Hold And Notation Designator (HAND) Specification

Version: 1.0.0
Author: Sashité
Published: June 17, 2025
License: MIT License

Overview

HAND defines a simple, standardized notation for piece reserve locations in board games where captured pieces can be held and/or placed onto the board. This applies to games like shōgi, crazyhouse, go, and other games featuring capture-and-hold mechanics.

Game Protocol Foundation

The fundamental game concepts used in this document are interpreted as described in the Sashité Game Protocol.

Format

HAND uses a single character to represent all off-board reserve locations:

Reserve Location: * (asterisk)

Unicode: U+002A
ASCII: 42
UTF-8: 0x2A

Validation

\A\*\z

Usage Examples

Movement Notation

* → e4    Place piece from reserve to board position e4
e4 → *    Capture piece at e4 to reserve
e2 → e4   Regular on-board movement (using CELL coordinates)

Game Context Examples

Shōgi

Reserve: *
Board: a1 to i9 (CELL coordinates)
Drop move: * → e5 (place piece from reserve)
Capture to hand: e4 → * (capture piece to reserve)

Crazyhouse

Reserve: *
Board: a1 to h8 (CELL coordinates)
Drop move: * → e4 (place captured piece)
Capture to hand: d4 → * (capture piece to reserve)

Integration with CELL

HAND complements the CELL specification to provide complete location coverage:

On-board positions: CELL coordinates (a1, e4, a1A, etc.)
Off-board reserve: HAND location (*)

Combined grammar:

<location> ::= <cell> | <hand>
<hand>     ::= "*"

Design Rationale

Why the asterisk?

Universal keyboard availability
High visual contrast with CELL coordinates
Commonly used as a “wildcard” symbol
Single character keeps notation concise

Simplicity by design

HAND intentionally uses just one character because reserve locations don’t need dimensional complexity—context determines meaning (player’s reserve, captured pieces, stone supply, etc.).

Why “HAND”?

The name “Hold And Notation Designator” reflects the dual nature of the reserve:

Hold: Captures pieces and retains them in reserve
Notation: Provides standardized representation
Designator: Identifies the specific location type

This captures both the capture-to-reserve and drop-from-reserve mechanics that the * symbol represents.

Relationship to Other Notations

Notation	Purpose	Relationship to HAND
CELL	Multi-dimensional board coordinates	HAND complements CELL by providing `"*"` notation for off-board reserve locations
PMN	Mechanical move decomposition	Uses HAND location for reserve-related actions in move sequences

Reference Implementations

This section lists available libraries and tools that implement the HAND specification.

Ruby

Hand.rb - Reference implementation