Piececlopedia: Lance





Check out Makruk (Thai Chess), our featured variant for March, 2025.


The Piececlopedia is intended as a scholarly reference concerning the history and naming conventions of pieces used in Chess variants. But it is not a set of standards concerning what you must call pieces in newly invented games.

Piececlopedia: Lance

Historical notes

Public domain image of what a Lance typically looks like in a Japanese Shogi set
AI concept art of what the Lance could look like as a figurine piece.

The Lance, or Kyoosha, or Kyoo is a piece from Shogi, Japanese Chess. It also appears in some variants of Shogi. Its Japanese name of 香車 is transliterated as kyōsha and means incense chariot. Since it starts in the corners of the board in Shogi like the Chariot does in Chaturanga or Xiangqi, and it moves like the Chariot but in only one direction, it is probably based on the Chariot. The English name of Lance is not a translation but probably comes from it charging forward in one direction.


Movement

The Lance can only move one or more squares straight forward, without jumping, i.e., it can move like a Rook, but only in the forwards direction. In the diagram below, the lance can move to all the squares marked with a green circle.

Graphics

These feature both Kanji characters. The top one, , means incense, and the bottom one, , means chariot:

Koma Kinki
Koma Kinki Torafu
Koma Ryoko
Koma Ryoko Torafu

These feature just the Kanji character for incense, in what is known as abbreviated Kanji:

Koma Dirty
Japanese Chu Shogi
Japanese Shogi
Japanese Shogi Wood
Tenjiku Shogi

These feature an arrow, which represents the one-way direction of the piece:

Motif Shogi
Symbolic Shogi
Alfaerie PNG

These feature a movement diagram.

Lat Chu Shogi
Diagrammatic

Originally written by Hans Bodlaender.

Some new text and graphics added by Fergus Duniho, who is personally responsible for the Motif, Symbolic, Japanese Shogi, Japanese Shogi Wood, Diagrammatic, and AI graphics, as well as the new movement diagram. The Koma pieces were made by Koma-Shokunin 1, and they are used here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license. The Alfaerie image is by David Howe.


WWW page created: Aug 17, 2000. Last modified on: April 10, 2025.