Shogi, also known as Japanese chess, is a strategy board game for two players. It is one of the most popular board games in Japan and is in the same family of games as Western chess, chaturanga, xiangqi, Indian chess, and janggi. Shōgi means general's board game.
Chu shogi is a strategy board game native to Japan. It is similar to modern shogi in its rules and gameplay. Its name means "mid-sized shogi", from a time when there were three sizes of shogi variants that were regularly being played. Chu shogi seems to have been developed in the early 14th century as a derivative of dai shogi. There are earlier references, but it is not clear that they refer to the game as we now know it.
Tai shogi is a large board variant of shogi. The game dates to the 15th century and is based on earlier large-board shogi games. Before the discovery of taikyoku shogi in 1997, tai shogi was believed to be the largest playable chess variant, if not board game, ever. One game may be played over several long sessions and require each player to make over a thousand moves. It was never a popular game; indeed, a single production of six game sets in the early 17th century was a notable event.
Microshogi is a modern variant of shogi, with very different rules for promotion, and demotion. Kerry Handscomb of NOST gave it this English name. Although not confirmed, he credits its invention to the late Oyama Yasuharu, one of the most famous professional shogi players in history. The game was invented before 1982.
Hasami shogi is a variant of shogi. The game has two main variants, and all Hasami variants, unlike other shogi variants, use only one type of piece, and the winning objective is not checkmate. One main variant involves capturing all but one of the opponent's men; the other involves building an unbroken vertical or horizontal chain of five-in-a-row.
Whale Shogi is a modern variant of shogi. It is not, however, Japanese: it was invented by R. Wayne Schmittberger of the United States in 1981. The game is similar to Judkins shogi, but with more pieces, and the pieces are named after types of whale.
Heian shōgi is a predecessor of modern shogi. Some form of the game of Chaturanga, the ancestor of both chess and shogi, reached Japan by the 9th century, if not earlier, but the earliest surviving Japanese description of the rules dates from the early 12th century. Unfortunately, this description does not give enough information to actually play the game, but this has not stopped people from attempting to reconstruct this early form of shogi.
Shō shōgi is a 16th-century form of shogi, and the immediate predecessor of the modern game. It was played on a 9×9 board with the same setup as in modern shogi, except that an extra piece stood in front of the king: a 'drunk elephant' that promoted into a prince, which is effectively a second king. While 9×9 may not seem 'small', it was smaller than the other shogi variants prevalent at the time, which were the 12×12 chu shogi and 15×15 dai shogi. According to the Sho Shōgi Zushiki, the drunk elephant was eliminated by the Emperor Go-Nara, and it is assumed that the drop rule was introduced at about the same time, giving rise to shogi as we know it today.
Wa shogi is a large board variant of shogi in which all of the pieces are named for animals. It is played either with or without drops.
Heian dai shogi is an early large board variant of shogi as it was played in the Heian period. The same 12th century document which describes the Heian form of shogi also describes this variant. Unfortunately, this description does not give enough information to actually play the game, but this has not stopped people from attempting to reconstruct this early form of shogi. A fairly complete and playable reconstruction is outlined here.
Dai shogi or Kamakura dai shogi (鎌倉大将棋) is a board game native to Japan. It derived from Heian era shogi, and is similar to standard shogi in its rules and game play. Dai shogi is only one of several large board shogi variants. Its name means large shogi, from a time when there were three sizes of shogi games. Early versions of dai shogi can be traced back to the Kamakura period, from about AD 1230. It was the historical basis for the later, much more popular variant chu shogi, which shrinks the board and removes the weakest pieces.
Tenjiku shogi is a large-board variant of shogi. The game dates back to the 15th or 16th century and was based on the earlier chu shogi, which itself was based on dai shogi.
Dai dai shōgi is a large board variant of shogi. The game dates back to the 15th century and is based on the earlier dai shogi. Apart from its size, the major difference is in the range of the pieces and the "promotion by capture" rule. It is the smallest board variant to use this rule.
Maka dai dai shōgi is a large board variant of shogi. The game dates back to the 15th century and is based on dai dai shogi and the earlier dai shogi. The three Edo-era sources are not congruent in their descriptions of the pieces not found in smaller games. Apart from its size and number of pieces, the major difference from these smaller games is the "promotion by capture" rule. A more compact modern proposal for the game is called hishigata shogi.
The Shōgi Zushiki (象戯図式), Sho Shōgi Zushiki (諸象戯図式), and Shōgi Rokushu no Zushiki (象棋六種之図式) are Edo period publications describing various variants of Japanese chess, otherwise known as shōgi.
Computer shogi is a field of artificial intelligence concerned with the creation of computer programs which can play shogi. The research and development of shogi software has been carried out mainly by freelance programmers, university research groups and private companies. By 2017, the strongest programs were outperforming the strongest human players.
Shogi is a two-player strategy board game in the same family as Western chess, chaturanga, and Chinese xiangqi, and is the most popular of a family of chess variants native to Japan.
Game of the Seven Kingdoms is a seven-player variant of the game xiangqi. It is traditionally ascribed to Sima Guang, although he died well before the 13th century, to which this game is traditionally dated. The rules of the game can be found in his book, 古局象棋圖. There is skepticism regarding the game's 13th-century formulation.
In shogi, a handicap game is a game setup used between players of disparate strengths, in which one or more pieces are removed from the stronger player's side.
Gunjin Shōgi or Japanese Military Chess (軍人将棋), also known as Marching Chess, is a two-player board game, intended for children. Although the pentagonal pieces are shaped like those of Shōgi, the objective is to capture the other player's flag, more similar in gameplay to Stratego (1942) and its antecedent L'Attaque (1908). Both players start with an equal number of pieces in varying strengths; like Stratego and L'Attaque, Gunjin Shōgi is a game of imperfect information, where the placement of the opponent's pieces are hidden initially and must be determined by deduction. It is not known what influence these games, which were developed around the same time, may have had on each other, as there are notable similarities and differences.
