this post was submitted on 06 Jan 2026

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Diagrammatic Chess (Western, Chinese, Japanese) Options around the world? (hackertalks.com)

submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by jet@hackertalks.com to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

25 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Diagrammatic Pieces define the pieces moves on the item itself. This removes the need to memorize the moveset to the symbol needed in many forms of chess

Western Chess - Maple Landmark

Wooden Pieces with the moves written on the bottom (so you have to lift them up to see)

Maple Landmark Image

Japanese Chess - Dobutsu Shogi (in the greenwood)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C5%8Dbutsu_sh%C5%8Dgi

Cute animals with the moves indicated by dots around the edge of the piece, probably the best diagrammatic set I've seen

Dobutsu shogi image

Japanese Chess - Kumon Study Shogi set

Very similiar to dobutsu shogi, but with the original character written in the middle instead of a cute animal. The wood feels good in the hand

Study Shogi image

Eastern chess sets will often have "westernized" pieces, that are different non-language characters symbols, but still require people to memorize a symbol lookup table.

I'd love to find diagrammatic options for Chinese Chess (XongQi), but I haven't seen any - do you know of options?

top 25 comments

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[–] jet@hackertalks.com 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

pychess.org has modified the dobutsu shogi piece set for western chess, bless their hearts.

https://github.com/LuffyKudo/Doubutsu-Chess

https://luffykudo.wordpress.com/2024/08/01/dobutsu-chess/

[–] jet@hackertalks.com 1 points 3 days ago

I've acquired 4 sets of diagrammatic chess sets as of today! Western, japanese (x3)... i just need to find a sticker set for XongQi and I'll be all set.

[–] 7uWqKj@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Anyone who believes that children need that sort of mnemonics is vastly underestimating the mental capabilities of children. Ever played Memory against a 7-year-old?

[–] jet@hackertalks.com 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Oh, I don't need this to help children! I need this so I don't forget the moves myself, and to get other adults to enjoy a game or two.

Having a 30 something learn 15 something symbols to play a game or two to see what it is like is a big ask.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_chess_variants

There are many different types of chess out there, and as a game tourist I want to make things easy on myself. Chu Shogi has 21 different symbols for example, it's going to take a minute to memorize that, and good luck convincing someone else to memorize it to play a few games.

example:

chu-shogi without diagrammatic pieces vs with

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

OMG childhood memories unlocked.

I remember playing this thing called 斗兽棋 that I just googled and literally can't find it for sale in the west.

I remember playing that with my older brother

now the brotherhood relationship no longer exists :/ (sibling abuse)

Its bascially an animal game, like elephant takes tiger then it goes down the list and dog can take a cat, cat can take a mouse, mouse can take an elephant (cuz it goes into the elephants ears and kills it? idk), like a hierarchy thing, with the last place killing the top animal, hard to explain, just read the rules.

There are like art carved into the pieces that resemble the animal of what Chinese characters says.

I think the are versions you could probably find on a Chinese website that has a more cuter depiction of the animals.

This is like a unique thing to China I think, I don't think anyone in the west even knows about it.

I remember having fun with it with my brother... sad that relationships never last long, no matter how close the blood is :/

[–] jet@hackertalks.com 3 points 1 week ago

That looks really cool! I can't find it anywhere either

The rule set is interesting, if I ever see it i'll pick it up for sure!

[–] notabot@piefed.social 2 points 1 week ago

I like the idea of those pieces, it would have made teaching the kids a little easier, although they picked up standard western chess moves fairly easily anyway. I think you could make pieces like this fairly easily, though the Knight in particular, would need a bit of thinking about to find a clear symbol for its moves.

[–] jet@hackertalks.com 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Sadly the Dobutsu Shogi (in the greenwood) is out of print right now.

out of print store link for evidence

http://shop.nekomado.com/products/detail.php?product_id=144

I'd love to see a better western chess option

And I'd love to have any chinese chess option at all!

Obviously I can learn the symbols for a single game myself, but if I want to play with other people or teach them how to play that is quite a learning curve!

[–] jet@hackertalks.com 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Happily lishogi.org lets you select the diagrammatic pieces which makes playing online really nice.

lishogi dobutsu piece set

Sadly lichess.org does not have the same diagrammatic options!

[–] gon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

LOL lishogi?! Amazing, had no clue this existed.

Do you know what website (if any) Japanese people (and international shogi players) use to play shogi with others? Is it lishogi?

[–] jet@hackertalks.com 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

lishogi is kinda new (5ish years I think), i was around when it got forked from lichess.

I use lishogi because you don't need an account and it just works, but I think its pretty niche. It does have a adapted stockfish engine to play against.

Inside japan I think shogiwars is the most popular, but its kinda impenetrable for me, so I just tried it now... they have english in 2026 which is nice! But you can't change the pieces, however its a real experience worth visiting once.

Have you seen Chu Shogi? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chu_shogi - It's a whole thing, intense, its on lishogi but without a ai bot to play against, so human vs human only. It would be nice to play chu shogi against a bot to practice, but I don't know where to do that.

[–] gon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 week ago

Thanks for the reply!

I've never heard of Chu Shogi... It looks cool :D

[–] slazer2au@lemmy.world -3 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Why does this seem like an advertisement?

[–] jet@hackertalks.com 6 points 1 week ago (3 children)

How can I have this conversation without making it sound like a advertisement? I'm not trying to drive sales of anything, which would be kinda impossible given most of this stuff is out of print.

I'm just trying to illustrate diagrammatic chess options I'm aware of, and I want to find more. It's a very niche area. Finding more options is hard.

I would hope by this point you would recognize me (you have voted on 259 of my posts and comments) and realize I'm not some bot.

[–] quediuspayu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Hhahaha you put way too much effort in describing your examples and putting them in a nice presentation, that's why looks like an ad, hahaha.

To look less like an advertisement you can explain better why you find these interesting and spend less time with the examples.

[–] jet@hackertalks.com 3 points 1 week ago

Yeah, my personal style of trying to be clear and complete has been co-opted by the modern bogeyman

Much like Michael Bolton... i was here first! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADgS_vMGgzY

[–] Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

How can I have this conversation without making it sound like a advertisement?

It was not even an understandable question, and you still sound like promoting something.

This were 2 hints at 2 rules of this c/

[–] jet@hackertalks.com 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I want to know about self documenting chess pieces, I want to ask people if they know about them and where I can find them. Please help me phrase this in a understandable way.

[–] Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Ok spoon feeding:

How are you? is a question.

My sister? is not. Even if I want to talk about my sister, it is not.

[–] slazer2au@lemmy.world -1 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I would hope by this point you would recognize me (you have voted on 259 of my posts and comments) and realize I'm not some bot.

The fact you have stats like that make me think you are absolutely a marketing sock puppet

[–] notabot@piefed.social 5 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Due to the way federation works those stats are public information, and @jet@hackertalks.com appears to be an admin of their instance, so the data is even more easily to hand.

[–] jet@hackertalks.com 1 points 1 week ago

Plus on lemvotes they display the owning instance of a post/comment, and hackertalks.com is basically only me, so it's trivial to see how many times someone interacts with me.

[–] slazer2au@lemmy.world -1 points 1 week ago

I'm well aware. The difference is knowing the info is there and actually using it is why I called them a sock puppet.

[–] jet@hackertalks.com 3 points 1 week ago

Fair enough, you got me, the cabal of out of print niche chess marketers has been discovered.

FWIW I recognize you, so I looked up the stats of our interactions when I saw your message to illustrate we have a shared history.

[–] Wolf314159@startrek.website 1 points 1 week ago

Because the question takes a backseat to showcasing the OP's product link. They aren't trying to sell us on some carnivore product though (as seems to be their normal posting mode), so it was probably an accident. I guess once you start selling bullshit non-stop it's hard to stop sounding that way. The way they were so quick to pull and regurgitate those stats about you was a real internet marketer move though. Sneaky of you to trick them into exposing how creepy they are.