From: Larry Kaufman COMCAST NET> Date: 26 sep 2002 Subject: Promoting shogi This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --Boundary_(ID_JmKPEeXLCATI8Z8MI5otIQ) Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT With all the emails about how to promote shogi, I thought I'd add my 2 cents worth. In my view shogi is not a completely independent game (like GO) but part of the chess family of games. It follows that it will only appeal to the same people who would like chess (with a few exceptions). In the West, almost everyone will have either learned chess or rejected it before encountering shogi, and so it seems to me that trying to spread shogi among non-chessplayers is futile. Why should a chessplayer take up shogi, when it is so much easier to find opponents, literature, etc. for chess? One reason is variety, but there are chess variants available using the same equipment that would satisfy that desire. In my view, the main reason to prefer shogi is that it is not plagued with draws, as chess is. That is the principal reason I play shogi. I don't care about it being "exotic" or Oriental. Its appeal is that both players must play to win; none of this boring defense of a slightly inferior position hoping to reach a draw. So I feel that shogi is best promoted by emphasizing this dynamic aspect of the game and contrasting it to chess. I've done this in "Chess Life", I leave it to others to spread the word in other sources. Larry Kaufman, amateur 5 Dan --Boundary_(ID_JmKPEeXLCATI8Z8MI5otIQ) Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
     With all the emails about how to promote shogi, I thought I'd add my 2 cents worth.  In my view shogi is not a completely independent game (like GO) but part of the chess family of games.  It follows that it will only appeal to the same people who would like chess (with a few exceptions).  In the West, almost everyone will have either learned chess or rejected it before encountering shogi, and so it seems to me that trying to spread shogi among non-chessplayers is futile.
     Why should a chessplayer take up shogi, when it is so much easier to find opponents, literature, etc. for chess?  One reason is variety, but there are chess variants available using the same equipment that would satisfy that desire.  In my view, the main reason to prefer shogi is that it is not plagued with draws, as chess is.  That is the principal reason I play shogi.  I don't care about it being "exotic" or Oriental.  Its appeal is that both players must play to win; none of this boring defense of a slightly inferior position hoping to reach a draw.
     So I feel that shogi is best promoted by emphasizing this dynamic aspect of the game and contrasting it to chess.  I've done this in "Chess Life",  I leave it to others to spread the word in other sources.
 
     Larry Kaufman, amateur 5 Dan
--Boundary_(ID_JmKPEeXLCATI8Z8MI5otIQ)--