Minishogi rules and how to play: 5×5 Shogi

Minishogi modes

• Random match (ランダムマッチ): find an opponent online
• Room match (ルーム対戦): play a friend using a room ID
• Play against the CPU (CPU対戦): four levels, Novice, Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. You can choose to move first or second
• Two players (ふたりで対戦): take turns on one screen

Basic rules of Minishogi

• Squares are written file then rank. Sente (first player) places the king on 55, the gold on 45, the silver on 35, the bishop on 25 and the rook on 15, with a pawn in front of the king on 54. Gote (second player) sets up the same pieces on the opposite side, facing the other way.
• Sente (▲) moves first, and the players alternate one move at a time. You win by checkmating the opponent's king. A player with no legal move at all also loses.
• Captured pieces become pieces in hand and can be dropped on any empty square. Nifu (two of your pawns on the same file), dropping a pawn on the farthest rank, and checkmating by dropping a pawn (uchifuzume) are against the rules, so you cannot make those drops.
• The opponent's farthest rank is the enemy camp. The rook, bishop, silver and pawn can promote when they move into, out of or within the enemy camp. The rook becomes a dragon, the bishop a horse, the silver a promoted silver and the pawn a tokin. A pawn that reaches the farthest rank must promote.
• If the same position (board, pieces in hand and side to move) appears four times, it is sennichite, which in Minishogi is a loss for sente. However, if one player was giving check every move (perpetual check), the player giving check loses.

How to play on Asobi Lounge

• Tap one of your pieces (or a piece on your piece stand) to show dots where it can move. Tap a dot to make the move. Pieces you can capture are marked with a red frame.
• When you can promote, a card appears where you choose Promote (成る) or Do not promote (不成).
• A colored square shows the last move, and a square glowing red shows a king in check. Each move is written in the game record in shogi notation (for example ▲２四飛).
• Against the CPU, Undo (待った) takes you back to your own turn. Hint (ヒント), up to three times per game, shows the move the strongest CPU would play with an arrow.

Differences from standard shogi

• The board has 25 squares (5×5), and each player has six pieces. There are no lances or knights.
• The enemy camp is only the farthest rank (three ranks in standard shogi).
• Sennichite is not a draw but a loss for sente. For gote, repeating the same position is a way out, so sente has to find a way to break the repetition.
• The board is small, so pieces are within reach of each other from the very first move. Counted with this site's rules, sente has 14 possible moves in the starting position.

How the CPU levels differ

• Novice: grabs whatever piece is in front of it, and about one move in four is random. For players who have just learned how the pieces move.
• Beginner: reads 2 moves ahead but sometimes misses good moves.
• Intermediate: reads 4 moves ahead and thinks exchanges through to the end.
• Advanced: thinks for about 2 seconds per move and in many positions reads 8 or more moves ahead. It never misses a checkmate that is close.

Tips

• The board is small, so a captured piece can be dropped right next to the king at once. Gaining or losing pieces leads straight to winning or losing.
• Keeping your gold and silver near your king makes it hard to break with drops.
• The rook and bishop become very strong when they reach the farthest rank and promote to dragon and horse. Open up lines that let them promote.
• If your rook or bishop is captured, your opponent can drop it right away. Keep your major pieces where they are hard to capture.
• Sennichite counts as a win for gote, so when gote is in trouble, repeating the position is worth considering. As sente, if a repetition looks likely, break it with a different move.

Frequently asked questions

How is it different from standard shogi?

The board is a small 5×5, there are no lances or knights, and the enemy camp is only the farthest rank. Sennichite is a loss for sente. Piece moves and drops work the same as in standard shogi.

Can beginners play?

Games are short and there are few pieces, so it is an easy way into shogi. Try starting with the Novice CPU.

Why are the two kings written differently?

On this screen, sente's king is written as gyoku (玉) and gote's king as ou (王). This matches real shogi sets, and both kings work the same way.

Is Minishogi free to play?

Yes, it costs nothing. Games against the CPU and solo modes work right away without signing in. Online play (random matches and private rooms) and saving stats or leaderboard scores require signing in with a Google account. To play with a friend, your friend also needs to create an account and register as your friend.

More board games

• Four-Player Shogi
• Gunjin Shogi
• Honeycomb
• Checkers
• Mancala
• Backgammon