Shogi

The Game

I have tried shogi once many years ago. At the time I read a Japanese manga called Gekka no Kishi (Shogi Players Beneath the Moonlight), and one of the books came with a free shogi set made from cardboard. I had to cut the pieces out myself to make the set. Last year when on holiday in Japan, I came across a travel shogi set, and decided to buy it as a souvenir. Only recently I managed to play it with younger daughter Chen Rui.   

Shogi is Japanese chess, and it is similar in nature to other chess games like international chess and Chinese chess. You checkmate your opponent to win. One thing you'll notice is you can't tell apart one player's pieces from the other. There is no black vs white like in chess. In Chinese chess the text is usually in two different colours, and the text themselves differ a little between the two sides. In shogi, only the text for the two kings vary slightly, by just one dot. The shogi pieces are in the shape of an arrow, and that's how you tell them apart during play. Your pieces point at your opponent's edge of the board. 

There are two unique aspects of shogi which set it apart from other chess games. Firstly, you have prisoners of war. When you capture an opponent piece, it goes out of play only temporarily. It becomes your piece and you can deploy it back onto the game board. On your turn, instead of moving a piece, you may deploy a prisoner to any vacant spot. If that piece is a pawn, you cannot use it to check your opponent king. If it is not a pawn you can use it to check or even checkmate your opponent king.

The other unique aspect is that many of the pieces can be upgraded. When your piece reaches the three rows near your opponent's edge of the board you have the option to flip it over to the upgraded side. The text on the upgraded side is red. The movement abilities change, generally becoming more powerful. Upgrading is optional. However if a normal piece gets to a position where it has no possible next move, it must be upgraded. For example a normal pawn can only move forward. If it hits the edge of the board, it must upgrade because in the upgraded form it can move backwards and sideways. 

Shogi is similar to other chess games in that different pieces have different movement abilities. There are pieces which are the equivalent of rooks, knights and bishops. No queen-equivalent though. 

The Play

The most powerful pieces in the game are the rook (飛車) and the bishop (角行). Unlike chess, there is only one piece of each per player. 

This is a perfect information game and an abstract game. It is the kind of game where you can think and plan many steps ahead. You can map out a huge decision tree of what if I do this then my opponent does that and then I do this and then he does that and so on and so on and so on. This is very much a chess type game. I am only a novice chess player, so I am nowhere near being able to appreciate the nuances and the differences between the different chess type games. I just feel they are somewhat similar and many of the same principles are applicable across them all. 

At first I felt the ability to deploy captured pieces would be super powerful. However after trying it, it did not seem as overpowered as I had imagined. Or perhaps I have not learnt to use it well.  

The pieces at the bottom left corner (香車) is something I don't find an equivalent of in chess or Chinese chess. This is a rook which can only move forward. Or a Chinese chess pawn which can advance any number of steps. 

At this point I had captured many more pieces, and I had a huge advantage. I had captured and deployed Chen Rui's rook, and both my rooks were upgraded (red). Imagine playing chess with two rooks when your opponent has none. 

I had just deployed the knight (桂馬) at row 5 column 8, brought in from my prisoner pool. It was checkmate now. Chen Rui's king (王將) (row 3 column 7) couldn't move forward or backward because in either case it would be captured by one of my (red) rooks. She had no way to block or capture my knight either. 

The Thoughts

I write a blog about modern hobby games. I am far from qualified to critique this traditional game. I am only able to share my experience as a boardgamer. I find the unique aspects of shogi refreshing and fun. If you have the opportunity to give it a go, I think you'll find it interesting. Now that I have played it, I feel so cultured ahem.