Shogi

Browser Controls

• Move a Piece: Click or tap a piece, then its destination. The ▲ and △ marks by each player show whose turn it is — ▲ moves first, just as in traditional shogi.
• Drop a Captured Piece: Pieces you capture appear in your hand panel (持駒). Select one and place it on the board as your move — dropping at the right moment is where shogi games are won.
• Promote or Keep: When a piece reaches the promotion zone, the game asks 成りますか? — Promote this piece? Choose 成る (Promote) for its stronger form, or 不成 (Keep) when the original movement serves your plan better.
• Undo, Resign & Moves: Undo takes back your last move — a friendly luxury shogi etiquette normally forbids. Resign concedes a lost game, and the move list records the whole battle for review.
• Settings: Toggle music, koma and game sounds, and visual effects (particles and animations) any time from Settings.
• Piece Style: Switch between traditional kanji pieces and Western letters (K, R, B, G, S, N, L, P) any time — from Settings, the home screen, or the button beside the board. Promoted pieces show as +R, +B and so on, and stay red.

Special Rules

• Drops: Captured pieces join your side. On any turn, instead of moving a piece on the board, you may drop one from your hand onto the board — the rule that makes shogi endlessly dynamic and nearly impossible to play out to a dead draw.
• Promotion: Pieces that reach the far zone of the board may promote to a stronger form — the game offers the choice each time (成る to promote, 不成 to keep). Promoted pieces revert when captured, so power never leaves the game.
• Check & Checkmate: Trap the enemy king with no escape and the game is won — but remember your opponent's hand: a checkmate that a single drop can block is no checkmate at all.
• ELO Rating: In single player your rating starts at ELO 1200 and moves with your results against the computer bots — a simple running measure of how your shogi is improving.
• Choose Your Opponent: Single player opens with an opponent picker — eight bots ranked from ELO 400 (Beginner) to ELO 2000 (Expert), plus a Random option. Your last pick is remembered for next time.

The Shogi Pieces

• King (王/玉): Moves one square in any direction. Lose it and the game is over — every plan begins and ends with the king's safety.
• Rook (飛) & Bishop (角): Your major pieces: the rook slides any distance along ranks and files, the bishop along diagonals. Promoted, they become the Dragon and the Horse, adding one-step king moves to their reach.
• Gold General (金): One step in any direction except diagonally backward. Golds never promote — they're already the shape most pieces promote into, and the king's most loyal defenders.
• Silver General (銀): One step forward or diagonally — nimble attackers that are often better left unpromoted, since a promoted silver moves like a gold and loses its retreat.
• Knight (桂): Leaps two squares forward and one to the side — the only piece that jumps, and it only ever jumps forward. Place it with care; it can never come back on its own.
• Lance (香) & Pawn (歩): The lance charges any distance straight ahead; the pawn steps one square forward and captures the same way. Both promote into gold movement deep in enemy territory — a promoted pawn is one of shogi's deadliest bargains.