First off, winter break is over, which means school is back in session and that means more blog post and the first one of the semester is writers choice which brings us to this point right here.
Okay so I started watching an anime called "March Comes in Like a Lion" over the break and I've enjoyed it so far because the plot is interesting plus I really like the art style. The plot follows Rei Kiriyama who is a professional Shogi player in high school. Now I'm not going to talk about the anime in this blog post but I totally recommend it. What I want to talk about is Shogi which is Japanese chess. Now the reason I picked it for my blog post is... well... I just think the game is interesting seeing how it's a strategy game that can take hours if both players are good and since I already like chess I thought it'd be fun to learn how to play this chess variant. I've played a few online matches with bots and I like it more than chess because the rules make it more tactical in my opinion. Speaking of rules I should probably tell you what they are but I only know the basics so this isn't a master guide to Shogi or anything. Shogi is has a 9 by 9 layout rather than the typical 8 by 8 layout of western chess. First I'll talk about the different pieces and how they move. Note you can move only one piece per turn. The Pawn can only move forward one step you have 9 Pawns to start. The Rook moves vertically or horizontally any distance and you have one Rook. The Bishop moves diagonally any distance and you have one. The Knight moves one step left or right and up two steps; you have two nights. The King moves one step in any direction. You only have one and the point of the game is to take the other King. Now Shogi has some pieces that Western chess doesn't. First, the Lance which moves forward any distance and you have two. Two Silver Generals which move one step forward or diagonally. Finally, the Gold General which moves one step per move any direction but diagonally backward. All pieces capture in the same way they move.
Alright, all the pieces are have been covered now we get into what makes Shogi so cool. In Shogi all pieces except the King and Gold General can get promoted. The pieces that get promoted are able to move in different directions. The Pawn, Knight, Silver General, and Lance all get promoted to Gold Generals meaning they move the same as Gold Generals do. A promoted Rook has the same moves as a normal Rook plus he is able to move one step diagonally both forwards and backward. A promoted Bishop has the same moves as a normal Bishop plus can move any direction one step. Basically, they both become Kings along with their normal moves. To promote pieces they must enter the promotion zone which is the three rows furthest away from the player. Once promoted they stay promoted till captured. The other thing that makes Shogi cool is that the pieces you capture become yours to use. You can drop these pieces anywhere they can make a legal move. Pawns are the only exception, they must be dropped on a vertical row. So I hope the image below helps with all the moves and stuff. If you want to play use the same link as the image. I guess I'll apologize for nerding out but I find the game fun and think you should give it a few tries. Thanks for reading!!!
