Shogi Rules!

Shogi "The General's Game"

THE INTRODUCTION

Shogi is Japanese chess. The object of the game is to capture the opponent's King.
Shogi is played on a 9-by-9 board. The vertical rows are called files, the horizontal ones ranks or just rows.
Each player has twenty pieces: one King, two Gold Generals, two Silver Generals, two Knights, two Lances, one Rook, one Bishop and nine Pawns.
The player moving up the board and making the first move is referred to as black and his opponent white, although in Shogi sets all pieces have the same colour.
They are differentiated only in direction: pieces pointing away from a player are his. The pieces lie flat on the board and have their Japanese name written on them.

THE MOVES

"White" King (osho / osama): one step in any direction per move

"Black" King (osho / osama) {jade general}: one step in any direction per move

Gold General (kin): one step per move any way except diagonally backward 　　; (as a king but not diagonally backward)

Silver General (gin): one step per move forwards or diagonally 　　; (as a king but not sideways or vertically backward)

Knight "honourable horse" (keima): one step to left or right, and two steps forward 　; (the only piece which may jump over other pieces)

Rook "flying chariot" (hisha): moves vertically or horizontally any distance

Bishop "angle goer" (kaku): moves diagonally any distance

Lance "fragrant chariot" (yari): moves forward any distance

Pawn "foot soldier" (fu): one step forward

Apart from the King and the Gold General all pieces can promote.
After promotion their moves are as follows:

Promoted Silver (nari-gin): all move as a Gold.

Promoted Knight (nari-kei): all move as a Gold.

Promoted Lance (nari-kyo): all move as a Gold.

Promoted Pawn (tokin): all move as a Gold.

Promoted Rook "dragon king" (ryu-o): in addition to the moves of the unpromoted Rook can move one step in the diagonal directions. It either moves like a Rook or like a King.

Promoted Bishop "dragon horse" (ryuma): in addition to the moves of the unpromoted Bishop can move one step horizontally or vertically. It either moves like a Bishop or like a King.

PROMOTION

The three rows furthest away from a player are called the promotion zone.
Apart from the King and the Gold, any piece can be promoted to a more powerful piece when it makes a move completely or partly in the promotion zone.
So, when a piece moves into, out of or fully inside the promotion zone it may be promoted upon completion of its move.
Promotion is optional, provided that the piece still can make a legal move in case it is not promoted: if a Pawn or a Lance move to the last row, or a Knight moves to either of the last two rows, it must be promoted.
In Shogi sets promoting a piece is done by turning this pieceupside down.
Its promoted name is written on its other side.

CAPTURING AND DROPPING PIECES

When one piece moves onto the same square as an opponent's piece, the opponent's piece is captured. All pieces capture in the same way that they move.
Captured pieces become part of the capturer's force.
In a later move, instead of moving a piece on the board, a player may put a piece that he has captured from his opponent back onto the board, in an empty square.
This is called dropping a piece.
Pieces are always dropped unpromoted: ifa promoted piece is captured, it reverts to its unpromoted rank. Pieces may be dropped on any empty square on the board with only three restrictions:

After dropping a piece it must be able to make a legal move. This applies to Pawns, Knights or Lances. They may not be dropped onto a square from which they will never be able to move.
Attacking the King by dropping a Pawn on the square in front of him is not allowed if the King cannot prevent being captured on the following move. To use the Chess expression: checkmating the King with a Pawn drop is prohibited.
A pawn may only be dropped on a file (vertical row) if there is no other unpromoted pawn of the same player on that file.

DRAWS

The game of Shogi has very few draws (roughly 1 percent), mainly because of the possibility to drop pieces. Draws cannot be offered and can arise from two situations:

A position (including the pieces in hand) occurs 4 times with the same player to move ("Sennichite"). However, if this is caused by consecutive checks (direct attacks on the King, threatening to capture it on the next move) by one side, the player giving these checks loses the game.

Both players have moved their King into the the promotion zone (or they cannot be prevented to do so) and the Kings cannot be checkmated. In that case the players may decide to count their pieces where the King does not count, the Rook and Bishop count as 5 points, and all other pieces as one point. Promotion is disregarded. If both players have at least 24 points the game is a draw ("Jishogi"). If a player has less, he loses the game.
Of course, a player can refuse to count pieces when he still has mating chances or chances to gain material which would affect the outcome of the counting. There is no strict rule about what to do if this is not the case, but nonetheless a player refuses to count up (e.g. because he does not have enough points for a draw). It has been generally accepted that in such a case the game ends and the pieces are counted after one player has managed to get all his pieces protected in the promotion zone.