Handicap games · 駒落ち
A fair game between unequal players.
Shogi has always had a way for a strong player and a weak one to sit down together: the stronger side takes pieces off the board before the game starts. It is how the game has been taught for four hundred years, and it is a better lesson than losing fifty even games in a row.
How it works
The stronger player, uwate (上手), removes pieces from their own side and moves first. The weaker player, shitate (下手), plays with a full set and moves second. Everything else is the normal game: the removed pieces are simply gone, not in anyone’s hand. The pieces come off in a fixed order, from one lance up to ten pieces, and each step is meant to match roughly one grade of difference between the players.
| Handicap | Japanese | Removed from the stronger side | Rough gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lance | 香落ち kyō-ochi | the left lance | one grade |
| Bishop | 角落ち kaku-ochi | the bishop | two grades |
| Rook | 飛車落ち hisha-ochi | the rook | three grades |
| Rook and lance | 飛香落ち hi-kyō-ochi | the rook and the left lance | four grades |
| Two pieces | 二枚落ち nimai-ochi | the rook and the bishop | five grades |
| Four pieces | 四枚落ち yonmai-ochi | the rook, the bishop and both lances | six to seven grades |
| Six pieces | 六枚落ち rokumai-ochi | the rook, the bishop, both lances and both knights | eight to nine grades |
| Eight pieces | 八枚落ち hachimai-ochi | everything but the king, the golds and the pawns | ten grades or more |
| Ten pieces | 十枚落ち jūmai-ochi | everything but the king and the pawns | a complete beginner |
The grade gaps are the traditional ones and vary from teacher to teacher; a strong amateur giving six pieces to a beginner is normal, and professionals giving two pieces to strong amateurs used to be common in exhibition games. The point is not the precise gap but that both players have to think.
Three positions
Why it teaches
- The weaker side attacks. With more material, the natural plan is to build a castle, then push forward on a file the stronger side cannot defend. Attacking is the skill a beginner most needs and the one an even game rarely lets them practise.
- The stronger side defends and counters. Holding a position with two golds and nine pawns is a lesson in patience and in how far a few pieces can be stretched.
- The mistakes are honest. In an even game a beginner loses and does not know why. In a six-piece game the beginner is winning, and the moment they stop winning is the moment they made the mistake. That is teachable.
Plans for the weaker side
- Ten and eight pieces: bring the rook and bishop out, promote them in the enemy camp, and hunt the king with the dragon and horse. Learn how a bare king is mated.
- Six and four pieces: the edge attack. The stronger side has no lance in the corner (and with six pieces no knight either), so push the edge pawn, put the rook behind it, exchange, and drop pawns down the file until it breaks. Castle first: a stronger player will punish a sitting king even with half an army.
- Two pieces: the classic study material. Push the pawns on the third and fourth files, bring the right silver up behind them and the rook to the fourth file; or build a slow wall of generals and advance it. Both plans are in every Japanese teaching book.
- Rook or bishop: nearly an even game. Use the piece the opponent does not have, and do not trade it away.
The app plays this whole ladder, from lance to ten pieces. Against the bot, the bot gives the handicap and moves first; in a game with a friend, you choose which of you gives it.
Play a weak but honest bot.
The app’s bot has twelve levels; the lowest play like beginners, not like dice. Undo and hints while you learn.