From: Andrew Okun <okun <at> ENI <dot> NET>
Date: 5 mar 2000
Subject: Re: # of potential shogi players

> Most all of the people that I converse with about Chess, say that
> they do so
> because it is fun and challenging.  I often suggest that Shogi
> would then be
> a game that they might enjoy even more.  I tell  them that it is quite
> similar to Chess but with more depth to it, making it more fun and
> challenging to play.  If I pursue their interest at that point, I can pull
> in 20% to 30% of those Chess players, who will at least try it.

The problem have getting from this to 30 million players is that it requires
one of you, one of us if you like, carefully guiding someone through for a
few hours at least to make them into a shogi player.  Few of them will in
turn become recruiters.

  The only
> reason that some of them have not continued with Shogi, I find, is that
> there are few Shogi players around for them to play with, especially among
> their friends (who play Chess).

The network effect.

When ever I have gotten them to
> play for a
> 1 - 2 year period, they never seem to go back to Chess, saying that it has
> become too boring, relative to Shogi.  They opt for Shogi.
>

How many die hard shogi players have you coined this way?

Andy