The diagram shows the board and the initial position of the pieces. All pieces are of the same color. Sides are only distinguished by their direction. On the reverse side of each piece its promoted version is depicted. Players move - and must move - in turn. Black moves first.

General and forward Rook The General moves like the king in Chess. The forward Rook covers the rank and the forward file it occupies, as indicated. A forward rook promotes to a full Rook, indicated by a darker color.

Bishop and Knight The Bishop covers the two squares diagonally forward and the forward file it occupies, as indicated. The Knight covers the forward file it occupies and the two squares that are a knight's move away and adjacent to that file, as indicated. As in Shogi, the knight's move is a jump to the target-square, unaffected by intervening pieces.

Promotion Any piece except the king may promote if it ends its (non-drop) move inside the promotion-zone. The promotion-zone consists of the 3 farthest ranks from the player's point of view. Promotion is optional unless not doing so would leave the piece immobile. Thus a bishop, knight or pawn must be promoted if moved to the ninth rank. The bishop and the knight both promote to Gold. It is similar to Shogi's gold in that it covers the three squares in front and the two squares to the left and right. But Yari Shogi's gold also covers the whole backward file it occupies. A gold piece shows whether it is a promoted bishop or a promoted knight. Pawns promote to Silver. It is similar to Shogi's silver in that it covers the three squares in front. But instead of the 2 squares diagonally backward, Yari Shogi's silver covers the whole backward file. Thus silver too is much stronger than its counterpart in Shogi.

Drops

As in Shogi, captured pieces change sides, that is, a captured piece becomes the property of its captor. The piece is now 'in hand' and may be dropped conditionally onto a vacant square, at the cost of a turn. The conditions are:

• A piece must be dropped unpromoted.
• A drop may not render the piece immobile. Thus a bishop, knight or pawn may not be dropped on the back rank.
• A pawn may not be dropped on a file that already holds an unpromoted pawn of the same player. Thus 'double pawns', as known in Chess, are not possible in Yari Shogi.
• Pawns may like any piece drop mate. This is the only difference with Shogi pawns.