The Japanese Chess Shogi

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In Japan, the most common variant of chess is the

Shogi. The game was transmitted from India to Korea

and China just before arriving in Japan. There are two

distinguishing characteristics of Shogi, such as: the

captured pieces can be utilized by the captor and

played as the part of the captors forces and pawned

can capture pieces usually, which is a single square

straight ahead.

History of the Game

It is believed that Shogi is derived from Chaturanga,

which was played in Ancient India and sooner or later tumbshots

spread throughout Eurasia. It is nonetheless not clear when

Shogi was brought to Japan.

A number of theories concerning the spread of Shogi showed

that the game almost certainly became popular in the course of the 6th

century. Back then, the pieces were not the current

five-sided pieces but rather three-dimensional related

to the Chaturanga pieces.

One particular of the oldest documents specifying the existence

of Shogi is the Kirinsho, which is a seven-volume work

that includes descriptions of how to create characters

for the pieces used in Shogi games. Throughout the Heian

period, the Shogi pieces utilized consist of the king,

silver common, gold common, lance, knight and pawn.

The Rules of Shogi

Technically, Shogi is won when the king is captured

but there are also circumstances where the defeat is

conceded when the mate becomes inevitable. As for the

equipments of the game, the two players play on a

board, which is composed of squares in a grid

containing nine ranks by nine files. The squares are

also not undifferentiated by color or marking.

The players have a set of twenty pieces, slightly

various in sizes. The pieces contain a rook, bishop,

king, two pieces of gold generals, two silver

generals, two lances, two knights and nine pieces of

pawns.

The several names are chosen to correspond to their

rough equivalents in international chess. Each of the

pieces has its name written on its surface in the form

of Japanese characters, referred to as kanji. On the other

side of the piece are one or two characters that when

turned face up indicate promotion. The pieces

controlled by the two players also do not differ in

color as an alternative they face forward, toward the opposing

side.

For English-speaking players, the promoted bishops are

referred to as horses, although promoted rooks as

dragons. The characters on the other side of the

pieces might also be in red ink, typically written in a

cursive manner.

There are also rankings utilized in Shogi. These rankings

are also utilised in karate, calligraphy and other arts in

Japan.

For the placement of the pieces, the king is placed in

the center file. The gold generals are adjacent to the

king, whilst the silver ones are placed adjacent to the

gold generals. The knights are positioned beside the two

silver generals and the lances are situated in the

corners. As for the second rank, the bishops are at

the very same file as the left knight, whilst the rook is in

the same file as the knight situated on the right.

Like other chess games, every player take turns in

moving pieces. The player who very first captures the

opponents king wins the game. Nevertheless, this hardly ever

occurs in practice since most players will concede

defeat when the loss in inevitable. Much more so, in

amateur and professional games, any player who tends to make

an illegal move loses automatically.