From: Colin Paul Adams <colin <at> COLINA <dot> DEMON <dot> CO <dot> UK>
Date: 23 sep 1996
Subject: CHU SHOGI: How to play live on the Internet

Owing to the great difficulty I have to find opponents
to play Chu Shogi against, I downloaded the source of
Java Shogi, intending to adapt it for Chu. However, on
reflection, I decided that it would be easier to use
the following procedure (which applies to ANY board
game with a moves notation, such as other Shogi variants)
to play live games on the internet:

1) Contact potential opponent by email, and agree a time
to play the game (or time for first session, for games like
Tai Shogi). Specify times in UTC to avoid confusion. Agree
on the Handicap to be used, and any initial setup changes.
Decide which player will initiate the connection (hereafter
refered to as the initiator. The other player will be referred
to as the responder. (A voice connection could be used
as an alternative to email).

2) Each player sets up the Chu board as agreed. A few (
three? /five?) minutes before the agreed time,
each player connects to the internet.
(dial-up connections only - permanent connections (lucky
students!) don't need to do this - obviously.)

3) The initiator types the command:

talk <opponents internet address>

e.g. if you are playing against me, you would type:

talk colin <at> colina <dot> demon <dot> co <dot> uk

The responder makes any appropriate response if so
instructed by the talkd software.

4) Black types in his first move e.g. Ln-6h and hits
[ENTER]. Both players make the move on their respective
boards. White thinks, then makes his own move, etc.
If clocks are used, then the clock should be pressed
AFTER hitting [ENTER].



Step (3) is the problematic step. It depends upon both
players being able to use the talk protocol. If this is
not so, then there are the following two alternatives:

a) If only one player can use talk, and that player
has a unix, or other multi-user system, and that player
can arrange for other accounts to be set up on his machine,
(this applies in my case, as I run my own linux setup here)
then that player sets up an account, and informs the other
player, via email, of the login id and password.
The other player (who must then be the initiator), issues
the command:

telnet colina.demon.co.uk (or whichever machine it might be),
and signs on with the appropriate login id and password,
as agreed. That player then issues the talk command
e.g. talk colin (the@machine name isn't necessary here),
and play proceeds as in step (4)

b) If procedure (a) cannot be used, then a neutral machine
which both players can telnet, must be used. A good candidate
is the Internet Go Server (telnet igs.nuri.net 6969). Both
players should register ids beforehand. Each player should
issue the command:
game shogi
(check the syntax with the igs help command) beforehand.
This puts you on channel 3 by default, and has the effect that
you will not continually be asked for games of Go while you
are playing Chu (or Wa, or Dai, or Tai etc.).
You can then use the
tell
command to talk to each other.
This has the disadvantage compared to talk, in that you will
have to type in the tell command each move.
An alternative is to use an IGS Go (yes, Go) client, such as
xgospel, which gives you an open window that acts as a continuous
tell command.

As you might have guessed, I am keen to play Chu live on the
internet. I am available for games most evenings (except
Wednesdays and some Tuesdays) and most weekends. (Not this week
 - I'm off to visit the Isle of Man Go Society for a week,
starting on Wednesday, to teach them to play Shogi, and, just maybe,
Chu Shogi.

Hope to see an email hear when I get back, challenging me to a game of Chu.

Colin Adams