Shogi

Shogi, sometimes called Japanese chess, is a two player strategy board game played on a nine by nine grid. Like Western chess it is a member of the wider chaturanga family of games, but it is sharply distinguished from chess and most other regional relatives by its drop rule: a piece captured from an opponent is not removed from play but is held by the capturing player and may later be dropped back onto the board as that player own piece, which makes shogi games markedly less prone to ending in material stalemate than chess. Surviving textual references to shogi in Japan date to around the sixteenth century, and archaeological finds, including a cache of shogi pieces unearthed at Kofuku-ji temple in 1993 and dated to around the eleventh century, point to an earlier and less standardized proto-shogi already in play. Organized professional shogi in Japan today is coordinated by the Japan Shogi Association.