Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
Chu Shogi is a Japanese cousin of FIDE Chess and ancestor of Modern Shogi. Each player controls 46 pieces, and play is on a 12×12 board.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Read the full game description
Chu Shogi is a Japanese cousin of FIDE Chess and ancestor of Modern Shogi. Each player controls 46 pieces, and play is on a 12×12 board. The object is to capture your opponent's King (and Crown Prince, if they have promoted their Drunk Elephant). Unlike Modern Shogi, this game is played without drops. The game is much larger than Chess and Shogi. The pieces consist of such interesting pieces as the Drunk Elephant, Phoenix, Kylin, Free Boar, Flying Ox, and many other colorfully-named pieces including the incredibly powerful Lion.