将棋の棋譜フォーマットPSNとは何なのか？

投稿日時: 2021年6月22日投稿者: やねうらお

最近、カツ丼将棋さんがPSNって何すか？って言ってたので、将棋ソフト開発者にすら忘れ去られているPSNフォーマットについてまとめておきます。まず、PSNフォーマット以前に、将棋の棋譜フォーマットについておさらいから。

将棋の棋譜フォーマットができるまで

柿木将棋(かきのきしょうぎ)で使われていた棋譜の形式である、KIF/KI2形式。現在、将棋ソフトの棋譜で広く使われているのはこの形式です。KIF/KI2の指し手表現には「５八金(69)」(KIF形式)、「５八金右」(KI2形式)のように日本語が使われています。

ところが、将棋の思考エンジンはUSIプロトコルでGUI側とやりとりするのが普通です。USIプロトコルでは、指し手は「6i5h」(69の駒を58へ移動)のように表現されます。何故、思考エンジンとやりとりするためにKIF/KI2形式を拡張したものが使われなかったのかと言うと、これらの形式は日本語で指し手を書かないといけないため、そのようなプログラムを書くのがわりと面倒だからです。(特にKI2形式は難しいです)

将棋ファンならご存知だとは思いますが、日本将棋連盟の公式サイトには、棋譜の表記方法について説明があり、このルールはとても複雑です。

棋譜の表記方法
https://www.shogi.or.jp/faq/kihuhyouki.html

そういうわけで、思考エンジンとのやりとりに使うプロトコルとしてKIF/KI2をベースとしないのはこれはこれで良いのですが、であれば、USIプロトコルはどこからやってきたのでしょうか？

USIプロトコルの由来

USI(Universal Shogi Interface)は、チェスのソフトで使われていたUCI(Universal Chess Interface)プロトコルを将棋用に手直ししたものです。USIプロトコルを考案した人のサイトはすでに消滅しています。

USIプロトコル原案の魚拓
https://yaneuraou.yaneu.com/2020/03/09/usi%e3%83%97%e3%83%ad%e3%83%88%e3%82%b3%e3%83%ab%e5%8e%9f%e6%a1%88%e3%81%ae%e9%ad%9a%e6%8b%93/

チェスの棋譜

USIプロトコルがチェスからやってきたことはわかりました。では、チェスの棋譜表現はどうなっているのでしょうか？

チェスの棋譜表現としては、PGN(Portable Game Notation)というフォーマットが事実上の標準となっています。

Portable Game Notation : https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Game_Notation

PGNの指し手表現は、「40.Rd6」(40手目にROOKをd6の升に移動)のようになっていて、UCIの指し手表現である「d5d6」(d5の升の駒をd6に)とは少し異なるようですが、KIF形式ほど違うわけではないのでUCI対応の将棋エンジンがPGN形式のファイルの読み書きを行うのは、それほど難しいことではないでしょう。

PGNの将棋版はないのか？

それでは将棋でも、USIプロトコルの指し手表現(「6i5h」みたいなの)をそのまま棋譜の指し手に使うような棋譜フォーマットを作れば、思考エンジンで読み書きするのが楽になるのではないでしょうか？

それがPSNフォーマットです。

PSNフォーマットとは

USIプロトコルの指し手文字列(SFEN文字列と呼ばれる)をそのまま指し手表現に用いた棋譜表現フォーマットであり、SFEN文字列を入出力に用いている将棋の思考エンジンからは簡単に入出力部を書けます。

将棋所、将棋神やねうら王(MyShogi)ではPSN形式で棋譜の読み書きができます。

また、MyShogi(将棋神やねうら王で使われているGUI)で、PSN形式ではかゆいところに手が届かなかったのでPSNを拡張したPSN2というフォーマットを私(やねうらお)は定めました。

将棋ソフト界隈では、KIF/KI2形式、CSA形式がすでに普及していて、かつ、それらは表現力がPSNより高かったために、PSNは将棋ソフト界隈ではほとんど知られることなく現在に至ります。

まあ、思考エンジンから棋譜を出力する処理を書きたい時に、わりと簡単に実装できるので、将棋ソフト開発者の方は、活用すると良いのではないでしょうか。

資料

PSN formatの書いてあったサイトのWeb Archive : https://web.archive.org/web/20160418021921/http://genedavis.com/articles/2014/05/09/psn/
// PSNのフォーマットの説明が書かれていたサイト自体が消滅しているようです。(ドメイン更新されずSEO業者の手に渡った模様)

PSN2 format について(MyShogiのdocsより) : https://github.com/yaneurao/MyShogi/blob/master/MyShogi/docs/PSN2format.md

以下、魚拓代わりにPSNフォーマットの原案を貼り付けておきます。


SHOGI
PORTABLE SHOGI NOTATION (PSN) SPECIFICATION
MAY 9, 2014 TGENEDAVIS

Portable Shogi Notation (PSN) Specification (Draft 1 - accepting comments and CONSTRUCTIVE criticism)
--------------------

(last updated, August 1, 2009)

Objectives
——————–

Provide:

* compatibility with current Portable Shogi Notation file conventions
* free opensource reference implementations in common programming languages to encourage compliance to current standard
* information on *.kif to *.psn and *.psn to *.kif file format conversion
* conventions for common and custom attribute/value declarations in game records
* conventions for commenting games
* conventions for recording standard and non standard shogi variations


Internet Sources
——————–

This document and the PSN reference implementation are located at,

http:&#47;&#47;genedavissoftware.com/2014/05/09/psn/

and,

http://sourceforge.net/projects/psn-library/

respectively.

Rules For Creation of PSN Files
——————–

1) Clarity. Always mark a move with enough detail that the move is unambiguous.

2) Extraneous information is always optional. For instance, if stating the token and the final location makes it obvious what move took place, you are not required (though encouraged) to add information specifying what move resulted in the final location.

3) Ambiguous notation is deprecated. In older PSN files, you may see moves specified that could describe more than one possible move. In all cases, ambiguous move notation is unsupported in modern PSN.

Overview of PSN File Format
——————–

Portable Shogi Notation (PSN) files end in ‘.psn’. For instance, A PSN file named ‘my_games’ would have the full name ‘my_games.psn’.

PSN files contain 0 or more partial or full game records.

A game record has three parts:

Part 1 —&gt; One or more record properties
Part 2 (optional) —&gt; Record summary
Part 3 —&gt; Moves and comments

PSN Record Properties
——————–

One or more properties begin a PSN game record. At least one property is required for every PSN game record. Which property or properties start a record are completely optional.

Properties are specified by an opening square brace, a property name, a space, a property value, and a closing square brace. Each property should be followed by a new line and/or line feed character. In other words, only property should occupy one line of the PSN file.

Values should be surrounded by double straight quotes.

For example, here are some properties from a PSN file.

&#91;Date “2009/08/01”]
&#91;Sente “Bob”]
&#91;Gote “Joe”]
&#91;SenteRank “3 Dan”]
&#91;GoteRank “Challenger”]
&#91;Result “0-1”]
&#91;Event “Home Tournament”]
&#91;Round “Final”]
&#91;Site “Bob’s Home”]
&#91;Handicap “Rook”]
&#91;Joseki “Silver Crown”]

Property names are not case sensitive. “Site” and “sItE” are the same property name.

Standard record property names are:

Date —&gt; year/month/date as numbers. The year should not be
abbreviated.

Sente —&gt; name or title of black player
Black —&gt; name or title of opening player. Alternate name for “Sente”
property.

Gote —&gt; name or title of white player
White —&gt; name or title of 2nd player. Alternate name for “Gote”
property.

SenteRank —&gt; Official rank of handicapped black player or player taking
first move.
SenteGrade —&gt; Alternate name for “SenteRank” property.
BlackRank —&gt; Alternate name for “SenteRank” property.
BlackGrade —&gt; Alternate name for “SenteRank” property.

GoteRank —&gt; Official rank of non-handicapped white player or player
taking second move
GoteGrade —&gt; Alternate name for “GoteRank” property.
WhiteRank —&gt; Alternate name for “GoteRank” property.
WhiteGrade —&gt; Alternate name for “GoteRank” property.

Result —&gt; result of game. Suggest values include “0-1” for white win,
“1-0” for black win, and “Resigns” meaning next player to
move resigned instead of moving.

Event —&gt; tournament or event name
Round —&gt; round (when in tournament)
Site —&gt; location of game play
Handicap —&gt; handicap name unspecified implies even game. Handicaps are not
case sensitive. Standard values for Handicap are:

“Even”
“Sente”
“Gote”
“Lance”
“Bishop”
“Rook”

“Rook and Lance”
“Rook &amp; Lance”
“Rook+Lance”
“Rook + Lance”

“Two Pieces” (meaning rook and bishop)
“Two Piece”
“Rook and Bishop”
“Rook+Bishop”
“Rook + Bishop”

“Four Pieces” (meaning rook, bishop, and both lances)
“Four Piece”

“Six Pieces” (meaning rook, bishop, both lances, and both knights)
“Six Piece”

“Eight Pieces” (meaning rook, bishop, both lances, both knights, and both
silver generals)
“Eight Piece”

Joseki —&gt; A standard opening used in the game such as “Silver Crown”
or play style such as “Ranging Rook”.
Opening —&gt; Alternate name for “Joseki” property.

Custom value name pairs are allowed. The previous name/value pairs are the only pairs required to be implemented.

PSN Record Summary
——————–

The record summary is optional.

The record summary is a specialized comment. Comments in *.psn files always are surrounded by curly braces. That is ‘{‘ begins a comment and ‘}’ ends a comment. The record summary comment is placed after the last record property, and before the first move of the game. It is the record summary by virtue of its location in the game record.

PSN Record Moves and Comments
——————–

** Comments **

Comments are placed after the move the comment is meant to describe. Comments should not be placed adjacent to one another. This means that one move can only have one comment. A comment must be followed by another move, or in the case of the last move, a new game record.

Comments take the form of:

{some comments}

Comments are surrounded by curly braces. That is an opening ‘{‘ starts a comment and a closing ‘}’ ends a comment.

Comments may span multiple lines or be contained between moves on a single line.

Here is an example of a comment that describes move number 77.

76.G6a-7a 77.N*1h {Nothing really to comment here, just want to show in game comment.} 78.G7a-6a 79.N*1e 80.G6a-7a

** Moves **

Moves are described in standard shogi notation or abbreviated notation. Above all else, move descriptions must NEVER be ambiguous. If two moves are described by a single notation, the move notation is invalid.

Moves may optionally be numbered. A number followed by a period, followed by the move notation is standard. No spaces should be found between the move number, period or move notation. For instance,

9.P4g-4f 10.B5ex4f 11.N2i-3g 12.B4fx3g+

Moves may be number every ply as in the example above, or every turn such as,

5.P4g-4f B5ex4f 6.N2i-3g B4fx3g+

Move numbering is meant for human readers of PSN files, and does not affect the parsing of a PSN by a computer.

PSN Move Notation
——————–

Move notation can be in full extended form or abbreviated. The reigning rule of PSN move notation is that the intended move MUST be obvious.

Black (also called sente) always moves first. In handicap games, Black’s move is noted with three period with no spaces (“…”).

Case is sensitive in PSN move notation. For instance, “G” is a Gold General, and “g” is part of a board location.

In all move notations (both abbreviated and full), tokens are named with a capital letter. Accepted token abbreviations are:

King —&gt; K
Rook —&gt; R
Bishop —&gt; B
Gold General —&gt; G
Silver General —&gt; S
Knight —&gt; N
Lance —&gt; L
Pawn —&gt; P

Promoted Rook —&gt; +R
Promoted Bishop —&gt; +B
Promoted Silver General —&gt; +S
Promoted Knight —&gt; +N
Promoted Lance —&gt; +L
Promoted Pawn —&gt; +P

Extended (also called Full) notation moves take the form:

(move#)(token)(from location)(move type)(to location)(promotion/no promotion)

For example,

34.+B4ex8i

means at move 34, the Bishop was moved from 4e to 8i capturing a token.

Another example,

R4h-4c=

A drop looks like this,

B*6i

meaning a Bishop is dropped at location 6i.

means the Rook was moved from 4h to 4c without capturing a token, and could have promoted but chose not to promote.

Moves never contain white space. White space separates moves.

Move numbers are ignored by parsers and only supplied to make the game record more legible for humans. Moves are numbers followed by a period.

Permissible token names (such as +R or K) are described above.

Board locations are described by a grid with the X coordinate being a number (1-9) and the Y coordinate being described by a letter (a-i). Locations are described by (number)(letter) combinations starting from the white players left hand lance. For instance, “1a” describes the white player’s left lance’s initial location. “9i” describes the black player’s left lance’s initial location.

Visually the board numbers and letters are arranged as follows.

   white player

  9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
 . . . . . . . . . .
a
 . . . . . . . . . .
b
 . . . . . . . . . .
c
 . . . . . . . . . .
d
 . . . . . . . . . .
e
 . . . . . . . . . .
f
 . . . . . . . . . .
g
 . . . . . . . . . .
h
 . . . . . . . . . .
i
 . . . . . . . . . .

   black player

Valid move types include “-” for standard moves, “x” for captures, and “*” for drops.

Valid promotion indicators are “+” meaning the token is promoting, “=” meaning the token could have promoted but did not, or nothing when promotion was not an option.

PSN Exceptions and Abbreviations
(the shortcuts computer programmers hate, but normal humans love)
———————

* If the “Handicap” property specifies a non even game the first move (“…”) may be omitted from the game record.

* No comments are allowed on the special case “…” move for handicap games.

* Leading “+” for promoted tokens is optional when the move is not ambiguous.

* Capturing a players last moved token can be specified by a token and an “x”. For instance,

xG

or,

Gx

means that a Gold General captures the last moved or last dropped token (even if the other Gold General is in a position to capture a different token, or the capturing Gold General could have captured a different token.)

NOTE: a promoted G in this notation would be “x+G” or “+Gx”

* A token followed by an “x” CAN be a capture of an unambiguous token that did not just move or drop. For example, “Gx” first means Gold General captures a token that just moved. If no token just moved, then one and only one Gold General must have the option of capturing one and only one opposing token that did not just move or drop.

* The “-” move type is only included for human readability. It is optional. “R4h-4c=” can be written “R4h4c=”.

* The “=” symbol indicating a declined promotion is optional when no promotion took place.

* The “+” promotion symbol may appear at the end of the move notation even if the token previously promoted. Essentially, ignore it in these cases.

* The “x” for captures is optional if the capture can be implied from the existing notation token and location information.

* The “*” for drops is optional if the drop can be implied from the existing token and location.

* Any location numbers or letters may be omitted if the retained letters or numbers are enough to determine the move unambiguously. This applies to moves, captures and drops. For instance, “G4ex3d” can also be written as “Gx3d”, “G3d”, “Ge3d”, or “G4exd” are all valid if they are unambiguous.

So depending on the board setup, “P3d” could have any of the following meanings, as long as the meaning is clear in the context of the current shogi board.

P3d —&gt; moves Pawn to 3d, OR
captures with Pawn at 3d, OR
drops Pawn at 3d

Sample PSN File with Single Record
———————

&#91;Date “2009/08/01”]
&#91;Sente “Joe”]
&#91;Gote “Mary”]
&#91;Result “0-1”]
&#91;Handicap “Even”]
{This is a fictitious game with random moves. It is meant merely to show the format of a PSN game record.}
1.P7g-7f {Off to a not too interesting start.} 2.P2c-2d 3.P6g-6f 4.P3c-3d 5.B8h-7g 6.B2b-4d 7.P3g-3f 8.B4d-5e
9.P4g-4f 10.B5ex4f 11.N2i-3g 12.B4fx3g+ 13.R2h-4h 14.N*6g 15.K5i-5h 16.N6gx7i+
17.R4hx4c+ 18.+B3gx3f 19.P*4g 20.P*4b 21.+R4cx3d 22.S*3e 23.G6ix7i 24.+B3fx2g
25.P*3h 26.P*3c 27.+R3dx3e 28.P3c-3d 29.+R3ex3d 30.P*3c 31.+R3dx2d 32.+B2g-4e
33.+R2dx2a 34.+B4ex8i 35.G7ix8i 36.N*4f 37.P4gx4f 38.L1a-1b 39.+R2ax1b 40.P9c-9d
41.+R1bx1c 42.S3a-3b 43.P3h-3g 44.P4b-4c 45.+R1c-1e 46.P8c-8d 47.P5g-5f 48.S3b-2c
49.P3g-3f 50.N8a-9c 51.P9g-9f 52.K5a-4b 53.B7g-8f 54.S7a-6b 55.S3i-3h 56.G4a-5b
57.+R1e-2e 58.S2c-1b 59.G4i-3i 60.P4c-4d 61.L1i-1h 62.P7c-7d 63.P1g-1f 64.G5b-4c
65.B8f-5i 66.K4b-4a 67.L1h-1g 68.S6b-7c 69.B5i-8f 70.P5c-5d 71.P1f-1e 72.K4a-5a
73.P1e-1d 74.K5a-4a 75.G8i-8h 76.G6a-7a 77.N*1h {Nothing really to comment here, just want to show in game comment.} 78.G7a-6a 79.N*1e 80.G6a-7a
81.S*5b 82.R8bx5b 83.L*2b 84.S*7i 85.P*2d 86.S7ix8h+ 87.B*6i 88.G*7i
89.N*6h 90.+S8hx9i 91.P7f-7e 92.R5bx2b 93.P9f-9e 94.L*8e 95.P3f-3e 96.L*9f
97.P1d-1c+ 98.S1bx1c 99.P*1d 100.L8ex8f 101.P9ex9d 102.B*8e 103.S3h-4i 104.B8ex5h+ {Can’t beleive white won. I must have been distracted.}

Portable Shogi Notation (PSN) License
——————–

Copyright (c) 2008, T. Gene Davis All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this
list of conditions and the following disclaimer. Redistributions in binary
form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and
the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials
provided with the distribution. Neither the name of japanesechess.net,
Samurai Chess, Gene Davis Software nor the names of its contributors may be
used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific
prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS “AS IS”
AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR
ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR
SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER
CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
DAMAGE.

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SHOGI

PORTABLE SHOGI NOTATION (PSN) SPECIFICATION

MAY 9, 2014 TGENEDAVIS

Portable Shogi Notation (PSN) Specification (Draft 1 - accepting comments and CONSTRUCTIVE criticism)

--------------------

(last updated, August 1, 2009)

Objectives

——————–

Provide:

* compatibility with current Portable Shogi Notation file conventions

* free opensource reference implementations in common programming languages to encourage compliance to current standard

* information on *.kif to *.psn and *.psn to *.kif file format conversion

* conventions for common and custom attribute/value declarations in game records

* conventions for commenting games

* conventions for recording standard and non standard shogi variations

Internet Sources

——————–

This document and the PSN reference implementation are located at,

http://genedavissoftware.com/2014/05/09/psn/

and,

http://sourceforge.net/projects/psn-library/

respectively.

Rules For Creation of PSN Files

——————–

1) Clarity. Always mark a move with enough detail that the move is unambiguous.

2) Extraneous information is always optional. For instance, if stating the token and the final location makes it obvious what move took place, you are not required (though encouraged) to add information specifying what move resulted in the final location.

3) Ambiguous notation is deprecated. In older PSN files, you may see moves specified that could describe more than one possible move. In all cases, ambiguous move notation is unsupported in modern PSN.

Overview of PSN File Format

——————–

Portable Shogi Notation (PSN) files end in ‘.psn’. For instance, A PSN file named ‘my_games’ would have the full name ‘my_games.psn’.

PSN files contain 0 or more partial or full game records.

A game record has three parts:

Part 1 —> One or more record properties

Part 2 (optional) —> Record summary

Part 3 —> Moves and comments

PSN Record Properties

——————–

One or more properties begin a PSN game record. At least one property is required for every PSN game record. Which property or properties start a record are completely optional.

Properties are specified by an opening square brace, a property name, a space, a property value, and a closing square brace. Each property should be followed by a new line and/or line feed character. In other words, only property should occupy one line of the PSN file.

Values should be surrounded by double straight quotes.

For example, here are some properties from a PSN file.

[Date “2009/08/01”]

[Sente “Bob”]

[Gote “Joe”]

[SenteRank “3 Dan”]

[GoteRank “Challenger”]

[Result “0-1”]

[Event “Home Tournament”]

[Round “Final”]

[Site “Bob’s Home”]

[Handicap “Rook”]

[Joseki “Silver Crown”]

Property names are not case sensitive. “Site” and “sItE” are the same property name.

Standard record property names are:

Date —> year/month/date as numbers. The year should not be

abbreviated.

Sente —> name or title of black player

Black —> name or title of opening player. Alternate name for “Sente”

property.

Gote —> name or title of white player

White —> name or title of 2nd player. Alternate name for “Gote”

property.

SenteRank —> Official rank of handicapped black player or player taking

first move.

SenteGrade —> Alternate name for “SenteRank” property.

BlackRank —> Alternate name for “SenteRank” property.

BlackGrade —> Alternate name for “SenteRank” property.

GoteRank —> Official rank of non-handicapped white player or player

taking second move

GoteGrade —> Alternate name for “GoteRank” property.

WhiteRank —> Alternate name for “GoteRank” property.

WhiteGrade —> Alternate name for “GoteRank” property.

Result —> result of game. Suggest values include “0-1” for white win,

“1-0” for black win, and “Resigns” meaning next player to

move resigned instead of moving.

Event —> tournament or event name

Round —> round (when in tournament)

Site —> location of game play

Handicap —> handicap name unspecified implies even game. Handicaps are not

case sensitive. Standard values for Handicap are:

“Even”

“Sente”

“Gote”

“Lance”

“Bishop”

“Rook”

“Rook and Lance”

“Rook & Lance”

“Rook+Lance”

“Rook + Lance”

“Two Pieces” (meaning rook and bishop)

“Two Piece”

“Rook and Bishop”

“Rook+Bishop”

“Rook + Bishop”

“Four Pieces” (meaning rook, bishop, and both lances)

“Four Piece”

“Six Pieces” (meaning rook, bishop, both lances, and both knights)

“Six Piece”

“Eight Pieces” (meaning rook, bishop, both lances, both knights, and both

silver generals)

“Eight Piece”

Joseki —> A standard opening used in the game such as “Silver Crown”

or play style such as “Ranging Rook”.

Opening —> Alternate name for “Joseki” property.

Custom value name pairs are allowed. The previous name/value pairs are the only pairs required to be implemented.

PSN Record Summary

——————–

The record summary is optional.

The record summary is a specialized comment. Comments in *.psn files always are surrounded by curly braces. That is ‘{‘ begins a comment and ‘}’ ends a comment. The record summary comment is placed after the last record property, and before the first move of the game. It is the record summary by virtue of its location in the game record.

PSN Record Moves and Comments

——————–

** Comments **

Comments are placed after the move the comment is meant to describe. Comments should not be placed adjacent to one another. This means that one move can only have one comment. A comment must be followed by another move, or in the case of the last move, a new game record.

Comments take the form of:

{some comments}

Comments are surrounded by curly braces. That is an opening ‘{‘ starts a comment and a closing ‘}’ ends a comment.

Comments may span multiple lines or be contained between moves on a single line.

Here is an example of a comment that describes move number 77.

76.G6a-7a 77.N*1h {Nothing really to comment here, just want to show in game comment.} 78.G7a-6a 79.N*1e 80.G6a-7a

** Moves **

Moves are described in standard shogi notation or abbreviated notation. Above all else, move descriptions must NEVER be ambiguous. If two moves are described by a single notation, the move notation is invalid.

Moves may optionally be numbered. A number followed by a period, followed by the move notation is standard. No spaces should be found between the move number, period or move notation. For instance,

9.P4g-4f 10.B5ex4f 11.N2i-3g 12.B4fx3g+

Moves may be number every ply as in the example above, or every turn such as,

5.P4g-4f B5ex4f 6.N2i-3g B4fx3g+

Move numbering is meant for human readers of PSN files, and does not affect the parsing of a PSN by a computer.

PSN Move Notation

——————–

Move notation can be in full extended form or abbreviated. The reigning rule of PSN move notation is that the intended move MUST be obvious.

Black (also called sente) always moves first. In handicap games, Black’s move is noted with three period with no spaces (“…”).

Case is sensitive in PSN move notation. For instance, “G” is a Gold General, and “g” is part of a board location.

In all move notations (both abbreviated and full), tokens are named with a capital letter. Accepted token abbreviations are:

King —> K

Rook —> R

Bishop —> B

Gold General —> G

Silver General —> S

Knight —> N

Lance —> L

Pawn —> P

Promoted Rook —> +R

Promoted Bishop —> +B

Promoted Silver General —> +S

Promoted Knight —> +N

Promoted Lance —> +L

Promoted Pawn —> +P

Extended (also called Full) notation moves take the form:

(move#)(token)(from location)(move type)(to location)(promotion/no promotion)

For example,

34.+B4ex8i

means at move 34, the Bishop was moved from 4e to 8i capturing a token.

Another example,

R4h-4c=

A drop looks like this,

B*6i

meaning a Bishop is dropped at location 6i.

means the Rook was moved from 4h to 4c without capturing a token, and could have promoted but chose not to promote.

Moves never contain white space. White space separates moves.

Move numbers are ignored by parsers and only supplied to make the game record more legible for humans. Moves are numbers followed by a period.

Permissible token names (such as +R or K) are described above.

Board locations are described by a grid with the X coordinate being a number (1-9) and the Y coordinate being described by a letter (a-i). Locations are described by (number)(letter) combinations starting from the white players left hand lance. For instance, “1a” describes the white player’s left lance’s initial location. “9i” describes the black player’s left lance’s initial location.

Visually the board numbers and letters are arranged as follows.

white player

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

. . . . . . . . . .

black player

Valid move types include “-” for standard moves, “x” for captures, and “*” for drops.

Valid promotion indicators are “+” meaning the token is promoting, “=” meaning the token could have promoted but did not, or nothing when promotion was not an option.

PSN Exceptions and Abbreviations

(the shortcuts computer programmers hate, but normal humans love)

———————

* If the “Handicap” property specifies a non even game the first move (“…”) may be omitted from the game record.

* No comments are allowed on the special case “…” move for handicap games.

* Leading “+” for promoted tokens is optional when the move is not ambiguous.

* Capturing a players last moved token can be specified by a token and an “x”. For instance,

or,

means that a Gold General captures the last moved or last dropped token (even if the other Gold General is in a position to capture a different token, or the capturing Gold General could have captured a different token.)

NOTE: a promoted G in this notation would be “x+G” or “+Gx”

* A token followed by an “x” CAN be a capture of an unambiguous token that did not just move or drop. For example, “Gx” first means Gold General captures a token that just moved. If no token just moved, then one and only one Gold General must have the option of capturing one and only one opposing token that did not just move or drop.

* The “-” move type is only included for human readability. It is optional. “R4h-4c=” can be written “R4h4c=”.

* The “=” symbol indicating a declined promotion is optional when no promotion took place.

* The “+” promotion symbol may appear at the end of the move notation even if the token previously promoted. Essentially, ignore it in these cases.

* The “x” for captures is optional if the capture can be implied from the existing notation token and location information.

* The “*” for drops is optional if the drop can be implied from the existing token and location.

* Any location numbers or letters may be omitted if the retained letters or numbers are enough to determine the move unambiguously. This applies to moves, captures and drops. For instance, “G4ex3d” can also be written as “Gx3d”, “G3d”, “Ge3d”, or “G4exd” are all valid if they are unambiguous.

So depending on the board setup, “P3d” could have any of the following meanings, as long as the meaning is clear in the context of the current shogi board.

P3d —> moves Pawn to 3d, OR

captures with Pawn at 3d, OR

drops Pawn at 3d

Sample PSN File with Single Record

———————

[Date “2009/08/01”]

[Sente “Joe”]

[Gote “Mary”]

[Result “0-1”]

[Handicap “Even”]

{This is a fictitious game with random moves. It is meant merely to show the format of a PSN game record.}

1.P7g-7f {Off to a not too interesting start.} 2.P2c-2d 3.P6g-6f 4.P3c-3d 5.B8h-7g 6.B2b-4d 7.P3g-3f 8.B4d-5e

9.P4g-4f 10.B5ex4f 11.N2i-3g 12.B4fx3g+ 13.R2h-4h 14.N*6g 15.K5i-5h 16.N6gx7i+

17.R4hx4c+ 18.+B3gx3f 19.P*4g 20.P*4b 21.+R4cx3d 22.S*3e 23.G6ix7i 24.+B3fx2g

25.P*3h 26.P*3c 27.+R3dx3e 28.P3c-3d 29.+R3ex3d 30.P*3c 31.+R3dx2d 32.+B2g-4e

33.+R2dx2a 34.+B4ex8i 35.G7ix8i 36.N*4f 37.P4gx4f 38.L1a-1b 39.+R2ax1b 40.P9c-9d

41.+R1bx1c 42.S3a-3b 43.P3h-3g 44.P4b-4c 45.+R1c-1e 46.P8c-8d 47.P5g-5f 48.S3b-2c

49.P3g-3f 50.N8a-9c 51.P9g-9f 52.K5a-4b 53.B7g-8f 54.S7a-6b 55.S3i-3h 56.G4a-5b

57.+R1e-2e 58.S2c-1b 59.G4i-3i 60.P4c-4d 61.L1i-1h 62.P7c-7d 63.P1g-1f 64.G5b-4c

65.B8f-5i 66.K4b-4a 67.L1h-1g 68.S6b-7c 69.B5i-8f 70.P5c-5d 71.P1f-1e 72.K4a-5a

73.P1e-1d 74.K5a-4a 75.G8i-8h 76.G6a-7a 77.N*1h {Nothing really to comment here, just want to show in game comment.} 78.G7a-6a 79.N*1e 80.G6a-7a

81.S*5b 82.R8bx5b 83.L*2b 84.S*7i 85.P*2d 86.S7ix8h+ 87.B*6i 88.G*7i

89.N*6h 90.+S8hx9i 91.P7f-7e 92.R5bx2b 93.P9f-9e 94.L*8e 95.P3f-3e 96.L*9f

97.P1d-1c+ 98.S1bx1c 99.P*1d 100.L8ex8f 101.P9ex9d 102.B*8e 103.S3h-4i 104.B8ex5h+ {Can’t beleive white won. I must have been distracted.}

Portable Shogi Notation (PSN) License

——————–

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without

modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this

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Samurai Chess, Gene Davis Software nor the names of its contributors may be

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THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS “AS IS”

AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE

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