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

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

https://en.i-tsu-tsu.co.jp/blog/shogi/425

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 stepEven a novice player wi...

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.

1. First, try not to capture Kin (Gold).  Your child will surely win.
2. When your child gives Oute (check) with Kin (Gold) to your Gyoku (King), capture one piece of his/her Kin (Gold).  It is very difficult to capture Gyoku (King) with only one remaining Kin (Gold).  Your child will learn that it is necessary for two Kin (Gold) pieces to cooperate and stay together for check.
3. Try not to run forward very much from the first row when escaping from Oute (Check).  It is difficult for your child to capture Gyoku (King) when it escapes up to the fifth row.
4. When your children come to capture Gyoku (King) regularly, then, you do not need to follow the above steps of restriction.

Once your child gets used to the game, use one piece of Kin (Gold) and one piece of Gin (Silver) instead of two pieces of Kin (Gold).

“One piece of Kin (Gold) and one piece of Gin (Silver) versus Gyoku (King)” is a little more difficult than “two pieces ofKin (Gold) versus Gyoku (King)”, but it helps your child to properly understand the moves ofKin (Gold) and Gin (Silver).

Let’s continue this practice following the above steps.

Comments from the girls’ mother

My girls heard that more than two pieces need to cooperate to capture Gyoku (King) in the previous lesson.
Today, they learnt the lesson through the actual experience in the game with the limited numbers of pieces.  They found it much more fun to actually move the pieces to learn the lesson.

Girls played this two pieces versus Gyoku (King) game several times, and they got very excited.
They fully learnt the patterns to win.

Who won and who lost.  Although this is just a practice, girls get so feverish with the results of games.  The game of Shogi becomes even more fun when they learn how to win even at a slow pace.

The next step

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Shogi Rules – How to Play Shogi – : Step 1-11 Let’s Play a 5x5 Shogi Game (Mini Shogi)

https://en.i-tsu-tsu.co.jp/blog/shogi/442

Explore art of Shogi. A professional Shogi player invites you to the world of Shogi along with traditional Japanese culture.*Please note that the Kanji numbers in pictures are spelled in English in the text.The following Shogi boards have a face w...