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        Arimaa >> Off Topic Discussion >> Shogi
        
(Message started by: clojure on Oct 2^nd, 2010, 6:43pm)

Title: Shogi
Post by clojure on Oct 2^nd, 2010, 6:43pm

Is here anyone that plays shogi? I'm starting to feel an urge to try it out, and began to watch shogi tutorial in Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pkz0LVBg0W4&feature=channel

Is there a good program that introduces to shogi tactics and strategy? Shotest Shogi (http://www.shotestshogi.com/) seemed promising; has anyone tried it?

Title: Re: Shogi
Post by The_Jeh on Oct 2^nd, 2010, 11:07pm

I don't know about a program teaching tactics and strategy, but I have had fun with Shogi Variants (http://trout.customer.netspace.net.au/), which plays normal shogi as well as common variants, and Shogidokoro is the universal shogi interface GUI.

Title: Re: Shogi
Post by clojure on Oct 3^rd, 2010, 4:38am

Hey, the "middle shogi" seemed fun according to Wikipedia. There's a piece lion that can move twice per turn. Effectively, it can capture twice, or capture a piece adjacent to it and move back to its original square.

There was also a piece called "Drunken elephant" before modern shogi. Now that sounds like a fun Arimaa variation theme.

Title: Re: Shogi
Post by clojure on Oct 12^th, 2010, 12:18pm

I got today my shogi set \o/

It's not very good wood (whatever it is) but still gets me eager to get play. A friend will visit me from other town and I hope I'll get some go players interested as well.

I wish the Arimaa wooden set would be available. I really, really do. Though, the board should be in two parts so that I can carry it in a backpack.

http://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic792258_md.jpg

Title: Re: Shogi
Post by clojure on Oct 14^th, 2010, 11:56am

Had my first shogi game today. It took some time to remember the Kanji marked pieces. Also I did forget time to time how pieces move and basically lost due to it.

The game lasted over six hours with small breaks. It was lots of fun. There was much to think about during the whole game.

The drop rule makes the game unique and in an even matched game makes different possibilities pop up all the time, which makes the game exciting. Comparatively to chess, the pawns cannot support themselves alone and pieces are not generally as powerful, so the feel of play is different.

I recommend trying out Shogi for anyone who is generally interested in abstract board games but especially for people that feel like playing chess with fresh aspects.

Title: Re: Shogi
Post by ocmiente on Oct 31^st, 2010, 12:24am

Got my wooden Shogi pieces in the mail today. I was buying other stuff from one of those very large internet sites, and figured that I might as well add it to the cart for around $12 since it wouldn't add much to the shipping. The pieces are a nice size, and are black on one side and red on the other. Cheap paper board, but when ironed it works well enough.

Played two games with my kids - almost lost the first game to a 7 year old. I'm afraid he's going to be beating me at everything soon.

There was a short, but very steep learning curve in remembering what pieces did what. This was not helped by the Japanese characters, since I know nothing about that language. However, after a while it seems like it's like any other game piece - remembering what they do by how they look.

I was initially skeptical about the game, but I enjoyed playing it, and can see why it's so popular in Japan. Seems like a game will be generally longer than Arimaa, but with short time controls, or if I'm in the mood to enjoy a long game, I can see playing this game more in the future.

I also got a copy of "Shogi for Beginners" by Fairbairn several weeks ago. I thought that was worth it too - though It's been out of print for a while and copies can be expensive at some places. Some of the mate in one problems took me a while to figure out. I haven't even tried the mate in two problems yet.

It's quite different than Chess or Arimaa. Definitely fun.

Title: Re: Shogi
Post by clojure on Oct 31^st, 2010, 8:17am

If you want to play online, here's one that is still being improved but is already great. There are usually from a couple of players to fifteen or so. http://www.81squareuniverse.com/dojo/client.html

You can also use westernized piece types to make it easy to introduce new players.

Title: Re: Shogi
Post by DarkAngelCryo on Dec 16^th, 2010, 12:52pm

on 10/31/10 at 08:17:02, clojure wrote:

Thanks for that link clojure, i had been looking for a good place to play online shogi.