According to the Sho Shōgi Zushiki, the drunk elephant was eliminated by the Emperor Go-Nara[1] (reigned 1526–1557), and it is assumed that the drop rule was introduced at about the same time, giving rise to shogi as it is known today.
The objective of the game is to capture your opponent's king and crown prince (if present) or all other pieces.
Two players, Black and White (or 先手 sente and 後手 gote), play on a board ruled into a grid of 9 ranks (rows) by 9 files (columns).
Each player has a set of 21 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 chess terms 'black' and 'white' are used to differentiate the sides during discussion of the game in English, 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.
The crown prince effectively doubles as a second king, and must also be captured to win if present.
(FR) Because it cannot move orthogonally, an unpromoted bishop can only reach half the squares on the board.
A player who captures the opponent's king and crown prince (if present) wins the game, as does a player who captures everything else, leaving a "bare" (or lone) king or crown prince.
[citation needed] A player who makes an illegal move loses immediately.
There is one other possible (but fairly uncommon) ways for a game to end: repetition (千日手 sennichite).
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, DE = drunken elephant, K = king.