From: Pieter Stouten shogi net> Date: 17 aug 2004 Subject: Re: The myth of the "kanji barrier" 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/= caacvgua2i6YsbnuqMaa/411Web ------------------------------------------------------------------- Hello Shogi fans, On Tue 17 Aug 2004 at 09:29 +0100, Paul Smith wrote: >If you have been to the MSO in Alexandra Palace, ... As I said, >I didn't see any significant numbers trying shogi at all. > The MSO 2000 Shogi for Beginners event (in the Alexandra Palace) attracted 12 participants. Note that that goes beyond just "trying shogi" as they played an entire tournament. With 1 or 2 exceptions, these people had not played Shogi before, and several had cheat sheets lying next to their boards. In addition, we had people just outside the MSOWSC/ESC playing room (including female pro Takahashi Yamato) that taught Shogi to quite a few players. Admittedly, that was an afterthought and not very well implemented. We could have done better there. What also worked well at the same event was Hans Secelle's famous "Psychology in Shogi" lecture and Osamu Nakao's interactive presentation on Shogi history and puzzles, which attracted quite a few non-players. We may get another shot at using the MSO for popularizing Shogi: David Levy has approached FESA with an offer to host the ESC in 2005. The only competing proposal so far comes from the Ukraine. >The other kind of chess players who are interested in trying >other games are junior chess players. > Indeed. And when Steve Campbell was still involved with Shogi, a lot of Faversham school boys participated in tournaments. The influx of new talent stopped when Steve stopped. A small population combined with the sudden lack of an enthusiastic mentor and organizer was the culprit there. >But I do think people are put off trying because they *think* it >will be difficult. We can fight against that, and say it should >not be this way (which will do nothing to get more shogi players). >Or we can try to deal with it. > Yes, perception is indeed reality. All one can do is try to change that perception and if using western sets serves that purpose then by all means use them. In Sweden, Toyota had Shogi sets made with Toyota car models on them and an indication of the moves, that were very useful. I have only two concerns: if players that learn Shogi with a western set never change over then its use may propagate and these players may not participate in tournaments where Japanese sets are used. I am not sure this is a big problem or not. More importantly, the whole issue of western-sets-or-not and the discussion about it may be relevant in and by itself, but if we are concerned about declining Shogi populations, it may be a small issue. If one wants to make a Fiat perform like a Ferrari, sure, one may tinker with the tires and the fuel, but using a more powerful engine has more of an effect. I may be wrong, but to me using western sets seems to be the equivalent of different fuel. If people want to spread Shogi in the west and they have limited time than they'd better focus on the (again in my perception) more critical issue of building a sustainable infrastructure (tournament & club organizers, shared responsibilities & redundancy, etc.). On Tue 17 Aug 2004 at 12:13 +0000, paul.smith25 ntlworld com wrote: >Pieter wrote: > >>but their motivation for not really trying out Shogi >>typically was that they had invested a lot of time=20 >>and effort to get good at Chess and were not willing=20 >>to learn another Chess variant=20 >> >I haven't met this sort of people myself, but I can see why some >chess players might think like this. > On the other hand, they may say that because they are too embarrassed to admit they find kanji frightening :-). >I personally think it would be worth trying (I may try it myself >one day if I ever have time). If someone already tried what I >suggested and it didn't work, that would be very interesting to >know. But I don't understand why people are so keen to argue that >the idea is wrong in principle or could not work (without it >actually being tried). > Martin Danerud tried with the Toyota sets; I am sure he would be happy to share his experiences with you. As to actual sets, George Hodges used to sell western sets; I don't know if he still does. I don't think anybody argued that western sets cannot help popularizing Shogi, but only that other issues are more important. If the ISPS labours under the impression that well designed western sets will make Shogi much more accessible and if they spend a lot of time, effort and money on it then it would be unfortunate if with the same investment they could have addressed a more critical issue. However, the situation is not exactly like that. The ISPS is looking at multiple ways to spread Shogi. One of these ways is the visits they paid to the Czech republic and Ukraine to help spread Shogi there. Ciao, Pieter Your free subscription is supported by today's sponsor: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Save up to 67% on Omaha Steaks + Get 6 FREE Burgers and a=20 FREE Cutlery Set + Cutting Board! http://click.topica.com/= caacvgpa2i6YsbnuqMaf/OmahaSteaks ------------------------------------------------------------------- --^---------------------------------------------------------------- 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 --^----------------------------------------------------------------