From: Richard Sams <rjfs <at> PARKCITY <dot> NE <dot> JP>
Date: 28 oct 2002
Subject: Re: Oriental players?

on 02.10.28 7:50 PM, Jeff Rollason at jeff.rollason <at> PURPLESOFTWARE <dot> COM
wrote:

> 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
>
>>
Actually, there is quite a wide range of kanji-reading ability among the
Japanese (and presumably the Chinese) too. Some children pick them up very
quickly, while others struggle mightily and then forgot many of the kanji
they've learned after leaving school. This ability may be related to
"spatial aptitude," which may be the reason why good chess players tend to
pick up kanji relatively quickly.

Richard Sams