Shogi glossary
Tokin
Japanese: と金
In shogi, a tokin (と金) is a promoted pawn. It moves like a gold general, one square in six directions, but if it is captured it goes to the opponent's hand as an ordinary pawn.
A promoted pawn; moves like a gold but returns to the opponent as a mere pawn.
How it moves
Turned over, a pawn shows the character と and gains sideways, straight-back and diagonal-forward steps on top of its forward step. A pawn may promote on any move into or within the opponent's three ranks, and must promote on the last rank.
Why it is so strong
The tokin's real power is the price gap. It does the work of a gold, worth about 6, yet losing it costs only a pawn. If the defender spends a silver or gold to capture it, they get just a pawn back, so a tokin crawling toward the castle forces awkward choices. Tokin attacks look slow but are very hard to stop.
A tokin also does not count for the two-pawn rule. With a tokin on a file, you may still have an unpromoted pawn on that file or drop one there.
How to make one
The usual method is a dangling pawn: drop a pawn one step short of where it wants to go, then push it and promote next move. Another is a pawn push into the head of an enemy castle, capturing and promoting at the same time.
FAQ
Is a tokin the same as a gold?
It moves exactly like one, but a captured tokin becomes a pawn in the captor's hand, while a captured gold stays a gold. That makes the tokin the cheaper piece to throw at a castle.
Related
Terms:
Lessons: Promotion · Pawn Techniques: Dangling and Joining Pawns · The Boat Castle and Breaking Castles
I don't do defense. Hope you brought a castle!
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