What is the Japanese version of chess?

Shogi (将棋, shōgi, English: /ˈʃoʊɡi/, Japanese: [ɕoːɡi]), also known as Japanese chess, is a strategy board game for two players. It is one of the most popular board games in Japan and is in the same family of games as Western chess, chaturanga, xiangqi, Indian chess, and janggi.

Is shogi harder than chess?

Shogi is seen to be a more difficult game than chess because once players capture an opponent's piece, they can use that piece as their own—meaning that while chess games on the whole get simpler as fewer pieces are left on the board, shogi gets more complex, a shogi professional told the New York Times (paywall) in ...

What's the difference between chess and shogi?

The shogi board is 9x9; the chess board is 8x8. Shogi has five pieces with no counterpart in chess: the gold and silver generals, the lance, the promoted rook and the promoted bishop. Chess has one piece with no counterpart in shogi: the queen. The knight's move in shogi is much more restrictive than in chess.

What is shogi for dummies?

Shogi is a game where two players try to outwit each other by moving pieces strategically in order to capture the opponent's king. To do so, you must force the opponent's king into a checkmate, which means that there are no eligible moves left for the king to escape from being captured.

Can you checkmate in shogi?

By dropping a piece, a check can be given (endangering of the king does not have to be announced), or even a checkmate can be given (except by a pawn).

How to Play Japanese Chess - Shogi

What is the hardest piece to checkmate?

Checkmate with a king, bishop, and knight: Checkmate with a king, bishop, and a knight is one of the most difficult basic checkmates because you cannot create a linear barrier a safe distance away from your opponent's king.

What chess pieces Cannot checkmate?

King and rook versus king: The stronger side can checkmate, and while it may take more moves than with a queen, the technique is still quite simple. King and bishop versus king: The stronger side cannot checkmate. King and knight versus king: The stronger side cannot checkmate.

Is shogi a big deal in Japan?

Shogi (将棋, shōgi, English: /ˈʃoʊɡi/, Japanese: [ɕoːɡi]), also known as Japanese chess, is a strategy board game for two players. It is one of the most popular board games in Japan and is in the same family of games as Western chess, chaturanga, Xiangqi, Indian chess, and janggi.

Which is older chess or shogi?

But chess in nearly its current form developed around 1500, and shogi in its current form may have developed at around the same time or possibly later (it's not known when shogi's famous drop rule was developed). But both Europe and Japan had very similar games for hundreds of years before then.

What is the most important piece in shogi?

However, Shogi still has the Rook and Bishop — two pieces vastly more powerful than everything else, pieces that can devastate your opponent on their own, or devastate you if you lose one or both of them. The next-strongest pieces behind the Rook and the Bishop are the Gold and Silver Generals, both worth vastly less.

Is shogi separated by gender?

There are two categories of professional players: regular professional and women's professional. All regular professional shogi players are members of the Japan Shogi Association (JSA). However, only regular professional players, who are all male, are considered to be full-fledged members.

Are there openings in shogi?

A shogi opening (戦法 senpō) is the sequence of initial moves of a shogi game before the middle game. The more general Japanese term for the beginning of the game is joban (序盤).

What is the drop rule in shogi?

Pieces may be dropped on any empty square on the board with only three restrictions: After dropping a piece it must be able to make a legal move. This applies to Pawns, Knights or Lances. They may not be dropped onto a square from which they will never be able to move.

What is the weakest chess piece usually?

The pawn (♙, ♟) is the most numerous and weakest piece in the game of chess.

How much does a shogi player make?

Best paid professional Shogi players in Japan 2022

In 2022, Fujii Sota was the highest earning Shogi professional in Japan, making an estimated 122.05 million Japanese yen over the course of the year. Shogi, also referred to as "Japanese chess", is a turn-based strategy board game similar to chess in many aspects.

Which is more popular in Japan shogi or go?

Shogi is extremely popular in Japan; it has been estimated that 20 million Japanese can play shogi, of which perhaps 1 million are active players. It is even more popular there than the game of go, Japan's other favorite board game.

What is the oldest game in the world still played?

Go, also known as Wei Qi, is an abstract strategy board game for two players in which the aim is to surround more territory than the opponent. The game was invented in China more than 2,500 years ago and is believed to be the oldest board game continuously played to the present day.

Why is chess not popular in Japan?

It just goes against the local Japanese aesthetic; there are Shogi and Go Meijins, but there is no “Chess Meijin” just a Chess Master — that alone sort of makes it go against the concept of what the Japanese think of a competitive board game. There are too many local games that contend with it like Shogi and Go.

What is the #1 board game in the world?

1. Chess. Chess requires two players and is purely a strategy board game played on a chessboard, a checkered tiled board with sixty-four squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most ancient and popular games, played by millions of people all across the globe.

What do shogi players eat?

Featured food(s) Players eat Japanese sweets and drink Japanese tea. I live with my parents. I have two brothers. I play shogi with my friends and sometimes read and play games in my free time.

Who is the best shogi player in the world?

Yoshiharu Habu (born in 1970) is a living shogi legend. He is widely regarded as the greatest shogi player ever. Habu first encountered shogi in his first year of elementary school, when his classmates taught him how the shogi pieces move.

What is the rarest chess rule?

Underpromoting to a bishop must be the rarest move in chess. We can easily think of some famous examples of rook promotions (such as the brilliant Saavedra study), and by comparison knight underpromotions happen every day - just think of this opening trap in the Albin Countergambit.

What is the only piece in chess that Cannot defeat a king?

A king can be killed or captured by any given opposition chess piece during gameplay in a chess game. To end a chess match, any chess piece can strike a decisive blow on the rival king, from the pawn to the queen. In the case of a pawn, it has to be nearest to the rival king to corner it.

What is an illegal checkmate?

If the player has moved a pawn to the furthest distant rank, pressed the clock, but not replaced the pawn with a new piece, the move is illegal. The pawn shall be replaced by a queen of the same colour as the pawn.