Learn · 将棋を学ぶ
Everything on the site, in order.
Start with the rules and piece movements. Then explore drops, promotion, tactics, and ways to protect your king. Choose what to practice next using the diagrams and interactive boards below.
Start here
Three pages and you can play.
How to play ルールThe rules in ten minutes: the board, a turn, capturing, drops, promotion, check and mate, how a game ends.The pieces 駒Every piece with its move drawn square by square, its Japanese name, and what it becomes.Shogi for chess playersWhat carries over, what does not, and which chess habits to drop.
The rules in depth
The parts of the rules that have their own pages, because they have their own questions.
Drops 持ち駒Captured pieces come back. The four limits: nifu, dead squares, uchifuzume, and check.Promotion 成りThe zone, when you may and when you must, and the six promoted faces.Check 王手The three answers, the knight check nothing can block, double and discovered check.Illegal moves 反則Two pawns on a file, mate by a dropped pawn, and the rest of the short list, each on a board.Reading moves 棋譜7g7f, ７六歩 and P-7f are one move. Coordinates, the three notations, and a KIF.Time controls 持ち時間What five minutes then ten seconds a move means, and how to play with byoyomi.Repetition and impasse 千日手The two endings that are not checkmate, and the rule that makes perpetual check a LOSS rather than a draw.Etiquette 礼儀What to say before and after, how to resign, how the pieces are placed, and the pawn toss that decides colours.
The endgame
Taught early in Japan, and for a reason: this is the half of the game that decides results.
The endgame 終盤Check, threatmate, brinkmate, mate, in order, with Z and sudden death beside them. Every position engine-proved.Brinkmate 必至The threat with no answer: what separates it from a threatmate, two basic shapes, every defence listed.Closing in 寄せDriving the king to the edge, the sacrifice at the focal point, getting out of your own way.Speed counting 速度計算Who is faster, and the procedure that tells you before you move.
Getting better
Protect your king, develop your pieces, and practice tactics and mates.
Judging a position 形勢判断The four things to count before choosing a plan: material, activity, king safety and whose move it is.Castles 囲いAll fifty-seven, from the Mino family to the Yagura and the Anaguma: where the king goes before the fight, and the moves that build each one.Openings 戦法Ninety-one openings, each with its move order played out and the plan behind it.Tesuji 手筋Twenty-four techniques by piece: pawn, generals, knight and lance, rook and bishop.Mating patterns 詰みの形The ten shapes most checkmates take, each on a real problem.Proverbs 格言Twenty-three sayings players steer by, with positions.
Practice
One problem a day, the same for everyone.
Tools
The engine, in your browser.
Reference
The words and the numbers.
Then play.
The app has the lessons, a bot with twelve levels, the daily tsume with a ladder and a rating, and a review of every game.