Board games
Sho shogi
Sho shogi is a board game released in 1450. It is played with 2 players, from age 8 and in about 45 minutes.
- players
- 2
- minutes
- 45
- years
- 8+
This game’s rules aren’t on Marquoir yet: keep the ones from the box. Marquoir keeps score, times your games and records them.
The box
- Year of release
- 1450
About the game
Shō shōgi (小将棋 'small chess') is a 16th-century form of shogi (Japanese chess), and the immediate predecessor of the modern game. It is played on a 9×9 board with the same setup as in modern shogi, except that an extra piece is placed in front of the king: a 'drunk elephant' that promoted into a prince, which acts like a second king. According to the Sho Shōgi Zushiki, the drunk elephant was eliminated by the Emperor Go-Nara (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.Information from Marquoir’s game database, which cross-checks several open sources. Spotted a mistake? Write to us from the Contact page.