The eight pieces and how they move

Try it on the board

The pieces you already know

The rook (飛) runs along ranks and files and the bishop (角) runs along diagonals, exactly as in chess. They are the only long-range pieces in the starting position, and the two most valuable ones.

The king (玉 or 王) moves one square in any of the eight directions. There is no castling in shogi: king safety comes from building a castle, walking generals over to him across several moves.

The generals, the knight and the lance

The gold general (金) moves one square in any direction except the two backward diagonals. The silver (銀) moves one square forward or along any of the four diagonals - never sideways, never straight back. That difference is what makes the silver an attacker and the gold a defender.

The lance (香) runs straight forward as far as it likes and never comes back. The knight (桂) jumps two squares forward and one to the side, is the only piece that leaps over others, and also never comes back. The pawn (歩) moves one square forward and captures forward too - there is no diagonal capture.

Remembering eight pieces without memorising

Do not try to learn all eight at once; look at the pattern instead. Apart from rook and bishop, everything moves one square. Apart from the king, almost nothing moves straight back. That leaves three genuinely odd movers: silver, knight and lance.

And when they promote, silver, knight, lance and pawn all become gold generals. Learning the gold well is learning half the game, because it is what most pieces end up as.