From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 1 apr 1999 Subject: Re: Report 9th CSA Computer Shogi Championships (LONG) Larry Kaufman WIZARD NET> writes: > -----Original Message----- > From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> > To: SHOGI-L techunix technion ac il techunix technion ac il> > Date: Wednesday, March 31, 1999 2:24 AM > Subject: Report 9th CSA Computer Shogi Championships (LONG) >> Hi everyone, >> >> Here is the report on the 9th CSA Computer Shogi Championships and all the >> games from the finals. > Thanks for the excellent report. Two questions which I hope you can > answer for the benefit of all those interested: > 1. Which of the competing programs (particularly the final eight) are > commercially available in a form that can be used by Westerners running > Windows 95 or 98? Of these, are they in Japanese only, or in English, and > how does one obtain them? So far, only Sekita has advertised itself thru > the Shogi Discussion List, as far as I know. There are commercial versions of Kanazawa Shogi ("Kanazawa Shogi"), YSS ("AI Shogi"), Shotest ("Otosan no tame no 2" and "Saikyo no Shogi"), Eisei Meijin ("Eisei Meijin"), IS Shogi ("Todai Shogi"), Kakinoki Shogi ("Kakinoki Shogi") and Morita Shogi ("Morita Shogi"). There are probably more around, but these are the ones we have at our lab and run under Windows 95/98. None of them are in English, but almost all of them will run under English windows. English versions of the programs do not have a high priority, since the market it too small and there is quite a fierce battle going on for the Japanese market. It seems that Oxford Softworks (where Jeff Rollason's Shotest program is part of), is planning to bring out an English shogi program by the end of the year. But as I said, it is not a top priority so there is no date to look forward to. Anyway, if you can figure out which buttons to click in the Japanese programs, it is not too difficult to play against these programs. One of the things on my "to do" list, is to put a description of the menus of the programs on my webpages (and post them to Shogi-L). It might take me a while to get around to this though... > 2. Have there been handicap games between professionals (or strong Amateur > players) and any of the strong programs that would help to establish their > strength more accurately? If so, what handicap, who was the opponent, and > what result? One and a half year ago, at the Game Programming Workshop in Japan, Iida Hiroyuki (5-dan) played six piece handicap games against Kakinoki Shogi and Morita Shogi (maybe one other program, although I do not remember the details). I think Kakinoki Shogi won a game and lost one. Morita Shogi won a game because of a very long mate that Iida overlooked in a won position. It was already quite late. There has been a television program about two years ago where YSS played a strong amateur from Osaka with time handicap and was beaten very badly. It seems like most people feel that it is still too early for serious encounters between man and machine. > Thanks in advance, Larry Kaufman Reijer -- Reijer Grimbergen Complex Games Lab Electrotechnical Laboratory 1-1-4 Umezono, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken, 305 JAPAN E-mail: grimberg etl go jp URL: http://www.etl.go.jp/etl/suiron/~grimberg/ Tel: +81-(0)298-54-3316 Fax: +81-(0)298-54-5918