Gameweave

Shogi (Japanese Chess)

Shogi is a two-player strategy game played on a 9×9 board. The goal is to checkmate the opponent's king. Its signature feature is the drop rule: captured pieces switch sides and can be returned to the board as your own.

Players

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Sente (先手, "Black") — Player 1. Moves first.
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Gote (後手, "White") — Player 2.
Both armies use identical piece art; the piece's orientation shows who owns it.

The board

A 9×9 grid. Files are labelled a–i (left to right) and ranks 1–9. Sente's home ranks are 1–3 (bottom); Gote's are 7–9 (top). Sente advances "up" the board, Gote advances "down".

Starting position

Each side sets up three ranks:
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Back rank: Lance, Knight, Silver, Gold, King, Gold, Silver, Knight, Lance.
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Second rank: Bishop and Rook (on opposite wings for each player). Sente's bishop sits at b2 and rook at h2; Gote's rook sits at b8 and bishop at h8.
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Third rank: nine Pawns across the whole file.

Pieces and movement

Directions below are relative to the owning player's forward direction.
Piece
Movement
King (王)
One square in any direction.
Rook (飛)
Any number of squares orthogonally.
Bishop (角)
Any number of squares diagonally.
Gold General (金)
One square orthogonally, or one square diagonally forward (not diagonally backward).
Silver General (銀)
One square straight forward, or one square in any of the four diagonals.
Knight (桂)
Jumps to one of the two squares two ranks forward and one file to the side. It may jump over pieces and can only move forward.
Lance (香)
Any number of squares straight forward.
Pawn (歩)
One square straight forward. It captures the same way (there is no diagonal pawn capture as in Western chess).

Promotion

The promotion zone is the farthest three ranks from a player (Sente: ranks 7–9; Gote: ranks 1–3). A piece may promote when its move starts in, moves within, or moves into the promotion zone.
Promotion is normally optional, but it is mandatory when a piece would otherwise have no legal move:
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A Pawn or Lance reaching the last rank must promote.
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A Knight reaching either of the last two ranks must promote.
Kings and Gold Generals never promote. Promoted pieces move as follows:
Base
Promotes to
Movement
Pawn
Tokin (と)
Gold General
Silver
Promoted Silver (全)
Gold General
Knight
Promoted Knight (圭)
Gold General
Lance
Promoted Lance (杏)
Gold General
Rook
Dragon King (龍)
Rook + one-square diagonal step
Bishop
Dragon Horse (馬)
Bishop + one-square orthogonal step

Captures and drops

When you capture an enemy piece it goes into your hand, reverting to its unpromoted base form and becoming yours. On any turn, instead of moving a piece on the board, you may drop a piece from your hand onto any empty square. A dropped piece is always unpromoted; it may promote later by normal movement.
Drop restrictions:
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A piece may never be dropped where it would have no future move: a Pawn or Lance cannot be dropped on the last rank, and a Knight cannot be dropped on either of the last two ranks.
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Two Pawns (nifu): you may not drop a Pawn on a file that already contains one of your own unpromoted Pawns.
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Drop mate (uchifuzume): you may not deliver immediate checkmate with a Pawn drop.

Check and checkmate

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If your king is attacked, you are in check and must make a move that escapes it.
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If you are in check and have no legal action (move or drop) that escapes, you are checkmated and lose.
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Shogi has no stalemate: a player with no legal move loses.

Winning

Checkmate the opponent's king. Because pieces are never removed from play, material continually recirculates through drops, and games are decided by checkmate rather than by running the opponent out of pieces.