Explore Art of Shogi
A professional Shogi player invites you to the world of Shogi along with traditional Japanese culture

Previously you learnt an illegal move called “Nifu (two pawns).”  Let’s learn another illegal move today.  If you make an illegal move during a game, you lose a game.  So, you need to be careful about an illegal move you will learn today as well as the previous one.

As seen in the above, if you move or drop a piece on a square from which the piece has nowhere to go for the next move, your move or drop is illegal.  Since a piece has nowhere to go from the position, it’s natural that your move is considered illegal.
Below are other examples of illegal moves.  You can see that each piece in the pictures has nowhere to go on the next move.

However, it is not necessarily true that moving a piece to the first rank is always an illegal move.  If a piece is promoted, then it is possible to move the piece without falling into an illegal move.
So, when you want to move a piece to the first rank, or the second rank for Keima (Knight), you need to promote the piece as below.

If a piece is promoted, then the piece can move to the right, left, and downward.  You can make a good use of the piece without falling into an illegal move.  Let’s remember that a piece should be promoted when it moves to the first rank, or the second rank for Keima (Knight).

You have learnt two illegal moves.  As a matter of fact, there are other illegal moves.  However, since they are a bit more difficult, let’s save them for some other occasions.
I think that these rules would make Shogi games even more interesting and profound.
Without illegal moves, a game of Shogi could be a little shallow.  I think that illegal moves were generated in a long history of Shogi to create a further interesting game.  Therefore, you need to use your brain significantly. Everyone, let’s use our brains’ full potentials to enjoy a game of Shogi.

After the lesson

(comments from girls’ mom)

Today’s lesson was about the second type of illegal moves.  My girls could easily understand that they should not place a piece on a square from which the piece has nowhere to go.
“I am sorry for this piece because only this piece has nowhere to move,” said my daughters.
It seems that they think Shogi pieces are friends.