From: DANERUD MARTIN comhem se> Date: 14 aug 2004 Subject: Re: Kanji-Less Shogi Sets = International Sets ? Where Available ? Your free subscription is supported by today's sponsor: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Amazing Diet Patch The fastest - Easiest way to lose weight! Try it now FREE! http://click.topica.com/= caacvgta2i6YsbnuqMaa/MyDietPatches ------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear shogi friends,=20 E R wrote: > Do the Japanese want to keep the game Japanese? This question is actually interesting. I would like to answer: Yes, but our= relevant Japanese shogi partners make a great effort to promote this Japan= ese game in the world. The Japanese shogi players are a great majority of t= he shogi players in the world, probably more than 99.9%. Even so, there sho= uld be a recognized international world shogi federation and a real shogi w= orld championship arranged by that organisation. That would help us enormou= sly to promote shogi in the West. Shogi is regarded as something old and tr= aditional by several Japanese, and they cannot understand why anyone outsid= e Japan would be interested in it. Among the clever persons with some persp= ective, which I call our Japanese shogi partners, little by little the insi= ght is coming that without an international spreading, any activity in the = world will have a difficulty to survive and grow in the future. The kanji c= haracters on the shogi pieces are a first obstacle to the Western beginners= . However, in the competition between different games and activities in the= world, the kanji characters on the shogi pieces are a genuine "trademark".= Shogi is a game with history, tradition, class and beauty, which could not= be said about several of the new games, which only experience a short time= of popularity.=20 > You don't need to be able to read to recognize chess pieces.=20 In order to play any game, you have to recognize pieces. Remember that it i= s a part of the Western cultural heritage to recognize the chess pieces, an= d even to know how they can move. To an absolute chess novice, it is not ob= vious that the piece with a peak and a notch is a bishop. Most Japanese rec= ognize the shogi pieces in the same way. They do not "read" the characters = either.=20 It is good that you take an interest in shogi. I do not want to tell you wh= at is right or wrong. However, the fact is that if you had spent a small fr= action of the time you have already spent on this discussion, you would hav= e learnt to recognize the shogi pieces by now. To Swedish beginners, we usu= ally say that it takes three minutes for a normally intelligent person to l= earn to recognize the pieces. During the Swedish Chess Championship in July= , we taught several beginners the game of shogi. Not less than 15 players p= articipated in the beginner tournaments the first week and 16 players the s= econd week. They were pure beginners, since they had not played any real to= urnament games, and most of them had learnt to play during these weeks. I d= o not know of any game in those tournaments that was won because of not rec= ognized pieces.=20 Best regards,=20 Martin Danerud President of the Swedish Shogi Federation Your free subscription is supported by today's sponsor: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Get a Great Credit Card for You Today=20 You can find a credit card to fit your credit needs.=20=20 All types of credit cards -- 0% APRs, Rewards, & Bad Credit. http://click.topica.com/= caacvgua2i6YsbnuqMaf/411Web ------------------------------------------------------------------- --^---------------------------------------------------------------- This email was sent to: = shogi-l shogi net EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a2i6Ys.= bnuqMa.= c2hvZ2kt Or send an email to: shogi-unsubscribe topica com For Topica's complete suite of email marketing solutions visit: http://www.topica.com/?p=3DTEXFOOTER --^----------------------------------------------------------------