Six piece handicap (Gote removes Rook, Bishop, both Lances, and both Knights) is an enormous handicap, roughly comparable to Queen odds in chess. Although officially the Shogi Renmei considers it only one step above four piece handicap, in reality the difference is immense.

According to the late Nada Rensho (9 Dan), once challenger for the Meijin title (grand champion) and the leading authority on high handicap Shogi, it is nearly twice as large a handicap as four piece. This is only a slight exaggeration in my opinion, yet in actual practice strong amateur kyu players often lose to pros at six piece.

There are two reasons for this. First of all, many amateurs don't know or don't use the Josekis, (the recommended openings) for the handicap. They play a normal game, in which Gote's weaknesses on the edge play little role. The game starts to resemble a two piece game (Rook and Bishop handicap only), and since the players are not of the strength (about 2 dan) needed to win with that handicap, they end up losing. The second reason is that most of the published lines for six handicap are really five-piece handicap openings, in that they attack only one edge or the other, so players who use these lines are still not getting the full value of the handicap.