TENDO, Yamagata Prefecture--Shogi prodigy Sota Fujii proved that his mastery over the Japanese board game extends even when the pieces become life-size and he's dressed up as a warlord. The 19 ...

The simplified version is played with a set of pieces that ... a popular anime work. “I developed this game simply in the hopes that it will serve as a gateway to shogi,” Kitao said.

Shogi, a 20-piece board game popular in Japan, is similar to chess as two players alternate in moving one piece at a time to checkmate the opponent’s king. But unlike chess, players can reuse ...