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Pieces face forward by having the pointed side of each piece oriented toward the opponent's side – this shows who controls the piece during play. Except for the kings, opposing pieces are undifferentiated by marking or color. Įach player has a set of 20 flat wedge-shaped pentagonal pieces of slightly different sizes. Pairs of dots mark the players' promotion zones.
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The board is nearly always rectangular, and the rectangles are undifferentiated by marking or color. In Japanese they are called Sente 先手 (first player) and Gote 後手 (second player), but in English are conventionally referred to as Black and White, with Black the first player. Two players face each other across a board composed of rectangles in a grid of 9 ranks (rows, 段) by 9 files (columns, 筋) yielding an 81 square board. The board itself is raised for the comfort of players seated on tatami mats (background), and is hollowed underneath to produce a pleasing sound when the pieces are moved. The stands on either side are komadai used to hold captured pieces. The pieces on the far side are turned to show their promoted values. 1120).Ī traditional shōgi ban (shogi board) displaying a set of koma (pieces). 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form was played as early as the 16th century, while a direct ancestor without the drop rule was recorded from 1210 in a historical document Nichūreki, which is an edited copy of Shōchūreki and Kaichūreki from the late Heian period (c. The earliest predecessor of the game, chaturanga, originated in India in the 6th century, and the game was likely transmitted to Japan via China or Korea sometime after the Nara period. This drop rule is speculated to have been invented in the 15th century and possibly connected to the practice of 15th century mercenaries switching loyalties when captured instead of being killed. Shogi was the earliest chess variant to allow captured pieces to be returned to the board by the capturing player.
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Shōgi means general's ( shō 将) board game ( gi 棋). It is the most popular chess variant in Japan. Shogi ( 将棋, shōgi, English: / ˈ ʃ oʊ ɡ iː/, Japanese: or ), also known as Japanese chess or the Game of Generals, is a two-player strategy board game that is the Japanese variant of chess.