From: Hitoshi Matsubara CSLI STANFORD EDU> Date: 5 feb 1994 Subject: an unfriendly post to rec.games.go The following news was posted to 'rec.game.go'. He ompletely misunderstand Shogi. I am very sad as one of Shogi fans. Hitoshi ------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsgroups: rec.games.go Subject: Re: SHOGI QUERY Date: 5 Feb 1994 15:00:43 GMT Organization: Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, U.S.A. Lines: 56 Message-ID: <2j0car$rk6 oak oakland edu> References: <1994Jan28.152420.45@gold> maroon tc umn edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: vela.acs.oakland.edu In article <1994Jan28.152420.45@gold> you write: >Hey fellow GO-phers can any of you send me any information on how to play >Shogi. Its a Japanese game and I have the pieces but I don't know what they >are called or how they move. As always any help will be appreciated! > There are a number of books; I couldn't find any listed in Yutopia's catalog, but the Fall '91 Ishi Book Catalog has a SHOGI FOR BEGINNERS by John Fairbairn, ISBN 4-87187-201-7. I spent a lot of time with Shogi back in the '80s - read a book or two, bought a wooden set, played through all of the recorded games I could find in books and taught a couple of friends to play the game so that I could play it... I even memorized the Japanese characters well enough so that I could write them myself (once I even made a paper set for a friend who, because of me, was interested in the game)). After all of this, I have to say... I don't like it. My memory of it is that it is a game which does not require much thought or strategy, only the ability to look forward a number of moves. Defenses are irrelevant, because of the "paratroop" rule; the first side to gain a slight tactical advantage can create a snowball effect to bring the game to a fast end. The games Chinese Chess (Xiang Qi), Western Chess, and Go (Wei Qi) are all more worth while and more challenging IMHO. Besides, the pieces are chintzy :-) IMHO: I think that Shogi is an interesting reflection on the Japanese mind-set, in the same way that Go reflects the way that the Chinese think and view the world. In Shogi, games are short and inevitably become focused on one fierce fight going on in one particular place on the board. Anything else going on on the board is unimportant; there are no distractions, and there are never two or more battles taking place in isolation one from another, as is the case with Go. And most interesting of all, if one side finds itself with a temporary disadvantage it has no choice but to stand and fight; in Shogi, retreat is not possible. In the same way, the Japanese military planners of the thirties thought that they could defeat the United States Navy in "One Great Battle". Fortunately, we did not oblige them (Maybe if they had played more Go and less Shogi they would have won). For the Chinese angle on Go, which was invented in China more that 3000 years ago as Wei Qi (pronounced way-tchee), read the first couple chapters of the book THE GAME OF WEI-CHI by Daniele Pecorini and Tong Shu (Utopia Press, Singapore, ISBN 9971-49-259-8). You also might want to check your library for the book THE PROTRACTED GAME (sorry, no bib. info) which compares Wei Qi with Mao's campaign of guerilla warfare which HE used to defeat the Japanese. -- sphaak vela acs oakland edu (Steven P Haak) Biology BS -- Homebrewer, Vegetarian, Libertarian, OS/2 User, Herbalist, Gamer, Classical Music Fan JUST ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL "Remember when they said 'there's no future'? Well, this is it..." - Blank Reg