Tag: vocabulary

So you’ve learned the pieces (or you’re working on it), and now you’re watching a shogi video or playing an app… and suddenly people are saying things like “sente,” “gote,” “oute,” and “tsumi.”

Don’t worry—shogi has its own little “starter dictionary,” and once you know a handful of terms, everything starts making way more sense.

This post is a friendly guide to simple shogi-related vocabulary for English speakers: what the words mean, how to say them, and when you’ll hear them. (more…)

If you’re new to shogi (Japanese chess), the pieces can feel like little mystery wedges covered in symbols. Those symbols are kanji—Chinese characters used in Japanese writing—and each one tells you what the piece is.

The good news: you don’t have to “know Japanese” to get comfortable with them. In this post, I’ll show you the most common kanji you’ll see on shogi pieces, what they mean, and how to pronounce the piece names out loud. (more…)