Introduction t o Shogi

Will Maynard South Bay Shogi Club

Introduction to Shogi Introduction

Shogi (将 棋) is the Japanese variant of chess. Western chess and shogi share a common ancestor from India, Chaturanga. Consequently, shogi shares many of the game mechanics of Western chess.One unique feature of shogi allows captured pieces to return to the board: the drop rule. This key difference means that a material advantage is less impactful than in chess; trading a powerful piece for a weaker one may be advantageous for a player.

The drop rule became a core component of shogi in the 16th century and marks the last major change to the game. Since its addition, the outcome of a match is more likely to be uncertain until the endgame.

Setup Board, Pieces, and Accessories

Players sit on opposite sides of a board of 9 ranks (rows) and 9 files (columns), resulting in an 81-space area. Unlike chess, pieces are not identified by color but rather by their orientation. Each piece has a pointed pentagonal shape aimed away from its owner. Each player has 20 pieces. Listed by ascending value, these are: 9 pawns, 2 lances, 2 knights, 2 silver generals, 2 gold generals, 1 bishop, 1 rook, and 1 king.

A small stand (“k omadai” ) sits next to the board on each player’s right side to hold captured pieces. In casual games, players often use the wooden box that stores the shogi pieces instead.

Initial Board State

1 Introduction to Shogi

Figure 1. Representation of the board before the game starts.

Pictured in Figure 1, players arrange their pieces in radial symmetry using the following rules: ● The player places their king in the center file of the rank closest to their seat. ● Starting from the king to the edge of the board, the player places in order: a gold general, a silver general, a knight, and a lance. The player repeats this for the other side. ● In the second rank, the player places their bishop above the left knight and their rook above the right knight. ● Finally, the player fills the third rank with pawns.

Determining Player Order

A piece toss (“fu rigoma” ) determines player order. To do this, one player collects the five central pawns and rolls them onto the board. Players reroll pieces that land on their side. If three or more pawns land in their unpromoted state, the player who performed the toss is first (“s ente” ). Otherwise, the player is second (“go te” ).

Once the player returns the pawns to their starting position, the game proceeds. Players alternate turns either moving or dropping pieces until the end of the game.

Rules

Goal

As in chess, players aim to checkmate the opponent's king. Players use their pieces to attack in such a way that their opponent cannot move or protect their king.

Moving Pieces

There are three types of movement in shogi: ● Step: a piece moves to an adjacent square. ● Jump: a piece moves to a space regardless of obstacles. Only an unpromoted knight may do this. ● Range: a piece moves any number of spaces in a particular direction.

Piece promotions alter available movement. Most pieces promote to share the same move set as a gold general. The rook and bishop, however, add one step to each direction they cannot otherwise move to. Table 1, below, details each piece’s available move sets both before and after promotion.

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Table 1. Detailed information about each piece. Promoted Piece English Kanji (pronunciation) Movement Movement

Pawn 歩 兵 (fuhyō) と ⾦ (tokin)

Lance ⾹ ⾞ (kyōsha) 成 ⾹ (narikyō)

Knight 桂 ⾺ (keima) 成 桂 (narikei)

Silver General 銀 將 (ginshō) 成 銀 (narigin)

Gold General ⾦ 將 (kinshō)

King 王 將 (ōshō) ⽟ 將 (gyokushō)

Rook ⾶ ⾞ (hisha) ⿓ 王 (ryūō)

Bishop ⾓ ⾏ (kakugyō) ⿓ ⾺ (ryūma)

Capturing Pieces

When a player moves a piece onto a space occupied by an opponent's piece, they capture that piece. The player removes the captured piece and places it on their k omadai in its unpromoted state. The player may later use this piece as a drop.

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Dropping Pieces

Drops are the driving force behind the complexity and excitement of a shogi game. Because pieces are never lost, unlike western chess, draws are rare. Furthermore, a piece’s true value varies depending on the board state. Players often trade high-value pieces for minor pieces, saving material for drop attacks.

Rather than move a piece on the board, players may instead “drop” a captured piece. To do this, players remove a piece from their k omadai and place it on a vacant space on the board. A piece drop must adhere to the following restrictions:

● Two Pawns (“n ifu” ): No file may contain two unpromoted pawns for any given player. ● Drop Pawn Mate (“u chifudzume” ): Players may not checkmate opponents with a pawn drop. ● No legal move: A dropped piece must be able to move on a future turn. For example, a pawn dropped on the last rank can never move later, so this is not a legal drop.

Any vacant space is valid as long as a player follows these rules. Additionally, a piece may not promote the same turn the player drops it.

Promotions

Most pieces in shogi may promote; only the gold general and king do not. When a piece enters, exits, or moves within the enemy camp (the furthest three ranks from the player), that piece is eligible to promote. To promote a piece, its owner flips it over, keeping the piece pointed at their opponent. This piece then remains promoted until captured or the end of the game.

In a situation where a piece would no longer be able to move on any future turn, it must promote. For example, when a lance advances to the last rank, it cannot have a valid move on any subsequent turn, so it forcefully promotes.

Check

When a piece threatens the opposing king, that king is in "check". The king's owner must use their next move to protect it if they are able. Options include: ● Capturing the attacking piece ● Moving the king to a space where it is no longer in danger ● Blocking the attacking piece with a friendly piece or a drop

It is not required to disclose check during a shogi game. Contrary to popular belief, chess does not require players to say "check", either!

When a player is in check and unable to make a move that would remove all threats to their king, they are in "checkmate" and have lost the game.

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Winning, Losing, and Ties

Most games end with a checkmate or resignation. Players may resign at any time if they believe victory is impossible. This is frequently the case when a player realizes they are on the losing side of a t sume, a forced mate sequence. In these cases, one player is able to threaten the opposing king with every move until checkmate. Players announce their resignation with the phrase "m akemashita" (“I lost”). It is impolite to continue playing when loss is inevitable.

Illegal Moves Should a player make an illegal move at any point in the game, the game may be an automatic loss for that player. This occurs when their opponent notices the illegal move, even if gameplay progressed past the error. However, if a match ends with the illegal move unnoticed, the result of the game stands. Illegal moves include: ● Dropping a piece where it would never have possible movement ● Dropping a piece in its promoted state ● Dropping a pawn in a file that already has an unpromoted pawn ● Dropping a pawn to checkmate an opponent ● Moving a piece to a space that it cannot legally move to ● Ending a turn with the king in check

Of course, during casual play, it's encouraged to allow players to undo illegal moves!

In tournament settings, each match employs a timer. Like chess, a player who has completely run out of time loses the game. There is a short grace period, or b yōyomi, once the main timer has expired. The b yōyomi duration varies depending on tournament rules, but it grants players a short secondary timer that resets with every move. Should a player fail to make a move once the b yōyomi expires, the game ends in their defeat.

Repetition The Rule of Repetition prevents moves repeating indefinitely. If a board state repeats on any four separate occasions, the game is usually considered to be a draw. If one player is in perpetual check, however, the player giving check loses the game.

Impasse If both kings cross into their respective enemy’s camp, the game stops and each player calculates a score. Each rook or bishop awards 5 points and each other non-king piece awards 1 point. This count includes pieces on the k omadai. A player scoring less than 24 points in this way loses the game. If both players have 24 or more points, the game is a draw. This prevents a long, drawn-out game; kings in enemy camps are very difficult to attack.

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Draws in Professional Games In professional matches, draws are not recognized as valid results. If a game ends in a draw, players switch the starting turn order and play a second game using their remaining match time.

Handicaps

Handicaps give weaker players an advantage against stronger opponents. Handicaps involve removing pieces from the game corresponding to strength differences. For a greater handicap, the stronger player removes more pieces.

Typically, a one-piece handicap involves removing either the bishop or rook. A two-piece handicap removes both, a four-piece handicap removes the lances, and so on. Handicaps larger than two pieces are only used in teaching shogi to new players.

When playing a handicap game, players skip the fu rigoma and the stronger player is s ente.

Beginning Strategies

Learning proper openings ("s enpō" ) is essential to improvement when first learning shogi. Once a player can recognize each piece and memorize its movement, it is important to study castles. Even basic castles reinforce understanding of piece interactions and strengthen early defenses.

Minōgakoi

Figure 2. T he Minō castle

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A great castle for beginners, the Minō castle is fast to develop and malleable later in the game. Requiring only 7 moves, the M inō is easy to memorize and allows for both offense and defense in the early game. This flexibility enables players to adapt quickly to hostile threats.

Players should transition to M inō variants in response to their opponent's attacks. There are dozens of common variations to compensate for various weaknesses.

As pictured in Figure 2, a frequent weakness is the pawn in front of the silver general. A cunning opponent can threaten the pawn with a bishop and apply more pressure with a knight drop to check the king. Unable to capture the knight, the M inō player's king must then retreat. This creates a gap in the castle's defense, enabling dangerous drop attacks.

The M inō castle is weak to frontal attacks.

Anagumagakoi

Figure 3. The Anaguma castle

Figure 3 shows a dense castle, the A naguma. Originally considered an amateur castle, A naguma provides excellent protection for the king. It recently gained popularity among professionals to hinder advancing pawns.

It is very difficult to attack the king directly and is also difficult to pin pieces. Unlike the M inō, knights are unable to attack the king without breaching the defenses.

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Should an A naguma fall, the king has nowhere to flee. While tough to break, the castle is very rigid. Once weakened, an A naguma' s defenses have little hope for recovery. The most attractive response tends to be an all-out counterattack.

Finally, due to the compact nature of the castle, adversaries have more opportunities to drop pieces in their promotion zone.

Yaguragakoi

Figure 4. T he Yagura castle

One of the most common castles, the Y agura is popular for its strength and versatility. Y agura players should advance on the right side with pawns and a silver general. The bishop’s diagonal is an important offensive support.

The Y agura excels in defense against frontal attacks but has a weak flank. The first rank is particularly susceptible to enemy rooks and drops. Another common assault uses a knight to force the silver general forward.

Another downside is that the castle takes 13 moves to build. Opportunistic opponents may forgo defenses and instead attack the flank immediately. Fast assaults compromise defenses against Yagura players focusing only on building a castle.

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Further Improvement Every castle listed above has variations which have different strengths and weaknesses. This introduction only covers the basic implementation. Aspiring players should seek out more detailed documentation or theory related to their favorite castles.

Players should also study recommended move sequences ("j ōseki” ). J ōseki feature explanations for how to add pressure, plan an attack, or avoid blunders. For advanced strategy development, a mix of practice and studying tactics is helpful.

Few English resources for shogi exist. Luckily, some prominent figures discuss advanced concepts on YouTube. One such popular uploader is H idetchi (https://www.youtube.com/user/HIDETCHI).

Manners & Proper Etiquette

Shogi is not a game as much as it is a form of Japanese art and is an important component of the culture. As such, players should remain courteous and respectful at all times. This applies not only to their opponent, but also to the board, pieces, and the room itself.

Players greet each other with the phrase "o negaishimasu" ("let's have a good game"). Additionally, when a player realizes they cannot win, they announce defeat by saying "m akemashita" ("I lost").

Players avoid touching a piece unless they intend to move it. Further, players should always plan their moves well. Making moves that are intentionally poor or ill-planned is insulting.

Post-game Review Once the game ends, the winning player leads a post-game review. Discussion should begin from the start of the game and include: ● Weaknesses in both players' attacks and defenses ● Turning points ● Blunders ● Missed opportunities

Players should never boast or otherwise taunt their opponent during the post-game review. The goal of the review is a cooperative reflection that helps each player improve. Afterwards, both players should thank each other for the game.

9 Introduction to Shogi Glossary

anaguma, ⽳ 熊, ⽳ 熊 囲 い “Bear in the hole” castle anagumagakoi ban 盤 Shogi board byōyomi 秒 読 み Secondary timer, used when the first timer expires; resets every move file 筋 Columns of the board fuhyō, fu 歩 兵, 歩 Pawn furigoma 振 り 駒 The piece toss; determines player order ginshō, gin 銀 將, 銀 Silver general gote 後 ⼿ Second player gyokushō, gyoku ⽟ 將, ⽟ King of the challenger (weaker player) hisha, hi ⾶ ⾞, ⾶ Rook jōseki 定 跡 Recommended sequence of moves for a particular board state kakugyō, kaku ⾓ ⾏, ⾓ Bishop keima, kei 桂 ⾺, 桂 Knight kinshō, kin ⾦ 將, ⾦ Gold general koma 駒 Piece, generic komadai 駒 台 Small stand for holding captured pieces, placed to the right of the board from each player kyōsha, kyō ⾹ ⾞, ⾹ Lance makemashita 負 け ま し た “I lost.”; phrase to announce resignation minō, minōgakoi 美 濃, 美 濃 囲 い Mino castle narigin 成 銀 Promoted silver narikei 成 桂 Promoted knight narikyō 成 ⾹ Promoted lance nifu ⼆ 歩 “Two pawns”; rule resulting in instant loss for having two unpromoted pawns on the same file onegaishimasu, お 願 い し ま す, “Let’s have a good game.”; greeting exchanged before yoroshiku よ ろ し く お 願 い し ま す starting a game onegaishimasu ōshō, ō 王 將, 王 King (higher-ranked player) ōte 王 ⼿ “Check”; Westernized habit for casual play or teaching rank 段 Rows of the board ryūma, uma ⿓ ⾺, ⾺ Promoted bishop ryūō, ryū ⿓ 王, ⿓ or ⻯ Promoted rook senpō 戦 法 Opening sequence sente 先 ⼿ First player shōgi 将 棋 Japanese chess tokin, to と ⾦, と Promoted pawn uchifudzume 打 ち 歩 詰 め “Drop pawn mate”; rule resulting in instant loss for checkmating with a pawn drop yagura, yaguragakoi ⽮ 倉, ⽮ 倉 囲 い “Fortress” castle

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