Shogi
Play Japanese Chess with drops: captured pieces switch sides.
How to play Shogi
You are Sente and move first. Click a piece to see its moves, then click a highlighted square. When you capture a piece it joins your hand, shown beside the board. Click a piece in hand, then an empty square, to drop it back into play on your side. Pieces promote (gaining stronger moves) when they move into the far three ranks. Watch the drop rules: no two of your pawns on one file, and you can't drop a pawn to give immediate checkmate. Checkmate the enemy King to win, or use the 2P button to play a friend.
The pieces you capture change sides
Shogi's one big idea is what makes it deeper than almost any other chess variant: when you capture a piece, it does not leave the game. It joins your hand. On a later turn, instead of moving a piece on the board, you can drop that captured piece back down as your own, on almost any empty square. Nothing is ever truly off the board, which is why Shogi positions never thin out the way chess endings do. The attack keeps coming because your reserves keep growing.
You are Sente, the first player. Captured pieces show up beside the board in your hand; click one, then an empty square, to drop it into play facing your way.
Promotion and the pawn rules
The far three ranks are the promotion zone. A piece that moves into, out of, or within that zone can flip to a stronger version: most pieces gain the movement of a gold general, and the bishop and rook become monsters. Promoting is usually right, but not always; an unpromoted knight can sometimes reach squares its promoted form cannot.
Drops come with rules worth memorising, because breaking them is illegal:
- You may not have two of your own unpromoted pawns on the same file, so check the column before dropping a pawn.
- You may not drop a pawn that delivers immediate checkmate. A mating blow with a pawn has to come from one already on the board.
- And a piece dropped where it could never legally move again is not allowed, so no pawns or knights on the very last rank.
How to start winning
Build a castle before you attack: a cluster of generals shielding your King in a corner, because a bare King gets mated fast in a game where the enemy can parachute pieces straight in. The castles have names worth knowing. The Mino castle tucks the King behind a wall of generals on the side away from your rook and goes up in a handful of moves. The Yagura is the slow, solid fortress of classical play. The Anaguma, literally the bear in its hole, buries the King in the very corner behind so much material that the game changes character. Pick one, learn its shape, and play it every game for a while. Hold your captured pieces until they do real work rather than dropping them the instant you get them. Choose Easy to learn the movements, then Medium and Hard for a proper fight, or hand the 2P button to a friend.
Three tricks that win real games
First, the tokin attack. March a pawn into the promotion zone and promote it. The promoted pawn, called a tokin, moves like a gold general but costs you almost nothing: if the defender captures it, all they gain is a pawn. A tokin gnawing at the castle is the best bargain in shogi, your cheapest piece traded against their most valuable defenders. Second, the knight fork. A shogi knight jumps to only two squares, both far forward, which makes it a precision tool: drop it where its two prongs hit the King and a rook at once and something valuable is yours next turn. Third, respect the bishop trade. After an early exchange of bishops both players hold one in hand, and every loose diagonal in your camp becomes a target. Scan for squares where a dropped bishop would fork two pieces before you make any quiet move; beginners lose whole games to that single drop. A rough value scale helps with all of this: pawn 1, lance and knight around 3, silver 5, gold 6, bishop 8, rook 10, with promoted pieces climbing higher.
Four centuries of shogi
Shogi reached its modern 9x9 form in Japan in the sixteenth century, and it is the only major chess relative where captured pieces switch sides. That drop rule is why draws are rare and why professional games stay violent to the last move. The Tokugawa shogunate put the game on a salary: from the early 1600s, hereditary schools competed for the title of Meijin, a name that survives today as one of the eight major professional titles. Modern Japan treats top players like athletes. Habu Yoshiharu became the first to hold all seven major titles of his era at once in 1996, and in 2023 Fujii Sota, still in his early twenties, became the first to hold all eight. Their games get television coverage and newspaper columns, a decent afterlife for a board game born four hundred years ago.
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Shogi: frequently asked questions
What are drops?
A piece you capture flips to your colour and enters your hand. On a later turn you may place it on any empty square instead of moving a piece on the board. This is what makes Shogi so dynamic.
When do pieces promote?
When a piece moves into, within, or out of the last three ranks it may promote for a stronger move set. Pawns, lances, and knights must promote if they would otherwise have no legal move.
Can I play against a friend?
Yes. Tap the 2P button for local pass-and-play on the same device, and tap it again to go back to the computer opponent.
What does dropping a piece mean?
When you capture an enemy piece it goes into your hand, and on a later turn you can place it back on the board as your own instead of making a normal move. This reuse of captured pieces is the defining feature of Shogi.
When do pieces promote?
In the far three ranks, the promotion zone. A piece moving into, within, or out of that zone may flip to a stronger form, usually gaining a gold general's movement, while rooks and bishops become especially powerful.
What are the special pawn-drop rules?
You cannot have two of your unpromoted pawns on the same file, and you cannot drop a pawn to give immediate checkmate. You also cannot drop any piece where it would have no legal move, such as a pawn on the last rank.
Why should I build a castle?
Because the enemy can drop captured pieces almost anywhere, an exposed King is in constant danger. Surrounding your King with generals in a corner castle before attacking is the single most important habit for not getting mated early.
What is a tokin and why do players talk about it so much?
A tokin is a promoted pawn, and it moves like a gold general. Attacking with one is nearly free: it began as your cheapest piece, but the defender has to treat it like a gold, and capturing it hands back only a pawn. Walking a tokin into the enemy castle is one of the strongest plans in the game.
Can two people play?
Yes, the 2P button switches to pass-and-play. Against the computer there are Easy, Medium and Hard settings, so you can start gently and work up as the drop rules become second nature.
Is Shogi free to play?
Yes. Shogi is completely free on Inkplay, with no download, no sign-up, and no in-game purchases. Open the page and play instantly on desktop or mobile.
Can I play Shogi unblocked?
Yes. Shogi runs entirely in your browser with no download, install, or plugins, so it loads instantly and keeps working even on school or work networks where bigger game sites get blocked.
More games to play
In the mood for more? Try Chess, Tic Tac Toe, Connect Four, Reversi, or browse all board games and the full games list on Inkplay. Shogi also appears in 2 Player Games, Strategy Games.