From: "P. J. Dranchuk" <dranchuk <at> COMPUSMART <dot> AB <dot> CA>
Date: 27 sep 1996
Subject: Re: SHOGI: How to play live on the Internet

Dear Steve,

Thank you for the information on playing Shogi on the Net.  Perhaps I'll
see you out there.  I'll warn you I am only a beginner.

-Peter


>> I am a member of the Internet Chess Club, which has an excellent
>> graphical interface, and a server capable of storing player
>> histories, Elo ratings, and connecting players.  Is there such a
>> service for Shogi?  The Internet Chess Club membership is $49 U.S.
>> per year, worthwhile if you play more than an hour or two each
>> week.  The electronic chess clocks are automatic, and can be
>> set to any time (including time added on for each move, a definite
>> Shogi feature, as there is no elimination of material as time goes
>> on.  I would gladly pay for such a service.
>
>
>I too wish there is a shogi server of this calibre, but unfortunately
>one does not exist at this time.  There are ways of playing shogi
>over the internet in real time though.  These are:
>
>    (1) http://dora.olu.info.waseda.ac.jp:8080/shogi/index.html
>
>    You need a java-enabled browser (i.e. Netscape) to use this site.
>    It has a nice graphical user interface with english
>    documentation, and most importantly quite a few people actually
>    use the site so you can more or less always find an opponent.  It
>    has disadvantages though... it is nowhere near as feature-rich as
>    the chess servers currently available.
>    Overall though, I recommend this site if have the needed software
>    and you want to play shogi online.
>
>    (2) http://emerald.slim.imnet.ad.jp/~takumi/
>
>    This is an NTT maintained site in Japanese only.  Again you need
>    java to access it - in fact, it uses the same java code as the
>    site above (although it's an older version of the code which does
>    not have as many features).
>
>    (3) http://www.mki.co.jp/VerTex/SHOUGI/shougi.html
>
>    Once again you need java to access this Japanese-only site.  I
>    have not used this site much so I can't really comment on it,
>    though it doesn't seem as good as (1).
>
>    (4) telnet://202.241.3.12:5091
>
>    This is a telnet site maintained by NTT.  It seems to be very
>    basic though.  Also, you need a Japanese-supporting telnet program
>    to make full use of the site.  You can play against a computer
>    opponent there, though I don't know how strong it is (I haven't
>    played it myself).
>
>    (5) telnet://igs.nuri.net:6969 (or 7777)
>
>    This is actually a telnet Go site, though you can also play shogi
>    here.  If you can ever find any opponents here then I'd recommend
>    this site (if you can't use (1) that is).  (Incidentally, there
>    used to be a shogi-only telnet site at igs.nuri.net:4444 which
>    used the same server software as the other ports but had Go
>    disabled.  However, the site had a disk crash a number of months
>    ago and it hasn't come back online since.  My guess is it isn't
>    going to now...)
>
>
>So, I hope all this information helps you find opponents to play
>online.  At the moment though, shogi servers need to improve
>radically to compare with similar chess servers.
>
>
>Best wishes,
>    Steve.