How to play Shogi

Set up. Each player has a king, a rook, a bishop, two golds, two silvers, two knights, two lances and nine pawns, laid out on their own three rows. Every piece is a five-sided wedge that points at the other player.
Take turns. The player who goes first is called sente. On your turn, either move one piece or drop one piece from your hand.
Capture by moving onto a square held by a rival piece. The captured piece goes into your hand, beside the board.
Drop a piece from your hand onto any empty square instead of moving. It's now your piece, facing the same way as the rest of your army.
Promote when a piece moves into, within or out of the far three rows: it turns over and gets stronger (see below).
Checkmate the other king to win: attack it so that no move or drop can save it.

How the pieces move

Piece	Kanji	Letter	Moves	Promotes to
King	王 / 玉	K	One square in any direction	Doesn't promote
Rook	飛	R	Any number of squares straight up, down or sideways	Dragon 龍: a rook that can also step one square diagonally
Bishop	角	B	Any number of squares diagonally	Horse 馬: a bishop that can also step one square straight
Gold	金	G	One square straight in any direction, or diagonally forwards	Doesn't promote
Silver	銀	S	One square diagonally in any direction, or straight forwards	Moves like a gold
Knight	桂	N	Jumps two squares forwards and one to the side, only forwards	Moves like a gold
Lance	香	L	Any number of squares straight forwards	Moves like a gold
Pawn	歩	P	One square straight forwards, and captures the same way	Tokin と: moves like a gold

Promoted pieces show their kanji in red, or a + before their letter. Both kings mean the same: one is marked 王 and the other 玉.

Drops

A dropped piece always lands unpromoted, even inside the far three rows. A few drops aren't allowed:

Nowhere it could never move again: no pawn or lance on the last row, and no knight on the last two.
No second pawn on a file: you can't drop a pawn on a file where you already have an unpromoted pawn.
No checkmate by pawn drop: a dropped pawn may give check, but not checkmate. Checkmating with a pawn that moves there is fine, and so is checkmating with any other dropped piece.

The game only lets you make allowed drops, so tap a piece in your hand to see where it can go.

Promotion

The far three rows are your promotion zone. When a rook, bishop, silver, knight, lance or pawn moves into the zone, moves inside it, or moves out of it, you may promote it. Usually you should, but a silver or knight is sometimes more useful unpromoted. A pawn or lance reaching the last row, or a knight reaching the last two, must promote, since it could never move again. Golds and kings never promote. When a promoted piece is captured, it goes into the captor's hand as the plain piece again.

How a game ends

Checkmate wins. A player with no legal move at all also loses, although that's rare.
Repetition: if the same position (with the same pieces in hand and the same player to move) comes up four times, the game is a draw. But if one player gave check with every move along the way, that player loses instead.
Impasse: when both kings have walked into the other side's three rows, checkmate is rarely possible any more, so the pieces are counted: 5 points for each rook or bishop, promoted or not, and 1 for every other piece except the king, on the board and in hand. A player with fewer than 24 points loses; if both have 24 or more, it's a draw. In real games the players agree to count; here the count happens as soon as both kings are in.

Controls

Move: tap one of your pieces to see where it can go, then tap a square. A dot marks an empty square, a ring a piece you can capture.
Promote: when a move could promote, choose Promote or Keep in the box that pops up.
Drop: tap a piece in your hand (beside the board, next to your face), then tap a marked square.
Pieces: choose Kanji for the traditional characters or Letters for K, R, B, G, S, N, L and P before you start.
Keyboard: Tab moves between the squares you can use, Enter picks one and Esc cancels.

Orange always sits at the bottom of the board. The player who goes first in a round plays sente and moves first; in the next round the other player starts. With two players on a phone, the top player's hand faces them across the table.

Computer levels

The computer plays by the same rules and only sees the board and the pieces in hand, as you do. It judges a position by the pieces each side has, on the board and in hand, how well each king is guarded, how close the enemy pieces are to it and how freely the rooks and bishops can move.

Level	How it plays
Easy	Looks one move ahead and follows captures through, with plenty of randomness. Now and then it plays a random move.
Medium	Looks two moves ahead, its move and your reply, with a little randomness.
Hard	Looks three moves ahead, following every capture until the position is quiet.
Expert	Looks further ahead, a move deeper at a time, for about two seconds a move.

Tips to win

Build a castle. Move your king a few squares to one side early on and keep two or three golds and silvers around it. A king left in the middle is easy to attack with drops.
Every capture counts twice. The piece leaves your rival's army and joins yours, so trading a strong piece for a weak one hurts more than in chess.
Use your hand. A gold or silver dropped right next to the enemy king is often the fastest way to checkmate.
Promote when you can. A dragon or horse is the strongest piece on the board, and a tokin is a free gold.
Watch the knights. A knight can attack two pieces at once, and it can't be blocked.
Keep a pawn in hand. A dropped pawn blocks a rook or lance, and threatens a piece cheaply.

About Shogi

Shogi belongs to the same family as chess, which goes back to the old Indian game chaturanga. The drop rule, which sets it apart, has been part of the game for several hundred years. Today shogi is one of the most popular board games in Japan, with professional players and big televised matches. The rules here are the standard ones, including the rules on repetition and pawn drops.

Questions

Is shogi the same as chess?

They're cousins. Both are about trapping the king, and several pieces move alike. But shogi has a bigger board, no queen, pieces that promote in the far three rows and, above all, drops: captured pieces join the side that took them.

What happens to the pieces I capture?

They go into your hand, beside the board. On any later turn, instead of moving, you can drop one of them onto an empty square as your own piece.

Which pieces can promote?

The rook, bishop, silver, knight, lance and pawn. Golds and kings can't. Promoted pieces stay promoted until they're captured.

Can I checkmate by dropping a piece?

Yes, with any piece except a pawn. A dropped pawn may give check, but never checkmate.

Do I have to read kanji to play?

No. Choose Letters before you start and the pieces show K, R, B, G, S, N, L and P instead, with a + on promoted pieces. The table above gives both, so you can learn the kanji as you go.

Who moves first?

The player called sente moves first. Here, the player who goes first in a round plays sente, and that switches every round. In English, sente is often called Black and the other side White, even though both sides' pieces look the same.

Is Shogi free?

Yes. It's free in your browser, with no download, no sign-up and no ads during a game.

Updated 10 November 2026