Boards and strategy
Shogi
Japanese chess, where captured pieces change sides and come back as drops anywhere on the board. Five levels against a real engine, kanji pieces with optional letters.
- Levels
- Beginner, Casual, Club, Strong, Master
- Daily
- Beat Casual
- Scored by
- Win, draw or loss
- Today
- Daily puzzle
Setting up the board
Rules
- 1.Shogi is played on a 9 by 9 board. Each side has a king, a rook, a bishop, two golds, two silvers, two knights, two lances and nine pawns. Sente (Black) moves first; pieces point towards the opponent.
- 2.King: one square in any direction. Rook: any distance straight. Bishop: any distance diagonally.
- 3.Gold: one square straight in any direction or diagonally forwards. Silver: one square diagonally in any direction or straight forwards.
- 4.Knight: jumps two squares forwards and one to the side, forwards only. Lance: any distance straight forwards. Pawn: one square straight forwards, and it captures that way too.
- 5.The far three ranks are the promotion zone. A piece that moves into, within or out of it may promote: the rook and bishop gain one step in the other directions, and the silver, knight, lance and pawn move like a gold. Kings and golds never promote. A pawn or lance on the last rank, or a knight on the last two, must promote.
- 6.A captured piece joins your hand. Instead of moving, you may drop a piece from your hand on any empty square, unpromoted and facing the opponent.
- 7.Drops have limits: no piece where it could never move again, no second unpromoted pawn on a file that already has one of yours, and no pawn drop that gives checkmate at once.
- 8.You win by checkmate. The same position four times is a draw, unless one side gave check with every move, in which case that side loses. Very long games end as a draw at 400 moves.
How to play
| Input | Action |
|---|---|
| Click or tap a piece, then a square | Move it; dots mark the legal squares |
| Click a piece in your hand, then a square | Drop it there |
| Promote or Keep as is | Choose when a move can promote |
| Arrow keys, then Enter or Space | Choose a square, pick up a piece and put it down |
| Escape | Cancel the selection or the promotion choice |
| Pieces: Kanji or Kanji and letters | Add Western letters (P, L, N, S, G, B, R, K, with + when promoted) |
- Beginner: Knows the moves, drops pieces to simple tactics
- Casual: Sees direct threats, little more
- Club: A sound player who sometimes slips
- Strong: Tactically sharp, hard to surprise
- Master: The engine at full strength in your browser
Strategy
- Build a castle for your king early: a few golds and silvers around it make it far harder to attack.
- Pieces in hand are a threat in themselves. Count what your opponent holds before you leave a square undefended.
- Trading is not neutral in shogi: every piece you take comes back for you. Trades favour the side whose king is safer.
- A pawn in hand is worth keeping for a drop that blocks a check or attacks a key square.
- Promote the rook and bishop whenever you can; the dragon and horse are the strongest pieces on the board.
- Silvers and knights sometimes do better unpromoted: a promoted silver loses its backward diagonals.
Questions
- Which kanji is which piece?
- 玉 and 王 are the kings, 飛 the rook, 角 the bishop, 金 gold, 銀 silver, 桂 knight, 香 lance and 歩 pawn. Promoted pieces show red kanji with a red bar: 龍 dragon, 馬 horse, 全 silver, 圭 knight, 杏 lance and と for the pawn. Choose Kanji and letters to see a Western letter on every piece.
- How do the coordinates work?
- As in Japanese records, files are numbered 9 to 1 from Sente's left and ranks lettered a to i from Gote's side. The move list uses Western notation: P-7f moves a pawn to 7f, Bx2b+ captures and promotes, and P*5e drops a pawn.
- Why did the engine page reload when I opened it?
- The engine thinks on several threads, and browsers allow that only after a full page load with special security settings. If you arrive from another page on the site, the page reloads once to turn them on.
- Does the computer run on a server?
- No. The engine downloads once when you start a game, about 1.7 MB, and then thinks on your own device. Nothing about your game is sent anywhere.
- How does the daily game work?
- Everyone plays the same level and side each UTC day. Win it to extend your daily streak. Takebacks are off in the daily game.