Strategy Gaming Course / Week 1
Week 1, Tuesday
Foundations of strategy and tactical calculation
Chess strips strategy down to its most essential form. No dice, no hidden cards, no other players. Two minds, one board, and the same information available to both sides.
Today we cover the pieces and how they move, then the strategic vocabulary used throughout this course. We close by walking through one of the most famous games ever played. The rest of the week: play.
The pieces
Each piece moves differently — and that difference is the whole game.
♙ Pawn value: 1
Moves forward only, captures diagonally. Humble but can promote to any piece upon reaching the far end.
♖ Rook value: 5
Slides any number of squares horizontally or vertically. Deadly on open files and in the endgame.
♘ Knight value: 3
The only piece that can jump over others. Moves in an L-shape: two squares one way, one the other.
♗ Bishop value: 3
Slides diagonally any number of squares. Always stays on one colour. Powerful in open positions.
♕ Queen value: 9
Combines the rook and bishop. The most powerful piece — but overusing it early is a classic mistake.
♔ King value: priceless
One square in any direction. The game ends when the king is trapped. Passive early, crucial in the endgame.
Topic: tactics
The building blocks of calculation
Fork
One piece attacks two opponent pieces at once. The opponent can only save one.
Pin
A piece cannot move because doing so would expose something more valuable behind it.
Skewer
The reverse of a pin. The valuable piece is attacked and must move, exposing what is behind it.
Discovered attack
Moving one piece out of the way unleashes a hidden attacker behind it.
Topic: strategy
When being forced to move is a disadvantage
Zugzwang is the situation where any move a player makes worsens their own position. They would rather pass and do nothing — but the rules require a move. It appears most often in endgames, where the position is so finely balanced that touching any piece tips it into defeat.
This concept illustrates something profound: in strategy, doing nothing is sometimes the optimal move. The obligation to act can itself be a liability.
Real-world parallel: in negotiation, the side that needs to respond first is often at a structural disadvantage regardless of their actual position. Whoever speaks next loses. That is zugzwang.
You will see it in the Opera Game on the next slides — Fischer noted that by move 9, Black was "in what's like a zugzwang position." Every piece it could move made things worse.
Topic: strategy
Each phase has its own strategic logic
Control the centre, develop pieces, castle early. The goal is to reach a good middlegame, not to win immediately.
Identify weaknesses, coordinate pieces, create imbalances. This is where most games are decided. Plans matter more than individual moves.
The king becomes an active piece. Pawn promotion becomes central. Technique and precision matter more than creativity.
Topic: vocabulary
The language used throughout this course
Initiative
Being the one who sets the agenda
Tempo
A unit of time; the cost of a wasted move
Sacrifice
Giving up material for a positional gain
Compensation
What you gain to justify what you gave up
Imbalance
A structural difference between two positions
Prophylaxis
Preventing the opponent's plan before it starts
Historic game
Game 2, May 4, New York. Every move annotated.
Explore more
Each one introduced an opening still played today.
Practice
Apply what you have learned. Click a piece, then click where to move it.
Tuesday summary
The rest of the week: play.
Six pieces, six logics
Pawn, rook, knight, bishop, queen, king. Each moves differently. Learning those differences is the foundation of everything that follows.
Tactics and phases
Forks, pins, skewers, discovered attacks. Opening: develop and castle. Middlegame: plan and execute. Endgame: activate the king.
Zugzwang
Sometimes doing nothing is the optimal move. The obligation to act can be a liability — in chess and in real strategic decision-making.
Deep Blue vs Kasparov
The game was won not with tactics but with patient positional pressure over 45 moves. Strategy, not calculation, decided it.
Play as many games as you can this week. After each one, identify one decision that changed the game. Next week: Shogi — same DNA as chess, but one rule changes everything.
Strategy Gaming Course / Week 2
Week 2, Tuesday
Same skeleton as Chess — completely different logic
Shogi and Chess share almost identical DNA — a grid, pieces with different movement rules, perfect information, no luck. But one rule in Shogi rewrites the entire strategic universe: captured pieces come back. When you capture an opponent's piece, you keep it and can drop it back onto the board as your own at any time.
Today we learn the pieces, understand what the drop rule means for strategy, and walk through key concepts. The rest of the week: play.
The pieces
Every piece except the King and Gold can flip to a stronger form in the promotion zone.
王 King
One square in any direction. Game ends when checkmated. Cannot promote.
金 Gold General
One square in any direction except diagonally backward. Cannot promote — but all promotions become Gold.
銀 Silver General
One square diagonally or one square straight forward. Promotes to Gold movement.
桂 Knight
Two squares forward, one sideways — can jump. Cannot move backward. Promotes to Gold.
香 Lance
Any number of squares straight forward only. Promotes to Gold.
歩 Pawn
One square forward only. Promotes to Tokin (Gold). One pawn per file.
飛 Rook
Any number of squares horizontally or vertically. Promotes to Dragon King — adds one diagonal step.
角 Bishop
Any number of squares diagonally. Promotes to Dragon Horse — adds one orthogonal step.
Core rule
The one rule that changes everything
When you capture an opponent's piece in Shogi, you keep it in your hand. On any future turn, instead of moving a piece on the board, you can drop a piece from your hand onto any empty square as your own — ready to move immediately.
No material disappears
Capturing a rook does not remove it — it just changes hands. Material advantage is always temporary.
Attacks are sudden
A piece in hand can appear anywhere on the board in one move. Threats materialise with no warning.
Defence is dynamic
You can drop a piece to block a check, fill a gap in your castle, or launch an unexpected counter-attack.
Draws are almost impossible
Both sides always have pieces available to drop. Fewer than 1% of professional games end in draws.
Drop restrictions: you cannot drop a pawn to give immediate checkmate, cannot drop a pawn on a file where you already have an unpromoted pawn, and cannot drop a piece where it would have no legal move.
Core rule
Two structural concepts unique to Shogi
The three rows furthest from a player. When any piece (except King and Gold) moves into, out of, or within this zone, the player may promote it. Pawns, lances, and knights must promote if they would otherwise have no legal move.
Compact defensive formations of golds and silvers around the king, usually in a corner. Common castles include the Mino Castle and the Yagura. The opening phase is almost entirely devoted to building your castle while positioning for attack simultaneously.
Sente means "having the move" — the initiative. Gote means "responding." Unlike Chess where White always moves first, sente in Shogi shifts back and forth. Maintaining sente while building your castle is the central tension of the opening.
Strategic concepts
The strategic lessons that carry into the rest of the course
Drop
Placing a captured piece back onto the board as your own
Tsume
Checkmate — the forced sequence that ends the game
Sente
Having the initiative; forcing the opponent to respond
Tokin
A promoted pawn — cheap to obtain, powerful in attack
Castle
A defensive king formation built in the opening
Sabaki
Freeing cramped pieces through exchanges — piece flow
Tesuji
A skilled tactical move — the right move in a given position
Hand
Pieces captured and held ready to drop back into play
The core lesson: rules shape strategy completely. Chess and Shogi share almost identical DNA, but the drop rule produces a fundamentally different game. One rule change cascades into an entirely different strategic universe.
Tuesday summary
The rest of the week: play Shogi.
Eight pieces, six promotions
King, Gold, Silver, Knight, Lance, Pawn, Rook, Bishop. All except King and Gold can promote. All promotions except Rook and Bishop become Gold movement.
The drop rule
Captured pieces return as your own. No material ever disappears. Attacks can appear anywhere with no warning. Draws are nearly impossible.
Castles and sente
Build a castle to protect the king. Fight for sente. The opening is a race to castle safely while positioning for attack.
The strategic lesson
One rule change — drops — produces a completely different game. This is the course's first demonstration that rules shape strategy entirely.
Play Shogi this week on 81dojo.com — free, browser-based, and shows piece movement on hover. Next week: Go. The biggest mental shift of the course.