What is the Japanese word Shogi?

Shogi (将棋, shōgi, English: /ˈʃoʊɡi/, Japanese: [ɕoːɡi]), also known as Japanese chess, is a strategy board game for two players.

What does shogi mean in Japanese?

shogi (uncountable) Japanese chess; a board game similar to chess, invented and traditionally played in Japan.

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 ...

Is there a 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.

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.

How to play Shogi (Japanese Chess)

What is checkmate in shogi called?

Checkmate (in Japanese, one says “Tsumi”): If a player cannot avert a danger and will be taken anyway on the next turn, this is checkmate and that player loses the game. In professional and serious amateur games, a player who makes an illegal move immediately loses the game.

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.

Does shogi have checkmate?

The object of the game is to strategically capture the opponent's king by putting them in checkmate. Shogi is comparable to chess in its turn-based, piece-capturing gameplay, with different units having different movement capabilities.

What are the most powerful pieces in shogi?

The most powerful piece, the bishop (kakugyo), which moves in a manner similar to the bishop in chess, is positioned at the second square from the left in the second row; and the rook (hisha), which moves like the rook in chess, is placed at the second square from the right.

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.

What is the weakest chess piece usually?

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

What is a dragon in shogi?

In Shogi, the Japanese form of Chess, the Dragon King is the promoted form of the Rook, moving like a Rook or a Ferz. This piece is also commonly used in many Shogi variants, such as Chu Shogi, in which it is a unpromoted piece that gets to promote to an even more powerful piece called a Soaring Eagle.

How long is a game of shogi?

How long are Shogi matches? Matches typically last around 30-60 minutes, but they can last much longer if both players are playing very cautiously. In rare cases, matches have lasted for over 10 hours.

What is the queen in shogi?

Okisaki shogi (御妃将棋 okisaki shōgi "Queen shogi") is a modern variant of shogi (Japanese chess). It was developed by Masayuki Nakayachi c. 1996 from suggestions by German chess player Ralph Blockhaus. Okisaki shogi is similar to standard shogi, but is played on a 10×10 board.

What rank is a pro in shogi?

Regular professionals (kishi) are ranked from 4- to 9-dan. All new professionals start at 4-dan and are subsequently promoted based upon criteria established by the JSA. A similar system exists for women's professionals who have their own separate ranking system from 2-kyū to 6-dan.

Does black or white go first in shogi?

Shogi, the strategy board game that is often called 'Japanese chess' because of shared roots, doesn't have black and white pieces but the first (Sente) and second (Gote) players are commonly referred to as 'black' and 'white' respectively, and 'black' starts the game.

What is the rarest checkmate in chess?

Two knights forced checkmate might be the rarest checkmate. Two knights alone is not enough to checkmate, as the opposing king must be put in stalemate for at least one move.

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.

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 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 lowest rank in shogi?

Shogi players are ranked as follows: the weakest rank is around 15 “kyu”, which represents a beginner. 14 kyu is higher than 15 kyu, 13 kyu is higher still, and so on until you get to 1 kyu. The next highest rank is 1 “dan”, followed by 2 dan, 3 dan and so forth.

What is the fastest checkmate called?

The two-move checkmate is the fastest way to complete a game of chess.

What is the best defense in shogi?

The Fortress castle was considered by many to be the strongest defensive position in shogi in the 1980s. Although there are many variants, a common Fortress structure is the Gold Fortress.