Shogi — Japanese Chess Online
Play Japanese chess free online with the full drop rule — captured pieces return to the board on your side — plus promotion and all standard restrictions.
- Family
- Traditional chess of Asia
- Origin
- Japan
- Board
- 9 × 9
- Players
- 2
- Difficulty
- Advanced
Choose a mode inside the board: two players, vs computer, or online with a room code.
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About Shogi
How Shogi is played
Shogi is played on a 9 × 9 board with 20 pieces per side: king, rook, bishop, two gold generals, two silver generals, two knights, two lances and nine pawns. All pieces are the same colour — ownership is shown by the direction they point.
Most pieces promote when they enter, move within or leave the last three ranks. Silver generals, knights, lances and pawns promote to gold generals; the rook becomes a dragon king and the bishop a dragon horse, each gaining one-step moves in the directions they lacked.
The drop rule
Captured pieces join your hand and may be dropped onto any empty square on a later turn instead of making a normal move. This is why Shogi games rarely end in a draw — material never leaves the game, and attacks can be rebuilt from your hand.
Three restrictions apply: you may not drop a pawn on a file where you already have an unpromoted pawn (nifu), you may not deliver checkmate with a pawn drop (uchifuzume), and you may not drop a piece where it could never move again. The app enforces all three.
Winning the game
Checkmate wins. Repetition is rare because of drops, and if both kings reach the enemy camp the game is decided by counting material (jishogi). Perpetual check is a loss for the checking side.
If Shogi feels overwhelming, start with Minishogi — the same rules on a 5 × 5 board with one of each piece — and move up once drops feel natural.