Setupīelow is a diagram showing the setup of one player's pieces. Listed below are the pieces of the game and, if they promote, which pieces they promote to starting with the first row. This shows who controls the piece during play. The pieces of the two sides do not differ in color, but instead each piece is shaped like a wedge, and faces forward, toward the opposing side. On the reverse side of some pieces are two or three other characters, often in a different color (commonly red instead of black) this reverse side is used to indicate that the piece has been promoted during play. Several of the English names were chosen to correspond to rough equivalents in Western chess, rather than as translations of the Japanese names.Įach piece has its name in the form of two or three kanji written on its face. In general, the stronger pieces are nearer to the king. The pieces are of slightly different sizes with the larger pieces near the king and becoming progressively smaller for pieces further from the king, regardless of power. The players must remember 253 sets of moves. The squares are differentiated by marking or color.Įach player has a set of 402 wedge-shaped pieces of 209 types. Two players, Black and White (or 先手 sente and 後手 gote), play on a board ruled into a grid of 36 ranks (rows) by 36 files (columns) with a total of 1,296 squares. Unlike standard shogi, pieces may not be dropped back into play after being captured. There are no rules for check or checkmate however, in practice a player resigns when checkmated. When the last of these is captured, the game ends. The objective of the game is to capture the opponent's king(s) and crown prince(s). The most notable differences lie with the piece movements and their promotions. Taikyoku shogi is very different from other large-board shogi variants: tenjiku shogi, dai dai shogi, maka dai dai shogi, and tai shogi. These rules may change as more discoveries are made and secrets of the game unlocked. This article focuses on one likely set of rules that can make the game playable in modern times but is by no means canon. Research into this game continues for historical and cultural reasons, but also to satisfy the curious and those who wish to play what could be the most challenging chess-like game ever made. The board, and likewise the pieces, were made much smaller, making archeological finds difficult to decipher.

Many of the pieces appear in other shogi variants but their moves may be different. Several documents describing the game have been found however, there are differences between them. One game may be played over several long sessions and require each player to make over a thousand moves.īecause the game was found only recently after centuries of obscurity, it is difficult to say exactly what all the rules were. There are only two sets of restored taikyoku shogi pieces and one of them is held at Osaka University of Commerce. It has not been shown that taikyoku shogi was ever widely played. Before the rediscovery of taikyoku shogi in 1997, tai shogi was believed to be the largest playable chess variant ever. The game was created around the mid 16th century (presumably by priests) and is based on earlier large board shogi games. Taikyoku shōgi (大局将棋 'ultimate chess') is the largest known variant of shogi (Japanese chess).

Shogi demon