From: "'Ben Bednarz'" <BenFB <at> AOL <dot> COM>
Date: 8 feb 1999
Subject: Re: Chess and shogi

I hate to say this, but this entire discussion of the beauty of shogi compared
to other games is very much a case of "the minister preaching to the
faithful."  Everybody here presumably already likes shogi.  The trick is to
convince the rest of the world.

Around twelve years ago, there was a lot of discussion in Chess Life about how
to improve chess.  I wrote a couple of letters to Larry Evans' column, making
the same points being made here.  The letters were published, but made no
lasting effect.  The truth is, chess players see shogi  as a "chess variant,"
and more chess players won't play variants.  (By comparison, how many of us
consider "arena football" to be real (American) football?)

To convince Westerners (or Americans, at least) to play shogi, you need to
convince them that this is a real alternative.  A great deal could be achieved
by exposing them to shogi/Japanes culture, but the Japanese are not very
proactive in exporting their culture -- fear of cultural pollution, I would
guess.  Bottom line is: to make shogi popular outside of Japan, you need to
convince people it's not just a "toy" variant of chess.

That said, I would like to challenge one part of Larry's analysis.  I don't
think you can expect a game to have early interaction and not need lots of
opening memorization.  Early interaction, combined with tactics, leads to
opening traps and thus to opening memorization.  In chess, early interaction
forces openings to be important even for beginners.  In shogi, one become even
a decent amateur 1 dan with little opening knowledge, because interaction
develops a little slower.

Also, I don't know how you would categorize it, but chess has one thing shogi
does not: endgames.  Well, I mean... shogi has endgames, which are generally
violent attacks (white/black to move and win...).  But chess has these
beautiful endgames involved fewer pieces and elegant concepts.  That "chess-
style" endgame is missing from shogi, and that is a pity.

Ben Bednarz