossing the river, it becomes a Promoted Archer.

The Promoted Archer can moves one space in any direction. It can capture any adjacent piece without moving, or, as with the Archer, by moving and capturing the piece beyond it.

The Soldier can move one space directly ahead or diagonally. In addition, it has the ability to capture a piece to the left or right, but otherwise cannot move horizontally. After crossing the river, it becomes a Promoted Soldier

The Promoted Soldier can move one space in any direction.

Because of the ability of the Chariot to capture by leaping, and of the Archer to capture ahead of itself, it is sometimes necessary to guard two or three spaces to protect a piece.

The opening phase of the game generally consists of moving ones pieces into a particular array, known as a Formation, independant of one's opponent's moves. This often lasts between 15-20 moves. The early midgame often consists of forrays into enemy territory, and exchanges of pieces (this is formally recognized as the "Raid" phase). The midgame is generally considered to begin once one player gains a foothold in enemy territory, that is, moving a piece into enemy terrritory that is not immediately captured.

Notation

Traditionally, each row and collumn has a name. The rows are, from top to bottom:

• East Home Row
• East Archers' Row
• East Soldiers' Row
• East Marching Row
• East Shore

The bottom five are named inversely. East and West may be replaced by Friendly and Hostile, which terms are relative to the players.

The collumns are, from left to right

• North Dragons' Collumn
• North Outer Knights' Collumn
• North Chariots' Collumn
• North Inner Knights' Collumn
• North Aides' Collumn
• Middle Collumn or Generals' Collumn

With the right half mirroring them. The terms North and South may be dropped, and often are, in discussion of strategy, since there is no inherent difference between the north and south halves of the board (although, of course, in an individual game, one half may prove more important, depending on play) Individual spaces may be named by combining the name of the collumn and row, thus, Northeast Dragons' Marching. The bridges are named North Bridge, Middle Bridge, and South Bridge. In modern times, a more abstract naming scheme has developed that uses numbers, with East Home Row being East 5, East Archers' being East 4 and so forth, and North Dragons' being North 5, etc, with the entire middle row called Middle and the middle collumn Middle. Thus, Northeast Dragons' Marching would be North 5 East 2 (N5E2), and North Bridge would be North 3 River (N3R).

A quick look at the board and the movement rules for the pieces indicates that there are two squares that serve as traps for the soldiers and archers. They are the Friendly Dragons' Shore squares. An Archer or Soldier caught in these squares can only escape by capturing. They are often referred to as the Dead Squares.

Moves

To describe moves, one first names the piece being moved, and then the square it is moved to. If necessary to disambiguate, one gives the name of the starting square as well. The squares' names are commonly abbreviated. We may abbreviate them as follows:

• Quadrants are referred to as NE, SE, NW, SW
• Collumns are: D, O, C, I, A, M (for Middle)
• Rows are: H, A, S, M, Sh
• Bridges are NB, MB, SB

Pieces are abbreviated as in the board diagram at top, with S+ and Ar+ for Promoted Soldier and Promoted Archer

To indicate a move without capture, a dash is used (the Kassi use a simplification of the character for "go"), e.g., K-NEDH (Knight to Northeast Dragons' Home) or K:NEOH-IM (Knight from Northeast Outer Knights' Home to Inner Knights' Marching). Quadrants need only be named in the destination if different from the initial square. For a capture, an x is used (the Kassi use a simplification of the character meaning "Kill"), followed by the piece captured and the square captuerd on, thus, KxS/NB (Knight captures Soldier on North Bridge)

For Archers, a stationay shooting is indicated by a simple arrow followed by the piece being captured and its sqare. The identity of the archer is not necessary (and can often be academic anyways). We may indicate this with the symbol ->, thus ->K/NEDSh (Knight on Northeast Dragons' Shore shot), a moving shooting is indicated by the Archers' move followed by the arrow and the site of the capture, e.g., Ar-NWCM->S/ISh (Archer moves to Northwest Chariots' Marching, capturing Soldier on Inner Knights' Shore). Promotions are optionally marked with a (P) after the move.

A chariots' capture is indicated by a character meaning "run over". Like the archer, its move is given first, then its capture. We may symoblize the capture with %, thus C-SEISh%S/ASh (Chariot to Southeast Inner Knights' Shore, capturing Soldier on Aides' Shore)

A General-Aide swap is indicated by writing the General's movement, followed by a special sign indicating a swap, which may be indicated with *, thus, G-SEIS* (General to Southeast Inner Knights' Soldier, swapping with an Aide)