Equipment Shogi

a traditional shōgi-ban (shogi board) displaying set of koma (pieces). pieces on far side turned show promoted values. stands on either side komadai used hold captured pieces. board raised comfort of players seated on tatami mats (background), , hollowed underneath produce pleasing sound when pieces moved.

two players, sente 先手 (black; more literally, person first move) , gote 後手 (white; person second move), play on board composed of rectangles in grid of 9 ranks (rows) 9 files (columns). rectangles undifferentiated marking or color. board rectangular; square boards uncommon. pairs of dots mark players promotion zones.

each player has set of 20 wedge-shaped pieces of different sizes. except kings, opposing pieces undifferentiated marking or color. pieces face forward (toward opponent s side); shows controls piece during play. pieces largest (most important) smallest (least important) are:

1 king
1 rook
1 bishop
2 gold generals
2 silver generals
2 knights
2 lances
9 pawns

several of these names chosen correspond rough equivalents in international chess, , not literal translations of japanese names.

each piece has name written on surface in form of 2 kanji (chinese characters used in japanese), in black ink. on reverse side of each piece, other king , gold general, 1 or 2 other characters, in amateur sets in different color (usually red); side turned face during play indicate piece has been promoted.

following table of pieces japanese representations , english equivalents. abbreviations used game notation , when referring pieces in speech in japanese.

closeup of shogi pieces. top: +r, r, k (reigning), k (challenging), b, +b. bottom: +l, l, +s, s, g, n, +n, p, +p



another popular style of shogi pieces different usual japanese characters. shows 7-move tsumeshogi problem. white has pawns on 13, 24, 34; king on 23; , promoted rook on 29. black has bishop on 44, pawn on 17, lance on 19, , rook, 2 golds, , silver in hand.



an example set of international pieces. in set, pieces not have equivalents in chess have symbols iconically show movement (e.g. silver general s crown , ribbons point towards possible directions of movement).



animal character pieces (cf. dōbutsu shōgi)

* kanji 竜 simplified form of 龍.

english speakers refer promoted bishops horses , promoted rooks dragons, after japanese names, , use japanese term tokin promoted pawns. silver generals , gold generals commonly referred silvers , golds.

the characters inscribed on reverse sides of pieces indicate promotion may in red ink, , cursive. characters on backs of pieces promote gold generals cursive variants of 金 gold , becoming more cursive (more abbreviated) value of original piece decreases. these cursive forms have these equivalents in print: 全 promoted silver, 今 promoted knight, 仝 promoted lance, , 个 promoted pawn (tokin). typographic convention has abbreviated versions of original values, reduced number of strokes: 圭 promoted knight (桂), 杏 promoted lance (香), , 全 above promoted silver, と tokin.

the suggestion japanese characters have deterred western players learning shogi has led westernized or international pieces use iconic symbols instead of characters. players learn recognize characters, however, partially because traditional pieces iconic size, more powerful pieces being larger. result, westernized pieces have never become popular. bilingual pieces both japanese characters , english captions have been developed have pieces animal cartoons.