Heian shogi

Heian shōgi (平安将棋 "Heian era chess") is a predecessor of modern shogi (Japanese chess). Some form of chess almost certainly reached Japan by the 9th century, if not earlier, but the earliest surviving Japanese description of the rules dates from the early 12th century (c. 1120, during the Heian period). Unfortunately, this description does not give enough information to actually play the game, but this has not stopped people from attempting to reconstruct this early form of shogi.

Piece movements were as in modern shogi, but there was no rook or bishop. The board appears to have been 9×8 or 8×8. The setup is unknown, but can reasonably be assumed to have been the same as in modern shogi (minus the rook and bishop, and minus a gold general in the 8×8 case), although it's possible that the pawns started on the second rank rather than the third. It can safely be assumed that the game was played without drops. This article outlines a fairly complete set of rules that can make the game playable in modern times.

The objective of the game is to either capture your opponent's king or all the other pieces.

Two players, Black and White (先手 sente and 後手 gote), play on a board ruled into a grid of 8 or 9 ranks (rows) by 8 or 9 files (columns). The squares are undifferentiated by marking or color.

Each player has a set of 16 or 18 wedge-shaped pieces, of slightly different sizes. From largest to smallest (most to least powerful) they are:

Most of the English names were chosen to correspond to rough equivalents in Western chess, rather than as translations of the Japanese names.

Each piece has its name in the form of two kanji written on its face. On the reverse side of some pieces are two other characters, often in a different color (commonly red instead of black); this reverse side is turned up to indicate that the piece has been promoted during play. The pieces of the two sides do not differ in color, but instead each piece is shaped like a wedge, and faces forward, toward the opposing side. This shows who controls the piece during play.

Listed here are the pieces of the game with their Japanese representation.

Silver generals and gold generals are commonly referred to simply as silvers and golds, parallel to their abbreviations in Japanese.

The characters inscribed on the backs of the pieces to indicate promoted rank may be in red ink. All pieces except the king and gold general promote to gold.

Below is the board setup for a 9x9 board. Smaller boards, of size 9x8, 8x9, or 8x8, can be obtained from this size board by removing the e-row (五-row), the sixth column, or both.

Each side places his pieces in the positions shown below, pointing toward the opponent.

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