The objective of the game is to take the opposing king. When the king cannot avoid being caught on the next move, the game is over. They say the king is "Matt". The shogi opposes two players who take turns playing. The Shogi chess board is called Shogi Ban ("Shogi table") and has 81 squares (9 x 9), the three rows furthest from the players constituting their promotion area. At the start of the game each player has 20 pieces: a king, a rook, a bishop, two gold generals, two silver generals, two horsemen, two spears, and nine pawns.

The objective of the game is to take the opposing king. When the king cannot avoid being caught on the next move, the game is over. They say the king is "Matt". The shogi opposes two players who take turns playing. The Shogi chess board is called Shogi Ban ("Shogi table") and has 81 squares (9 x 9), the three rows furthest from the players constituting their promotion area. At the start of the game each player has 20 pieces: a king, a rook, a bishop, two gold generals, two silver generals, two horsemen, two spears, and nine pawns.