Shogi
Shogi, also called Japanese chess, is an old Asian board [1]game, very
similar to [2]chess, and is greatly popular in Japan, even a bit more than
[3]go, the second biggest Japanese board game. Shogi is yet more complex
(and [4]bloated) than chess, has a bigger board, more pieces and more
complex rules that besides others allow pieces to come back to play; for a
chess player shogi is not that hard to get into as the basic rules are
still very similar, and it may offer a new challenge and experience. Also
similarly to chess, [5]go, [6]backgammon and similar board games, [7]LRS
sees shogi as one of the best games ever as it is legally not owned by
anyone (it is [8]public domain), is relatively [9]simple, cheap and
doesn't even require a computer to be played. The [10]culture of shogi is
also different from that of chess, there are many rituals connected to how
the game is conducted, there are multiple champion titles, it is not
common to offer draws etc.
{ Lol apparently (seen in a YT video) when in the opening one exchanges
bishops, it is considered [11]rude to promote the bishop that takes, as it
makes no difference because he will be immediately taken anyway. So ALWAYS
DO THIS to piss off your opponent and increase your chance of winning :D
~drummyfish }
Quick sum up for chess players: Games are longer. When you get back to
chess from shogi your ELO will bump 100 points as it feels so much easier.
Pawns are very different (simpler) from chess, they don't take sideways so
forget all you know about pawn structure (prepare for bashing your head
thinking a pawn guards something, then opponent takes it and you realize
you can't retake :D just write gg and start a new game). The drop move
will fuck up your brain initially, you have to start considering that
opponent can just smash his general literally in front of your king and
mate you right there { still fucking happens to me all the time lol :D
~drummyfish }. Exchanges and sacrifices also aren't that simple as any
piece you sacrifice YOU GIVE TO THE OPPONENT, so you better not fuck up
the final attack on the king or else the opponent just collects a bunch of
your pieces and starts his own attack right in your base by dropping those
pieces on your king right from the sky. You have to kill swiftly and
precisely, it can turn over in an instant. There is no castling (but king
safety is still important so you castle manually). Stalemate is a loss
(not a draw) but it basically never happens, Japanese hate draws, draws
are rare in shogi.
The game's disadvantage and a barrier for entry, especially for westeners,
is that the traditional design of the shogi pieces sucks big time, for
they are just same-colored pieces of wood with Chinese characters written
on them which are unintelligible to anyone non-Chinese and even to Chinese
this is greatly visually unclear -- all pieces just look the same on first
sight and the pieces of both player are distinguished just by their
rotation, not color (color is only used in amateur sets to distinguish
normal and promoted pieces). But of course you may use different, visually
better pieces, which is also an option in many shogi programs -- a popular
choice nowadays are so called international pieces that show both the
Chinese character along with a simple, easily distinguishable piece
symbol. There are also sets for children/beginners that have on them
visually indicated how the piece moves.
Rules
As with every game, rules may slightly differ here and there, but
generally they are in principle similar to those of [12]chess, with some
differences and with different pieces. The goal of the game is to deliver
a checkmate to the opponent's king, i.e. make him unable to escape capture
(same as in chess). The details are as follows.
Shogi is played on a 9x9 rectangular board: the squares are not square in
shape but slightly rectangular and they all have the same color. There are
two players: sente (plays first) and gote (plays second); sente is also
sometimes called black and gote white, like in chess (though unlike in
chess black starts first here), but the pieces actually all have the same
color (as they can be exchanged).
The pieces are weird pentagonal arrow-like shapes that have on them
written a Chinese character identifying the piece; on the other side there
is a symbol representing the promoted version of the piece (i.e. if you
promote, you turn the piece over). The arrow of the piece is turned
against the enemy and this is how it is distinguished which player a piece
belongs to.
The table showing all the types of pieces follows. The movement rules are
same as in chess, i.e. pieces cannot jump over other pieces except for the
knight. (F, R, B, L mean forward, right, bottom, left.)
piece symbol letter ~value move rules comment
also takes forward
pawn 歩 P 1 1 F (not complicated
like in chess)
can't go backwards
lance 香 L 4 F (any distance) or sideways, just
forward!
2 F., then 1 L or similar to knight in
knight 桂 N 5 R chess, only one that
jumps over pieces
silver 1F1L, 1F, 1F1R, like king but can't
general 銀 S 7 1B1L, 1B1R go directly back,
left or right
similar to silver
gold general 金 G 8 1F1L, 1F, 1F1R, but has 6 squares
1L, 1R, 1B (s. only has 5),
can't promote
bishop 角 B 11 diagonal (any same as bishop in
distance) chess
rook 飛 R 13 horiz./vert. (any same as rook in
distance) chess
more valuable than
promoted pawn と +P 10 like gold general gold because when
captured, enemy only
gets pawn
promoted 杏 +L 9 like gold general
lance
promoted 圭 +N 9 like gold general
knight
promoted 全 +S 9 like gold general
silver
like both king and can now move to
p. bishop 馬 +B 15 bishop other set of
diagonals!
p. rook 龍 +R 17 like both king and
(dragon) rook
king 王 K inf any neighboring 8 same as king in
squares chess, can't promote
At the beginning the board is set up like this:
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
_________________
|L N S G K G S N L| a gote promotion
|. R . . . . . B .| b (white) zone
|P P P P P P P P P| c ----------------------
|. . . . . . . . .| d
|. . . . . . . . .| e
|. . . . . . . . .| f
|p p p p p p p p p| g ----------------------
|. b . . . . . r .| h sente promotion
|l n s g k g s n l| i (black) zone
"""""""""""""""""
So called furigoma is used to decide who starts (has the black pieces):
one player throws 5 pawn pieces, if the number of unpromoted pawns ending
up facing up is higher than the number of promoted ones, the player who
tossed starts.
Then the players take turns in making moves, one can either:
* Move one own piece (according to its movement rules), possibly
capturing (taking) one enemy piece by landing on it. If a piece is
captured, it goes to the hand of that who captured it. After making
this move the moved piece MAY (or may not) be promoted if: it can be
promoted (as some pieces can't promote) AND its movement path went
through the enemy promotion zone (his three starting rows, for example
if the piece entered the zone or left it or moved within it).
Promotion is mandatory if otherwise the piece would be unable to ever
move again (e.g. a pawn entering the last row has to be always
promoted). OR
* Drop one of the held pieces (captured from the enemy's army) anywhere
on an empty square as a new piece of the player who drops it. After a
drop the piece CANNOT be immediately promoted (it has to move to be
promoted). One only cannot drop a piece so that it wouldn't ever have
any legal move (e.g. a pawn to the last row), also a pawn mustn't be
dropped into a column where there already is an unpromoted friendly
pawn (there may only ever be at most one unpromoted pawn of each
player in any column) AND one mustn't deliver an immediate checkmate
by dropping a pawn (but can deliver a check etc.).
If a piece is immediately endangering the enemy king (so that it could
capture it the next turn), a check happens. The player in check has to
immediately avoid it, i.e. make a move that makes his king not be
endangered by any enemy piece. If he cannot do that, he got checkmated and
lost.
TODO
Playing Tips
TODO
* Opening: moving the pawn right-up from your bishop seems to be the
best first move, also most commonly played on top level.
* ...
See Also
* [13]chess
* [14]go
* [15]xiangqi
* [16]backgammon
Links:
1. game.md
2. chess.md
3. go.md
4. bloat.md
5. go.md
6. backgammon.md
7. lrs.md
8. public_domain.md
9. kiss.md
10. culture.md
11. unsportmanship.md
12. chess.md
13. chess.md
14. go.md
15. xiangqi.md
16. backgammon.md