From: Hugh Denoncourt <hd <at> HOPPER <dot> UNH <dot> EDU>
Date: 27 jan 1996
Subject: Re: The pieces are on the internet board but who shall I

> 1) Hi, I'm interested in joining the internet shogi ladder. So what do I do and
> how do I know who is available to challenge? I just joined the Shogi-L
> discussion group. I vanguished Shogi Master at level 1 (various handicaps in my
> favor.) Which is to say I can play but I won't be rated high internationally
> (except by default). (E.g there are only 8 people in Canada listed on the
> internet disussion list ...) I've also coaxed various leisure chess players
> to play.
I believe if you send the listserv <at> technion <dot> technion <dot> ac <dot> il  mail with
GET LADDER STANDING and GET LADDER RULES you can get that information.  I
could be wrong about that though...
> 2) What are the rules for Tai Shogi? Has anyone tried it as a team sport?
>    How long can a two player game take?
Well, I have a friend who bought the pamphlet thing for Tai Shogi from
George Hodges and I am unsure as to whether a posting of the complete rules
and so forth is legal or not when the source would be from a George Hodges
pamphlet.  From looking at the rules I can tell you some things about Tai
Shogi and ideas I have had about Tai Shogi.  Tai Shogi is HUGE ... 25x25
... And COMPLICATED.  I think Tai Shogi is one big mess of complexity that
I think i would only undertake for sake of curiosity.  In other words, I
can't ever imagine someone becoming a "serious Tai Shogi player".
However, I think it would be VERY cool if there was a Tai Shogi computer
program for many reasons... One is that a computer could keep track of
everything, what is in hand, what is legal, where things are... and a
computer could set the board up in a second.  From what I understand, Tai
Shogi takes a long time to set up.  Also, from what I understand, Tai Shogi
can take MONTHS to play.  This is not a good thing from a practical
standpoint.  Perhaps that is why you suggested it as a team game. Thats an
interesting idea but I don't see how the length of the match would be
shortened.  It would be easier on individuals if they only had to make a move
every so often as opposed to regularly in the span of a month.  however,
I think it would still take months.  Blitz Tai Shogi would be interesting,
with time controls of like a Game in 10 hours or something!
Also, I think it would be very interesting to take a game like Tai Shogi
which probably lacks any known human-found heuristics and have computer
programs compete in that game.  Computers or computer algorithms competing
in a game of Tai Shogi could complete a game very quickly.  A game with
the complexity of Tai Shogi would require some very clever programs to do
well since relying on trees is not going to get the computer very far (they
won't be able to look very far ahead with all possible moves like
computers can in chess... ) so I think that would be an AI researchers dream.
I don't know many people who would have to patience to play a full game of
Tai Shogi though.  I'd try it if it were somehow conveniant(if I had a
board, or a program, and someone to play with) but can't imagine
seriously playing it.
Just my thoughts,
Hugh