Shogi for Beginners Trivia Quiz

Answer: 40

Each player begins with twenty pieces: one king, one rook, one bishop, two gold generals, two silver generals, two knights, two lances, and nine pawns. In games where there is a great difference between the players' skill levels, the better of the two may begin the game with fewer than twenty pieces, often forgoing a lance, rook, or bishop or some combination thereof.

There is no color difference in pieces between the two teams. The way players' pieces are differentiated is the way they are pointing. A player's pieces always point toward his opponent.

Answer: 81

Unlike chess, Shogi uses a 9×9 board for a total of 81 squares. Also unlike chess, all squares on a Shogi board are the same color.

Answer: Lance

The lance can move in only the forward direction, but the player can move it as many spaces as he wants on his turn until impeded by another piece. The king moves the same as in Western chess: one space in any direction. The gold general moves like the king minus the back two diagonal squares. The silver general can move diagonally one space or forward one space.

Answer: Rook

The rook moves exactly as in Western chess: unlimited movement in the horizontal or vertical direction until impeded by another piece. The knight moves similarly to its counterpart in Western chess, but movement is more restricted. The knight moves two spaces forward and then one space either to the left or to the right.

The pawn in Shogi moves one space forward only: no diagonal capture and no en passant. In Shogi, the pawn can capture moving forward unlike the pawn in Western chess.

Answer: moving it within the back three rows

The back three rows of the Shogi board are known collectively as the "Promotion Zone". All pieces except the king and gold general can promote. One way a Shogi draw can occur is if both kings move to the promotion zone and the players agree there is no hope for a checkmate.

Answer: Bishop

The bishop retains its movement (which is just like its movement in Western chess), plus it can move one space in either the vertical or horizontal direction. In other words, the promoted bishop can move like a bishop or a king. Gold generals do not promote; they retain their movement throughout the entire game.

Answer: Like a rook or diagonally one space

The promoted rook is known as the "dragon king", having the ability to move like a rook or like a king. There are no pieces in Shogi that move like the queen in chess; most pieces have very short range. This makes for a much longer series of defensive moves at the beginning of most games (source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shogi).

Answer: A player can use pieces he captured against his opponent.

This adds a new dimension of strategy that players of Western chess are not familiar with (unless they play Shogi as well). Instead of moving a piece, a player can use his turn to "drop" any piece he captured onto the board to be used against his opponent. There are two restrictions: a pawn cannot be dropped for a checkmate, and a pawn cannot be dropped onto a column in which the player already has an unpromoted pawn. Therefore, it is possible for a player to command over 30 pieces in theory.

Promoted pieces revert to unpromoted status when dropped.

Answer: An illegal move results in a victory for the opposing player.

Although a player loses the game by losing his king, it is not a rule to protect the king as it is in Western chess. Also, a player may be stealthful by not saying "check" in Shogi, but courtesy dictates that "check" be said anyway (source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shogi).

Answer: rook + bishop

In Shogi, the rook and the bishop are worth five points each. The king is worth zero points. Every other piece (pawn, lance, knight, silver general, gold general) is worth one point.