What is Minishogi?
Minishogi (gogo shōgi, "five-five shogi") is shogi on a 5×5 board. Each side has six pieces: a king, a gold general, a silver general, a bishop, a rook and one pawn. The five pieces fill the back row, and the pawn stands in front of the king.
Pieces move, capture, promote and are dropped exactly as in standard shogi. Only the size changes: the promotion zone is the far row, so a piece may promote when it moves into, out of or within that row.
With so little room, every capture matters and drops come into play almost at once. Games are short and sharp, which makes Minishogi a good way to practise tactics or to learn how drops work.
Rule changes
| Rule | Standard Shogi | Minishogi |
|---|---|---|
| Board | Standard Shogi9×9. | Minishogi5×5. |
| Pieces | Standard Shogi20 each: king, rook, bishop, two gold generals, two silver generals, two knights, two lances and nine pawns. | Minishogi6 each: king, gold, silver, bishop and rook on the back row, and one pawn in front of the king. There are no knights or lances. |
| Promotion zone | Standard ShogiThe far three rows. | MinishogiThe far row only. |
| How to win | Standard ShogiCheckmate the opponent's king. | MinishogiThe same, but a position that occurs for the fourth time is a win for Gote, not a draw (a player who gave check with every move of the repetition still loses). Drops and the pawn rules work as in standard shogi. |
History
Minishogi was invented, or perhaps rediscovered, around 1970 by Shigenobu Kusumoto of Osaka. Its Japanese name, gogo shōgi, simply means five-by-five shogi.
The small board made it a favourite for quick games and for teaching, and its size also makes it a popular test bed for shogi programs. It is one of the variants offered by most online shogi sites.