From: Ishi Press International <ishius <at> ISHIUS <dot> COM>
Date: 7 feb 1994
Subject: Re: an unfriendly post to rec.games.go

IMHO:

        Of all the variants of Chess, I like shogi best for several reasons.
First, it feels the most like western chess, but does not suffer from chess's
major weakness: drawishness.  Frankly, I find western chess endgames boring,
whereas shogi endgames are very sharp and exciting.  In shogi, all the pieces
stay in circulation, and so you always have enough material to execute your
plan (unlike western chess).  At the end of a shogi game, each side is racing
to checkmate the other, so that you can often go from a successful defense
immediately into an attack.  And even if you lose the game, you probably
were pretty close to mating your opponent as well, and so you don't feel
as totally defeated as one does in chess.
        Shogi is VERY positional and quite strategic, perhaps not on the level
of GO, but certainly comparable to wester chess.  One of the books I study
for Shogi is "My System" by Aaron Nimzowitz, a WESTERN chess book, but many
of the principles, especially overconcentration, apply directly to shogi.

        Anyway, whoever suggested that shogi was not a real game, didn't
get it.  On the other hand, perhaps there weren't enough shogi players in
his neighborhood to really teach him the game.

Anton Dovydaitis
Customer Support

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