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Shogi

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  1. The board has size 9 * 9
  2. Shogi is a game for two players (black and white).
    Black plays `up' the board, white `down'. Black plays first.
  3. The object of the game is as in western chess to checkmate the opposing king
  4. The pieces
  5. Promotion
    Most pieces (pawn, lance, knight, silver, rook, bishop) may be promoted on reaching the promotion zone (the furthest away three ranks of the board). Pieces are promoted by turning them over so that their promoted characters are visible. Pawn, lance, knight and silver promote to gold. Rook and bishop have their powers enhanced by being allowed to move one square in a diagonal (rook) or orthogonal (bishop) direction. Note that promotion is not mandatory, and there are some strategic situations in which it may be disadvantageous to do so.

    Note however, that when a piece would no longer have a valid move after the current one, it must promote - that is, when a lance or pawn reaches the last rank, or when a knight reaches either of the last two ranks. Once promoted, a piece may not be `unpromoted'.

    Finally, remember that although the discussion above assumes that promotion takes place (or not) when a piece first enters the promotion zone, in fact, a piece may be promoted in the course of a normal move as it enters or leaves the promotion zone or as part of a move entirely within promotion zone.

    Pieces may not `un-promote'.
  6. Drops A player may drop a captured piece instead of moving a piece. This is one of the features which makes shogi so different from chess. Basically a piece may be dropped anywhere with the provisos that: A piece may not be promoted as it is dropped (a dropped piece may only be promoted after it has actually moved).

Links

There are a lot information about Shogi on the internet. Check these links:

Software

You can use software of Setup Group to play Shogi on your
Mac
Windows Device
Google