Shogi vs chess: the short answer
If you play chess, shogi will feel like a cousin: familiar at first glance, surprising within a few moves.
Both games come from the same ancient Indian ancestor, chaturanga, and both are won by checkmate. Shogi has a king, rook, bishop, knight and pawns that move much like their chess counterparts. But it adds pieces chess doesn’t have (the gold and silver generals and the lance), lets most pieces promote, and has one rule that changes everything: pieces you capture become yours.
That single rule means the board never empties out, attacks keep coming until the end, and draws are rare. It is the main reason shogi is often described as harder than chess.
The board and starting position
Black (sente) at the bottom, pointing up; White (gote) at the top, pointing down. Pieces are all the same colour.
- 9×9 board of 81 squares. Pieces sit inside the squares, as in chess.
- 20 pieces each: king, rook, bishop, two gold generals, two silver generals, two knights, two lances and nine pawns.
- Ownership by direction: all pieces are flat, wedge-shaped tiles of one colour. A piece belongs to the player it points away from.
- Black moves first in shogi (the first player is called sente).
From the starting position, the first player has 30 legal moves, compared with 20 in chess. We counted them with a shogi move generator built for this page; the same figure is used as a test by shogi engine developers (example).
How the shogi pieces move
Pick a piece. Dots show where it can move from the centre of an empty board; “forward” means up the board for the bottom player.
King 王 / 玉
One square in any direction, like a chess king.
8 moves from the centre.
Rook 飛
Any distance along a line. Promotes to a dragon (龍), which can also step one square diagonally.
16 moves from the centre.
20 moves from the centre.
Bishop 角
Any distance diagonally. Promotes to a horse (馬), which can also step one square orthogonally.
16 moves from the centre.
20 moves from the centre.
Gold general 金
One square in any direction except diagonally backwards. Never promotes.
6 moves from the centre.
Silver general 銀
One square diagonally in any direction or straight forward. Can promote to move like a gold.
5 moves from the centre.
Knight 桂
Jumps two squares forward and one to the side: only the two forward knight moves. Can promote.
2 moves from the centre.
Lance 香
Any distance straight forward, never backwards or sideways. Can promote.
4 moves from the centre.
Pawn 歩
One square straight forward, and it captures the same way (not diagonally). Promotes to a tokin (と), which moves like a gold.
1 moves from the centre.
6 moves from the centre.
| Piece | Per side | How it moves |
|---|---|---|
| King 王 / 玉 | 1 | One square in any direction, like a chess king. |
| Rook 飛 | 1 | Any distance along a line. Promotes to a dragon (龍), which can also step one square diagonally. |
| Bishop 角 | 1 | Any distance diagonally. Promotes to a horse (馬), which can also step one square orthogonally. |
| Gold general 金 | 2 | One square in any direction except diagonally backwards. Never promotes. |
| Silver general 銀 | 2 | One square diagonally in any direction or straight forward. Can promote to move like a gold. |
| Knight 桂 | 2 | Jumps two squares forward and one to the side: only the two forward knight moves. Can promote. |
| Lance 香 | 2 | Any distance straight forward, never backwards or sideways. Can promote. |
| Pawn 歩 | 9 | One square straight forward, and it captures the same way (not diagonally). Promotes to a tokin (と), which moves like a gold. |
Moves as described by Wikipedia; diagrams generated by our move generator. The shogi knight has only 2 moves where a chess knight on the same square has 8.
Drops: the rule that changes everything
When you capture a piece in shogi, it goes into your hand. On any later turn, instead of moving, you can drop it onto almost any empty square as your own piece. A dropped piece cannot capture or promote on the turn it is dropped.
Black has a gold general in hand. White’s king is on 5a.
Checkmate. The gold is protected by the pawn, and covers every square around the king.
This pattern is so common it has a name: atama-kin, the “head gold”. We checked it with our generator: after the drop, White has no legal move. In chess, a piece can’t suddenly appear next to the enemy king; in shogi it happens all the time, which is why king safety works so differently.
The drop restrictions
- No dead pieces: pawns and lances can’t be dropped on the last rank, and knights not on the last two, because they could never move again.
- Nifu (two pawns): you can’t drop a pawn on a file that already has one of your unpromoted pawns.
- Uchifuzume: you can’t drop a pawn to give immediate checkmate. Checks with a dropped pawn are fine; only the mate is banned.
Rules from Wikipedia. Why a gold and not a pawn in the example? A pawn on 5b gives check but covers only the square ahead of it; our generator finds 4 ways for the king to escape. The gold also covers the four squares beside and diagonally in front of it.
Promotion in shogi
For Black, the three ranks nearest the opponent (a, b and c).
In chess, only pawns promote. In shogi, every piece except the king and gold general can promote when it moves into, within or out of the promotion zone: the three ranks furthest from you. The piece is flipped over to show its promoted side.
- Rook → dragon (龍): rook plus one step diagonally (20 moves from the centre).
- Bishop → horse (馬): bishop plus one step orthogonally (20 moves).
- Silver, knight, lance, pawn → move like a gold general.
Promotion is usually optional, but pawns and lances must promote on the last rank and knights on the last two ranks. A promoted piece that is captured goes back to its original side up in the capturer’s hand.
Shogi vs chess, side by side
| Chess | Shogi | |
|---|---|---|
| Board | 8×8 (64 squares) | 9×9 (81 squares) |
| Pieces per side | 16 | 20 |
| Who moves first | White | Black (sente) |
| Captured pieces | Out of the game | Join your side and can be dropped back in |
| Queen | Yes | No |
| Unique pieces | — | Gold and silver generals, lance |
| Promotion | Pawns only, on the last rank | Most pieces, in the last three ranks; usually optional |
| Pawn captures | Diagonally | Straight ahead |
| Castling, en passant | Yes | No |
| Stalemate | Draw | Practically never happens (drops) |
| Repetition | Draw (threefold) | Draw on fourth repetition (sennichite); perpetual check loses |
| First moves available | 20 | 30 |
First-move counts computed with chess.js 1.4.0 and our shogi generator. Rules from Wikipedia.
Is shogi harder than chess?
By the standard measures of game complexity, yes: shogi is much bigger.
| Game | Board | Positions (log₁₀) | Game tree (log₁₀) | Avg length (plies) | Choices per move |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chess | 64 | 44 | 123 | 70 | 35 |
| Shogi | 81 | 71 | 226 | 115 | 92 |
| Xiangqi | 90 | 40 | 150 | 95 | 38 |
| Go (19×19) | 361 | 170 | 505 | 211 | 250 |
Figures from the game complexity comparison on Wikipedia. A 2026 study estimated the number of legal shogi positions at about 6.55 × 10⁶⁸ (arXiv).
The reason is drops. In chess, the number of possible moves usually shrinks as pieces come off the board. In shogi, every capture adds options, because the captured piece can be dropped on dozens of squares. The average shogi position offers around 92 choices against about 35 in chess, and games last longer.
Does that make it harder for a human? Not necessarily. Complexity measures the size of the game, not how hard it is to play well. Many chess players find shogi easy to start, because the goal and several pieces are familiar, but hard to master, because drops make it difficult to judge whether a king is safe. See is chess hard to learn? and how many possible chess games there are. Only Go, in the table above, is bigger still: see Go vs chess.
History and the professional scene
- Origins: like chess, shogi descends from the Indian game chaturanga. The oldest known shogi pieces, found at Kōfuku-ji temple in Nara, date to 1058, and the standard rules were fixed in the 16th century. When drops were introduced is not known.
- Professionals: the Japan Shogi Association, founded in 1924, runs professional shogi; around 200 professionals compete. Women professionals also have their own organisation, the LPSA (founded 2007).
- Sōta Fujii: in 2023 he became the first player to hold all eight major titles at once. In 2025 he earned more than ¥200 million in prize money and game fees.
Source: Shogi, Wikipedia. For chess’s side of the family tree, see who invented chess, and for another relative, Chinese chess (xiangqi).
FAQ
Is shogi the same as chess?
No. Shogi is Japanese chess. It shares an ancestor with chess and has kings, rooks, bishops, knights and pawns, but it is played on a 9×9 board with 20 pieces each, and captured pieces can be dropped back onto the board on your side.
Is shogi harder than chess?
By standard measures it is more complex: its game tree is estimated at about 10²²⁶ possible games against about 10¹²³ for chess, and each turn offers far more choices because of drops. Whether it is harder for a person to learn depends on the player, but most chess players find drops the hardest adjustment.
What makes shogi different from chess?
Drops. When you capture a piece, it becomes yours and you can later place it on almost any empty square instead of moving. This keeps the board full of pieces, makes games very attacking, and means draws are rare.
Is shogi like chess?
Yes, in many ways: the goal is checkmate, several pieces move the same way, and the strategy of attacking the king will feel familiar. The differences are drops, promotion, the gold and silver generals, the lance, and pawns that capture straight ahead.
Can a chess player learn shogi?
Yes, easily. Most of the moves are familiar, and chess skills like calculation carry over. Expect your first games to be decided by drops you didn’t see coming.
Why are shogi pieces flat and the same colour?
Because pieces change sides when captured, they are identical wedge-shaped tiles; you tell whose a piece is by which way it points. Each piece has its promoted name on the back.
Who is the best shogi player?
Sōta Fujii is the dominant player of the current era. In 2023 he became the first player to hold all eight major professional titles at the same time.
Sources and how we checked
- Shogi, Wikipedia: rules, drops and restrictions, promotion, repetition, history, professional scene.
- Game complexity, Wikipedia: comparison table; arXiv (2026): estimate of legal shogi positions.
- How we checked: a shogi move generator written for this page confirms 40 pieces and 30 legal first moves for each side (the same figure shogi engines use as a test, e.g. shunsai), every piece diagram, and that the gold drop on 5b is checkmate. Chess figures from chess.js 1.4.0.