From: Eduard Werner GMX DE> Date: 9 feb 2002 Subject: Re: Beginner From: Kent Krumvieda DATAFUSION COM> Subject: Beginner Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2002 15:55:32 -0700 > Now here is my problem. I can do a pretty good beginning game. I know > about 4 different castle. 2 static, 2 ranging rooks. But when I get to > this point I really don't know what to do next. In otherwords I need help > with my middle game. A very good book to help here is "Better moves for better Shogi" but I guess it's out of print. You can find lots of email opponents on either the shogi ladder (www.shogi.net/ladder) or on the PBeM-server (www.gamerz.net). Just ask for teaching games with decent handicaps. But email games tend to be slow anyway. The other thing you could do is work your way up through computer programs. You could get a decent computer program like Shogi Professional, Sekita Shogi or AI Shogi. Or start with the freely available GNU-Shogi -- on a decent machine, it's quite good. And when I started playing, it beat the hell out of me! (It even used to win on my -- now broken -- Psion, but a year later I could give it an eight-piece handicap!) Play against it, record the moves, study how it attacks you. When you feel you're lost, switch sides with the computer. That way you'll learn how to finish your opponent off (not at all easy) and you'll also learn about defense resources the computer will show you were not aware of. Against the better programs, start taking big handicaps first and make them smaller as you go. For improving your endgame, study tsume (there's lots of them in the internet). Actually, you should do all of these: Playing the computer won't develop good style, you'll need the explanations of a human to do that. But it will be much faster progress since you can have several games a day. Cheers Edi