From: Alexei <alexei <at> HAWAII <dot> RR <dot> COM>
Date: 3 may 2002
Subject: Shobute...

A shobute in chess notational terms would be somewhere between a "!?"
(interesting) and a "?!" (unsound).  It implies that the side playing the
shobute has an inferior position and it may or may not be a sacrifice of
material.  Instead of playing passively and having no counterplay, the
player of the shobute will try for play at some risk, even though against
the best response it may not be sufficient.  The word "shobu" is made of the
two characters for "win" and "lose", and it has an aggressive connotation so
the side playing it is probably in a combatitive and positive mood.

Contrast this with the word "murisuji" which means "hopeless play".  There
is a difference between playing an aggressive move in a bad position, and
simply running a position into the ground.

Alexei