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THE BOARD AND THE MEN

I. The Board

THE BOARD is 9 squares each way, giving 81 squares in all. In fact it’s not quite square but oblong, and you play down the length of it. There are no colors, either on the board or the pieces. The pieces are only distinguished by the way they point. Black is on the side nearest to us, and White opposite. The first move is Black’s.

The squares are identified, as you see, by two co-ordinates, Roman numbers one way and Arabic numbers the other. The Arabic numbers are read first, so that if we say “King-3 v,” it would mean that the King (wherever he is) moves to the third column’s fifth square, or the spot marked X on the diagram.(The Japanese books use the same numbers across the top but use the Japanese numbers down. In the Appendix we shall explain how you can easily learn these so that you can read a real Japanese score.)

The two dotted lines are the “promotion lines” which are imagined to run across the board, and to help us keep them in mind, they are marked with a couple of thick black dots on the actual board. When your pieces get to the other side of the far promotion line, or when his pieces get to your side of the near promotion line, those pieces are “promoted,” that is, they change their powers if desired. Details will be explained later.

Notice in our diagrams that we have incorporated the main Japanese character, or kanji, which will help you recognize the piece easily when you move on to the Japanese Shogi books.

II. The King

The Shogi King is like our chess King, short-sighted and cautious. He can travel just one square with each move. He starts in the middle; Black’s King (the one nearest to us) is on his original square. His possible moves are as shown. White’s King (the one further away) started on 5 i, but he has made two moves, first to 6 ii and then to 7 iii. From there he can go to any square which touches his, as shown in the diagram.

The King is the quarry; the game is to capture (checkmate) him, as in chess. In the Japanese game he nearly always stays in one of the corners and has to have quite a royal guard round him to deal with “para-troops,” which are a special feature of Shogi.

You notice that there’s no difference of color between the Kings (though they are called “Black” and “White”). In Shogi all the pieces are distinguished by the way they are facing. White’s King, looking upside down just as he does on the board, is the enemy be cause he is pointing towards us. So with all the other pieces.

Like all Shogi pieces, the King when he moves can:

(1) go to any vacant square, or

(2) move onto a square where there is an enemy piece.

In the latter case, the enemy piece is removed from the board and becomes the property of the capturing side.

III. The King’s Bodyguard: Gold and Silver

The Gold’s full name is Gold General. He’s really a slightly weaker King in power, and one of his main functions is to stay beside his King to defend him.

He can go to any square touching his present square, except the two diagonal rear squares. His possible moves are shown on the left of the diagram. He has the three frontal squares, the ones straight to each side, and the one straight back.

The Gold is never promoted; he stays himself wherever he is. Most of the other pieces, when promoted, turn into Golds.

The Silver, too, is a sort of weaker King. He has the three frontal squares just like the Gold, but in retreat all he is allowed is the two diagonal rear squares. He can’t go straight back or straight to the side. Somehow you must make yourself associate the curly “S” with the diagonal rear directions. This will stop your confusing him with the Gold.

When a Silver makes all or part of his move beyond the promotion line on the far side, you may, on that move, promote him to Gold. This means that he gains slightly more power but he also loses his power of diagonal retreat, so quite often it pays you to forego the privilege for a move or two. A Silver, or any other piece whose promotion is optional, must be promoted on a move prior to the one in which it uses its promoted powers.

To show a promoted Silver in our diagrams, we put a ring around him; remember this means that he moves as a Gold. We don’t write him as a Gold because it is important to know that he was originally Silver. On the actual Shogi pieces the promotion is indicated on the reverse side.

More About Gold and Silver

Like most of the Shogi pieces, the Gold is poor in retreating, and this means that he must not be pushed forward too soon. The two Golds nearly always stay in their own lines to defend the King, and sometimes to prevent a break-through on the Rook’s side as well. The Golds have their initial position on either side of the King, and they try to go with him when he fortifies himself in one corner or the other. Think of the Gold as a defensive piece; he doesn’t go out to attack, as a rule.

The Silver on the other hand has two retreating squares, namely the two diagonals. These diagonal moves are very handy for threading his way in between the Pawns. The Silver is partly defensive, but also partly attacking. Generally one Silver stays at home (with his two Gold colleagues) to protect the King, but the other Silver goes out and tries to penetrate into the enemy lines, in co-operation with the Rook, Bishop, and maybe a Knight (which comes into action last of all). Whereas the Gold is a heavy-weight, the Silver is of lighter metal, alternately attacking and retreating to break up the opponent’s formation with feints and threats.

Several openings are named after Silver, depending on how the attacking Silver is used. There is no opening named after the Gold, and this gives you the hint that the Golds usually stay at home.

IV. The Rook

The Shogi Rook corresponds exactly to the Rook in our chess; so we have simply put the Japanese character inside our own castle.