From: Richard Sams PARKCITY NE JP> Date: 28 oct 2002 Subject: Oriental players? In his recent report on the Tokyo International Forum (posted on October 23), Larry Kaufman made the following comment on the results: "The remarkable thing about the results was that not one of the Oriental players made it to the four-way tie for first! The Japanese and Brazilian (ethnic Japanese) players were thought to be among the favorites, and there were also Oriental players from China, Thailand, and Paraguay. So the results were a great success for Shogi in the West. Furthermore, even among the players with 3-2, the two top finishers on tie-break were non-Orientals!" I am rather surprised that Larry should put all "Oriental" players in the same category. While the Japanese and Brazilian (ethnic Japanese) players have an obvious cultural advantage regarding Shogi, the players from China and Thailand are essentially in the same situation as players from the West. Both countries have their own versions of chess - Chinese chess (shiang-chi) and Thai chess (makruk) - so they are not much more likely than Westerners to encounter Shogi. The Japanese tend to think that Chinese people have an advantage over Westerners in learning Shogi because they can read kanji (Chinese characters), but I haven't met any players from Europe who had much difficulty remembering or identifying the eight Shogi pieces! Richard Sams