Kiryu
Version 1.1.0
22th July, 2009
Kiryu is a shogi (Japanese chess) program featuring Bonanza which is developed by K.Hoki and is the winnner of 16th World Computer Shogi Championship (2006). Bonanza doesn’t have own GUI, so that I added Cocoa GUI as Kiryu for Mac users. I used Bonanza v.4.1.2 without any modification.
Here is a screenshot using English piece set.
Japanese piece set is:
You can change the piece set using “Preferences”.
Usage condition
Kiryu is a freeware. But don’t redistribute it without permission. The direct link to the file is not allowed. This software is provided “as is”. There is no warranty. Use it at your own risk.
Requirements
OS: Tiger (10.4) or higher.
CPU: Intel Mac only
Memory: Kiryu needs about 300MB free memory. So 1GB memory is recommended.
Download
Click the button to download. You need to turn Javascript on.
Installation
Double click the downloaded file to expand. The file size will be 181.5MB. You can move it into any folders.
Usage
Click “Start Game” in toolbar to start. The window bellow will appear.
“Black” always move first. “White” is the second player. If you choose AI as handicap giver, AI always move first.
The game level is decided by setting AI’s thinking times, “Total thinking time” and “One move time”. The longer the thinking time, the stronger AI. When AI consumes the total thinking time, it moves within one move time. At first I recommend “Total thinking time” is 0 and “One move time” is 3. It’s enough for most people, I think.
You can move a piece on the board and in hand by drugging the piece. If you click a piece on the board, white circles will show up. It means possible moves for the piece. In the case of piece in hand, the circle won’t appear. But you’ll see a message for reason why you can’t drop when you make a illegal drop. Try “Check Reply” in Game menu if AI doesn’t move after waiting for a while.
Use “Pause” button to pause. “Resign” is used if you give up the game. “Undo move” cancels your previous move.
Perhaps you have difficulty to read Japanese on pieces. In preferences window, you can change the piece set. The figure bellow shows the English symbol of piece and corresponding Japanese piece.
In preferences window, all of you can understand what you can do with that except AI tab.
Number of AI Thread:
Bonanza can think the next move in parallel. The number sets how many parallel thinking Bonanza does. In the case of dual core CPU, however, it fixed to 1.
Wide opening book:
If this is not checked, AI will choice frequently used opening. In other words, it choices popular opening. If you like to use familiar opening only, set it not checked.
As for rules of shoji, please see:
RICOH SHOGI’S PAGE
Shogi - Japanese Chess