Shogi is Japanese chess, a variant of the ancient game played on a 9x9 board with 20 pieces each side. It has a huge following in Japan, and is considered a more complex game than Western chess by many.
The game of chess or shogi is reported to have come from India, where it traveled through other countries over centuries during which rules and pieces were changed. Chess came to Europe some centuries ago, and pieces such as the Queen with its powerful moves are a modern addition.
The game reached Japan around the eighth century and for a long time many different sets of rules were in common use. It is believed the current rules date from the sixteenth century when the Japanese Emperor Go-Nara standardized the game.
Most of the pieces are familiar to Western chess players, however there are slight differences between the rules of Shogi and Western chess.
There are 8 different pieces in Shogi: pawn, knight, lance, silver, gold, bishop, rook and king.
The Pieces are usually shown with Japanese symbols, but can also be shown with Roman symbols or even with little arrows showing the moves. The Japanese symbols are easier to learn than they appear at first, especially when they are different sizes, small for pawns and big for king.