From: Sam Sloan <sloan <at> ISHIPRESS <dot> COM>
Date: 14 nov 2002
Subject: Re: The value of pieces to Shogi

At 05:23 PM 11/14/2002 -0500, Larry Kaufman wrote:
>        ----- Original Message -----    From:   Pierre Morteux      To:
>SHOGI-L <at> TECHUNIX <dot> TECHNION <dot> AC <dot> IL      Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2002 3:51
>  PM   Subject: The value of pieces to   Shogi
>
>
>So to Chess, if we take the pawn = 1 as reference, we have :
>
>        - pawn =   1
>        - Bishop =   3,5
>        - Knight =   3,5
>        - Rook =   5
>        - Queen = 10
>
>To   shogi, can make the same   assessment?
>
>
>              Pierre Morteux               I believe it is the most
>accurate simple table   possible.        Pawn =   1        Lance =   4
>  Knight =   5        Silver =   7        Gold =   8        Bishop =   11
>     Rook =   13                As for promoted   bishop or rook, the
>concensus seems to be to add 3 points, making 14 or 16 for   those pieces.
>        In the endgame, normal values don't mean much; in particular
>generals (especially golds) in hand are good for mating.            Larry
>Kaufman,   amateur 5 Dan


Since Larry Kaufman is a vastly stronger player than I am, I would normally
defer to his opinion, but in this case I cannot.

I believe that the above table of values where Pawn=1 and Lance=4 and so on
was created just to satisfy requests by Western chess players for a table
of such values. I do not believe that amateur or professional players of
shogi in Japan ever use such values.

For example, in chess, if one player has a rook and the opponent has a
knight and three pawns, all chess players will agree that the player with a
kinght and three pawns is a pawn ahead.

However, in shogi, nothing like this will ever happen.

Sam Sloan