Shogi
Shogi, also known as Japanese chess, is a strategy board game for two players. It is one of the most popular board games in Japan and is in the same family of games as Western chess, chaturanga, xiangqi, Indian chess, Makruk, and janggi. Shōgi means general's board game.
Shogi was the earliest historical chess-related game to allow captured pieces to be returned to the board by the capturing player. This drop rule is speculated to have been invented in the 15th century and possibly connected to the practice of 15th-century mercenaries switching loyalties when captured instead of being killed.
The earliest predecessor of the game, chaturanga, originated in India in the 6th century, and the game was likely transmitted to Japan via China or Korea sometime after the Nara period. Shogi in its present form was played as early as the 15th century, while a direct ancestor without the drop rule was recorded from 1210 in a historical document , which is an edited copy of Shōchūreki and Kaichūreki from the late Heian period.
Equipment
Two players face each other across a board composed of rectangles in a grid of 9 ranks by 9 files yielding an 81-square board. In Japanese they are called and, but in English they are conventionally referred to as Black and White, with Black being the first player.The board is nearly always rectangular, and the rectangles are undifferentiated by marking or color. Pairs of dots mark the players' promotion zones.
Each player has a set of 20 flat wedge-shaped pentagonal pieces of slightly different sizes. Except for the kings, opposing pieces are undifferentiated by marking or color. Pieces face forward by having the pointed side of each piece oriented toward the opponent's side – this shows who controls the piece during play. The pieces from largest to smallest are:
- 1 king
- 1 rook
- 1 bishop
- 2 gold generals
- 2 silver generals
- 2 knights
- 2 lances
- 9 pawns
Each piece has its name written on its surface in the form of two kanji, 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 ; this side is turned face up during play to indicate that the piece has been promoted.
In some cases, the backsides of the King pieces will display kanji containing additional information about the piece manufacturers.
Following is a table of the pieces with their Japanese representations and English equivalents. The abbreviations are used for game notation and often when referring to the pieces in speech in Japanese.
English speakers sometimes refer to promoted bishops as horses and promoted rooks as dragons, after their Japanese names, and generally use the Japanese term tokin for promoted pawns. Silver generals and gold generals are commonly referred to simply as silvers and golds, respectively.
The characters inscribed on the reverse sides of the pieces to indicate promotion may be in red ink, and are usually cursive. The characters on the backs of the pieces that promote to gold generals are cursive variants of 金 'gold', becoming more cursive as the value of the original piece decreases. These cursive forms have these equivalents in print: 全 for promoted silver, 今 for promoted knight, 仝 for promoted lance, and 个 for promoted pawn. Another typographic convention has abbreviated versions of the original values, with a reduced number of strokes: 圭 for a promoted knight, 杏 for a promoted lance, and the 全 as above for a promoted silver, but と for tokin.
The suggestion that the Japanese characters have deterred Western players from learning shogi has led to "Westernized" or "international" pieces which use iconic symbols instead of characters. Most players soon learn to recognize the characters, however, partially because the traditional pieces are already iconic by size, with more powerful pieces being larger. As a result, Westernized pieces have never become popular. Bilingual pieces with both Japanese characters and English captions have been developed as have pieces with animal cartoons.
Setup and gameplay
Each player sets up friendly pieces facing forward.- In the rank nearest the player:
- * The king is placed in the center file;
- * The two gold generals are placed in files adjacent to the king;
- * The two silver generals are placed adjacent to each gold general;
- * The two knights are placed adjacent to each silver general;
- * The two lances are placed in the corners, adjacent to each knight.
- In the second rank, each player places:
- * The bishop in the same file as the left knight;
- * The rook in the same file as the right knight.
- In the third rank, the nine pawns are placed one per file.
After the piece toss furigoma, the game proceeds. If multiple games are played, then players alternate turns for who goes first in subsequent games. For each turn, a player may either move a piece that is currently on the board or else drop a piece that has been previously captured onto a square of the board. These options are explained below.
Rules
Objective
The usual goal of a game is for one player to checkmate the other player's king, winning the game.Movement
Most shogi pieces can move only to an adjacent square. A few may move across the board, and one jumps over intervening pieces.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.
A king moves one square in any direction, orthogonal or diagonal. A rook moves any number of squares in an orthogonal direction. A bishop moves any number of squares in a diagonal direction. Because they cannot move orthogonally, the players' unpromoted bishops can reach only half the squares of the board, unless one is captured and then dropped. A gold general moves one square orthogonally, or one square diagonally forward, giving it six possible destinations. It cannot move diagonally backwards. A silver general moves one square diagonally, or one square straight forward, giving it five possible destinations. Because an unpromoted silver can retreat more easily than a promoted one, it is common to leave a silver unpromoted at the far side of the board.. A knight jumps at an angle intermediate to orthogonal and diagonal, amounting to one square straight forward plus one square diagonally forward, in a single move. Thus the knight has two possible forward destinations. Unlike international chess knights, shogi knights cannot move to the sides or in a backwards direction. The knight is the only piece that ignores intervening pieces on the way to its destination. It is not blocked from moving if the square in front of it is occupied, but neither can it capture a piece on that square. It is often useful to leave a knight unpromoted at the far side of the board. A knight must promote, however, if it reaches either of the two furthest ranks. A lance moves just like the rook except it cannot move backwards or to the sides. It is often useful to leave a lance unpromoted at the far side of the board. A lance must promote, however, if it reaches the furthest rank. A pawn moves one square straight forward. It cannot retreat. Unlike international chess pawns, shogi pawns capture the same way as they move. A pawn must promote if it arrives at the furthest rank. In practice, however, a pawn is usually promoted whenever possible. There are two restrictions on where a pawn may be dropped. All pieces but the knight move either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. These directions cannot be combined in a single move; one direction must be chosen. Every piece blocks the movement of all other non-jumping pieces through the square it occupies. 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. The capturing piece may not continue beyond that square on that turn. Shogi pieces capture the same as they move. Normally, when moving a piece, a player snaps it to the board with the ends of the fingers of the same hand. This makes a sudden sound effect, bringing the piece to the attention of the opponent. This is also true for capturing and dropping pieces. On a traditional shogi-ban, the pitch of the snap is deeper, delivering a subtler effect. [|Promotion]A player's promotion zone consists of the furthest one-third of the board – the three ranks occupied by the opponent's pieces at setup. The zone is typically delineated on shogi boards by two inscribed dots. When a piece is moved, if part of the piece's path lies within the promotion zone, then the player has the option to promote the piece at the end of the turn. Promotion is indicated by turning the piece over after it moves, revealing the character of the promoted piece.Promoting a piece is usually not compulsory; however, if a pawn or lance is moved to the furthest rank, or a knight is moved to either of the two furthest ranks, that piece must promote. A silver general is never required to promote, and it is often advantageous to keep a silver general unpromoted Rooks, bishops and pawns are almost always promoted, as these pieces do not lose any of their powers upon promotion. Promoting a piece changes the way it moves. The various pieces promote as follows:
A promoted rook moves as a rook and as a king. It is commonly referred to as dragon.
A promoted bishop moves as a bishop and as a king. It is commonly referred to as horse.
A promoted silver, a promoted knight, a promoted lance and a promoted pawn all move the same way as a gold general. The promoted pawn is often called by its Japanese name tokin, even by non-Japanese players.
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