From: "Samuel H. Sloan (my real name)" <VanUpp <at> AOL <dot> COM>
Date: 21 oct 1995
Subject: Re: Self Introduction

Its good to see that good old George Hodges is back in shogi.

While I was in Japan a few weeks ago, I saw a letter he had written stating
that he was coming back into shogi (in a small way) after a  failed business
venture in another field which had consumed many years of his time. Hodges
had given up the publication of his "Shogi" magazine in 1987.

The problem with Hodges was that he did not want merely to contribute what he
could to the advancement of the game of shogi, but rather he wanted to rule
the world of shogi (outside of Japan that is). For example, when Blommers in
Holland decided to form his own little shogi association, Hodges wrote a
letter saying that Blommers could not do that without his (Hodges')
permission. Similarly, when somebody named Reilly formed an "American Shogi
Association" in Seattle, Washington, Hodges also claimed a world-wide
monopoly on shogi (again, outside of Japan) and demanded that Reilly swear
his allegiance to Hodges, or else go out of business.

Hodges claimed that only he, Hodges, had been authorized by the Nihon Shogi
Renmei in Tokyo to establish a branch office outside of Japan. Therefore,
said Hodges, nobody was allowed to establish a shogi association or
federation in Germany or France for example, unless they had the permission
of Hodges. Hodges constantly threatened people who tried to establish their
own regional or national shogi associations. He called his own group "The
Shogi Association", as if to emphasize that his was the one and only shogi
association.

Another thing about George Hodges was his fascination with the Nazis. He
always liked to talk about what a great man Hitler was, although
unfortunately Hitler did not really do a thorough job, in that he allowed a
few Jews to escape alive, complained Hodges. The great dream of Hodges was to
become a Nazi Camp Commander in the rejuvinated Nazi state. Hodges had modest
ambitions. He did not want to become a field marshall or some other high
official or the right hand man to Hitler. He was satisfied just to become a
lowly camp commander, provided, of course, that he could personally oversee
the execuutions of the Jews.

Needless to say, Hodges did not like me very much. He was convinced that I
was Jewish. (I am not. I am actually Irish on my father's side. My
great-great-grandfather came to America from Stewartstown, now in Northern
Ireland, some time before 1850. On my mother's side, I am Swedish. However,
with a first  name like "Sam" (a common Jewish name) and a last name like
Sloan (a name Jews have sometimes used to hide their identity) I apparently
appear to a person like Hodges to be Jewish.) Therefore, when I wrote a
computer program to play shogi (it played at about the 7-kyu level) Hodges
refused to have anything to do with it.

I believe that Hodges'  fascination with the Nazis is what led to his
interest in shogi. After all, the Nazis were allies with the Japanese during
World War II.

Nevertheless, Hodges had his good points and he clearly did make some
positive contributions to shogi. His magazine, entitled "Shogi", was really
excellant. However, like everything involving Hodges, every issue of the
magazine devoted some space to saying what a great man George Hodges is. In
addition, it was George Hodges which secured  the publication of the book
"Shogi for Beginners" by John Fairburn, still the best English language book
in the field by far. That was essentially a vanity deal, with Hodges paying
for the cost of publication. You can tell that this is the case, because in
the introduction to the book there is that familiar explanation of what a
great man George Hodges is. Fortunately, the first printing of the book sold
out. The book has been reprinted, and the reprinted editions have left out
the part about Hodges being a great man.

The fact remains that, were it not for George Hodges, that book would
probably never have been published.

Hodges was also fascinated with shogi variants, games with names like
Tori-Tori-Shogi. He spent a lot of money having sets made on which to play
these games. The Japanese had little interest in these games and sets for
them did not exist in Japan. I suspect that most of these were really
proposed games that somebody dreamed up, much like people are always
suggesting new rules and new pieces for chess or chess-type games. Most of
these games were probably never played by anybody except for the inventor and
a few close friends.

So, we should all be thankful to George Hodges. Nobody is perfect and the man
did have a few small faults, but he did make a very important and significant
contribution to shogi.

Sam Sloan