It was developed by Masayuki Nakayachi c. 1996 from suggestions by German chess player Ralph Blockhaus.
Two players, Black and White (or 先手 sente and 後手 gote), play on a board ruled into a grid of 10 ranks (rows) by 10 files (columns).
The characters inscribed on the backs of the pieces to indicate promoted rank may be in red ink, and are usually cursive.
Another convention has abbreviated versions of the original characters, with a reduced number of strokes.
The knight can jump, that is, it can pass over any intervening piece, whether friend or foe, with no effect on either.
The bishop, rook, and queen 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.
A pawn may not be dropped on the furthest rank, since it would have no legal moves on subsequent turns.
There are two additional restrictions when dropping pawns, as in standard shogi: The ability for drops in okisaki shogi give the game tactical richness and complexity, as no piece ever goes entirely out of play.
Betza's funny notation has been included in brackets for easier reference.
(FR) Because it cannot move orthogonally, an unpromoted bishop can only reach half the squares on the board.
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).
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.
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, L = lance, N = knight, S = silver, G = gold, B = bishop, R = rook, Q = queen, K = king.