YMI Wooden Shogi Japanese Chess Set with Paper Board

I had previously bought a shogi board that was magnetic for easy play. But I was slight disappointed that the pieces were not traditionally wooden and the board was smaller than expected. Since the game set was met for travelling use, it makes sense, but I prefer the regular size. This shogi set made up for it. The pieces were made of wood and the perfect size for me so I can read the characters better, and I can play the boardgame mat on top of my Go boardgame. Makes everything better.

I've been wanting a shogi set for a while so when I saw these, I snapped them up. I don't know enough about the traditional sets to know if they're regulation or not but they're light and they feel nice. It comes in a really sturdy box for storage and a zip top bag for the pieces. The included pamphlet has some general information like the rules for how each piece moves and general game play. The paper gameboard to get started is even a nice touch. I'm pretty happy with it.

I just started getting into the game of Shogi and with the lack of quality online interfaces for studying/playing, I opted to get my own set. Even though I'm new to the game, I really wanted to avoid the cheap, low quality magnetic and plastic sets while also not breaking the bank. I bought this wooden folding board (see my review for that board as well) which didn't come with pieces thus necessitating the need for a piece set. Shogi pieces (known as "Koma" in Japan) like Shogi boards are hard to find outside of Japan due to the level of craftsmanship required to make them combined with the relative obscurity of Shogi in the western world. Most good, wooden piece sets are available only through importing from Japan which can be costly and time-consuming (delivery times are usually weeks if you don't want to pay 2-3 times the set price in shipping costs). Due to these factors, my initial plan was to get this cheap, $12 set of wooden pieces while I wait for a nicer set to be imported from Japan. Upon getting this delivered, however, I canceled my other order because these pieces are actually a decent quality for the price. Given that I'm relatively new to studying this game, it wouldn't make sense to really go all-in on a nicer set anyways. The wooden pieces are a good weight with a solid, authentic feel to them. The calligraphy is decent, however, I'm not a huge fan of how the characters extend all the way to sides of the piece. Generally, the characters are supposed to be fully contained within the piece and have some padding from the edges. The King piece featured in the product picture is a good example of what I'm referring too. The pieces utilize the 2-character format for their names. These Chinese characters (not Japanse) are heavily stylized and written in cursive. This gives the set a very authentic feel but can be hard to decipher for newer players. Even so, most casual players tend to prefer the simpler 1-character variations that use only the top half character and aren't as stylized. So if you're buying this as a beginner or for someone else who is a beginner, do be aware of this prior to making this purchase as it may take some getting used too. TL;DR Pros: - Cheapest wooden pieces that are widely available - Solid wood feel - Decent caligraphy for the price Cons: - Some characters are too big for the piece and extend to the sides - Slight ink bleed on some characters which makes them look sort of "fuzzy" - Uses a complicated character set which isn't beginner/westerner friendly

Amazing game and great starter set! The paper board it great for travel but not very durable. The pieces are excellent. I bought this for my boyfriend as a birthday present. He has an app he’s played it on and I had never played. After playing several times we’ve invested in a more expensive board. This is also great for children and teaching how to play. You can always use a piece of glass and set it over top of the paper board. Overall extremely happy with my purchase and was an amazing gift to give my boyfriend. Personally I find shogi is more fun to play than chess!

Whole set is smaller than it looks, and the box art is completely deceptive. The "board" itself is printed on paper, so if you were hoping for a solid board, look elsewhere. The pieces are not bad; they're wood and the print quality is okay, but I somehow ended up with two extra pieces, so I don't know if that's a standard thing or just shoddy QC.

I bought these pieces so i could teach my brother how to play shogi, and i was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the pieces. For the price these can't be beaten for a beginner set, the only problem i had was the paper board. The pieces all look great and feel sturdy, and they have red writing for the promoted side, so its very easy to tell which pieces are promoted with just a glance, and it also speeds up the process of setting the game up. Overall it's a great set of pieces, the only problem is the paper board, but for the price this set can't be beat.

It looks like wood but too light and smell like MDF. The ink was smudge on the other side and had a dent. I paied $23 with tax, 30% less now in the day I received the delivery. I will refund this right away. very disappointed. made in china by the way...

The wooden pieces are nicely made for the price. The characters are printed on, not incised. The "board" is folded paper. I plan to flatten it out and have it laminated, as I did with my xiangqi paper board. Laminating a paper board makes it much more pleasant to play on. I've had a western-style shogi set for decades, and decided I wanted to learn to recognize the Japanese characters. It only took me a few hours and some imagination (the Gold General is wearing a pointy hat, etc.) to do so, partly because I had previously made the effort with the Chinse xiangqi set, and some of the characters are very similar. The more valuable pieces are larger; there are three sizes, which also helps with recognition.

Estoy satisfecho con las fichas. Es muy dificil o raro encontrar fichas de shogi en México. Sobre la calidad no tengo punto de comparación, pero puedo decir que se sienten bien al tacto y el grabado en las fichas se ve como en las fotos, muy bonitas. Puse una de las fichas a lado de una dama de ajedrez de medida oficial, para la comparativa de tamaño. Lo único malo, es que el tablero que trae es de papel (muy arrugado por cierto) pero por el precio no me quejo. Yo terminé haciendo uno con una tabla que tenía de triplay y un plumón.

Forse l'ho già recensito ma confermo la sufficiente buona qualità dei pezzi. Non è un set da "vetrina", ci si gioca e ci si diverte senza il rischio di rovinare tessere di "culto". Per bambini o semplici curiosi è perfetto. Per la scacchiera avrei incluso altro al posto del fogliaccio di carta ma capisco il contenimento dei prezzi.

Sehr schnelle Lieferung und alles enthalten! Derne wieder👍

Lovely gift for my Japanese culture obsessed brother. He has loves learning how to play and it was a good set for him to start learning on.

Très bien.