From: Jonathan Tisdall <jtisdall <at> SN <dot> NO>
Date: 20 mar 1997
Subject: Tony Hoskings

>4. George Jost's copy is on its way (it should take about 1 week). As
>George will see when he gets his copy, a theme of the book is to enjoy
>playing both shogi and chess - they can complement each other. A shogi
>challenge for chess grandmasters sounds interesting. Perhaps Jonathan
>Tisdall will introduce some of his GM friends to shogi? ( I have already
>been in contact with one or two English GMs.)

What shogi challenge for chess GMs? Did I miss something?

I fully support the idea of getting the two games to popularise the other.
Earlier I posted soliciting thoughts about how shogi teaching techniques
might benefit chess teaching, and some of those discussions have survived
as small items in my coming book. All I can say on the shogi front is that
I give it good press and as often as I can there.

I have tried to "turn on" both English and Scandinavian GMs to shogi. The
reaction is almost always the same. Very big interest which wanes since
there is no easy hook - literature, events, etc. Rune Djurhuus, the latest
Norwegian GM did suddenly take up Go, though! I attribute this to his more
scientific background, and conclude that I am no missionary. After all, I
have very little time for shogi, but insist on following the news and
playing through games and articles whenever I can. Of course that is a
function of the difficulty of scraping a living in chess, rather than
having a sensible occupation...

Les Blackstock told me some interesting tales of a couple of shogi pros who
took an interest in chess and played in English chess tournaments a few
times. They rose quickly but then discovered that it had its own unique
difficulties. Les gave me the impression they expected to master chess
completely. (Something which I can sort of sympathize with since shogi
seems much the more difficult game to me.) He also said that you should
never let any of them near your king during a game. Easy to believe that is
good advice. I was very interested in talking to them about learning
devices the games might have in common, but never met them.

jt
jt

When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble
a nail.-- Abraham Maslow