Setup
The board and the starting position
Before the pieces, get comfortable with the board itself — a plain 9×9 grid, read with a coordinate system that looks unusual at first and becomes second nature fast.
A 9×9 board, one color throughout
A shogi board (盤, ban) has 81 squares in a 9×9 grid. Unlike a chessboard, the squares aren't alternately colored — every square looks the same, so nothing on the board itself tells you where a piece can legally go. That information lives entirely in what each piece is, which is part of why the pieces are shaped and labeled the way they are.
Reading the coordinates
Every square is named by a file and a rank. Files are numbered 1 through 9, counted from the right side of the board as Sente (the first player) sees it. Ranks are numbered 1 through 9, counted from the far side of the board — Gote's home row — down to Sente's home row. A square is written file-then-rank, so "7g" (or 7六 in Japanese notation, using a kanji numeral for the rank) means file 7, rank 6.
It feels backward at first if you're used to chess's a–h/1–8 grid, but the logic is simple once it clicks: you're always reading the board from Sente's point of view, no matter which side you're playing.
Which piece belongs to whom
Shogi pieces are flat, five-sided wedges — every piece the same plain wood color, whichever side owns it. The point of the wedge faces the direction that player attacks toward. Sente's pieces point up the board (toward rank 1); Gote's point down (toward rank 9). Glance at which way a piece is "facing" and you know instantly who controls it.
The starting position
Every game begins from the same 40-piece setup, mirrored for both sides: a back row of eight pieces framing the king, a second row holding the rook and bishop, and a front row of nine pawns.
Sente (facing up) along the bottom, Gote (facing down) along the top.
Back row, file 1 to file 9
Lance, Knight, Silver General, Gold General, King, Gold General, Silver General, Knight, Lance — symmetric around the king at the center file.
Second row
The Rook and Bishop sit one row in front of the back row, diagonally opposite each other for Sente and Gote — that's why, on the diagram above, the two rooks and two bishops appear on opposite corners of the board rather than lined up with each other.
Front row
All nine files carry one pawn each, forming a solid wall in front of everything else.
Next, meet each piece individually and see exactly where it can move: continue to How Pieces Move.