Play Shogi
with a friend.

How to start a Shogi game with your friend

1. Create a private board. Press Invite a friend to open an online room.
2. Copy its link. Open Play with a friend or Share invitation in the game, then send the invitation yourself.
3. Take the second seat. Your friend opens the link in their own browser. The creator keeps Sente, and the first guest becomes Gote.
4. Stay connected and play. Sente moves first. Select a piece, then a highlighted destination.

The guest sees Gote at the bottom. Either player can use Game menu → Flip board. For one screen, choose Shogi 2 Player. For solo practice, try Shogi against the computer. The online overview compares the modes.

Shogi rules: how the pieces move

Each player starts with twenty pieces on a nine-by-nine board. The pointed ends face the opponent. Sente, also called Black, moves first; Gote, or White, replies. On each turn, move one piece or drop one captured piece. A move may capture an enemy piece on its destination. You cannot move through another piece, except with a knight, or leave your king attacked.

• King (K, 王): one square in any direction.
• Rook (R, 飛): any clear distance horizontally or vertically.
• Bishop (B, 角): any clear distance diagonally.
• Gold (G, 金): one square forward, diagonally forward, sideways or straight backward.
• Silver (S, 銀): one square forward or diagonally in either direction.
• Knight (N, 桂): jump two squares forward and one sideways.
• Lance (L, 香): slide any clear distance straight forward.
• Pawn (P, 歩): one square straight forward, including when capturing.

Forward is toward the opposing side. Select a piece to see its legal destinations. A checked king is highlighted. Use a mouse or touchscreen, or focus a square with Tab and activate it with Enter or Space.

Promotion in the far three ranks

When a piece enters, leaves or moves within the opponent’s three ranks, it may promote. The game offers a choice before submitting the move. Cancel keeps the original position.

Promoted pawns, lances, knights and silvers move like golds. A promoted rook, the dragon, keeps its sliding movement and gains one-square diagonal steps. A promoted bishop, the horse, gains one-square horizontal and vertical steps. Golds and kings never promote.

A pawn or lance reaching the final rank must promote. A knight landing on either of the last two ranks must promote. These mandatory choices happen automatically. A piece stays promoted until it is captured.

Bring captured pieces back into play

Captured pieces become yours and lose any promotion. Both players can see both hands. To drop a piece, select it in your hand and choose an empty highlighted square. Dropping spends the whole turn and never promotes the piece.

A drop can give check or block a sliding attack, provided your own king is safe. Other kinds of pieces may deliver checkmate by a drop.

Checkmate, repetition and entering kings

Checkmate wins the game. A player with no legal move also loses; Shogi has no stalemate draw. The king is never captured.

Four occurrences of the same board, hands and player to move end this casual game in a draw. If one side gave continuous check throughout those repetitions, the checking side loses instead. The result appears on both boards.

This implementation uses the 27-point entering-king declaration. The option appears in Game menu only when your king is safe in enemy camp, at least ten of your other pieces are there, and you have enough points: 28 for Sente or 27 for Gote. Count your pieces in enemy camp and in hand; rooks and bishops are worth five each, other non-kings one. Valid declaration wins. There are no clocks, ratings, handicaps or negotiated impasse adjudication.

Return to your board or request a rematch

Confirmed online moves are saved on the server. If the connection drops, the client reconnects and receives the current position. Both players must be connected to make another move.

Use the same browser and invitation to recover your seat. Clearing browser storage removes your seat credential. Inactive rooms expire after seven days. A second tab for the same seat replaces the earlier connection.

New round requires both players’ agreement. Sente starts again after reset. Before starting over, open Moves to copy the initial SFEN position and USI move record. Local and computer games use separate browser saves.