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Shogi or Japanese chess is one of the stranger chess variations. The basic idea is the same: try to capture your opponent's king. However, the means to that end are dramatically different.

The most radical idea in shogi is the concept of drops. Once you capture an enemy piece, it's your to use. You can drop the piece almost anywhere on board. It's your piece then and will attack with your forces. The drops can create nasty surprises and a piece lost means terrible trouble later on. In Western chess, the number of pieces on board grows smaller as the game proceeds, but in shogi, all pieces stay in play.

Many shogi pieces are quite slow. Each player has one rook and one bishop that can move faster. There are also knights, but those move only forward. All other pieces move just one step at the time. It takes a while to develop a position on the board, but on the other hand, you have plenty of time to set up your defenses. A key idea in shogi is the concept of castles, complex defense formations players build on the board.

Shogi pieces aren't marked by colour, since each piece can be used by both players in the same game. The pieces have a pointed end that points away from their owner. The pieces are marked with Japanese calligraphy and create a rather significant barrier of entry to new players. However, if you really put your mind to it, learning the pieces isn't a difficult task - it just takes some effort. Of course, some people really hate learning things on their free time, so if you're one of those folks, skip shogi.

If you don't mind a bit of an intellectual challenge, do yourself a favour and get a shogi set. It's a fun game. If you don't like Western chess, you just might enjoy shogi - it has a significantly different flavour thanks to the drops.

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