Shogi is the Japanese cousin of Chess. Very similar to it in some respects, it differs from Chess mainly by allowing players to keep captured pieces and replay them as their own. To win you have to checkmate the king of your opponent.
The board is a 9x9
for each team:
We made a western set of pieces for players who might not be familiar with the traditional japanese version.
Gold general: moves and captures to adjacent squares in any orthogonal or the forward diagonal direction.
Silver general: moves and captures to adjacent squares in any diagonal or the forward orthogonal direction.
Pawn : The Pawn: moves and captures to the square directly in front of it.
Rook : as in chess.
Bishop : as in chess.
King : as in chess.
Horse : The Knight has the two forward-most moves of the Chess knight.
Lance : The Lance moves as a Rook but only forward in the same file, never sideways or backward.
Captured pieces become prisoners and lose their promotion, guarded on your right. You can use your turn to put them back into play. A player can either move one of his pieces or drop a prisoner back into play on his behalf.
A pawn can't be dropped on a column with an unpromoted pawn of the same color.
A pawn can't make an immediate checkmate when dropped. It is allowed for other pieces.
A piece can't be dropped is no subsequent move is possible, so a pawn cannot be dropped on the last line.
2D skins are available for all, 3D skins need WebGL so please use Chrome or Firefox.