Each player controls an army that starts with 20 pieces. The goal is to protect your own king and capture the enemy king.
One player must take control of the white army (he'll start the match) and the other should take the black army. Notice that the pieces, except for the kings, are all grey and are not differentiated by team. This happens because they might change sides throughout the game. It is the orientation of the piece, not its color, that defines its team.
To set up a match, players must place the pieces as indicated on the board. Their are placed with the red side facing down, and oriented so that you can read your own pieces' names. (Kings and Gold Generals have no red side, so you may place any side up.)
In his turn each player may move a piece, as indicated on the table. The move must end on an empty space or a space occupied by an enemy piece. In this last case, the enemy piece is captured – which means it has to be removed from the game and placed in the komadai of the player who captured it. A player's komadai is the space on his right side of the board, where he keeps captured pieces. When a piece is captured, it is demoted.
By the end of a piece's movement, if it lands in the last three rows of the board (beyond the red line), it may be promoted (whether or not it captured a an opponent piece). To promote it, flip it so the red is facing up. Pieces that do not have a red face cannot be promoted, nor can a piece with the red side already facing up.
Promotion is usually optional, but it is compulsory for some pieces when they land on the last row. These pieces are the pawns, knights and lances. Knights must also be promoted if they land on the penultimate row.
Instead of moving a piece, a player may choose to recruit a piece from his komadai into the game, which is referred to as the 'drop rule'. To do so, he just has to place the piece on an empty square on the board, but there are a few limitations: pawns, knights and lances may never be dropped on the last row; knights may never be dropped on the penultimate row; pawns may not be dropped in a column that already has an allied non-promoted pawn; and, finally, it is not allow to cause a check-mate (see below) by dropping a pawn (although other pieces may be dropped to give immediate check-mate and the pawn may be dropped to give a check).
A piece cannot be promoted in the same turn it was dropped.
The goal of the game is to capture the opposing king. When a player moves or drops a piece endangering the opposing king (which means that he could capture the king with one more move), he must warn the adversary that his king is in check. The adversary must then take an action to protect his king.
If a player can check the opposing king in such a way as to be no escape, then a check-mate has occurred, and he just won the game.
For detailed information about shogi in English, check out http://shogi.me.
The piece's movements are detailed on the table to your right. In it a black circle means the piece can capture an enemy on that space. A dotted line means the piece can jump over pieces while performing this movement, while a full line means it cannot. A black arrow means the piece can move as many space on that direction as the player wishes, until it finds an obstacle (and if the obstacle is an opposing piece, it can be captured).
