From: Hiroki Kawada MERL HITACHI CO JP> Date: 22 jan 1996 Subject: Answers to Sano-san's questions I would like to answer to Sano-san's questions. >1. As you might be well aware of, almost all of matured Shogi fans abroad > prefer using original pieces with Kanji rather than to western pieces > with alphabetic notations and direction of moves. > What do you think about it ? Using Kanji pieces is very nice, because players in many countries use Kanji pieces commonly. My standpoint is the commonly used way among many peoples is the better way. >2. When you draw a board diagram, what kind of image or sign you like to > use there to indicate pieces ? Here is the game position and the score on going between Marc Theeuwen and me in shogi-ladder. Please read this by Courier font as to see the well shaped board. (Exciting middle game, slightly bad position for me on Black, but don't say this to Marc...) I found for the first time these notation and board used in shogi-ladder. For me this is nice because we can send score with board by using texts only. 1 P7f P3d 2 S4h P4d 3 G5h R4b 4 P4f B3c 5 S4g K6b 6 K6h K7b 7 K7h K8b 8 P9f P9d 9 S5f S7b 10 R4h S3b 11 P1f P1d 12 N1g P2d 13 P2f N1c 14 R2h L1b 15 P2e Px2e 16 Nx2e Nx2e 17 Rx2e P'2d 18 R2h G45b 19 P8f S4c 20 P4e S3b 21 Px4d Bx4d 22 Bx4d Rx4d 23 P'4e R8d 24 N7g P3e 25 P8e R3d 26 G4g P9e 27 Px9e P'9h 28 Lx9h N'8f 29 K8g Nx9h+ 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ---------------------------------------------- | wL | wN | | wG | | | | | | a ---------------------------------------------- White in hand: | | wK | wS | | wG | | wS | | wL | b ---------------------------------------------- B L | | wP | wP | wP | wP | | | | | c ---------------------------------------------- | | | | | | | wR | wP | wP | d ---------------------------------------------- | bP | bP | | | | bP | wP | | | e ---------------------------------------------- | | | bP | | bS | | | | bP | f ---------------------------------------------- | | bK | bN | bP | bP | bG | bP | | | g ---------------------------------------------- Black in hand: | +wN| | | | | | | bR | | h ---------------------------------------------- P P P N B | | | bS | bG | | | | | bL | i ---------------------------------------------- I am accustomed to this specific way of notation, though, do not believe this is the best way. Using Arabian numerals, Lx98+ instead of Nx9h+ for example, may be one of the choices, because "98", direct translation of the conventional Japanese notation, is easy for translating game scores written in Japanese. But I don't know if the Arabian-numeral-notation is commonly used internationally. > >3. At further stage when western players are accustomed to Shogi terms, > when for example indicating the "twisting Rook", you intend to say > "Hineri-Bisha" or "Hineri-Rook" ? > >A lot of technical questions are available if you are ready to challenge. I do not agree to unify the technical terms in the specific language. For example, Ranging Rook is more common than Furi-bisha, while Yagura castle is more common than something English name (I don't know...). The commonly used term is better, and *common* is not determined by rules or standadizing. When standardizing, we must be realize that a lot of obligation should not be accepted. Let's back to the discussion of the notation. Even if somebody set the UNcommon notation system, it will not work and dissapear in the end because many players don't use it. Let me summarize my standpoint; using alphabet and Arabic number is better for communicating by computers, and using the common terms and way among peoples outside Japan is better for spreading shogi to the world. Hiroki Kawada * "After the defeat Mechanical Engineering Res. Lab., * it is a valuable time." Sec. 15, Hitachi, Ltd., * K. Yonenaga, Kandatsu 502, Tsuchiura, * Shogi (Japanese chess) player Ibaraki 300 Japan