Shogi (将棋, shōgi?, generals' chess) ( /ˈʃoʊɡiː/), also known as Japanese chess, is a two-player strategy board game in the same family as Western chess, chaturanga, and xiangqi, and is the most popular of a family of chess variants native to Japan. Shōgi means general's (shō 将) board game (gi 棋).
The earliest predecessor of the game, chaturanga, originated in India in the 6th century, and sometime in the 10th to 12th centuries Chinese chess, xiangqi, was brought to Japan where it spawned a number of variants. Shogi in its present form was played as early as the 16th century, while a direct ancestor without the "drop rule" was recorded from 1210 in a historical document Nichūreki, which is an edited copy of Shōchūreki and Kaichūreki from the late Heian period (c. 1120).
According to The Chess Variant Pages :
Perhaps the enduring popularity of Shogi can be attributed to its 'drop rule'; it was the first chess variant wherein captured pieces could be returned to the board to be used as one's own. David Pritchard credits the drop rule to the practice of 16th century mercenaries who switched loyalties when captured—no doubt as an alternative to execution.
Read more about Shogi: Game Equipment, Setup and Gameplay, Movement and Capture, Promotion, Drops, Checkmate and Winning The Game, Player Ranking and Handicaps, Game Notation, Strategy and Tactics, History, Tournament Play, Computer Shogi, Shogi Video Games