How to play
Mini Shogi is Japanese chess on a 5 × 5 board. Each side has six pieces: a king, a gold general, a silver general, a bishop, a rook and a pawn. Black sits at the bottom and moves first; White plays from the top, and White’s pieces point downwards. The goal is the same as in chess: checkmate the enemy king.
The pieces
- King (王 / 玉) moves one square in any direction.
- Gold general (金) moves one square forward, diagonally forward, sideways or straight back, but never diagonally back.
- Silver general (銀) moves one square forward or to any diagonal, but never sideways or straight back.
- Bishop (角) slides any distance diagonally.
- Rook (飛) slides any distance along a rank or file.
- Pawn (歩) moves one square straight forward and captures the same way.
Promotion. The far rank is your promotion zone. When a silver, bishop, rook or pawn moves into, out of or inside the zone, you may promote it; the game asks you Promote or Do not promote. A pawn reaching the last rank must promote, because it could never move again. A promoted silver and a promoted pawn (と, “tokin”) move like a gold general. A promoted bishop becomes a dragon horse (馬), which moves like a bishop or one square straight. A promoted rook becomes a dragon king (龍), which moves like a rook or one square diagonally. Promoted pieces show a red character. The king and gold never promote.
Drops. A captured piece does not leave the game: it goes to the captor’s hand, unpromoted, and appears in the strip above or below the board. On any later turn you may tap a piece in hand and then an empty square to drop it there instead of moving a piece. Three restrictions apply: a pawn may not be dropped on the last rank, a pawn may not be dropped on a file where you already have an unpromoted pawn, and a pawn may not be dropped to give immediate checkmate. Dropped pieces arrive unpromoted and may promote later.
Check and the end. You may not leave your own king under attack; a king in check is marked in red. If the player to move has no legal move, that player loses, whether in check or not. If the same position appears four times, or the game reaches 400 moves, it is a draw.
At the top, choose your Opponent. Against the Computer you play Black and can pick Easy, Medium or Hard. Choose Friend to play two people on one device; the strip of the player to move lights up. Hint shows a good move, and Undo takes back one move against a friend, or your move together with the computer’s answer.
Strategy
- Count the pieces in hand. A captured rook is a rook you can drop anywhere. Before you trade, ask who benefits from the piece changing hands.
- Drops decide games. A gold or silver dropped next to the enemy king is often the fastest way to mate. Keep a piece in hand for the moment the king runs out of squares.
- Promote when it costs nothing. A silver that becomes a gold gains sideways moves; a rook that becomes a dragon gains diagonal steps. Decline only when the unpromoted move (a silver’s diagonal retreat) is what you need.
- Guard the squares next to your king, not the king itself. On a 5 × 5 board most mates come from a drop on a square the king cannot cover. A gold beside the king covers the dangerous squares in front of it.
- The pawn is a shield and a lever. Advancing it opens lines for your bishop and rook, and on the last rank it turns into a gold. Remember the drop rules: one unpromoted pawn per file, and no mate by a dropped pawn.
- Watch for repetition. With drops the same position can recur; the fourth repetition ends the game as a draw, so change something if you are ahead.
The computer looks a few moves ahead and values pieces in hand almost as much as pieces on the board. In our tests the hard level beat the easy level in every game between them.
For a related game of capture and promotion, play Xiangqi, or try Chess.
If you enjoy Mini Shogi, try Nim or Nine Men’s Morris next.
