Each player sets up his pieces facing his opponent.

In the rank nearest the player he places:
The king is placed in the center file.
The two gold generals are placed in the adjacent files to the king.
The two silver generals are placed adjacent to each gold general.
The two knights are placed adjacent to each silver general.
The two lances are placed in the corners, adjacent to each knight.
That is, the first rank is |L|N|S|G|K|G|S|N|L|.

In the second rank, each player places:
The bishop in the same file as the left knight.
The rook in the same file as the right knight.
In the third rank, the nine pawns are placed one to each file.
Traditionally, even the order of placing the pieces on the board is determined. There are two recognized orders, ohashi and ito.[illustration 1]

The players alternate taking turns, with Black (the side containing the Jeweled General) playing first. The terms "Black" and "White" are used to differentiate the two sides, but there is no actual difference in the color of the pieces. For each turn a player may either move a piece which is already on the board (and potentially promote it, capture an opposing piece, or both) or else "drop" a piece that has already been captured onto an empty square of the board. These options are detailed below.

Professional games are timed as in International Chess, but professionals are never expected to keep time in their games. Instead a timekeeper is assigned, typically an apprentice professional. Time limits are much longer than in International Chess (9 hours a side plus extra time in the prestigious Meijin title match), and in addition by?yomi (literally "second counting") is employed. This means that when the ordinary time has run out, the player will from that point on have a certain amount of time to complete every move (a by?yomi period), typically upwards of one minute. The final ten seconds are counted down, and if the time expires the player to move loses the game immediately. Amateurs often play with electronic clocks that beep out the final ten seconds of a by?yomi period, with a prolonged beep for the last five.

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