What Shogi is
Shogi is a traditional Japanese board game played on a 9×9 board with twenty pieces per player. The aim is to checkmate the opposing king. Sente moves first and Gote second; the direction a piece points identifies its owner.
Captured pieces become your pieces in hand. On your turn, either move a piece on the board or legally drop one piece from your hand onto an empty square. The interaction between the board and pieces in hand is a central feature of Shogi.
The board and the opening setup
Files are numbered 1 to 9 from right to left; ranks are lettered 一 to 九 from the far side towards you. "7六歩" means a pawn moved to file 7, rank 6.
From your side of the board, your back rank runs Lance, Knight, Silver General, Gold General, King, Gold General, Silver General, Knight, Lance. On the next rank you place the Rook on the second file from the right and the Bishop on the second file from the left. The rank after that is filled with nine Pawns.
How the pieces move
There are eight kinds of piece. Use movement diagrams and practise their directions and range.
| Piece | Japanese | Movement | Promotes to |
|---|---|---|---|
| King | 玉将 gyokushō | One square in any of eight directions | — |
| Rook | 飛車 hisha | Any distance orthogonally | Dragon King (adds one square diagonally) |
| Bishop | 角行 kakugyō | Any distance diagonally | Dragon Horse (adds one square orthogonally) |
| Gold General | 金将 kin | One square forward, diagonally forward, sideways or straight back — six directions | — |
| Silver General | 銀将 gin | One square forward, diagonally forward or diagonally back — five directions | Promoted Silver (moves as Gold General) |
| Knight | 桂馬 keima | Two forward and one to the side. Jumps over pieces | Promoted Knight (moves as Gold General) |
| Lance | 香車 kyōsha | Any distance straight forward. Never backwards | Promoted Lance (moves as Gold General) |
| Pawn | 歩兵 fu | One square straight forward | Tokin (moves as Gold General) |
The only piece that jumps
The Knight is the sole piece that leaps over others, and it only reaches two squares — two forward and one to either side. It cannot move sideways or backwards at all, so a Knight that advances too early is often a Knight that is stuck.
Promotion
The three ranks furthest from you form your promotion zone. A piece may promote when a board move enters, leaves or stays within that zone. Rooks, Bishops, Silver Generals, Knights, Lances and Pawns can promote; Kings and Gold Generals cannot. A drop cannot promote immediately.
Pawns and Lances must promote on the furthest rank, and Knights on either of the furthest two ranks, because otherwise they would have no future move.
A promoted piece cannot voluntarily revert. On capture it returns to its original kind and becomes a piece in hand. A Silver General can move diagonally backwards; a Promoted Silver cannot, but can move one square straight backwards. Consider which movements the position needs.
Dropping pieces from hand
A captured piece goes into your hand. On your turn, instead of moving a piece on the board, you may drop a piece from your hand onto a legal empty square. It immediately fights for you.
- Pieces always drop unpromoted. Capture a Dragon King and you may only drop a Rook.
- A drop may not capture.
- Dropping uses your whole turn; the piece can move from the following turn.
Three illegal drops
Three restrictions apply, and all three are losing infractions in a real game. This site simply will not let you make them.
- Nifu (二歩) — you may not drop a Pawn onto a file where you already have an unpromoted Pawn. A Tokin does not count, so a file holding your Tokin is open for a Pawn drop.
- Dead drops — no Pawn or Lance on the furthest rank, no Knight on either of the two furthest ranks. A piece that could never move again may not be placed.
- Uchifuzume (打ち歩詰め) — you may not deliver checkmate by dropping a Pawn. Delivering mate by moving a Pawn is perfectly legal. Only the drop is forbidden.
Check and checkmate
Check means your king is under attack. You must answer with a legal move: move the king to safety, capture the attacker, or block an attack that can be blocked. Some attacks, such as a Knight’s check, cannot be answered by interposing a piece.
If no legal reply removes check, the position is checkmate and the checked player loses. This site also treats having no legal move while not in check as a loss.
Resignation acknowledges defeat and ends the game. The player decides when to resign; learners can also play through to mate.
Repetition and entering king
Sennichite occurs when the board, both hands and the side to move repeat four times. This site treats ordinary sennichite as a draw. Organised events may require a replay with sides exchanged. A player responsible for repetition by continuous checks loses instead.
Entering king means a king has reached the opponent’s camp, the three ranks furthest from its owner. Once kings have entered, checkmate becomes hard to force, so this site uses the 27-point entering-king declaration, as Shogi Wars and 81Dojo do.
On your own turn a Declare button appears when every condition holds, and pressing it wins the game at once: your king is in the opponent’s camp and not in check; at least ten of your other pieces are in that camp; and your pieces in the camp plus your pieces in hand are worth at least 28 points as Sente or 27 as Gote, counting Rooks and Bishops, promoted or not, as five and every other piece as one. Pieces outside the camp do not count. The site does not adjudicate 24-point impasse draws.
Reading Shogi notation
Moves are written like ▲7六歩:
- ▲ marks a Sente move, △ a Gote move
- 7六 is the destination square — file 7, rank 6
- 歩 names the piece that moved
- 成 means it promoted, 不成 that it deliberately did not, and 打 that it was dropped from hand
- A move to the same square as the previous move is written 同 ("same")
The game screen on this site records your moves in exactly this format as you play.
Etiquette
Players commonly begin with “onegaishimasu” and finish with “arigatō gozaimashita”, expressing respect and thanks. A player resigning may say “makemashita”, meaning “I have lost”.
Respect your opponent online too: avoid taunting, abuse and deliberate delays. Allow learners time to recognise the final mating pattern and respect their choice about when to resign.
Frequently asked questions
What are pieces in hand in Shogi?
Pieces you capture become yours to drop onto empty squares on your turn, subject to the drop rules. A captured promoted piece returns to its original kind and is dropped unpromoted.
When can a piece promote?
When it enters, leaves, or moves within the three ranks furthest from you. Promotion is optional, except that a Pawn or Lance reaching the last rank, or a Knight reaching either of the last two, must promote.
What is nifu?
Dropping a second unpromoted Pawn onto a file where you already have one. It is illegal. A promoted Pawn (Tokin) does not count, so a file holding your Tokin is open for a Pawn drop.
What is pawn-drop mate?
You may not deliver mate by dropping a Pawn. Delivering mate by moving a Pawn is entirely legal — only the drop is forbidden.
What happens on a repetition?
This site treats four occurrences of the same board, hands and side to move as a draw, except that repetition by continuous checks is a loss for the checking player. Organised events may instead require a replay.
Try it against the AI Try it in the interactive lessons Read the tutorial