Shogi

by Nayan Dave

Those knowledgeable in Japanese culture are typically familiar with the popular chess variant Shogi. But how much do they actually know about it?

Shogi is a strategy-based board game and, although the origin of it is unknown, the majority believe it evolved from Xianqi (Chinese chess), when it was delivered by an imperial ambassador during the Nara period. Shogi eventually matured into a game played by the nobility, as it exemplified a strong education; the winner had the chance to showcase their intelligence over their opponents. The word “shogi” translates to “game of generals” and is derived from the Japanese word for general—“Shogun”.

The objective of Shogi is the same as chess—to put the opposing king in a position where they cannot defend nor be defended, resulting in their removal from the board. This is more commonly known as checkmate. Of course, either player can surrender at any time. It is played on a 9 x 9 board and each player has 20 pieces: a king, two gold generals, two silver generals, two knights, two lances, a rook, a bishop, and nine pawns.

Here is the correct way to set up a Shogi board, but don’t be intimidated by all the kanji—it will become clearer later on.

Abilities

Before delving into any other rules, it’s important to understand each piece’s movements. Each piece moves in its own way; however, only the knight can jump over other pieces. When a piece comes within three rows of the opposition, it can be promoted, and move in different ways. Promotion is an option in the majority of cases, but for knights and lancers, it is mandatory. Lancers become promoted in the last row, while knights are promoted in the last two rows. Once a piece is promoted, it is turned over to reveal the red Kanji. However, take note that the king and gold general cannot be promoted. The table below displays the specific movement abilities of each piece.

Name of Piece	Movement	Movement after promotion	Details
King 王将		N/A
Gold general 金将
Silver General 銀将			Gains the movement abilities of the gold general.
Bishop 角行			Maintains its original abilities but can also move to any adjacent square.
Rook 飛車			Maintains its original abilities but can also move to any adjacent square.
Lance 香車			Gains the movement abilities of the gold general.
Knight 桂馬			Gains the movement abilities of the gold general.
Pawn 歩兵			Gains the movement abilities of the gold general.

Capturing and Dropping

In order to capture an opponent’s piece, much like in chess, you must move your piece onto the same square as the opposition’s piece. However, this is where chess and shogi diverge. Any piece that’s been captured can be placed back on the board on an empty square as one of your own pieces. This is known as “dropping a piece”. There are a few important rules about dropping a piece to know:

• A piece is always unpromoted when it is dropped, regardless of its promotion rank when captured. It can be promoted again the next turn.
• Checkmating a king by dropping a pawn in front of it is not allowed, as there must be an option to move.
• If a pawn is already in a vertical row, another pawn cannot be dropped in that same vertical row. Each vertical row can only have one pawn.
• Pieces must be in a moveable position when they are dropped.

As you can imagine, the prospect of putting pieces back on the board leads to hundreds of different strategies and the potential for extremely long games.

Very few Shogi games end in a draw, however there are situations when a draw may occur.

1. If the same board position happens four times in a row, this is known as “Sennichite”. Although, if this is due to consecutive checks, the person giving the checks loses.
2. If both players’ Kings are in the promotion zone and cannot be checkmated, the players may decide to count their pieces. Rooks and bishops count as five points, everything else counts as one point. If both players have at least 24 points, then the game is a draw (Jishogi), but if someone has less than 24 points, they lose the game.

Finally, before the game starts, both players engage in a small game (Furigoma) to determine who goes first. One player tosses five pawns onto the board, and checks to see which way they are facing. If the amount of promoted pawns (red kanji) is higher than the standard black side, the person who tossed them plays “white” (Gote), and therefore goes second. While the pieces are not actually colored, it is an accepted rule that the player who goes first is considered “black” for the duration of the game, and, as mentioned above, the second player is considered “white”. It should also be noted that there are two very similar Kanji for the king piece. One means king (王將 Oushou) and the other means jewel (玉將). They are both considered the same piece, but it is usually the lower level player who takes the jewel piece.

Now that you have the basics down, you’re ready to dive head first into the world of Shogi. It’s a lot to take in. When I played my first game, I certainly had no idea what I was doing. After every other turn, I had to keep checking which pieces could move to which tiles. However, after playing a few times and getting used to the system, the game became a lot more enjoyable. From attempting to recognize the formation your opponents are trying to make and formulating a counter, to losing within five minutes, Shogi is a whirlwind game that requires a lot of brain power and concentration. After achieving your first victory, you’re left wanting to play even more.