From: Hans van Velzen <h.vanvelzen <at> QUICKNET <dot> NL>
Date: 16 mar 2001
Subject: Re: About the name of the pieces

> Chiaki Ito wrote:
> >
> > Cant you just use Japanese names only?  It may be a bit hard in the
> > beginning for non-Japanese, but it will be easier without any confusion
for
> > the rest of your life!
> >
> > I dont call a Queen in Chess as Jyou Ou!
> >
> > Chiaki
> >
>
> In sweden we call the queen 'dam' and the rook 'torn'. I think it is
> important to have own names for the pieces to make it available to more
> people.
>
> Rikard
>
I would favor the use japanese names as leading, especially for the ladder
and other international sites and organisations.

We are dealing with an international ladder and we have to standardize the
use of names. Being dutch I will probably recognize german or swedish names,
I would however have much difficulty reading spanish or russian names. To
make the ladder (and shogi) a succes we NEED one set of names as leading. As
the game originated from japan I think it only a reasonable show of respect
to use their names.
It would be nice to have a clear descriptive translation of the names. It
will assist in remembering the pieces and their moves. So far I have not
encountered a list with the names and a description, only the names and the
moves allowed.

As for people with a chess background. They will have to learn quite a lot
of new pieces and some changes to existing ones. After all, there are only 3
pieces that move exactly the same.

People without chess background will have to learn names and moves anyway. I
do not think it will make very much difference what set of names will be
used. We are talking, after all, about 14 names in standard shogi.

There is another point not mentioned so far. Will a use of japanese names
influence the abbreviations used. The abbreviations used in the west are
based on the English names.

With the best regards,

Hans