From: "Bernhard C. März" arcor de> Date: 15 jun 2007 Subject: RE: "Friendliest" program? Hi Joss, I can not give you information about commercial programs, because I can=20 not speak Japanese language and in Germany it's rarely impossible to get= =20 such programs (other than ordering by internet, mostly in Japanese=20 language). But I can give you the following tips: 1) If you prefer "human play", you should play against humans. ;-) In SC24 you can play at every time against many people and there=20 strength ranges from absolutely newbie to unbeatable. I didn't know much reasons against doing so, maybe a very bad or=20 expensive internet connection. 2) If nevertheless you prefer playing against computers for any reasons,= =20 it's better to play not only against one single program, but better to=20 play against many different ones. There are still some free programs,=20 which you can see in an earlier post from me. a) then you can learn different styles of different programs. Also it's=20 more pleasing not always playing similar games. b) against stronger programs you can take handicap and weaker programs=20 you can give handicap. Playing handicap games improves also your=20 abilities, for example when you played chess before, you are taking to=20 much attention about rook and bishop. With handicap games you learn,=20 that also the knight (and silver and gold ...) have very much power. Also I like playing handicap-games. 3) Of course optical looking is very important and I play more often=20 with good looking programs. But also trying bad looking programs helps you learning, because there=20 you will train your brain to keep the position more in your mind,=20 without so much attention by your eyes. And here is my individual list: 1) try all this free programs listed in this earlier post. ;-) 2) for PLAYING games it's best if you can use your own bitmaps for the=20 pieces. For this I suggest K-Shogi! Also CsaBona have (in my eyes) good looking pieces (you can select=20 between two different sets but you can not use your own made). 3) for ANALIZING games, I prefer the "Play Kentou" mode from CsaBona. I=20 haven't found any other program where this is possible (maybe there are=20 commercial programs with this feature, but read my first lines). I've asked the programmer of "Kifu for Windows" if he is thinking about=20 making his program work with the sikou.dll, able playing with the=20 Bonanza engine. He told he thought about that and I'm waiting for it=20 very much. In "Kifu for Windows" you can use your own piece-sets, also=20 you can add comments and create subvariations (subvariations are very=20 rarely supported by shogi programs), but till now it can not play or=20 teach you (show you the value of the position). > As a more-or-less complete beginner, I'm unlikely to be stretching the > boundaries of any program this lifetime.=20 You will be able to win against most programs very soon. ;-) Bye Bernhard --^---------------------------------------------------------------- This email was sent to: = shogi-l shogi net EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a2i6Ys.= aCqKR7.= 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 --^----------------------------------------------------------------