Redsales, it is interesting, as you write, that Chinese characters are used in lieu of Hangul -- is there an historical reason for this; had Korean been written with Chinese characters in the past, or does it merely reflect the route of transmission of the game?

As to the shape of pieces, my only exposure to them is the shape of pieces that I purchased at shops of emigré Koreans and pictures on the internet. I have two sets in plastic; both have octagonal pieces of three sizes corresponding to their importance, the king being the largest, the pawn the smallest. The script is, as you write, Chinese. The red pieces are in a nicer printed script, and the green look like cursive versions of the same characters to be seen on a set of xiangqi pieces (although on both sides the kings' character is not the general/governor seen on xiangqi kings).

I have seen on the internet a set of Three Kingdoms' Xiangqi. Did you see or play that variant during your time in China? Have you ever read any articles on the history of xiangqi and its historical enlarged versions? I have wondered if there is a possible connection between them and the large shogi variants. I only know of one non-Asian source on the history of these games, Peter Banaschak's _Schachspiele in Ostasien_, but my ability to read German is not so good, so I await its future English translation.

I have suggested in earlier postings to this board that shogi and its smaller variant tori shogi would be grand additions to BrainKing's offerings (my personal preference is for shogi above all other representatives of the chess family of games). I wonder if other posters to this board enjoy shogi and whether any have tried tori shogi.