The board and the coordinates

Try it on the board

Nine files, nine ranks, no colours

The shogi board is 9x9 and every square looks the same - there are no light and dark squares as in chess. The pieces have no colour either: they are flat wedge-shaped tiles with kanji on them, and what tells you whose piece it is, is which way the point faces. Yours points at your opponent.

Sente (先手) moves first and, on screen, plays up the board. Gote (後手) answers, with the tiles pointing the other way, playing down the board.

What each square is called

Files are numbered 1 to 9 from right to left, ranks a to i from top to bottom. The name always starts with the file: 7g is the seventh file counting from the right, on the seventh rank counting from the top.

So 1a is the top-right corner and 9i is the bottom-left one. It feels back to front for the first few minutes and becomes automatic after half a dozen games; the exercise above is there to speed that up.

The promotion zone

The three ranks furthest from you - a, b and c for Sente, g, h and i for Gote - are the promotion zone. Any piece that enters, moves inside or leaves that band may be flipped over for a stronger move.

Knowing where that band starts is half of shogi tactics: almost every attack begins with a piece entering it. Lesson 4 is entirely about that.