From: Pieter Stouten <STOUTEN <at> EMBL <dot> BITNET>
Date: 14 may 1990
Subject: Some interesting differences between Chess and Shogi

The following is written by John Kenney and already appeared on the
Chess Discussion List.
Pieter Stouten (bitnet: stouten@embl).
 
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In reference to Ben Buckner's comments on the comparison of Shogi and Chess, as
a player of both games, I would say they have the same flavor, with several
major differences.  The most important difference is the use of captured
pieces.  The ablity to drop a captured piece anywhere (with certain
restrictions) on the board coupled with the limited mobility of most pieces
emphasizes the mating of the king (rather than gaining material, or
establishing a positional advantage which does directly attack the king).  For
example, promoting a pawn in chess is a valid goal; however, in shogi this is
not important unless it is promoted in the neighborhood of the opposing king.
Therefore, in Shogi the position is much more important than material.  In
fact, even though some pieces are more "powerful" than others, there is no
points system (eg., as in Chess the knight = 3, the queen = 9) to equate
pieces, rather piece placement indicates its value (more like a binary switch:
may lead to mate = 1, far from enemy king = 0; then if you have more 1s
attacking than your opponent has defending, you win).  With respect to the
question about control of the center:  In Shogi control of territory is less
stressed than in Chess, and the edges are just as important as the center
(in fact the rule of thumb is to control the entire fifth rank); and by the
middle game this no longer matters - only the attack the king matters.
This may sound a bit strange, but try playing a game and you'll quickly
(esp., if you play Chess) see what is happening.
                                John (KENNEY@EMBL)