Last updated on January 17th, 2026 at 08:11 am
Shogi Live – Strategy Game Review
Shogi Live is a Strategy/Board game from Japan Shogi Association, first launched in 11th October 2010.
It’s rated 4+ and currently has 27+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Shogi Live Stand Out
Anytime anywhere, you can watch the professional shogi games !
This is an official application brought by the Japan Shogi Association to watch live professional shogi games.
◆Subscription
・You need to monthly subscription to watch games.
・When you purchase the subscription for the first time, the user registration is necessary.
・You can watch free 30 moves of today's games.
◆Subscription Price：4.99 USD / month
◆Restoring：
You can restore the subscription by [Restoring] button. Please login iTunes by same Apple ID previously used.
◆View or Cancel of Subscription:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202039
① Go to Settings APP > [your name] > iTunes & App Store
② Tap your Apple ID.
③ Tap [View Apple ID]. You might need to sign in.
④ Tap [Subscriptions].
⑤ Tap the subscription that you want to manage.
◆Renew：
– Payment will be charged to iTunes Account at confirmation of purchase
– Subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current period
– Account will be charged for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period, and identify the cost of the renewal
– Subscriptions may be managed by the user and auto-renewal may be turned off by going to the user's Account Settings after purchase
◆Cautions：
・You can not cancel by other methods.
・You can not cancel currently month.
・You will be charged by iTunes account.
◆Any unused portion of a free trial period, if offered, will be forfeited when the user purchases a subscription to that publication, where applicable.
◆Privacy policy and Terms of Use:
https://www.shogi.or.jp/mobile/privacy.html
https://www.shogi.or.jp/mobile/terms.html
- Player, Tournament, comments in games, blog, columns, tumeshogi, shogi news are in Japanese.
Features:
- You can watch live professional official games almost every weekday.
The relayed games are usually one or a few for a day. - You can replay all games relayed in the past six months at any time.
- You can search a specific game by tournament, players, and day.
- Live blog
- Columns
- Daily Tsumeshogi (Free)
- Shogi news in Japanese (Free)
This Strategy game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Shogi Live is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 5th November 2025
Recent improvements include:
- Fixed an issue where the confirmation and cancellation buttons were unresponsive.
- Upon purchase, the following will be displayed: "Once your free trial ends, payment for the next subscription period will begin automatically."
Download & Availability
Shogi Live is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
Its the only easily accessible way we know of to watch Shogi games. Unfortunately, we cant read Japanese so Im not able to understand the comments for the moves which is a bummer but its still nice to watch how the professionals play.
Great App. If you could provide Game Commentary in English, we would GLADLY pay A LOT more money for the monthly subscription. AND, you would precipitate an avalanche of Shogi interest in the West. Guaranteed.
This app is really cool, and worth the $5/month subscription to stay up to date with all the shogi professional games. But one thing that is missing is a Google translate option to automatically translate the commentary to English or other languages, like on the Japanese Shogi Association website. The biggest thing missing as an American who's into shogi isn't how to navigate the app, it's that most information is presented in Japanese well beyond our ability.
Even if you can't read Japanese (we can't), this app is a great buy for the archived kifus and the daily tsume problems, available on the go. The fact that you can watch games in real time is a nice extra, but we imagine most games start and finish while we're asleep. Thank you to the JSA for putting this app on the English app store.
This is a decent app. It says free, but in order to make use of its main feature, you must pay a subscription which is very reasonable, only about a dollar a month. It is easy to go through games, but we would suggest that there be a way to move pieces freely in order to follow the analysis and variations more easily. It would also be good to be able to export the game score and notes so that you can also use it on a program like BCM Shogi so that you can add your own notes to it later on.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 8.52
- Size: 131.29 MB
- iOS: 12.0 or later
- Languages: EN, JA
- Content Advisory:
- Developer: [Japan Shogi Association]()
Last updated: 5th November 2025 | Genre: Strategy, Board | Developer: Japan Shogi Association