Shogi
From Shogipedia
Shogi (将棋) (in English, informally known as Japanese chess) is a two-player board game in the same family as Chess, Chaturanga, Xiangqi, and is the most popular of a family of chess variants native to Japan. Shogi means general's (shou) boardgame (gi).
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Equipment
Two players, Black (先手 sente) and White (後手 gote), play on a board composed of rectangles in a grid of 9 ranks (rows) by 9 files (columns). The rectangles are undifferentiated by marking or colour. The board is almost always made of rectangles; square boards are very uncommon.
Each player has a set of 20 wedge-shaped pieces of slightly different sizes. Except for the kings, opposing pieces are differentiated only by orientation, not by marking or color. From largest to smallest (most to least powerful), the pieces are:
- 1 King*
- 1 Rook*
- 1 Bishop*
- 2 Gold Generals
- 2 Silver Generals
- 2 Knights*
- 2 Lances**
- 9 Pawns*
*The English names of these pieces were made to correspond with their Chess counterparts and are not literal translations of the pieces' names.
**The Lance's name was Westernized to fit with the rest of the renamed pieces.
Each piece has its name written on its surface in the form of two kanji (Chinese characters used in Japanese), usually in black ink. On the reverse side of each piece, other than the king and gold general, are one or two other characters, in amateur sets often in a different color (usually red); this side is turned face up during play to indicate that the piece has been promoted. The pieces of the two players do not differ in color, but instead each faces forward, toward the opposing side. This shows who controls the piece during play.
Movement and Capture
Most shogi pieces can only move to an adjacent square. A few may move across the board, and one jumps over intervening pieces.
Every piece blocks the movement of all other non-jumping pieces through the square it occupies. However, if a piece occupies a legal destination for an opposing piece, it may be captured by removing it from the board and replacing it with the opposing piece. It is not possible for the capturing piece to continue beyond that square on that turn.
It is common to keep captured pieces on a wooden stand (or komadai) which is traditionally placed so that its bottom left corner aligns with the bottom right corner of the board from the perspective of each player. It is not permissible to hide pieces from full view. This is because captured pieces, which are said to be in hand, have a crucial impact on the course of the game.
The knight jumps, that is, it passes over any intervening piece, whether friend or foe, without an effect on either. It is the only piece to do this.
The lance, bishop, and rook are ranging pieces: They can move any number of squares along a straight line limited only by intervening pieces and the edge of the board. If an opposing piece intervenes, it may be captured by removing it from the board and replacing it with the moving piece. If a friendly piece intervenes, the moving piece must stop short of that square; if the friendly piece is adjacent, the moving piece may not move in that direction at all.
Promotion
A player's promotion zone is the far third of the board, the three ranks occupied by the opposing pieces at setup. If a piece moves across the board and part of that path lies within the promotion zone, that is, if it moves into, out of, or wholly within the zone, but not if it is dropped (see below), then that player may choose to promote the piece at the end of the turn. Promotion is indicated by turning the piece over after it moves, revealing the character for the promoted rank. Promotion changes the piece's movements.
When captured, pieces lose their promoted status. Otherwise promotion is permanent.
Drops
Captured pieces are truly captured in shogi. They are retained "in hand", and can be brought back into play under the capturing player's control. On any turn, instead of moving a piece on the board, a player may take a piece that had been previously captured and place it, unpromoted side up, on any empty square, facing the opposing side. The piece is now part of the forces controlled by that player. This is termed dropping the piece, or just a drop.
A drop cannot capture a piece, nor does dropping within the promotion zone result in immediate promotion. However, either capture or promotion may occur normally on subsequent moves by the piece.
There are several restrictions regarding drops. A pawn, knight, or lance may not be dropped on the far rank, since it would have no legal move on subsequent turns. Similarly, a knight may not be dropped on the penultimate rank. Additionally, a pawn may not be dropped in a file where there is already a friendly pawn, nor may a pawn drop deliver checkmate.
Ending the Game
A player who checkmates the opponent's king wins the game. In practice this rarely happens, as a player will concede defeat when loss is inevitable.
When a player makes a move such that the opposing king could be captured on the following turn, the move is said to give check to the king; the king is said to be in check. If a player's king is in check and no legal move by that player will get the king out of check, the checking move is also checkmate (tsumi 詰み) and effectively wins the game.
In professional and serious amateur games, a player who makes an illegal move loses immediately.
There are two other possible, if uncommon, ways for a game to end: repetition (千日手 sennichite) and impasse (持将棋 jishōgi). These make the game a draw, which in professional games leads to a repetition of the game with the sides switched.
Perpetual check is illegal.
