Handicaps

Games between players of disparate strength are often played with handicaps. In a handicap game, one or more of White's pieces is removed before the start of play, and White plays the first move of the game. Note that the pieces removed at the beginning play no further part in the game - they are not available for drops. The imbalance created by this method of handicapping is not as strong as it is in chess, because material advantage is not as powerful in shogi as in chess.

Common handicaps, in increasing order of size, are as follows:

• Lance: remove White's left lance
• Bishop: remove White's bishop
• Rook: remove White's rook
• Rook and lance: remove White's rook and left lance
• Two pieces: remove White's rook and bishop
• Four pieces: remove White's rook, bishop and both lances
• Six pieces: remove White's rook, bishop, both lances and both knights

Other handicaps are also occasionally used. The relationship between handicaps and differences in rank is not universally agreed upon; several different systems are in use.