Shogi

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This entry makes use of Japanese characters and will require Japanese language support to be installed on your computer in order to avoid the characters being replaced by question marks, or blanked out.

A shōgi board (shōgiban) showing the normal markings for the pieces on the near side, and those of the promoted pieces on the far side. The small tables are for retaining captured pieces, prior to captive dropping.

Shōgi (将棋), or Japanese chess, is a two-player, strategic, turn-based board game and is the Japanese form of the game which is known in the West as Chess, or more correctly, 'International Chess'.

The name is derived from the words Shō (将) meaning General and Gi (棋) meaning game and thus can be described as the Game of Generals. The single biggest difference to chess is that captured pieces may be dropped, or returned to the board, to the benefit of the player who captured them.

Although tabletop boards are commonly used, players using the traditional shōgiban (as shown, right), usually play adopting the kiza (跪座) kneeling position, although older players may sit cross-legged, or agura (胡座).

History

The world's first chess variant, Chaturanga, arose in India in approximately 7 A.D. From there it migrated towards the West, North and later the East, gradually mutating as it did so. In the West, it became Shatranj in Arabia and what we know as Chess in Europe. Towards the north, it became Xiang-chi in China and Changgi in Korea. Sometime between the 10th and 12th centuries, "chess" was introduced to Japan, where it spawned a number of interesting variants. One of these was originally called small shōgi. Eventually, the other variants fell away and small shōgi became what is now referred to simply as shōgi. It is certain that shōgi in its present form was played in Japan as early as the 16th century.^[1]

Rules

• The game is played between 2 players
• The object of the game is to capture the opponent's King, via a checkmate.
• Shōgi is played on a nine-by-nine un-chequered board (将棋盤 shōgiban) - as opposed to chess, which uses an eight-by-eight chequered board. The vertical rows are called files, the horizontal ones ranks or just rows. Four black dots indicate the promotion zone, i.e. the last three ranks on either side.
• Each player has twenty pieces: one King (王 (Reigning) or 玉 (Challenging)), two Gold Generals (金), two Silver Generals (銀), two Knights (桂), two Lances (香), one Rook (飛), one Bishop (角) and nine Pawns (歩).
• The player moving up the board and making the first move is referred to as black (sente 先手) and his opponent white (gote 後手), although in shōgi sets all pieces have the same colour. They are differentiated only in direction: pieces pointing away from a player are his. The pieces lie flat on the board and have their Japanese name written on them in kanji, as per point 4 above.
• Perpetual check is forbidden. The player initiating the check must break it off, or lose the game for committing an illegal move.
• The first significant difference to chess is that pieces (except the King and Gold Generals) can be promoted by entering the last three ranks.
• In addition, captured pieces may be placed back on the board and used by the player who captured them. They must be placed on an empty square and a drop, as it is called, takes place in lieu of a normal move.

The Pieces and their Moves

Shōgi counters, or pieces, are flat, irregular pentagonal tiles made of either wood or plastic. A kanji symbol is printed on the top of each counter, denoting its identity as a starting piece. A second kanji symbol is printed (traditionally in red) on the underside of each counter (except for the King and Gold Generals), denoting its identity as a promoted piece. Either the top or bottom may be turned up during the course of play, in order to display the required symbol.

When the board is initially set up, the players' pieces occupy the first three ranks on either side and are laid out as follows:

• Key: LC = Lance; KT = Knight; SG = Silver General; GG = Gold General; KG = King; B = Bishop, R = Rook; P = Pawn

The pieces move as follows:

• The King (actually Jewelled General) moves the same as a Chess King; one square in any direction per move.
• The Gold General may move one square vertically, horizontally, or diagonally forward (In all directions except diagonally rearward).
• The Silver General may move one square diagonally, or straight forward (In all directions except horizontally or straight rearward).
• The Knight (actually 'Honourable Horse') has only the two forward-most moves of the Chess Knight. For example, a white Knight on d5 may go to c7 or to e7. It may leap over occupied squares, but cannot move to the rear, or sideways.
• The Lance has the forward-most move of the Chess Rook, keeping always in the same file. Without promotion the Lance cannot leave its home file.
• The Bishop (actually 'Angle Goer') moves as the Chess Bishop.
• The Rook (actually 'Flying Chariot') moves as a Chess Rook.
• The Pawn (actually 'Soldier') moves one square straight forward.

Another difference from chess is that shōgi Pawns capture in the same manner as they move, i.e. straight forward and not diagonally.

Shōgi Strategy

Simply put, when it comes to strategy in shōgi, the biggest difference to chess is that material advantage is not as important in shōgi as in chess. In chess, if a player is even only a pawn up, he can potentially be in a winning position. However, this principal cannot be applied to shōgi. Of course, material advantage is important in shōgi, during the initial stages of a game, although this largely negated by captive dropping. During the middle stage and especially in the endgame, however, it is how active your pieces are that is more important than material advantage.

This difference is as a result of the "power" of each of the pieces in play. In chess, the pieces are all fast moving, apart from the pawn. This enables players to deploy a piece easily to a specific area of the board, normally within one or two moves.

However, in shōgi most pieces are slow moving; the gold and silver generals can only move one square at a time and the knight and the lance can never retreat. This leaves only the rook and the bishop as the player's truly mobile forces. Therefore, it can take several moves to deploy a piece on the board.

This can result in pieces losing tempo, or standing idle, which can prove fatal once the endgame commences and the final battles play out around each king. At this point, both players would already have their pieces in position, to either attack or defend. There simply is not time for a player to try and bolster his defenses by moving a gold general, for example, from one end of the board to the other.

Promotion

Promotions are granted as follows.

• A starting piece moving to a square in the promotion zone (the last 3 ranks on either side, i.e. 1-3 and 7-9) earns a promotion. A promotion is indicated by flipping the piece over to display the symbol on its underside.
• An earned promotion (see above) may be deferred to a later move, as long as this move begins inside the promotion zone (the last 3 ranks). Where the move ends is of no relevance.
• Pieces arriving at a rank whereon they can move no further must promote. (e.g., a Pawn or Lance arriving on the 9th rank; a Knight arriving on the 8th or 9th rank.)
• Promoted pieces cannot be demoted again.
• Promoted pieces lose their promotion upon capture. This becomes relevant when it comes to captive drops.
• Pieces 'dropped' into the promotion zone (the last 3 ranks) may not promote until making at least one move.

Moves after Promotion

• The Silver General promotes to the equivalent of a Gold General (全) and thus may move one square vertically, horizontally, or diagonally forward.
• The Knight promotes to the equivalent of a Gold General (圭 or 今) and thus may move one square vertically, horizontally, or diagonally forward.
• The Lance promotes to the equivalent of a Gold General (杏 or 仝) and thus may move one square vertically, horizontally, or diagonally forward.
• The Pawn promotes to the equivalent of a Gold General (と or 个) and thus may move one square vertically, horizontally, or diagonally forward.
• The Rook promotes to a Dragon King ((龍 or 竜), which has the combined moves of the King and Rook.
• The Bishop promotes to a Dragon Horse (馬), which has the combined moves of King and Bishop.

Captive Dropping

In contrast to chess, a shōgi player may drop pieces he has previously captured back on to the board to use for himself. Thus, in a later move, instead of moving a piece on the board, a player may put a piece that he has captured from his opponent back onto the board, in an empty square. This is called dropping a piece. Pieces are always dropped un-promoted; if a promoted piece has been captured, it reverts to its un-promoted rank.

Pieces may be dropped on any empty square on the board with only three restrictions:

• After dropping a piece it must be able to make a legal move. This applies to Pawns, Knights or Lances. They may not be dropped onto a square from which they will never be able to move.
• Dropping a Pawn to checkmate the King is prohibited.
• A pawn may only be dropped on a file (vertical row) if there is no other un-promoted pawn of the same player on that file.

Notation

Although game notation for shōgi is traditionally done using kanji symbols, English language texts make use of an algebraic notation, derived from chess. Thus, the notation for a typical move might be written as P-8f.

The first letter represents the piece being moved, in this case "P" for Pawn. The other letters are "L", representing the Lance; "N" for Knight; "S" for the Silver Generals; "G" for the Gold Generals; "B" representing the Bishop; "R" for the Rook and finally, "K" for the King.

Promoted pieces are indicated by placing a "+" in front of the letter, for example "+P" would indicate a promoted pawn (tokin).

Next comes a symbol indicating what kind of move has been made. "–" is a simple move to a new square; "x" indicates a capture; * is used for a captive drop.

Finally, the square on which the move ends is indicated, by using a numeral for the file and a lower-case letter for the rank. Looking at the board from Black's point of view (remember that Black moves first in shōgi, then the top right corner is 1a and the bottom left corner is 9i.

If a move results in a player's piece becoming eligible for promotion, then a "+" is added to the end of the notation, if the promotion was indeed taken. If the player declines the opportunity, then an "=" is added. For example, Nx7c= indicates a knight capturing on 7c without promoting.

In cases where it is not clear which piece the move is referring to, then the starting square is added to the letter for the piece. For example, at setup Black has two Gold Generals, both of which can move to square 5h, in front of the king. These moves would be distinguished by writing G6i-5h, if the left hand Gold General Moves, or and G4i-5h for the right hand Gold General.

As in chess, the moves are numbered.

To give you an indication of what the notation would look like, here is the typical start of a game:

In a handicap game where White plays first, Black's opening move would be replaced by an ellipsis.

Handicapping

In Japan, shōgi players are graded. There are in fact two grading systems, one for professional and one for amateur players. The amateur scheme goes from about 15 kyu (beginner) to 6 dan. An amateur 6 dan is about equal to a professional 4 dan. Shōgi allows for a handicapping scheme when the difference in grades of the two players is known:

• 1 grade - stronger player plays white and forfeits left lance (on 1a) before play starts.
• 2 grades - play a 2 game series. 1st game as above, second game stronger player plays white and forfeits bishop.
• 3 grades - stronger player plays white and forfeits bishop.
• 4 grades - stronger player plays white and forfeits rook.
• 5 grades - stronger player plays white and forfeits rook and left lance.
• 6 grades - play a 2 game series. 1st game as above, second game stronger player forfeits rook and bishop.
• 7 grades - stronger player plays white and forfeits rook and bishop.

Trivia

• Just as in recent years the anime and manga series Hikaru no Go and Akagi have highlighted the games of Go and Mahjong respectively, the recent series Shion no Ou (Shion's King) focused extensively on the game of shōgi. The anime's two strongest players are female, showing the new trend to female success in international shōgi (and Go) competitions.
• The game of shōgi has very few draws, mainly due to captive dropping. Draws cannot be offered and can arise from only two situations:
  • A position (including the pieces in hand) occurs 4 consecutive times with the same player to move (Sennichite). However, if this is caused by consecutive checks by one side, the player making the checks loses the game.
  • Both players have moved their King into the the promotion zone (or they cannot be prevented from doing so) and the Kings cannot be checkmated. In such a situation, the players may decide to count their pieces. Here the King is worth zero; the Rook and Bishop 5 points each, and all other pieces are worth one point. Promotion is disregarded. If both players have at least 24 points the game is a draw (Jishōgi). If a player has less points, he loses the game.
    • A player can refuse to count pieces if he feels he still has mating chances or chances to gain material which would affect the outcome of the score. Although there is no strict rule about what to do if this is the case, it has been generally accepted that in such circumstances, the game ends and the scores are tallied after one player has managed to get all his pieces protected in the promotion zone.

Variants

Tai Shōgi

A version of the game, tai shōgi (大将棋 "Great Shōgi"), which dates back to at least 1694^[2], is probably the world's largest chess game. It is played on 25 x 25 square board, with each player having 177 pieces, 101 of which are unique. A serious game of tai will most likely require several long sessions to complete and may require over 1,000 moves per player. The game is simply too big to be played strategically, and therefore the game typically proceeds as a series of local skirmishes as both players try to develop their pieces and improve their position before the endgame commences.

It differs from normal shōgi, in that instead of a "King", each player possesses an "Emperor", as well as a "Crown Prince" (2 if a certain piece is promoted). The game is only won when a player has captured both his opponent's Emperor and Crown Prince, or both Crown Princes, should that be the case. There are also pieces that may move by "hopping" over other pieces, much like the chess knight. Others, called hook movers, move twice in one go, the second move perpendicular to their first and they may capture pieces on both moves. The other major differences between shōgi and tai shōgi is that there is no "promotion zone", but rather a piece can be promoted once it has captured another piece. In addition, the game does not make use of captive dropping. Once a piece has been captured, it plays no further part in the game.

Popularity in tai shōgi has fallen off since the 1800s, although it is still played by masters, aficionados and the curious. However, given the game's complexity, size of the board, and the task of learning the multitude of new pieces and their moves, these days it survives mostly as a curiosity within the world of shōgi.

External Links

• A translation of Urano Masahiko 7-dan's book Shōgi Kakugen Mame Jiten (Tiny dictionary of Shōgi proverbs), possibly the best source for anybody wishing to learn the game.
• Shōgi at Chessvariants
  
• Shōgi Rules
  
• Shōgi Web Portal

References