From: Pieter Stouten <STOUTEN <at> EMBL <dot> BITNET>
Date: 22 aug 1990
Subject: Shogi software - news from Japan.

Some new info on Shogi playing programs
=======================================
 
As I mentioned before Mr. Hiroyuki Iida, professional Shogi player, is also
developer of Shogi playing programs. I have sent him Chris Sterritt's
Shogi stack and he would like to program a "thinking module" for it (are
you there Chris ? I sent you a photocopy of the complete letter by
snail-mail). Maybe this will break open the Western market. Of course, one
must have access to a Macintosh, but that should not be a problem, nowadays.
Mr. Iida also agrees that a Macintosh (which is essentially an
"international" machine by virtue of its "Resource" mechanism) is the first
choice for spreading Shogi programs.
Mr. Iida himself wrote a program in Quintus-Prolog which runs on a Sun 4.
Furthermore, he mentions that the strongest program runs on a NEC 9801 and is
about 2-kyu (the strongest I've seen were about 6-kyu).
All info on "computer Shogi" is compiled in a book, that I should receive
shortly. I'll keep you posted when I get new info.
 
Pieter Stouten <stouten <at> embl <dot> bitnet>