Growing slowly in popularity outside of Japan, Shogi, the Japanese form of Chess, is perhaps the most popular board game in Japan, with perhaps a million active players. Keep the squares in your camp protected to keep your opponent from dropping his pieces there. In particular the squares around your King must be well guarded. A good way to defend against a drop on a particular square is to move or drop a piece to that square yourself. In Shogi, unlike Western Chess, material isn't so important once the Kings are attacked.
Golds are slightly better than Silvers, especially for defense.
The game is widely covered in Japanese books, magazines, and newspapers. A Pawn moves a single square forward at a time. It captures forward, just like it moves. When it promotes it moves like a Gold General. A Tokin moves in the same way a Gold General does, i.e. a single step in any direction except diagonally backwards.