From: grimbergen <at> MACPOST <dot> PSYCH <dot> KUN <dot> NL
Date: 7 dec 1992
Subject: Re: checkmating or capturing and the shogi-l board

Although John's answers to Bob's questions are correct, I would like to add some
 
comments.
 
>2) Is the game won by checkmating or by capturing the opponent's King?
>
 
Since the answer to the first question is yes (as John pointed out) strictly
speaking a game is only finished after capturing your opponent's king. This
means (in contrast to chess) that even when you are mated, you still have to
resign. Of course, in practical play there is no problem. Only seldom a king
will be left in check by accident and to avoid the humiliation of being mated a
player will always resign when mate cannot be avoided.
In professional play the actual mating move is seldomly played, although I know
a few cases every year. Letting yourself be mated is not considered a courtesy
to the opponent, as it sometimes is in chess.
 
>3) How are pieces in hand notated on the shogi-l board?
>Is this done in this way:
>        +------------------+
>        |2G 4P R           |
>        |                  |
>        +------------------+
>or in this way:
>        +------------------+
>        |GG PPPP R         |
>        |                  |
>        +------------------+
>
 
In Japanese diagrams there usually is a difference between pawns and the other
pieces in hand. Since it is possible for one player to have a lot of pawns in
hand (five or six at a time is no exception) the second type of notation is not
very useful. Therefore, pawns are notated with their number attached and the
other pieces are printed individually. Furthermore, the order of the pieces in
hand is R, B, G, S, N, L, P. In (translated) Japanese notation the pieces in
hand in the example above would be like:
 
        +------------------+
        |R G G P4          |
        |                  |
        +------------------+
 
However, again there are no strict rules for this, because when a player has a
lot of pieces in hand, it seems that the first type of notation is preferred, I
think mainly for typographical reasons. I also regularly find tsume shogi
problems in which the first type of notation is used.
 
 
Reijer Grimbergen