Hi !
What would you be willing to sacrifice to capture a Lion or a Free King ?
For example, would you exchange Free King + Dragon King to capture a Lion ?
Or would you give Dragon Horse + Rook or Dragon King + Bishop... to capture a Free King ?
Do your answers change depending on whether it’s middle game or end game ?
What is the importance of material value in relation to positional strategy in Chu ?
I'd be interested to hear your opinions on this !
Welcome to Chu Shogi!
Breifly answer:
1.Lion is slightly worse to Free King+Dragon in the opening, except for some sharp variation; and it tends to devaluate as the game going on, ending less powerful to Queen in the endgame with no more safety of the King.
2. Free King is of approximately constant value to a original Rook + a Golden Rook or a Horse + Side Mover, which is less in material to a Dragon + a Bishop.
3. The position matters a lot, sometimes compensating the difference of Bishop to Horse, but no so much as the endgame of standard Shogi.
Long reason:
(2.) I am trying to classify those pieces into five categories, pawn, steppers (melee), minor (ranger), major, and top pieces, and it seems working under the discussion with several players (including two 7-Dans). In that system, any exchange of the same category, like Copper to Gold, would be treated as almost equal, e.g. the one of better position beats the other. Therefore, when Free King is comparable to Eagle or Falcon at top level, its value could be calculate with basic accuracy.
Extra notation: At endgame, when you have the only one Top piece, like the only Free King on the board, it tends to perform better than material table.
(3.) When I try to analyse some classical middle-game scenarios, I found that initiative can alter to material and vise versa, with the ratio of approxi 6 moves= 1 Gold at Go-Between Exchange sharp-level, 8 Moves+1 Copper= 1 SM at "closed-center, off-side attack" sharp-level. The indeed position strategy is definetely much more complex than those classical middle-game scenario, so it must be able to play super aggressive at the cost of material.
Extra notation: If you once tried some "poor castle" (or verses such an opponent), an initiative could be even better than a Queen with checkmate threats.
(1.) This is actually a very very positional question. In many cases, the existence of Lion, even though it didn't directly participating in the fighting, means a forbidden area to the other, which cuts off the connection between two friendly strongholds. However, such disconnection gennerally requires a closed position, where many melee pieces blocking rangers. Thus, the value of Lion highly depends on the overall position and it seems weaker with less melees pieces. However, the interaction between pieces exceeded my expectation, a group of melee ones will actually be blocked by a Lion easily, and even minor rangers suffer a lot of Igui, which Free King cannot, but major pieces like Horse turn out well against Lion (even with less material in count). As for the material counting, we should try to balance all the potentially playable positions, so that the current conclusion is shown as above.
Extra notation: at late middle game, a skillful player would clear the rank of his Side Mover, so that the invasion of Lion tends to be hard, which decreases its value much. However, if it is truly hunting the King, the value of Lion is much much higher than it on the material table.
Extra notation: Lion is also a good castle piece to your surprise, if you don't mind downward trading to an Eagle or so.
Extra notation: At very end game, Free King, Eagle and Falcon can go almost everywhere with one initiative by delivering a check, which hurts Lion much.
Hope that would make your clear and more interested in Chu.
I think lion's are the best piece so sacrificing anything for one is worthwhile
Join the Chu Shogi Club team, to post in this forum