Promotion
A player's promotion zone is the far third of the board, the three ranks occupied by the opposing pieces at setup. If a piece moves across the board and part of that path lies within the promotion zone, that is, if it moves into, out of, or wholly within the zone, but not if it is dropped (see below), then that player may choose to promote the piece at the end of the turn. Promotion is indicated by turning the piece over after it moves, revealing the character for the promoted rank.
If a pawn or lance reaches the far rank or a knight reaches either of the two farthest ranks, it must promote, as it would otherwise have no legal move on subsequent turns. A silver general never needs to promote, and it is often advantageous to keep a silver general unpromoted; it is easier, for example, to extract an unpromoted silver from behind enemy lines, whereas a promoted silver, with only one line of retreat, can be easily blocked.
| 歩 | 歩 | 歩 | 歩 | 歩 | 歩 | 歩 | 歩 | 歩 |
| 角 | 飛 | |||||||
| 香 | 桂 | 銀 | 金 | 玉 | 金 | 銀 | 桂 | 香 |
When captured, pieces lose their promoted status. Otherwise promotion is permanent.
Promoting a piece has the effect of changing how that piece moves. Each piece promotes as follows:
- A silver general, knight, lance, or pawn replaces its normal power of movement with the power of a gold general.
- A rook or bishop keeps its original power of movement and gains the power to move one square in any direction, like a king. This means that a promoted bishop is able to reach any square on the board, given enough moves.
- A king or a gold general cannot promote, nor can pieces which are already promoted.
Read more about this topic: Shogi
Famous quotes containing the word promotion:
“Parents can fail to cheer your successes as wildly as you expected, pointing out that you are sharing your Nobel Prize with a couple of other people, or that your Oscar was for supporting actress, not really for a starring role. More subtly, they can cheer your successes too wildly, forcing you into the awkward realization that your achievement of merely graduating or getting the promotion did not warrant the fireworks and brass band.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)
“I am asked if I would not be gratified if my friends would procure me promotion to a brigadier-generalship. My feeling is that I would rather be one of the good colonels than one of the poor generals. The colonel of a regiment has one of the most agreeable positions in the service, and one of the most useful. “A good colonel makes a good regiment,” is an axiom.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)