Judkins shogi

Credit for its invention has been given to Paul Judkins of Norwich, UK, prior to April 1998.

Two players, Black and White (or 先手 sente and 後手 gote), play on a board ruled into a grid of 6 ranks (rows) by 6 files (columns).

Each player has a set of 7 wedge-shaped pieces, of slightly different sizes.

The characters inscribed on the backs of the pieces to indicate promoted rank may be in red ink, and are usually cursive.

(The traditional terms 'black' and 'white' are used to differentiate the sides during discussion of the game, but are not literally descriptive.)

The knight can jump, that is, it can pass over any intervening piece, whether friend or foe, with no effect on either.

The bishop and rook can move any number of empty squares along a straight line, limited only by the edge of the board.

If an opposing piece intervenes, it may be captured by moving to that square and removing it from the board.

If a piece crosses the board within the promotion zone, including moves into, out of, or wholly within the zone, but not including drops (see below), then that player may choose to promote the piece at the end of the turn.

Betza's funny notation has been included in brackets for easier reference.

Because it cannot move orthogonally, an unpromoted bishop can only reach half the squares on the board.

They are retained "in hand", and can be brought back into play under the capturing player's control.

A pawn or knight may not be dropped on the furthest rank, since it would have no legal move on subsequent turns.

In practice this rarely happens, as a player will resign when checkmated, as otherwise when loss is inevitable.

There are two other possible (but fairly uncommon) ways for a game to end: repetition (千日手 sennichite) and impasse (持将棋 jishōgi).

If the same position occurs four times with the same player to play, then the game is no contest.

The game reaches an impasse if both kings have advanced into their respective promotion zones and neither player can hope to mate the other or to gain any further material.

Games which are no contest are usually counted as draws in amateur tournaments, but in professional style tournaments the rules may require the game to be replayed with colors reversed (possibly with reduced time limits).

Note that the pieces removed at the beginning play no further part in the game — they are not available for drops.

The method used in English-language texts to express shogi moves was established by George Hodges in 1976.

The first letter represents the piece moved: P = pawn, N = knight, S = silver, G = gold, B = bishop, R = rook, K = king.