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I have discovered that most resources for shogi are in Japanese, and resources (including web sites and software) in English about shogi are hard to find. Here is a collection of essential links about shogi in English. It covers virtually every good shogi site and program that exists in English, and thus is a comprehensive and essential list of links. ------------------ RULES/INTRODUCTION http://homepages.ed.ac.uk/rjhare/shogi/intro.htm http://www.chessvariants.com/shogi.html http://www.ricoh.co.jp/SHOGI/rules/erules.html http://www.hollandnumerics.demon.co.uk/SHOGIRULE.HTM http://boardgames.about.com/library/weekly/aa090399.htm ------------------ STRATEGY http://www.shogi.net/nexus/ukekata/index.html (How to Defend in Shogi) http://www.shogi.net/kakugen/ (Shogi Proverbs) http://www.shogi.net/noda/quest-all.html http://www.geocities.co.jp/Playtown-King/7596/QuestKakuKawari01.htm (Book on Shogi Openings Part 1 & 2) ------------------ JAVA PLAYING ONLINE http://www.shogidojo.com/eng/engindex.htm (Shogi Club 24) http://www.javashogi.jp/~board-e/ (JavaShogi - need firewall off) http://games.yahoo.com/games/login2?page=shg (Yahoo) Very good and in English, but mostly deserted http://games.yahoo.co.jp/ (Japanese Yahoo server) Shogi PlayByEmail server http://www.gamerz.net/pbmserv/ ------------------ PLAYING SOFTWARE http://www.netspace.net.au/~trout/index.html (ShogiVariants) http://www.nexus.carleton.ca/~ttidman/WinShogi/index.html (WinShogi) http://www.zillionsofgames.com/games/index.html (Zillions variants - search for 'Shogi' on page) http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/pmturune/Shocky_e.html (Shocky) http://members.ozemail.com.au/~alpearce/sho.html (ShogiGold) http://www.cs.caltech.edu/~mvanier/hacking/gnushogi/gnushogi.html ftp://ftp.uni-passau.de/pub/local/shogi (GNUshogi for Unix) http://www.m-net.ne.jp/~sekita/english.html (Sekita Shogi) http://www.fu.is.saga-u.ac.jp/~grimberg/SHOGI/SPEAR/spearmain.html (Spear Ver.5) ------------------ DATABASE SOFTWARE http://www.ibridge.be/shogi/ (GNSB - GNU Shogi Database Project) http://foreninger.uio.no/shogi/shogiopening/ (ShogiOpening) ------------------ LINKS http://www.shogi.net/shogi.html http://www.ff.iij4u.or.jp/~jun1/shogi_link_e.html ------------------ DISCUSSIONS http://www.shogi.net/shogi-l.html (SHOGI-L mailing list) fa.shogi (newsgroup which mirrors SHOGI-L) ------------------ GAMES http://www.shogi.net/ladder/mygames.html (amateur) http://www.fu.is.saga-u.ac.jp/~grimberg/SHOGI/kifu.html (professional, annotated) ------------------ TSUME SHOGI (mating problems) http://www.ricoh.co.jp/SHOGI/emate/mate.html http://www.shogi.net/nexus/ladder/help.html ------------------ FEDERATIONS http://www.platz.jp/~tanase/csf/csf.html Canadian Shogi Federation
Since pieces never disapear from the game, in shogi the values are all positional. That is pieces in hand can be considered as just another position for the pieces to be. and that value is assessed for a position taking into account of the positions of all pieces including those in hand and whose turn it is. So in a sense it is more like go, only holistic evaluation can be done.
As the script stands right now, piece values are falling into approximately what Michael Howe suggests. Two Gold Generals have a value between the value of a Bishop and the value of a Rook. A Lance plus a Knight is worth around the same as a General, though Zillions values a Lance more than twice as much as a Knight. In a previous script, Zillions valued the Gold General almost as much as the Bishop, and the new script was able to beat it. But since the old script inflated its value with redundant code, it could have lost from having to use more processor time, rather than from valuing the Gold General too much. But in observing the game while mediating between two runs of Zillions, its overvaluing of the Gold General did seem to be a liability.
'Both Kings were on opposite sides of board...' I'm not a shogi player, but isn't that situation called 'jishogi' or 'impasse'? It is recognized that the game cannot end normally and the winner is determined by awarding points for material. I think it is also referred to as 'entering kings'.
Found the jishogi rule at http://www.ricoh.co.jp/SHOGI/rules/erules.html 'Both players have moved their King into the the promotion zone (or they cannot be prevented to do so) and the Kings cannot be checkmated. In that case the players may decide to count their pieces where the King does not count, the Rook and Bishop count as 5 points, and all other pieces as one point. Promotion is disregarded. If both players have at least 24 points the game is a draw ('Jishogi'). If a player has less, he loses the game. Of course, a player can refuse to count pieces when he still has mating chances or chances to gain material which would affect the outcome of the counting. There is no strict rule about what to do if this is not the case, but nonetheless a player refuses to count up (e.g. because he does not have enough points for a draw). It has been generally accepted that in such a case the game ends and the pieces are counted after one player has managed to get all his pieces protected in the promotion zone.'
I make go boards chungi sets and shogi sets and have found your site invaluable in helping me get clear on the finer points of the rules. I have been making the chungi for a while and have only just started making shogi sets and have not started to sell them yet. I only decided to make a shogi set after viewing your site. Like fergus Duniho I have tried to westerize the pieces for easier play, I had done a similar thing with my chungi. The almost 2 completed shogi sets have taken for ever to and i will probably have to put a fairly high price on them. I make them from maranti wood with a pacific maple board and am going to try and sell the three (go, chungi, shogi) on e bay. I sell a small number through game shops in melbourne australia but with their 100% mark up I dont sell them regularily and dont make much money. I would like to send you a picture of the shogi set i have almost finished if that is ok but it will take a bit longer. I also thought i had played the most exciting chess when i played chungi, but shogi is probably even better and just gets so dynamic towards the end as pieces are dropping in etc, i love it. I dont have a computer so please dont be offended if i do not reply for a while. Once again excellent site. Tori watson. watsontori@hotmail.com
Russian Shogi pages: 'Shogi In Russia' - http://www.shogi.sp.ru/; 'Byelorussian Shogi Assotiation' - http://shogi.at.tut.by/default.html download Cut-out shogi set(pieces, board) + english version; 'Assotiation Russian Shogi Players' - http://shogi-arsi.narod.ru/; 'Ukrainian Shogi Federation' - http://shogi.in.net.ua/ download cut-out shogi pieces; 'Vadim Filippov's Shogi Page' - http://www.go.hobby.ru/shogi/
Does anyone know, are there Zillions of Games saved-games files (*.zsg) of interesting, classic, instructive Shogi games available here or elsewhere on the net? Would this be a worthwhile project? It's hard (for me, at least) to see a list of Shogi game moves and follow it--especially since I have to work so hard to recognize the Japanese characters. This is my own problem, of course, but I wonder if others feel the same way, and if Zillions saved games provides a solution? Thanks.
Shogi is an entertaining game, indeed, but I lack a link to play this on the computer. It's hard finding people to play against on the other side of the planet, especially ones who speak or read japanese. And I'm too lazy to do that. Mendoukusai na, if you know what I mean. Do you have a link to an online version of shogi?
Many people who don't know Japanese have been using Game Courier to play Shogi online against other people. Besides some Japanese sets, Game Courier allows that option of a symbolic set that doesn't require any ability to recognize Japanese characters. Here is the link for Game Courier's Shogi preset: http://play.chessvariants.com/pbm/presets/shogi.html But be sure to visit the main Game Courier page before you get started: http://play.chessvariants.com/pbm/ For programs that will play Shogi, go here: http://www.shogi.net/shogi-soft-eqp.html
Roberto: I actually got it from my mother, who ordered a board and a set of wooden pieces from www.yutopian.com. It's not too bad of a set, although it's obviously not professional quality. To stay on topic: Do we have a resource that lists the original Japanese names (and English translations) of the pieces? This page doesn't.
Jared, please refer to 1.4) Pieces of Hans Geuns' Basic Shogi Vocabulary. http://www.shogi.net/shogivocab/ I would like to suggest this page should have a link to the above.
About the program Todai Shogi Hello, I have Todai Shogi program but all the menus are in Japanese. Anybody would have the intructions note (comment help) translated into English? Either can you advise me a means to understand the menus of this software? Pierre Jason
Thanks for the information! Manabu Terao, thank you also for the link. I have never heard of the Invisible Ink Composition, the moves of which for the shape of a letter or ideogram. Wonderful idea. That is one reason why investigation of chess variants is good for the mind. New ideas, different cultures, change of perspective. Thank you.
If you want to see a more European look of Shogi, see: http://f51.parsimony.net/forum203932/messages/21.htm
'I am not sure if this will clarify or confuse the issue, but here is a summary from an old post of George Fernandez:'
*** *** *** *** *** ***
The last version of 'The rules of shogi' I have was written in 1993 by Mr. K. Horiguchi 6 Dan[supplement to the January 1993 issue of Shogi Sekai]. The 96 page booklet, written in japanese, is the official rule book accepted by the Japanese Shogi Association.
The following definitions were given which apply here:
Checkmate:
A checkmate is a position in which a King is in check and there are no legal moves to leave the check.
Illegal moves:
(1)A move is illegal to make a double pawn.
(2)A move is illegal to make a deadlocked piece.
(3)A move is illegal for a player if his King's square is attacked by an opponent piece after the move.[to remain in check, to move into check or to expose the king to check]
(4)A move is illegal to make a repetition check move [Mr. Horiguchi wrote in an addendum the following clarification: '... In the event of perpetual check, if one player player does it FOUR TIMES(three times is permitted), he will lose his game'.
(5)A move is illegal to make a dropping check move by a pawn which leads to a position in checkmate at once(dropped-pawn mate).
Legal moves:
A legal move for a player is a move to leave the check by moving pieces on the board or by dropping if his king is in check. Otherwise, a legal move by a piece on the board which can go[move] or a drop move, which is not illegal.
Remark (condition of ending game):
1. The game is finished if the position is in a checkmate; The player to move loses the game.
2. The game is finished if one player makes an illegal move; This player loses the game.
3. The game is finished if one player has no legal moves; This player loses the game[contrary to chess rules, where a stalemate is considered a draw].
4. The game is finished if one player resigns; This player loses the game.
In an effort to put this issue behind us, and move on, I'm sharing with you a bizzare diagram from the 1993 rules book[page 93, digram #92].
***ENDQUOTE*** I [David Paulowich] am unable to format the diagram for this text message. It shows a stalemate loss for the lone White King. But Black to move also has no legal moves, even though he has a huge army and a Pawn in hand (dropping that Pawn would be mate).
Dear Fergus Duniho, About my game with Joao Bigodes. His King is captured, though the game continue! Isn't a bug somewhere??? Best regards, Paul Grosemans aka Centaure.
Recently on the Shogi-L (http://www.shogi.net/shogi-l/Archive/2005/Naug05-00.txt) there has been discussion of a freeware Shogi program called Bonanza. It is quite strong on even play. An extension has been created that allows playing handicap games. Its handicap play is perhaps not as strong as its even game play (I suspect this is because it does not have book moves for the handicaps, but that is a guess), but it will prove challenging for most. It certainly is for me. The link for Bonanza is: http://www.geocities.jp/bonanza_shogi/bonanza1.1_csawin.zip and for the extension: http://homepage3.nifty.com/floatinghome/csa_xt122.zip The listing from Shogi-L describes how to use the extension. Non-Japanese shogi players should truly appreciate this gift from Messers Masumoto and RaumNaum; I sure do!
That the Japanese chess-king is a jade general rather than a jeweled general is supported by the wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shogi and this other website: http://www.crockford.com/chess/shogi.html . Murray seems to say that he depended for his information on nineteenth-century German translations of a few Japanese documents. This is rather a shock; it has been 'jeweled general' to us for so long!
http://www.unicode.org/cgi-bin/GetUnihanData.pl?codepoint=7389
But what should shock you is that knight is not honorable horse but a 'cinnamon tree-horse' and lance is 'perfume-chariot'. names probably chosen by phonetic reasons rather than those of meaning
Another interpretation of the King with the `gyoku` kanji might be `handsome general`. The one with the `oo` kanji could be `ruling general`. Of course, one way to avoid the problem of interpretation is to called the pieces by their Japanese names. So the King would be either `gyokushoo` or `ooshoo`(these names depend upon the side of the field). But we can still end up arguing about the proper phonetic spelling. I prefer that the terms Black and White should be `sente` and `gote`. But the introduction of Shogi to western culture began a long while back, and those individuals responsible for its early interpretation selected terms which they believed would make its assimilation easier. Right? Wrong? Maybe just expedient.
has some pictures of a (25x25) board and pieces for Tai Shogi. Dane, I think that is about the largest game anyone here will ever play.
Shogi, is of course, an excellent game. But here is what is interesting: In relation to another CV comment, seemingly unrelated (i.e., Fergus's comment to research a certain player to see he (Fergus) had no double-identity).. Well, I did research that player and found out he was in Tokyo and had a Shogi link which was quite interesting. He also mentioned a site where you could play Shogi in real-time. So, I went to http://www.kurnik.org and in minutes won my first 10 minute on-line speed Shogi game... quite fun. I was then crushing my opponent in a second game when a most terrible thing happened. I went to move the Rook, but then realized I could drop a pawn instead and win a Lance for the pawn. When I clicked to drop the pawn, my Rook moved to that square instead... so, instead of winning a Lance, I lost a Rook... oh what sorrow due to a mechanical issue. Anyway, it is fun to play real-time Shogi... and thanks to the rating system double-idntity issue, a real-time Shogi site was found.
Thanks for the replies David and Elijah. If you want a game of taikyoku shogi, you can find it in here. http://taikyokushogi.hp.infoseek.co.jp/taikyoku.swf and thats the larger version. http://taikyokushogi.hp.infoseek.co.jp/taikyoku.html
Shogi Champ plays in chess tournament.
Remarkable is the 38th place of FM Yoshiharu Habu (6/9). Why? Because Habu is not really a chess player, but the world's leading Shogi champion, who has taken a casual interest in chess.
Read the rest ...here
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