From: Albrecht Heeffer RIOS IMPAKT BE> Date: 17 may 1995 Subject: Re: Shogi software for IBM PC On Tue, 16 May 1995, Reijer Grimbergen wrote: > Secondly, for all strong players out there who think they have finally > found the ideal playing companion, a word of warning. Kiwame is definitely > a strong program, but in Belgium it played on its highest level on the > fastest commercial PC, a Pentium 90 MHz. You will not be able to play on > this level, even on a 486/66, unless you have the patience of a monk (a > game will take all day). I think the lower levels of the program are not > very strong (maybe 2 kyu, even though it is difficult to say because the > program alternates between playing strong moves and weird moves that no > human would play, a problem also seen in early chess programs). I played about 30 games against Kiwame 2 on its default level (I'm having troubles with the menu's for setting up higher level games 3 as Rijer is pointing out). In the beginning I was loosing 3 out of 4. Now I'm winning 3 out of 4. On a 90 MHz Pentium most moves of Kiwame are played within one second, occasionaly longer. Even on this lowest level I would rate it 4 to 2 kyu. It's easy to get some advantage in the mid-game but the program is an awesome attacker. It never misses a tsume I guess. It seems to have special heuristics for attacking on the head of the king with a knight and a lance. I'm willing to put a bet on Kiwame 2 on a 120 Mhz Pentium for winning a European quick-game shogi championship (15 min/game). Albrecht Heeffer