From: Toshiya Kawakami NIFTYSERVE OR JP> Date: 18 oct 1994 Subject: Re: Chess and Shogi Anton and Howard wrote. >>There is much more scope for creativity >> in Shogi, and much less scope for memorization of opening systems > > Maybe too much! There are almost no books in English on Shogi openings. >I have no idea how to go about preparing for a Shogi tournament--I don't >know that much about any of the standard castles, and playing over top >level games doesn't help much, as there is no one to explain why the >master did this or that or why he didn't grab that hanging piece. Shogi >has no ECO or Informant, nor any source for annotated games (in English). I recommend that you try to read shogi books in Japanese. It would not be dufficult to understand them, not only about the notations by symbols but also comments by master. Thousands of treasures must lie there. In our country, not so many chess books in Japanese are published, and most of chess players, if he/she wants, must study with books in foreign languages like English or Russian. While we do so, we can get a part of the treasures a little, no matter how little it may be. Pioneers reach there. Toshi E-mail: GHE01101 niftyserve or jp