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WinBoard mini-Shogi package

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NEW! *** On January 5, 2016, this package was updated with the newest engine versions *** NEW!


WinBoard's Shogi home page
Download WinBoard mini-Shogi install, with 7 engines, and a download link for one more.
Download Updated install, with latest engine versions (3 updated), and a new one to download separately (GA-Sho)
Other Shogi variants with WinBoard

WinBoard mini-Shogi package

This binary install contains the WinBoard graphical user interface, especially configured for mini-Shogi and Judkins Shogi. It includes a number of engines that can play these games, which can be selected from the WinBoard startup dialog. You can then play against these engines, use them to analyze your games, or play the engines against each other.

The nine engines that can be used through this package are:

Shokidoki

Shokidoki is an engine by H.G. Muller (Netherlands) that plays regular Shogi, 5x5 mini-Shogi, 6x6 Judkins Shogi, 7x7 Tori Shogi and 8x8 Euro-Shogi. It is rather weak at regular Shogi, but turned out to be brilliant at mini-Shogi. It won silver medal for mini-Shogi in the 2010 ICGA Olympiad only a day after having been modified to play on 5x5 boards, and since then has been finishing consistently amongst the best four in the UEC Cup events. In the beginning of 2013 it was significantly improved, and tuned completely for mini-Shogi. This contributed to it winning the gold medal in the 2013 ICGA Olympiad. This package contains the version that won the 9th UEC Cup in November 2015.

Nebiyu

Nebiyu is a game-playing system by Daniel Shawul, from Ethiopia. It consists of several binaries, each dedicated to different types of games (e.g. Reversi, Checkers, Go, Amazons). This package includes NebiyuAlien, wich is configurable for almost any Chess-like game through its alien.ini file. Amongst the games for which it is configured are regular Shogi, mini-Shogi and Judkins Shogi. Website: https://sites.google.com/site/dshawul

TJshogi5x5

The American Tony Hecker has written engines for Crazyhouse & Chess, Xiangqi and Shogi, called TJchess, TJxiangqi and TJshogi. A separate version of TJshogi (TJshogi5x5) is dedicated to mini-Shogi, and is included in this package. It has been participating in the 5th and 6th UEC Cup, in both cases finishing just behind Shokidoki. Website: http://tonyjh.com/chess/tjshogi

Lima

Ferdinand Mosca from the Philipines has written engines for many different Chess variants. His engine Lima is a dedicated mini-Shogi engine. (Lima means 'five' in the Filipino language.) The version included in this package is the one that was submitted for participation in the 9th UEC Cup. It is included both as a 32-bit and a 64-bit binary that uses the popcnt instruction; the latter is much faster, and thus stronger, but might not run on older hardware. Website: https://sites.google.com/site/deuteriumengine/files

Sjaak II

Sjaak is a multi-variant engine that can be configured to play almost any Chess variant, and is written by Evert Glebbeek from the Netherlands. In November 2014 a new version with much extended capabilities was created, which was also able to handle games with piece drops. As a result it could now also play Shogi, and a beta version of it was ready just in time to participate in the 8th UEC Cup. This package contains the version that was released in Januari 2016. It is included both as a 32-bit and a 64-bit binary; the latter is much faster, and thus stronger, but might not run on older hardware. Website: http://www.eglebbk.dds.nl/program/chess-index.html

Deep Nikita

Deep Nikita is a collection of programs for various games, by Andrew Lin (also U.S.A.). The mini-Shogi program is included in this package. Deep Nikita is not by itself WinBoard compatible, and runs through an adapter. This is good enough to play games, but many of the WinBoard functions (such as taking back moves, and setting up positions) will not work. Website: http://deepnikita.webs.com

GNU mini-Shogi

This is a dedicated derivative of GNU Shogi, produced by Yann Dirson (France). The original GNU Shogi has been around as open-source program (derived from GNU Chess 4) for more than 25 years. The binary in this version was patched by H.G. Muller to switch it back to the original XBoard protocol, so that it can run under WinBoard. Website: http://www.gnu.org/software/gnushogi

Petit Shogi

There is a 7th engine that can play mini-Shogi under the WinBoard GUI. It is the program ssp.exe, which used to come with the Petit-Shogi user interface. It could not be included in this package for copyright reasons, as its author is unknown and cannot be asked for permission. This WinBoard package is configured to use it, though: all you have to do is download it from the link provided when you try to run it, and put it in the 'Petit Shogi' folder, overwriting the place holder that is there. Then you can also select that engine from the WinBoard startup dialog. Website: http://www.geocities.jp/shogi_depot/#7 (Japanese)

GA-Sho!!!!!!!!!

GA-Sho is a (new) mini-Shogi version of the Japanese Shogi engine of the same name (developed by Yuichi Morioka), which regularly participates in the CSA championship for standard Shogi. The number of exclamation points in the name corresponds to the version number. So this is version 9, and the first one that can play mini-Shogi. It is a huge engine that always uses 8 threads and needs as least 3.5GB of memory, so it might exceed the capabilities of your computer. Due to the large size of its evaluation tables it was not included in this package. A download link is provided for it, however, and when you select it as engine before you have installed it a page with download instructions will automatically pop up in your browser. After following these instructions you can restart WinBoard and select the engine.
Web blog: http://d.hatena.ne.jp/Gasyou/20151129/1448787108

Interested in other games?

WinBoard supports many Chess-like games, including Shogi, Sho Shogi, Chu Shogi, Xiangqi, Chess, Makruk. This website contains an overview of all the games supported by WinBoard, including a description of their rules.