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THE FIRST RIDE

Learn shogi the frontier way.

WELCOME, PARTNER

You don’t need to know chess.

This is shogi: Japanese chess, dressed for the frontier. Trap the rival King—our Boss—while keeping yours safe. We’ll learn by making a few moves, not by memorizing a rulebook.

A few minutes. Five small steps.
No score. No timer. Nothing to lose.

Your current game is safe. Leave or return at any time.

A SMALL PRACTICE POSITIONYour side faces up ↑
HIRED GUNSYour reserve
Captured pieces wait here.

Same 9 × 9 board. Fewer pieces, so you can focus.

A NEW MOVEMENT PATTERN

Earn your spurs?

Your Pawn reached the promotion zone. Promotion is optional here. Turn it over and it moves like a Gold general.

A Pawn on the final row must promote. This move is not on the final row.

A LITTLE LOCAL KNOWLEDGE

Keep this in your pocket.

The frontier names are nicknames. The rules underneath are shogi. You never have to memorize every piece before you start.

Captures & drops

A capture moves onto a rival piece’s square. The captured piece joins your reserve unpromoted. On a later turn, a drop places a recruit onto an empty legal square, facing your rival. It uses your whole turn and cannot promote immediately.

You cannot drop a Pawn or Lance on the last row, or a Knight on the last two rows. You cannot drop an unpromoted Pawn in a column containing another of your unpromoted Pawns. A Pawn drop may give check, but cannot itself give immediate checkmate. The game enforces these restrictions.

Promotion & checkmate

Your far three rows are your promotion zone. Eligible pieces may promote when a move starts or ends there. A Pawn or Lance must promote on the last row, and a Knight on either of the last two rows. Kings and Gold generals do not promote.

Promoted Pawns, Lances, Knights and Silver generals move like Gold generals. A promoted Rook adds one-step diagonals; a promoted Bishop adds one-step horizontal and vertical moves. Capturing a promoted piece removes its promotion.

Check means your King is attacked. Your move must remove that attack. Checkmate is check with no legal escape. The King is never physically captured in this game.

Rules reference: Japan Shogi Association. This is an introduction, not a full treatment of repetition or entering-King rules; the main game’s field guide covers those.