Two players, Sente ?? (Black) and Gote ?? (White), play on a board composed of rectangles in a grid of 9 ranks (rows) by 9 files (columns). The rectangles are undifferentiated by marking or colour. The board is almost always made of rectangles; square boards are very uncommon.

Each player has a set of 20 wedge-shaped pieces of slightly different sizes. Except for the kings, opposing pieces are differentiated only by orientation, not by marking or color. From largest to smallest (most to least powerful), the pieces are:

1 king
1 rook
1 bishop
2 gold generals
2 silver generals
2 knights
2 lances
9 pawns