Andrew C. West wrote:
I've never quite worked out what purpose U+2616 [WHITE SHOGI PIECE] and U+2617 [BLACK SHOGI PIECE] are intended for.
The standard game of shogi (Japanese Chess) has 20 uncoloured tiles on each side, with a kanji inscription giving the piece's name on each tile.
In discussions of shogi games, one player is conventionally called 'Black' and the other 'White', but as you note this has nothing to do with the colour of the pieces. I would like to know what the presumed purpose of U+2616 and U+2617 is. If it is indeed to be able to represent shogi game pieces, then the glyph representation shown in the Unicode charts might be changed: both pieces should be white in colour, but facing in opposite directions.
Each side's 20 tiles are identical (differentiated by orientation not by colour) except for the "general".
Not so. Both sides has four generals: two 'gold' and two 'silver'. The gold and silver generals differ from each other, but each side's pieces are entirely identical.
By the way, if any Unicoders play shogi, I could bring my travel set next time I come to the conference.
John Hudson
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Tiro Typeworks www.tiro.com Vancouver, BC [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Currently reading: Typespaces, by Peter Burnhill White Mughals, by William Dalrymple Hebrew manuscripts of the Middle Ages, by Colette Sirat
