User Guide
Find the features and instructions you need
Setup & Appearance
Piece Styles
40 styles in all, including tiger grain, Sengoku Kanji, chess-inspired, and alphabet pieces.
Learn more →Game Appearance
Combine pieces, board, background, piece stands, and player cards freely from samples.
Learn more →Application Font
Change the font of menus, game records, logs, and dialogs at once, with a live preview.
Learn more →Dock Panels
Arrange the record, thinking, graph, and other panels freely and save your layout.
Learn more →Menu Panel
Reach commands quickly from an icon menu panel, and register your favorites.
Learn more →Piece Sound
Turn the move sound on or off and adjust its volume, pitch, and tone.
Learn more →Language Support
Japanese, English, and Chinese (Simplified or Traditional) interfaces, switchable from Settings → Language.
Learn more →Cross-Platform Support
Built with Qt 6 for Linux, macOS, and Windows.
Learn more →Reset Settings & Settings File
How to reset all settings, including registered engines, and where ShogiBoardQ.ini is stored on each OS.
Playing
Playing Games
Human vs. engine, engine vs. engine, or human vs. human, with handicaps, clocks, opening books for engines, engine series, and resumable games.
Learn more →Time Control and Clocks
Main time, byoyomi, and per-move increment, how to read the clocks, unlimited-time games, and low-time warning colors.
Learn more →Hayanagi Shogi Engine
A USI engine developed alongside ShogiBoardQ for play and analysis. It also defends in Tsume Shogi Play.
Learn more →CSA Network Play
Connect to CSA-protocol servers such as floodgate, including over TLS, and play as a human or with an engine.
Learn more →Entering King Declaration
Count jishogi points and check declarations under the 24-point and 27-point rules.
Learn more →Records & Positions
Game Record Display
View moves, times, bookmarks, comments, and variations. Records and coordinates can use Western notation.
Learn more →Branch Tree
List the main line and variations, promote or delete them, and keep moves played on the board as variations.
Learn more →Game Record Management
Load and save KIF, KI2, CSA, JKF, USI, SFEN, and USEN, copy or paste via the clipboard, and edit game info.
Learn more →Board Editing
Arrange pieces freely with the piece box, then start a game or analysis from that position.
Learn more →Image Export
Save or copy the board and the evaluation graph as images.
Learn more →Study & Analysis
Consideration Mode
Let an engine study any position, compare several lines with arrows, and replay each line on a separate board.
Learn more →Game Analysis
Analyze a whole game and follow each move's score on the evaluation graph.
Learn more →Opening Books
Show YaneuraOu-format book moves in a table and as board arrows, let engines play from the book, and build books from board moves, engine lines, and game records.
Learn more →SFEN Collection Viewer
Browse SFEN position collections on a board and import a position into the main window.
Learn more →Tsume Shogi
Tsume Shogi Play
Choose a puzzle, solve it on the board, and review your history and the solution.
Learn more →Mate Search
Search for a mate with a USI engine and show the mating line.
Learn more →Tsume Shogi Generator
Generate puzzles that match your conditions in the GUI or CLI, check them for alternative mates, and save them.
Learn more →Build from Source
Linux Build and Release
Build from source, and create and publish the AppImage and release ZIP
Learn more →Windows Build and Release
Build with MSVC, and create and publish the release ZIP
Learn more →macOS Build and Release
Build, and create and publish the release ZIP that contains the DMG
Learn more →