A chess-family game with its own character
Shogi is a two-player strategy game in the same broad family as chess, with a king, pieces that move in different ways and the aim of trapping the opponent’s king. Its roots are generally traced to an early Indian game that spread across Asia, giving rise to Chinese, Korean, Southeast Asian and Japanese relatives. In Japan, pieces and written references from roughly the Heian period suggest the game was known by then, though much about its early forms is uncertain. Several larger variants with bigger boards were once played, and the modern nine-by-nine version is the one that settled into general use and is played today.
Shogi is different enough from Western chess that experienced chess players often find it surprising. The most important differences are the shape of the pieces, the promotion rule and above all the drop rule.
The board and the pieces
The board is a nine-by-nine grid with no colors. Each player begins with twenty pieces: one king, one rook, one bishop, two gold generals, two silver generals, two knights, two lances and nine pawns. These pieces move in ways that will look familiar to chess players in some cases, but with differences. Gold and silver generals, for example, have moves that do not exist in Western chess, and the knight in shogi can only move forward.
The pieces are flat and wedge-shaped, with a point toward the opponent. They are all the same color. Ownership is shown by which way the point faces, and each piece is marked with characters that name it. Beginners often learn the pieces through simple symbols or by playing with sets that add pictures of moves. Traditional sets are made of wood, and the most prized pieces have carefully brushed or carved characters, an example of the overlap between the game and shodo calligraphy and the broader world of traditional crafts.
Promotion
When a piece moves into, within or out of the three rows of the board nearest the opponent, it may be promoted by flipping it over, which reveals a different character on the back. Most promoted pieces gain the moves of a gold general. The rook and bishop, on promotion, keep their original moves and add one-step moves. The king and the gold general do not promote. Because the zone covers a full third of the board, promotion happens frequently and is a normal part of play, not a rare event.
The drop rule
The feature that most distinguishes shogi is that a captured piece does not leave the game. The player who captures it keeps it “in hand” and may, on a later turn, place it on any empty square, under the captor’s control, instead of making an ordinary move. This is the drop rule.
Its effects are large:
- Material is not simply lost. In Western chess, trading pieces leads toward a simple endgame. In shogi, pieces keep returning, so the position often remains complex until the end.
- Attacks can come from nowhere. A dropped piece can create a sudden threat, so a player must always think about what the opponent has in hand.
- Defense is flexible. A player can also use captured pieces to block an attack.
- Draws are rare. There are rules for repeated positions and for some other situations, but most games end with one player winning.
Some explanations claim that the drop rule arose because mercenary soldiers in old Japan would change sides, but historians treat this as an appealing story, not a proven fact. It is safer to say that the rule is distinctive and that its origins are uncertain.
A few restrictions keep the rule in balance. A player may not have two unpromoted pawns in the same file, may not drop a pawn to give immediate checkmate, and may not drop a pawn, lance or knight where it would have no legal move at all. Beginners often break the two-pawn rule by accident, since it is easy to forget.
History in Japan
Shogi had a place among aristocrats and warriors and in temples, and it spread to ordinary people as well. In the Edo period, the shogunate gave official recognition to leading players and their families, in a way similar to the go houses, and high-ranking players received stipends. The game was a favorite among Edo townspeople, who played in homes and shops, and in the wider samurai culture, where the board is sometimes compared to the strategy of command, though players did not need to be soldiers to enjoy it.
In modern times the professional organization, with its ranks and titles, is a major part of the game. Titles are decided by tournaments and long matches, and in the best-known events players use traditional formal dress such as kimono at the board. Newspapers and television give shogi some of the attention more usually given to sport. There are also amateur ranks, and clubs in schools and neighborhoods. The game has also reached computers, and programs can now play at a very high level, which changed how professionals study positions.
Learning and manners
A beginner can learn the basic moves in an afternoon, but the game is deep, and players spend years on openings and endgames. Common ways to begin are through small boards, puzzles in which a checkmate must be found in a fixed number of moves, and simple games with handicaps. There are customs of manner: bowing at the start and end of a game, saying a phrase of thanks for the game, and not touching a piece without intending to move it. Players sit on tatami mats at traditional matches, and the sound of a piece being firmly placed on the board is something many players enjoy.
Shogi is sometimes called “Japanese chess,” which is a convenient shorthand, but the better description is a sibling of chess that has developed its own character, especially through the rule that allows captured pieces to return.