Shogi

Drop captured pieces, promote and hunt the king

Offline

Play against bots, no connection needed.

Bot difficulty

Play as

Match with other players. Start when the table is full.

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9×9 board. The first player (▲) moves first. Each side has 20 pieces: one king, rook and bishop, two each of gold, silver, knight and lance, and nine pawns. Checkmate the opponent's king to win.
Captured pieces become yours (pieces in hand). On your turn, instead of moving, you may drop a piece from your hand onto any empty square, where it fights for you.
When a rook, bishop, silver, knight, lance or pawn moves into, out of or within the promotion zone (the opponent's three ranks), it may promote. Pawns and lances reaching the last rank, and knights reaching the last two ranks, must promote.
Drop limits: never two of your unpromoted pawns on one file (nifu); never where the piece could not move again; and a dropped pawn may not give checkmate (uchifuzume).
The same position occurring four times is sennichite, a draw — but if one side gave check on every move, that side loses. A king that has entered the enemy camp may declare a win when the conditions are met (27-point rule). A game still undecided after 512 moves is a draw.
Online games use main time plus byoyomi; running out of time loses. Players swap who moves first each game, and leaving mid-game counts as a loss. Offline games are untimed and allow undo.