This is an engine for the Japanese chess variant Dōbutsu Shōgi (動物将棋). It uses a comprehensive endgame table base to achieve perfect play from any position.
Currently looking for people to localise this project into other languages!
If interested, please have a look at the files po/dobutsu.pot and
man/man6/dobutsu.6. These are the files in need of translation. Do not
hesitate to open an issue if you have any questions.
The following dependencies are required to compile and run this package:
- XZ Utils including the liblzma
- libedit or GNU readline/GNU history
- libintl and GNU gettext
- pkg-config
Instead of using pkg-config, you can also edit the Makefile to add in the right library paths.
On a UNIX-like operating system, you should be able to compile the software by typing
make all
into your terminal. You might need to adjust the CC variable in case
your system doesn't have a c99 binary. On most Linux systems,
make CC="gcc -std=c99" should work. Then type
make dobutsu.tb.xz
to generate the compressed endgame tablebase. This may take a while but you only need to do it once. Finally, type
make PREFIX=... install
to install the software into the provided PREFIX, defaulting to
/usr/local if not provided.
Once installed, you can start the program by typing dobutsu into your
terminal. You can play moves by typing them. The following commands
are supported, most of which are similar to those in GNU Chess:
help print a list of commands
hint print what the engine would play
exit leave the program
version print program version
new start a new game
undo undo previous move
remove undo last two moves
setup setup board with position string
show board print the current board
show setup print board as a position string
show moves print possible moves
show eval print position evaluation
show lines print possible moves and their evaluations
strength show/set engine strength
both make engine play both players
go make the engine play the colour that is on the move
force set the engine to play neither colour
verbose print the board after every move
quiet do not print the board after every move
For more details, see dobutsu(6).
Dōbutsu shōgi is played on a board with four ranks 1–4 and three files A–C. The farthest rank for each player is called the promotion zone. The player whose pieces start out on ranks 1 and 2 is called Sente and makes the first move. The other player is called Gote.
ABC
+---+
1|gle|
2| c |
3| C |
4|ELG| *
+---+
Each player starts out with four pieces, one lion, one elephant, one
giraffe, and one chick. The goal of the game is to either capture
the opponents lion or to advance one's own lion into the promotion zone
without moving into check. In the software, pieces owned by Sente are
represented by uppercase L, E, G, C, and R; pieces owned by
Gote are represented by lowercase l, e, g, c, and r. An
asterisk * denotes whose move it is.
The pieces move like this:
- The lion can move one square into every direction (like the king in international chess)
- the elephant can move one square diagonally
- the giraffe can move one square horizontally or vertically
- the chick can move one square forwards (towards the promotion zone)
- a rooster can move like a giraffe or one square diagonally forward
All pieces capture the same way they move. A chick is promoted to a rooster once it enters the promotion zone. Instead of moving a piece, a captured piece can be dropped into any vacant square. A captured rooster loses its promotion when dropped.
Copyright © 2016–2017, 2021–2022 Robert Clausecker. All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
- Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
- Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS “AS IS” AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.