A king under attack is in check — ote 王手. The player in check must deal with it immediately, in one of three ways:
- move the king to a square that isn't attacked;
- capture the checking piece;
- block the check by putting a piece in between — by moving one, or by dropping one from your hand.
If none of those is possible, it is checkmate — tsumi 詰み — and the game is over.
The most common mate: gold on the head
A gold dropped directly in front of the king, protected by another piece, is the single most common checkmate in shogi — atama-kin 頭金, "gold on the head".
Check the escape squares one by one: d9 and f9 are covered by the gold's forward diagonals, d8 and f8 by its sideways moves, and e8 itself is protected by the pawn.
No stalemate
There is no stalemate in shogi. A player who has no legal move — rare, because a drop is nearly always possible — loses, whether or not they are in check.
Try it
Try it: Mate the king in one move.