Shogi tips for beginners

Hello everyone. As I've said before, I'm certainly not a great shogi player; I've only been playing since April. However, in these 3 months I've been playing, I've certainly come to grasp some important concepts and tactics when playing shogi, many of which can be found in shogi proverbs. These are tips that any shogi player who wants to get better should memorize and learn to recognize and immediately implement as soon as the situation arises in a game. Today I'll only be discussing two major points.

1. Avoid a sitting King.

This is the biggest piece of advice that I feel should be given to any beginning shogi player, and whether they follow this principle is a good way to tell whether someone has a basic grasp of shogi or not. Keeping your king on its initial square is extremely dangerous because it can be attacked from the front and both sides. If you're not careful, this can lead to an easy checkmate. Consider the following situation:

White has been playing very aggressively and attacking black from all sides, and white has felt like he hasn't had time to castle. Black has broken through white's Yagura Castle, but it seems as though white's hanging in there. The last move was B*7e, and, in order to add a defender to the 8th file, black has played G-8h. In response, black plays Bx5g+. White is now in brinkmate; there's nothing he can do to stop the incoming checkmate. No matter which pieces move where, dropping the gold general on 5h (or 4h if the king runs to 4i) will result in checkmate for black. Had black taken the time to strengthen his defense, he wouldn't have had to worry about this situation.


2. Against a King on the edge, push the edge Pawn.

This proverb is pretty self-explanatory. In the endgame, when you've forced your opponent onto the edge (files 1 or 2), you should attack the king by pushing the edge pawn, especially if that file's lance hasn't moved yet. Take the following example:

This example comes from a professional game between Yasuharu Oyama and Hiroshi Kamiya in 1987. (Go here to watch Hidetchi's commentary on this game.) Oyama is playing Black and Kamiya is playing White. Oyama has just forced Kamiya's king to move to 1c by playing G*2a. Following the proverb "For a King on the edge, push an edge Pawn," Oyama played P-1e. Oyama won the game by playing this move, giving a great professional example of this proverb.



Of course, this proverb doesn't have to only apply to the king. It can work with any piece that can't guard from the front. For example:


When black moved his king to 6h while developing his boat castle, white moved B-1c to make a quick check and try to secure the 2d square at the same time. This is an amateur move, but it's occurred against me while playing on PlayOK. In this situation, you should always follow by playing P-1e, putting pressure on the bishop's head. If white follows with Px1e, then Lx1e attacking the bishop's head. White can't drop anything to defend, so he has to play B-2b (in order to defend the lance and be able to move to 3c to defend 2d). At that point, black should play P*1b. If white responds with Lx1b, then Lx1b+ and you can capture his knight as well. If he responds with P*1c, then the following move line can occur:

1. Px1a+ 2. Bx1a
3. Lx1c+ 4. Nx1c
5. P*1d

This way, white's knight is captured and black is now up in material. This was a very amateur example but I hope it will help any beginners who might be reading.