Shogi

Shogi is a board game from Japan. In English, it is also known as Japanese chess. It is a 2-player board game in the same family as International chess, and Chinese Xiangqi. Shogi is the most popular of a family of chess variants, and is native to Japan. Shōgi means general's (shō) boardgame (gi). In early years, however, shogi was written 象棋 (the same as Xiangqi, "elephant chess"). Each player starts with 20 pieces in the beginning of the game.

The earliest predecessors of the game, chaturanga, originated in India in the 6th century AD, and spread from China to Japan, where it spawned a number of variants. Shogi in its present form was played as early as the 16th century, while a direct ancestor without the "drop rule" was recorded from 1210 in a historical document Nichūreki, which is an edited copy of Shōchūreki and Kaichūreki from the late Heian period (~1120).

According to ChessVariants.com, "Perhaps the enduring popularity of Shogi can be attributed to its 'drop rule'; it was the first chess variant wherein captured pieces could be returned to the board to be used as one's own. This has the consequence that few games are drawn, which is a weakness of international chess. David Pritchard credits the drop rule to the practice of 16th century mercenaries (ronin) who switched loyalties when captured—no doubt as an alternative to execution".ChessVariants.comPritchard, David Brine 1994. The Encyclopedia of chess variants. 

Pieces
King

Gold General

Silver General

Knight

Lance

Rook

Bishop

Pawn

Movement

Normal Pieces
King: Moves like the king in chess.
Gold General: Moves one square in any direction except diagonally backwards.
Silver General: Moves one square diagonally in any direction or one square directly forward.
Knight: Moves like the knight in chess, but it cannot go sideways or backwards and it can also jump over other pieces.
Lance: Moves any number of squares forwards.
Rook: Moves like the rook in chess.
Bishop: Moves like the bishop in chess.
Pawn: Moves like the pawn in chess and unlike the chess pawn, the shogi pawn captures the same way as they move.

Promoted Pieces
Promoted Silver General, Knight, Lance and Pawn: Moves as the Gold General.
Promoted Rook (Dragon King): Moves the same as the normal Rook, but it can move one square diagonally in any direction.
Promoted Bishop (Dragon Horse): Moves the same as the normal Bishop, but it can move one square in a straight line in any direction.

Famous players
 Hiroe Nakai, Ichiyo Shimizu, Kana Satomi - One of the strongest women shogi players in Japan
 Sota Hujii, Yoshiharu Habu - One of the strongest shogi players in Japan

Related pages
 History of chess
 Chu shogi
 Dai shogi
 Xiangqi
 Janggi

 References 

Category:Chess variants
Category:Sport in Japan