Getting Started with Shogi365: Your First Tsume Shogi Puzzle

A tsume shogi book works like this. You look at the diagram, you think, and then you turn to the back and read the answer. Most of the learning happens in the thinking, and most of the disappointment happens in the back of the book, when you find out you were wrong about the second move and had no way of knowing. Shogi365 removes the back of the book. You play the moves, and the board tells you. This post walks through the first ten minutes.

What Is Shogi365?

Shogi365 is a daily tsume shogi app for iPhone and iPad. Tsume shogi is the checkmate puzzle of Japanese chess: every move by the attacker must be a check, and the king must be mated in exactly the number of moves given. The app holds 4,000 puzzles, 1,000 each at mate in 3, 5, 7 and 9. It works offline, needs no account, and has no ranking.

Step 1: Read the Four Pages of How to Play

On the home screen there is a HOW TO PLAY button. It is four short pages, and I would read them even if you already play shogi, because they explain what this particular board will and will not let you do.

The short version: every move you make must give check. The pieces below the board are yours to drop. The defender holds every other piece and may drop them to block. Drop pawn mate is illegal, two pawns may never share a file, and pieces entering the top three ranks may promote. You tap a piece, then its destination.

If you are completely new to shogi, those four pages are not a full course in how the pieces move. A mate in 3 is still a fine place to learn that, but expect a few moves to be refused while you work out what a silver can and cannot do.

Step 2: Start at Mate in 3

Tap NEW PUZZLE and you choose a difficulty. Easy is mate in 3, Medium is mate in 5, Hard is mate in 7, and Expert is mate in 9.

Start with Easy, even if you are a club player. Mate in 3 is where you learn how the app behaves, and it is quicker to learn that on a short puzzle. Moving up is a tap away whenever you want it.

Step 3: Play the Check You Believe In

Here is the part that is different from a book. The board only lets you play checks, but it lets you play any check, right or wrong. It will not stop you from making a mistake.

After your move the defender thinks for a moment and answers. While your line still forces mate, the king resists as well as it can. Once your line no longer forces mate, the king escapes. So a wrong idea does not produce a red cross. It produces a king walking out of the net, which is exactly what would happen in a real game.

If a line runs out without mate, the puzzle fails and you can retry it from the start, up to three times. When the retries are used up, you can watch an ad to refund them. I think three tries are usually enough, because the failure itself shows you where the king got out.

Step 4: Use a Hint Without Giving Up the Move

Stuck on a move is different from stuck on a puzzle. For the first kind, press HINT. The piece you should move and the square it should go to blink on the board. You still make the move yourself.

You start with ten hints. You earn another each time you solve the daily challenge, so they are worth spending with a little care. A hint on the last move of a mate in 3 teaches you very little. A hint on the first move of a mate in 7, after you have really tried, often shows you an idea you had not considered.

Step 5: Solve the Daily Challenge

The home screen has a DAILY CHALLENGE card. Everyone in the world gets the same puzzle on the same day. The date is counted in UTC, so in Japan the new puzzle arrives at 9 in the morning, not at midnight.

The difficulty of the daily puzzle is picked for you from Easy, Medium and Hard. It is never Expert, because a puzzle meant for everyone should not take an hour. Solve it and your streak grows, and the home screen shows your last seven days. Solving it also earns you one hint.

Step 6: Set the Board Up the Way You Like It

Settings has a few choices worth a look on the first day.

Piece faces. Two characters (歩兵) or one (歩). Two characters are easier while you are learning which piece is which. One character is what most printed tsume shogi books and real sets use.

Show legal moves. When on, the squares a selected piece can move to or be dropped on are marked. It helps beginners. Some experienced players prefer it off, since reading the board yourself is part of the exercise.

Ask before promoting. When both promoting and not promoting are legal, the app asks. If you turn it off, the piece always promotes. Tsume shogi sometimes turns on a non-promotion, so I would leave this on.

There is also a light and dark theme, or you can follow the system setting.

What to Expect in the First Week

The stats screen shows, for each difficulty, how many puzzles you have solved, your best time and your average time. In the first week the numbers will be modest, and that is fine. A good first week is a streak of daily puzzles and a few Easy puzzles on top.

If a puzzle is interrupted, the app remembers it, and CONTINUE takes you back to the same position.

Where to Go Next

Once the first puzzle is behind you, see how it compares with other ways to practise tsume shogi, pick up practical tips for daily use, or see who the app is for. All related posts are collected under the Shogi365 tag.

Today’s puzzle is waiting, and it is the same one everyone else is looking at.