Shogi is a game played between two players. They are called the Black player and the White player.

Black
Black is the player that goes first in shogi. In Japanese it is known as 先手 (sente), which means "preceding move." When viewing a game in books, on TV, or online, the board is always positioned from black's viewpoint.

White
White is the player who goes second in shogi. In Japanese it is known as 後手 (gote), which means "latter move."

How to choose who plays Black
When playing just for fun it doesn't matter how to choose who plays black. Traditionally, though, a technique called Furigoma (振り駒) is used. Furigoma means "piece toss," also called Pawn Toss, where the superior player tosses 5 pawns like dice. If more Pawn sides land face up, the person who tossed them plays Black. If more promoted sides land face up, the other player plays Black.


Performing furigoma outside the board.

About names Black and White
A chess player might be confused as to why Sente is Black and Gote is White. In Japanese shogi books, the player is designated by a colored shogi piece - Sente is shown as a black piece and Gote is shown as a white piece. This system most likely came from Igo, in which the first player uses the black stones and the second player uses the white stones.


An example of a Japanese book, Better Moves for Better Shogi by Aono Teruichi.

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