Chess-style piece symbols instead of traditional kanji — easy to learn for players from any background.
Real-time matches via WebSocket. Create a game, share the code, and play with anyone instantly.
Play in your browser or on Android today. Desktop builds coming soon.
Complete Shogi rules including promotion, drops, check, checkmate, and all piece movement validation.
Shogi is played on a 9×9 board between two players. Each player starts with 20 pieces: 1 King, 1 Rook, 1 Bishop, 2 Gold Generals, 2 Silver Generals, 2 Knights, 2 Lances, and 9 Pawns. The goal is to checkmate your opponent's King.
When a piece reaches the far three rows of the board (the promotion zone), it can be promoted to a stronger form. Promoted pieces gain new movement abilities — for example, a promoted Rook gains diagonal movement in addition to its normal lines.
When you capture an opponent's piece, it joins your reserve. On any future turn, instead of moving a piece on the board, you can drop a captured piece onto any empty square as your own. This mechanic keeps Shogi games dynamic — no piece is ever truly lost.
Checkmate the opponent's King. Unlike chess, stalemate is a loss for the stalemated player, and there is no draw by repetition in most rulesets. The drop mechanic means games rarely end in draws.
No account required. Jump straight into a game.