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How to play Minishogi: rules and setup

Minishogi is played by 2 players on a board with 5 × 5 squares. Sente moves first. Play shogi on 5×5 squares with promotion and captured pieces returning as drops.

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Play Minishogi

Quick answer

Minishogi is a small version of Japanese shogi played on a 5×5 board. Each side has only six pieces. They are a king, gold, silver, bishop, rook and pawn. Captured pieces change sides and can later be dropped back onto the board instead of making a move. Pieces promote when entering or leaving the farthest rank. Checkmate or leaving the opponent without a legal move wins. This guide covers Minishogi. Check the movement, capture and game-ending rules below before applying rules from another variant.

Players
2
Board
5 × 5 squares
First move
Sente moves first.

Ruleset and sources: Minishogi

Setup

Game illustration
Game illustration. Follow the setup instructions to prepare a new game.

Each side starts with a king, gold, silver, bishop, rook and one pawn on a 5×5 board. The promotion zone is only the farthest rank. Sente moves first.

Board
5 × 5 squares
Players
2
First move
Sente moves first.
Rules used here
Minishogi

Moves and captures

  • Legal moves

    Kings step in any direction. Golds step in any direction except backward diagonals; silvers step forward or diagonally. Pawns move and capture one step forward. Rooks and bishops slide as in chess. Captured pieces change side, lose promotion and enter your reserve.

  • Using the board

    To place a reserve piece, select it and then a marked square. For a board move, select your piece and its destination. When a move has several options, such as which piece to promote to or whether to promote, choose one in the panel that opens.

Special rules

  • Entering or leaving the last rank permits promotion: pawn and silver to gold movement, bishop adds orthogonal steps, rook adds diagonal steps.

  • A pawn on the last rank must promote.

  • Drops cannot place an unpromoted pawn on its last rank or on a file already containing your unpromoted pawn, and a pawn drop may not give immediate mate.

Winning and draws

  • Checkmate wins, and a player left without a legal move loses.

  • When the same position (board, pieces in hand and side to move) occurs for the fourth time, Sente loses and Gote wins.

  • If every move of one player in that cycle was a check, the checking player loses instead; if both players checked throughout, the game is drawn.

Example

Sources and rule verification

Ruleset covered
Minishogi
  1. Wikipedia (ja) — 5五将棋
  2. Fairy-Stockfish variants (implementation reference)
  3. Fairy-Stockfish — variant definitions (43b66c8, implementation reference)

This guide describes play on ChessPlayX. Platform-specific conventions are stated in the relevant sections; tournament administration may differ.

A separate rule-review date is not recorded for this guide. The update date is not a verification date.