From: GRIMBERGEN KUNPV1 PSYCH KUN NL Date: 1 aug 1990 Subject: Answers to some questions In reply to my latest articles on the Shogi Discussion List again some questions were asked by Adam Atkinson and Chris Sterritt. I hope I can answer them satisfactorily. 1) The Japanese word "Tsume" is, as far as my Japanese-English dictionary knows, not an ordinary noun in Japanese. I only found the verb "tsumeru" which means "to pack, fill". My conclusion is that it is a word specially used in Shogi. Anyway, the meaning in Shogi is "mate". 2) Of course it is easiest to buy your Shogi books at a local Japanese shop, even though they may be more expensive. However, in Holland there is no such shop (only Chinese), so we don't have any choice but to get our books directly from the Renmei. The Renmei wants to be paid in advance by means of an international money order that you can get at every post office. By the way, I think almost every book on tsume shogi is good. Especially suited for study is a series of red books with increasingly difficult tsumes for different grades (there is a book for lower than 5-kyu, a book for 2-4 kyu, a book for 1-kyu to 2-dan and a book for 3-5 dan). Unfortunately I don't have the books myself, so I can't check on the publisher right away, but if anyone is interested I can try to find out. By the way, I don't know the magazine "Tsume Shogi Paradise", but it sounds like the magazine for me, so I will try to get my hands on an issue when I am in Japan (My holiday is planned from August 20th - September 21st) 3) Real-life tsume shogi is much easier than solving tsume problems. Normal European amateur games are more concerned with closing in the king than with long mates. I once had a game with a 17 move mate and only three minutes to find it. With a bit of luck and because of my tsume training I was able to find it. So for actual mating you don't really need extensive tsume training. However, it is very important for sharpening your intuition for mate, using your pieces in an economical way and to get a better feeling for attack and defence. 4) I don't think many dan-players can solve difficult tsume problems over 30 moves. I can solve problems up to 25 moves without to many problems (meaning within the hour), and I even managed to occasionaly solve 29- movers. But as I said in my article, tsume shogi is my personal kick and I don't think there is another player in Europe spending so much time on it. Well, as a matter effect I know someone who is spending even more time on it than I do. He is about 3-kyu at the moment and can solve even more difficult tsume shogi problems than I can. He claims that he has reached his current grade solely by solving tsume shogi and says that he has never seen a professional game. I've seen him do some amazing things like solving 25-movers in 5 minutes, but I also saw him miss a 1-move mate in a tournament game. 5) About "Shogi World": I have seen this magazine and obejectively speaking it isn't worth the money. It only contains about 15 pages with old professional news and the diagrams are awful, since they are made western style instead of normal Japanese. The only reasons to subscribe are the English, translated analysis of a professional game and the fact that it is currently the only international Shogi magazine in the English language. I wanted to subscribe for these reasons, but I am afraid they have run off to the Bahamas with my money. 6) There was also a question about "Shogi", another Japanese magazine published by the Renmei. It is indeed aimed at players from 5 to 10 kyu but it has some serious disadvantages. It is only published 4 times a year, it contains a lot of text and it is mainly about Japanese amateur Shogi. Personnally, I prefer to follow the professionals. I hope this answers the questions. Reijer Grimbergen kunpv1 psych kun nl>