Capture an enemy piece and it joins your hand to be dropped back onto the board — the twist that makes Japanese chess endlessly aggressive.
Shogi is a classic Japanese chess game on a 9x9 board. You play Sente from the bottom, aiming to checkmate the opposing King. Its defining rule is the drop: any piece you capture flips to your colour and waits in your hand, ready to be parachuted back onto an empty square instead of a normal move.
Shogi is the chess of Japan, a descendant of the same Indian chaturanga that gave rise to chess across the world. Carried east along the trade routes through China and Southeast Asia, an early form had reached Japan by around the 11th century, and over the following centuries the Japanese reshaped it into games large and small before settling on the 9×9 board played today.
Its defining invention is the drop. Unlike any Western chess, a captured piece in shogi is not removed from play — it changes sides, and its new owner may later drop it back onto the board as one of their own. This single rule, in place by around the 16th century, keeps the board full, turns every capture into a gain rather than a loss, and gives shogi a ferocity and depth all its own.
The pieces show their allegiance not by colour but by which way they point — flat wedges of the same wood, aimed at the enemy. Most can promote on reaching the far ranks, flipping over to reveal a stronger move painted on the back. Historic Japan even played giant versions — chu shogi, dai shogi and larger still — with dozens of piece types on boards many times the size.
Today shogi is one of Japan's great games, with a professional system, famous title matches and, more recently, championship-level computer players. This is a free browser version of that centuries-old tradition.
Shogi is the traditional Japanese form of chess, famous for the drop rule that keeps every captured piece in circulation. This is an original, free browser build with full promotions, drops, and a kanji or English label toggle — no download or sign-up required.