Minishogi

How Minishogi is played

Minishogi is shogi on a board of five by five squares, with six pieces a side. The pieces move, promote and come back from the hand exactly as in Shogi, so games are short and every move counts. The goal is to checkmate the opposing king: to attack it so that no move can save it. An attacked king is in check, and no move may leave your own king attacked.

The board

Five by five squares. Each side has a king, a gold and a silver general, a bishop, a rook and one pawn, set up on its first rank with the pawn in front of the king. The side that moves first is called sente, the other gote.

The pieces

The king steps one square in any direction. The rook moves any number of squares straight (forward, back or sideways), the bishop any number of squares diagonally, and neither passes over another piece. The gold general steps one square in any direction but diagonally back, the silver one square diagonally or straight forward. The pawn steps one square forward and also captures straight forward. A piece captures by moving onto an enemy piece. There are no knights and no lances.

Promotion

Only the last rank is the promotion zone. A piece that moves into, within or out of it may promote: the rook becomes the dragon and the bishop the horse, which also step one square in the directions they could not before; the silver and the pawn then move like a gold. A pawn on the last rank must promote.

Drops

A captured piece joins your hand, unpromoted, and plays for you. Instead of moving, you may drop it on any empty square. As in Shogi, no pawn may be dropped on a file where you already have an unpromoted pawn, or on the last rank, and a dropped pawn may not give checkmate.

Winning

Checkmate wins; a side without a legal move loses too. When the same position occurs for the fourth time, sente, who moved first, loses, unless one side gave check with every move of the repetition: then that side loses. There is no impasse.

Where it comes from

Shigenobu Kusumoto of Osaka invented, or rediscovered, the game around 1970. Its Japanese name, 5五将棋 (gogo shōgi), means “5 × 5 shogi”. It is a good way into shogi: the same moves and drops on a board you can take in at a glance.

Handicaps

As lishogi offers them: gote gives and moves first, without the bishop, the rook, both (two pieces), then the silver too (three) and the gold (four). The bot can give them, or you can (the setup’s "Handicap").

More games

Chess and variants

• Chess · Classic chess or Chess960 with a shuffled back rank, against a bot.
• Chess960 · Fischer random chess: the back rank starts in one of 960 setups.
• Antichess · Losing chess: give away all your pieces, captures are compulsory.
• Atomic chess · Every capture is an explosion that clears the pieces around it.
• Crazyhouse · Captured pieces change sides and can be dropped back onto the board.
• Duck chess · After every move you move the duck, which blocks everyone. No check.
• Fog of War · You only see where your pieces can move. Capture the king to win.
• Friendly Chess · Nothing is captured: pieces unite and set off chain reactions.

The chess family

• Chaturanga · India’s ancient chess, the root of the family: take the king to win.
• Shatranj · The medieval ancestor of chess, with a weak ferz and a jumping alfil.
• Makruk · Thai chess: a slow, strategic game with a counting rule.
• Ouk Chatrang · Cambodian chess: Makruk with a leap for the king and the met.
• Sittuyin · Burmese chess: set up your pieces, then promote on the diagonals.
• Xiangqi · Chinese chess: a river, palaces and a cannon that jumps to capture.
• Janggi · Korean chess: no river, palace diagonals and a cannon that always jumps.
• Shogi · Japanese chess: captured pieces return to the board on your side.

More players

• Chaturaji · India’s four-handed chess: kings can be captured, captures score.
• Four Seasons Chess · Alfonso X’s chess for four from 1283: four seasons, the last king wins.
• Three-player chess · Three armies on a hexagonal board: you against two bots.
• Four-player chess · Four armies on a cross-shaped board: in teams or all against all.
• Eight-player chess · Eight armies on a board of 516 squares: all against all, in pairs or four against four.