From: Jeff Rollason PURPLESOFTWARE COM> Date: 28 oct 2002 Subject: Re: Oriental players? I would beg to differ in the idea that the Chinese would not have any advantage because of the common Kanji! I would guess that the use of kanji on Shogi sets is the single greatest barrier to the acceptance of Shogi in the west. For me, trying to read shogi problems, it took some time before I could quickly figure out which way up the pieces were. My first year was spent with a Shogi set with the letters P, N, L, S, G, B, R, K marked in the corner with erasable ink. After a year I wiped the letters off. The Kanji is very beautiful, and I would not want to use anything else, but I'm sure it puts most potential Western Shogi players off from starting. If I had been Chinese I'm sure I would have been up and running much more quickly! Jeff Rollason >-----Original Message----- >From: Richard Sams [mailto:rjfs PARKCITY NE JP] >Sent: 28 October 2002 02:48 >To: SHOGI-L TECHUNIX TECHNION AC IL >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 > On 10th October 2002, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts awarded Purple Software a BAFTA for its application, SMS Chess for the new Sony Ericsson P800 in the Games - Mobile Device category. This impressive achievement is testament to Purple Software's standing as a world class developer of entertainment software for leading digital platforms, particularly mobile. Purple Software Limited Purple House Corporation Street High Wycombe Buckinghamshire HP13 6TQ United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0) 1494 750300 Fax: +44 (0) 1494 750301 http://www.purplesoftware.com This e-mail contains proprietary information some or all of which may be legally privileged. It is intended for the recipient only. If an addressing error or transmission error has misdirected this e-mail, please notify the sender immediately or contact postmaster purplesoftware com. If you are not the intended recipient you must not use, disclose, distribute, copy, print or rely on this e-mail. The views expressed in this e mail are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Purple Software Limited.