From: Reijer Grimbergen <grimbergen <at> NICI <dot> KUN <dot> NL>
Date: 22 aug 1995
Subject: Good style and bad style

>
>2) Should I be concerned about my style now? I was just getting rid of my
>initial inhibitions playing Shogi. What exactly is meant by bad style?
>

Let me be a little more specific. By bad style I mean moves that a
professional would not even consider and an amateur often plays. It is my
(of course personal) opinion that a player becomes stronger if he plays
these types of moves less and less and finally only says when asked why he
didn't play a particular move: "I don't know, it just looked bad".

There is no clear cut definition of a bad style move. However, you might
get a clue by looking at the final positions of your own games. If there
are any pieces there that have no function, this is an indication that they
were bad style moves. But again this is only an indication. I think it
would take little effort to find professional games with useless pieces.

Good style is using all your pieces to win a game. In my opinion, this is
not what Kiwame Shogi (or any other program) does. But feel free to start a
discussion on this Shogi discussion list. Good style and bad style are at
the heart of strong strategic Shogi play.

Reijer