Shōgi

Shogi

A game of shogi using a magnetic travel set. Captured pieces in the tray (bottom-center) can be dropped into play on the board by the capturer.
Genre(s)	Board game Abstract strategy game
Players	2
Age range	5+
Setup time	< 2 minutes
Playing time	30 mins. to 2 hours (typically)
Random chance	None
Skill(s) required	Strategy, tactics
Synonym(s)	Japanese chess The Generals' Game

Shogi (将棋, shōgi^?) (/ˈʃoʊɡiː/, Japanese: [ɕo̞ːɡi] or [ɕo̞ːŋi]), also known as Japanese chess or the Generals' Game, is a two-player strategy board game in the same family as Western (international) chess, chaturanga, makruk, shatranj, janggi and xiangqi, and is the most popular of a family of chess variants native to Japan. Shōgi means general's (shō 将) board game (gi 棋).

The earliest predecessor of the game, chaturanga, originated in India in the 6th century, and sometime in the 10th to 12th centuries xiangqi (Chinese chess) was brought to Japan where it spawned a number of variants. Shogi in its present form was played as early as the 16th century, while a direct ancestor without the "drop rule" was recorded from 1210 in a historical document Nichūreki, which is an edited copy of Shōchūreki and Kaichūreki from the late Heian period (c. 1120).