Lesson 8 of 9
Reading and writing moves
Every shogi game can be written down one line per move. Being able to read that opens the kifu on this site, the books, and any analysis you come across.
Try it on the board
Western notation (USI)
A move is the square it starts on followed by the square it lands on: 7g7f is the piece on 7g going to 7f. A drop is the piece letter, an asterisk and the destination: P*4e is a pawn dropped on 4e.
Promotion adds a + at the end of the move (3c3b+), and explicitly declining it adds a =. The piece letters are the English initials: K, R, B, G, S, N, L and P.
Japanese notation
In Japanese a move carries the side symbol (☗ for Sente, ☖ for Gote), the destination square and the piece kanji: ☗7六歩 is the pawn going to 7f. When the destination is the same as the previous move's, 同 - "same square" - is written instead.
The two systems say exactly the same thing. The board above shows both side by side for every move you play.
Kifu
A kifu (棋譜) is the complete move list of a game. With it anyone can replay the whole game move by move - which is exactly what this site does with finished games.
It is also how you study. Anyone who reviews their own games finds the same mistakes coming back, and a repeated mistake is an easy one to fix.