Shogi (Japanese Chess)

Overview

Shogi is a two-player strategy board game played on a 9×9 grid. The goal is to checkmate the opponent's King.

Pieces

Each player starts with 20 pieces:

Piece	Kanji	Movement	Promoted	Promoted Movement
King	玉/王	1 step any direction	—	Cannot promote
Rook	飛	Any number orthogonally	Dragon (龍)	Rook + 1 step diagonal
Bishop	角	Any number diagonally	Horse (馬)	Bishop + 1 step orthogonal
Gold	金	Forward, sideways, backward, forward-diagonal	—	Cannot promote
Silver	銀	Forward, forward-diagonal, backward-diagonal	Promoted Silver (全)	Moves like Gold
Knight	桂	Forward 2 + sideways 1 (jumps)	Promoted Knight (圭)	Moves like Gold
Lance	香	Any number forward only	Promoted Lance (杏)	Moves like Gold
Pawn	歩	1 step forward	Tokin (と)	Moves like Gold

Setup

• Sente (☗ first player) places pieces on the bottom three rows
• Gote (☖ second player) places pieces on the top three rows
• Back rank: Lance, Knight, Silver, Gold, King, Gold, Silver, Knight, Lance
• Second rank: Rook (file 2) and Bishop (file 8)
• Third rank: 9 Pawns

Drops (持ち駒)

When you capture an opponent's piece, it becomes your hand piece. On your turn, instead of moving a piece on the board, you may drop a hand piece onto any empty square.

Dropped pieces are always unpromoted.

Drop Restrictions

• Nifu (二歩): You cannot drop a Pawn in a column that already contains your unpromoted Pawn.
• Dead zone: Pawns and Lances cannot be dropped on the last row. Knights cannot be dropped on the last two rows.
• Uchifuzume (打ち歩詰め): You cannot checkmate the opponent by dropping a Pawn. (Moving a Pawn to deliver checkmate is legal.)

Promotion

When a piece enters, exits, or moves within the promotion zone (the opponent's last 3 rows), it may be promoted. Promotion is mandatory when the piece would otherwise have no legal moves (Pawn/Lance on last row, Knight on last two rows).

Promoted pieces flip to their promoted side and gain new movement abilities. Gold and King cannot promote.

Winning

Checkmate the opponent's King — put it in check with no legal escape. If a player has no legal moves, they lose.

A player may also resign when the position is hopeless. The CPU will resign automatically when it evaluates the position as decisively lost.