From: Steve Evans <trout <at> NETSPACE <dot> NET <dot> AU>
Date: 26 jan 2000
Subject: Re: sekita shogi

Hi Chris,

I just thought I'd better warn people that my program ShogiVar plays a very weak game
of shogi and the computer opponent is really only going to challenge people who are
becoming familiar with the game. Even at level 1 (of 10) Sekita plays much stronger.

In terms of freely available shogi programs I'd say Pauli Misikangas's Shocky 2.1
Demo is far and away the strongest. A later and more developed version of Pauli's
program is to be released commercially. You can find Pauli's program here:
http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/~pmturune/Shocky_e.html

Another recent addition to the "free" shogi software that I have yet to have a good
look at is the newly released WinShogi by Tyler Tidman (Primate Software). I'm not
sure how strong this is, but you can find it here:
http://nexus.carleton.ca/~ttidman/WinShogi/index.html

Of course, none of the free programs are a patch on the commercial release of Shotest
in terms of playing strength.

Cheers,

Steve Evans

CM wrote:

> Eduard,
>
> I have had the same questions as you and have not been able to get an
> opinion on which software version of shogi is best. The only one I have
> tried so far is ShogiVar (http://www.netspace.net.au/~trout/index.html).
> It is not very strong at all as I am a beginner at shogi and can always
> beat it if I'm just sure to concentrate and not do anything stupid. But,
> you can play many of the various versions of shogi with this program so
> it is nice for that.
>
> I download a version of Sekita shogi from the Japanese site but I can't
> read the menus. Which version do you have and where did you download it
> from?
>
> What I would really like to see in a shogi program is the ability to get
> it to play any opening you choose, much like many chess programs allow.
> Of course, what I really want is human opponents but they seem hard to
> come by. You're in Israel, right? Too bad, I'm in the US.
>
> Have you tried the Internet Shogi Dojo site
> (http://www.shogidojo.com/dojo/dojoindex.htm)? At that site you can play
> and watch games over the internet.
>
> -Chris
>
> "dr. Eduard Werner (Edward Wornar)" wrote:
> >
> > Hello,
> >
> > does anybody have experience with sekita shogi? I downloaded it some days ago,
> > and on the first level (the only available in the not registered version) I can
> > beat it though I still have a losing record. Which Shogi-Program would you
> > recommend to me for training? I'm entirely new to Shogi (but I used to be an
> > ELO-2000 chess player). Maybe Shotest would be for me? I would mostly
> > appreciate a program that also teaches a bit ...
> >
> > Best
> >
> > Edi
> >
> > --
> >            zzz. |\      _,,,---,,_
> >                 /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_.
> >                |,4-  ) )-,_. ,\ (  `'-'
> >               '---''(_/--'  `-'\_)