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  • Shogi Rules – How to Play Shogi – : Step 1-10 Capture Gyoku (King) with Kin (Gold) and Gin (Silver)

    Explore art of Shogi. A professional Shogi player invites you to the world of Shogi along with tra-ditional Japanese culture. Let’s practice “Tsumi” (checkmate) in a game. First, let’s try to capture the opponent’s Gyoku (King) with two pieces of Kin (Gold). The previous step Let’s capture the opponent’s Gyoku (King)! First, let’s use a small board of 5×5 squares, and place pieces as below. Parents should take the Gyoku (King) side (defense) and children should be the Kin (Gold) side (offense). Let’s exchange greeting first.  Say “Onegai shimasu (I’d like to rely on you to play this game with me.)” Parents, please take the following steps. First, try not to capture Kin (Gold).  Your child will surely win.

    Akiko Nakakura 1 November 2016

  • Shogi Rules – How to Play Shogi – : Step 1-9 Tsumi (Checkmate)

    Explore art of Shogi. A professional Shogi player invites you to the world of Shogi along with traditional Japanese culture. “Shogi Rules – How to Play Shogi –“ is available on the blog of I-tsu-tsu Co., Ltd. The previous step Even a novice player will be able to play a standard Shogi. There are three steps and one step has approximately 20 lessons.  You will be able to play Mini Shogi in Step 1, and it is full of fun! Step 1-9 “Tsumi (Checkmate)” In the previous step, we learnt how to defense Oute. So, today, we will learn “Tsumi.” Tsumi is a situation where Gyoku (King) is under check and has

    Akiko Nakakura 24 October 2016

  • Shogi Rules – How to Play Shogi – : Step 1-8 How to defense against “Oute” (check)

    Explore art of Shogi. A professional Shogi player invites you to the world of Shogi along with tra-ditional Japanese culture. “Shogi Rules – How to Play Shogi –“ is available on the blog of I-tsu-tsu Co., Ltd. Even a novice player will be able to play a standard Shogi. There are three steps and one step has approximately 20 lessons. You will be able to play Mini Shogi in Step 1, and it is full of fun! The previous step Step 1-8 How to defense against Oute Akiko-Sensei: Both of you did well in the previous lesson of Oute. Kaori: Yes, it is fun to do Oute (Check) Akiko-Sensei: It

    Akiko Nakakura 24 October 2016

  • Shogi Rules – How to Play Shogi – : Step 1-7 Oute (Check)

    Explore art of Shogi. A professional Shogi player invites you to the world of Shogi along with traditional Japanese culture. “Shogi Rules – How to Play Shogi –” is available on the blog of I-tsu-tsu Co., Ltd. Even a novice player will be able to play a standard Shogi. There are three steps and one step has approximately 20 lessons.  You will be able to play Mini Shogi in Step 1, and it is full of fun! The previous step Step 1-7: “Oute (Check)” Today, we are going to learn how to capture Gyoku (King). Ms.Akiko: How can you win in Shogi? Ayumi: Well, I win when I capture the opponent’s Gyoku

    Akiko Nakakura 24 October 2016

  • Shogi Rules – How to Play Shogi – : How to Move/Drop a Piece Like a Professional Shogi Player

    Explore art of Shogi. A professional Shogi player invites you to the world of Shogi along with traditional Japanese culture. It’s really cool if you can move/drop a piece with a nice snapping sound like a professional Shogi player. Let’s practice! The previous step First, hold a piece with three fingers, a pointing finger, a middle finger and a third finger. Then, supporting with a thumb, put the piece between a pointing finger and a middle finger. The pointing finger is placed under the piece and the middle finger is on the top. Then, hit the board with the piece. It may not make a nice snapping sound at first,

    Akiko Nakakura 24 October 2016

  • Shogi Rules – How to Play Shogi – : Step 1-6 Drop Shogi Pieces

    Explore art of Shogi. A professional Shogi player invites you to the world of Shogi along with traditional Japanese culture. “Shogi Rules – How to Play Shogi – “ are available on the blog of I-tsu-tsu Co., Ltd. Even a novice player will be able to play a standard Shogi.  There are three steps and one step has approximately 20 lessons.  You will be able to play Mini Shogi in Step 1, and it is full of fun! The previous step We call it “Utsu (drop)” to place “Mochigoma (captured piece in hand)” on the board.  You can drop Mochigoma anytime if it is your turn, but you never drop

    Akiko Nakakura 24 October 2016

  • Shogi Rules – How to Play Shogi – : – Step 1-5 Capture Shogi Pieces –

    Explore art of Shogi. A professional Shogi player invites you to the world of Shogi along with tra-ditional Japanese culture. Let’s practice how to capture pieces today. The previous step When you capture the opponent’s piece, you place it on the piece stand.  The captured piece is called “Mochigoma (your piece in hand)” and you can reuse it.  In the past lesson, I told you that Shogi ancestor which was originated in India disseminated to many countries to be various types of Shogi brothers.  However, reusing captured pieces as yours is a unique feature that is found only in Shogi rules. Please lay out the captured pieces nicely.  I often

    Akiko Nakakura 24 October 2016

  • Shogi Rules – How to Play Shogi – : Step 1-4 Change of Piece Moves

    Explore art of Shogi. A professional Shogi player invites you to the world of Shogi along with tra-ditional Japanese culture. You now know the moves of Gyoku (King), Kin (Gold) and Gin (Silver).  However, the moves of those pieces actually change depending on the situation.  Yet, it is not difficult to understand. The previous step Board walls, the right and left edge files on a board and the opponent’s pieces affect and change moves of your pieces.  Let’s check Gyoku’s (King’s) moves.  For example, if Gyoku (King) is located at the bottom, the moves it can make are indicated with the red circles in the picture below. When Gyoku (King) is touching the right wall, the moves it can make

    Akiko Nakakura 24 October 2016

  • Shogi Rules – How to Play Shogi – : Step 1-3 Shogi Piece Types

    Explore art of Shogi. A professional Shogi player invites you to the world of Shogi along with tra-ditional Japanese culture. We will learn piece moves today.  Shogi has 8 types of pieces. The previous step The most important one is Gyoku (King).  This piece is also called “OUSAMA” or “OU,” and it means King in Japanese.  Many Shogi pieces have names of jewels, and thus, originally, only Gyoku (King) was used.  Yet, the names for the piece changed in the course of history.  The piece now has two names; Gyoku and Ou (King) . Generally, Gyoku (King) is used for novices or younger players and Ou is for instructors or older players as manners of Shogi.  This rule

    Akiko Nakakura 24 October 2016

  • Shogi Rules – How to Play Shogi – : Step 1-2 Shogi Piece Types

    Explore art of Shogi. A professional Shogi player invites you to the world of Shogi along with traditional Japanese culture. This is our second lesson, so let’s learn the variety of Shogi pieces. The previous step You may think that Shogi has many different pieces and it is difficult to learn their names and moves.  However, you can memorize them little by little. Well, how many types of pieces do you think Shogi has? There are eight types; Gyoku (King), Hi/Hisha (Rook), Kaku (Bishop), Kin (Gold), Gin (Silver), Kei/Keima (Knight), Kyo/Kyosha (Lance), Fu (Pawn). Consider Gyoku (King) as yourself.  I think that helps you understand Shogi rules better and easier.  You lose if your Gyoku (King) is captured

    Akiko Nakakura 24 October 2016

  • Shogi Rules – How to Play Shogi – : Step 1-1 Greetings

    Explore art of Shogi. A professional Shogi player invites you to the world of Shogi along with traditional Japanese culture. Hello. I’m Akiko Nakakura, a professional Shogi player.  I would like to share my Shogi lessons with you on our blog of I-tsu-tsu Co., Ltd. Our students are young sisters; Kaori aged 5 and Ayumi aged 8.  They want to learn Shogi secretly so that they can surprise their grandfather who loves Shogi on his birthday.  We hope you can join us and enjoy learning Shogi from lesson 1-1.  I am also thrilled to see the young girls’ growth through learning Shogi. Step 1-1 is about greetings. Shogi has three

    Akiko Nakakura 24 October 2016

  • Enjoy Shogi with People in the World!

    One attractive point of Shogi is that we can play it with anybody regardless of gender or age of a player. Age gap or physical strength difference between the players does not matter to play Shogi in a serious match. Well, you may say, “Isn’t that possible only in Japan?” Truly, Japanese Shogi is played most in Japan. However, brothers of Shogi are being played even at this moment in somewhere in the world. Chess and Shogi have a common ancestor. Thus, they are brothers. As a matter of fact, Shogi has many other brothers in the world. I would like to talk about Shogi’s ancestor and four brothers in

    Akiko Nakakura 19 October 2016

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