Game Play

The players alternate making a move, with Black moving first. The traditional terms 'black' and 'white' are used to differentiate the sides during discussion of the game, but are not literally correct.

A move consists of moving a piece on the board and optionally promoting the piece, or dropping a captured piece onto an empty square of the board. Each of these options is detailed below.

Movement and Capture

Each piece moves in a distinct way. The kings, generals, and pawns only move one square at a time. If an opponent's piece occupies a square that is a possible destination for the moving piece, the opponent's piece may be captured by placing the moving piece on that square, and removing the opponent's piece from the board. If a friendly piece (that is, a piece controlled by the same player) occupies the square, the moving piece may not move in that direction.

The knight jumps, that is, it moves over any intervening piece, whether friend or foe. It is the only piece that can do this.

The lance, bishop, and rook can potentially move any number of squares along a straight line, limited by the edge of the board. If an opponent's piece intervenes, it may be captured by moving to that square, and removing it from the board. If a friendly piece intervenes, the moving piece is limited to a distance that stop short of the intervening piece; if the friendly piece is adjacent, it may not move in that direction at all.

Pieces move either orthogonally (that is, forward, backward, or to the side, in the direction of one of the arms of a plus sign, +), or diagonally (in the direction of one of the arms of a multiplication sign, ×). Again, the knight is an exception.

King

A king can move one square in any direction, orthogonal or diagonal.

Gold General

A gold general can move one square orthogonally, or one square diagonally forward, giving it six possibilities. It cannot move diagonally backward.

Silver General

A silver general can move one square diagonally or one square straight forward, giving it five possibilities.

Because an unpromoted silver can retreat more easily than a promoted one, it is very common to leave a silver unpromoted at the far side of the board. A silver is never required to promote.

Knight

A knight jumps at an angle intermediate between orthogonal and diagonal, amounting to one square forward plus one square diagonally forward, in a single motion. That is, it has a choice of two forward destinations. It cannot move to the sides or backwards.

The knight is the only piece that ignores intervening pieces on the way to its destination, though its destination square must of course be either empty, or occupied by an opponent's piece (in which case the opponent's piece is captured), just as with any other moving piece.

It is often useful to leave a knight unpromoted at the far side of the board. However, since a knight cannot move backward or to the sides, it must promote when it la...