Tsume Shogi vs Chess Mate Puzzles: Rules, Solving and Practice
Hiroki Obara Ā· Developer
I make two puzzle apps: Shogi365 for tsume shogi, the Japanese mating problems, and Chess365 for chess mate puzzles. Shogi365 runs from 3-move to 9-move tsume, and Chess365 from mate in 2 to mate in 5, each with 1,000 puzzles per level and 4,000 in total.
Both are āmate the kingā puzzles, and the screens and the habit features are shared. The rules of the puzzles themselves, though, are further apart than the boards and pieces. In this post I go through the differences one at a time.
Counting moves
The first thing that trips people up is the move count. Tsume shogi counts both sidesā moves. A 3-move tsume is check, the defenderās reply, and mate: three moves. Chess counts only Whiteās moves. Mate in 2 is White, Black, then White mates, so White moves twice.
In other words, a 3-move tsume and a chess mate in 2 are the same length. Put the two appsā levels side by side and they line up exactly.
| Level | Shogi365 | Chess365 | Half-moves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Easy | 3-move tsume | Mate in 2 | 3 |
| Medium | 5-move tsume | Mate in 3 | 5 |
| Hard | 7-move tsume | Mate in 4 | 7 |
| Expert | 9-move tsume | Mate in 5 | 9 |
Neither app includes the shortest, one-move problems, which were judged too easy. If you solve both, remember that the shogi number is twice the chess number minus one, and you will not get confused.
Whether every move must be check
The second difference is a big one. In tsume shogi, every attacking move must be a check. The Japanese Wikipedia article on tsume shogi says the attacker mates the king with a continuous series of checks, and it names, as a difference from chess problems, that in chess the checks do not have to be continuous.
In chess mate puzzles, the answer is often a quiet move that gives no check. Here is a small example.
Position: White king on c6, white rook on h1. Black king on d8. White to move and mate in 2.
None of the immediate checks mates in two. The answer is Re1, which is not a check. The rook now closes the e-file, so the black king cannot go to e7 or e8, and the white king covers c7 and d7. Blackās only move is Kc8, and Re8 is mate. Black loses because that is the only move it has.
Under tsume shogi rules, this move could not be played. The difference shows up directly in how the apps are built. In Shogi365 you cannot play a move that is not a check; the board refuses it. In Chess365 you can play any legal move.
Pieces in hand and interpositions
Tsume shogi has pieces in hand. The attacker can drop pieces from hand to give check, and the defender is treated as holding every piece that is neither on the board nor in the attackerās hand, so it can drop any of them to block a check. Chess has no pieces in hand, so only pieces already on the board can step in between.
Several rules exist only in tsume shogi because of this. A block that the attacker simply captures back does not count toward the move total (muda-ai). When mate is reached, the attacker should have no pieces left in hand. And mating by dropping a pawn from hand (uchifuzume) is illegal. I wrote about these in Tsume shogiās finer rules and in the post on uchifuzume.
Promotion differs too. In shogi, a piece that can promote may choose to promote or not. In chess, a pawn that reaches the last rank must become another piece, and you choose a queen, rook, bishop or knight. In mate puzzles, promoting to something other than a queen is sometimes the answer.
Whether stalemate exists
Chess has stalemate: no legal move, but not in check. It is a draw. In a mate puzzle, turning a winning position into stalemate is a failure.
In tsume shogi, the attacker checks on every move, so this situation never arises. A quiet move like Re1 above works by taking away the opponentās moves, so it always lives next door to stalemate. This is a place where shogi players can stumble when they try chess mate puzzles. I wrote more in the stalemate post.
Rules about the position
Both care about a single correct answer. In tsume shogi, a second way to mate is called yozume. According to the English Wikipedia article on the chess problem, the first move of a chess problem, the key, must be unique, and a problem with two keys is called cooked and judged unsound. Both also share the idea that every piece on the board should have a job.
Where they part is whether the position could arise in a game. According to the same article, a chess problem position must be legal, meaning reachable from the starting array by legal moves. Tsume shogi has no such rule. A lone king in a corner with two or three attacking pieces is perfectly normal.
In Chess365, every position has White to move, neither side in check, and material that could occur in a real game. Shogi365 positions never have two pawns on a file or a piece with no legal move, but they do not try to look like a real game.
How solving differs
In tsume shogi the candidate moves are limited to checks, so you can start by listing every check. For a 3-move tsume, try each check in turn and answer it with every defender reply, and you will always reach the solution. Drops make the number of checks larger, but the search area is clear.
In chess, it is not over when every check fails. Captures, threats and quiet moves all become candidates. When no check works, you switch to looking for a move after which something breaks whatever Black plays. I wrote about this way of reading in Chess checkmate puzzles for beginners.
The defending side thinks in a similar way. In tsume shogi the defender picks the reply that lasts longest, and in a chess problem the line is only correct if it mates against any defence. In both Shogi365 and Chess365, as long as the line still mates, the defender answers with the reply that holds out longest.
What each does for your play
If someone asks which helps more in real games, the answer is that each helps in its own game. They help in slightly different ways.
In shogi, pieces in hand can be dropped, so an endgame that finishes with a straight run of checks is common in real games. The shapes you learn in tsume shogi tend to appear in your own endings as they are. I wrote about where tsume helps in Does tsume shogi make you stronger?.
In chess, captured pieces never come back, so many games are decided by material, and resigning long before mate is common. Even so, knowing mating patterns makes you notice weaknesses around the enemy king sooner. The feel for setting up mate with a quiet move is also close to how you build an attack in a game. I wrote about material in Chess piece values.
If you solve both
If you solve both, you can pair puzzles of the same length: 3-move tsume with mate in 2, 5-move tsume with mate in 3, and so on. You read the same number of moves, so neither feels much heavier than the other.
Then, when you switch, remind yourself of a few things. Going from shogi to chess: āmoves that are not checks are candidates too, and watch for stalemate.ā Going from chess to shogi: āevery move is a check, donāt forget drops, and the defender can block with any piece.ā Of all the differences above, these two matter most while you are actually solving.
Daily mate practice
Chess365 is a checkmate puzzle app with 1,000 puzzles each of mate in 2, 3, 4 and 5. You always play White, you can make any legal move, and Black answers with the most stubborn defence. You can play a move that stalemates Black, but that line counts as a failure and the app shows its own explanation. In every puzzle the shortest mate matches the stated length, the key move is unique, and no white piece is wasted.
For tsume shogi there is Shogi365, with 1,000 puzzles at each length from 3-move to 9-move tsume. A basic chess ending is in How to Checkmate with King and Rook.
