Life In 19x19

Hello L19x19'ers,

I've been watching an anime about shogi (Shion no ou) and I think I would very much like to learn how to play it.
I was discussing this very matter on KGS and several people came forward, saying that they too wanted to learn how to play.
Mind you this is in no way meant to replace Go, and I do not intend to have it intrude on my go studies either (or not a lot anyway), but sometimes I feel
like I could use a little break for a couple of hours, and instead of watching mindless TV or playing overly-violent games I would like to play Shogi.

I feel like studying/playing will be easiest when in a group, and therefore I come to you. Would you like to learn shogi? Why not learn together!?
I am unsure of details, or how to go about this at this particular time, but I suggest you all take a look at the following links (I too will be doing this for a while. The rules are a bit more complex than Go's) ;
- http://www.81squareuniverse.com/shogi/rules/ << Explains the basic rules of the game. I've read the first couple of pages and found it to be very clear.
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pkz0LVBg ... r_embedded << First video of a series of videos explaining shougi. I watched the first video and thought it was very instructive, though the kanji script leaves me stunned at the moment and I can only remember about four pieces (oops)

That's all I have right now. If you wish to participate or have more learning resources, please feel free to post.

P.S. If you know how to play Shougi and are of decent strength, why not help us <3. I'm sure we'd be very thankful.

You may want to check out this page.
Also here is a place to play on the net (also Xiangqi and Janggi), turn based, Swedish site.

/Mats

I usually play shogi on Playok.

Hidetchi lessons on Youtube are really awesome.

I strongly recomend you, to start, to have a look to the book "Shogi for beginners" by Fairbairn, and later, let's say after 50 played games, if you like the game, to "The art of Shogi" by Toni Hosking.

I and my shogi master are promoting in Italy also a smaller variant of shogi, called Dobutsushogi, which is fantastic to introduce children to the game: http://wiki.81squareuniverse.com/index. ... utsu_Shogi

kaliya wrote:I and my shogi master are promoting in Italy also a smaller variant of shogi, called Dobutsushogi, which is fantastic to introduce children to the game: http://wiki.81squareuniverse.com/index. ... utsu_Shogi

That's very nice, i looked at the link given on the wikipedia page (http://www.joshi-shogi.com/doubutsushogi/) and found this two pictures:


http://www.joshi-shogi.com/doubutsushogi/imgs/IMG_1014.JPG
http://www.joshi-shogi.com/doubutsushogi/ims/IMG_1020.JPG

I don't know japanese, are these kid's versions of go?

Hi !

I'm learning shogi too (thought very, very part-time). I'm finding it very hard to get material for it and playing online is extremely frustrating because I always get crushed in games. The only positive point I get is that a colleague of mine plays withme about once a week and he's as bad as I am ! We've only had 2-3 games up to now, though, and we're pretty much evenly matched.

I play on brainking.com. I played a few games on playok.com but there doesn't seem to attract many new players so players come in, crush me and leave. Let's just say I miss the KGS Teaching Ladder.

I even have a shogi blog but there isn't much in it since I never got hooked on the game as I thought I would for the reasons mentioned before. Anyway, if you play on brainking, send me a game invite ! Or tell me when you're available on playok.

SolarBear, as a total beginner, I think you still miss the fundamentals:

- Leave "sitted king" (not castled king) only to 1d or stronger players
- So, always castle before launching any attack!
- King at one side, tower at the opposite
- Solve many 1 move tsumeshogi (mate problems)
- Later, learn some shogi proverbs, like "tokin is worthing 3 generals"
- Experience study/playing with a real set. You can find very nice sets at YMimports for America and Aobo-shop for Europe.
- Read "Shogi for beginners"

I will explain one thing from the behalf of all the Go players in the world - Shogi sucks! Go rules!

There is no need to put down Shogi if you love Go.

I love both Go and chess and it always makes me sad when people think they have to denigrate one of them so that their own game will be respected more. It's not a zero-sum game.

Count me in!

I discovered Shogi about 20 years ago but never pursued it thanks to go. I've played my 20-30 games total and those 15 or more years ago. But I enjoyed shogi much more than western chess. (I understand they sprang from the same Indian game???). I used to play with a co-worker at lunch. We had all the chess players in the company asking to learn. If I'd only know about go back then.

I have a set with traditional Japanese characters, which I prefer to the international symbols. They are not hard to learn. So, I agree that having a real set is worth it, even if only for study.

(BTW, as far as taking a break once in a while from go, I believe even Honinbo Shusai play shogi for fun!)

RazorBrain wrote:I have a set with traditional Japanese characters, which I prefer to the international symbols.

I don't believe I've seen a set with international symbols. What do those look like?

xed_over wrote:

RazorBrain wrote:I have a set with traditional Japanese characters, which I prefer to the international symbols.

I don't believe I've seen a set with international symbols. What do those look like?

http://www.mattleonard.com/stripe/japan ... E%20PIECES

You can see the way he shows the pieces with letters and directions.

oren wrote:

xed_over wrote:

RazorBrain wrote:I have a set with traditional Japanese characters, which I prefer to the international symbols.

I don't believe I've seen a set with international symbols. What do those look like?

http://www.mattleonard.com/stripe/japan ... E%20PIECES

You can see the way he shows the pieces with letters and directions.

oh, cool. Never seen those before. I might have been able to learn the game better with those

xed_over wrote:oh, cool. Never seen those before. I might have been able to learn the game better with those

It's not too late!

oren wrote:

xed_over wrote:oh, cool. Never seen those before. I might have been able to learn the game better with those

It's not too late!

pfft... yep it is. I've learned Go now.

I'm surprised to see a few shogi discussions on this forum. I'm glad there's interest in the igo community.

I guess a shogi thread is appropriate for me to introduce myself in. I'm hirohiigo, the webmaster of The 81-Square Universe, and I've dedicated my life to promoting and teaching people shogi. Nice to meet you all. I was an occasional member of Go Discussions when it was still around, and I've been lurking on Life in 19x19 for a few months. I also play igo a bit, but don't have many people to play with, so I'm still pretty weak.

I would be more than happy to help teach people from L19x19 to play shogi. As Christos said, Hidetchi's videos are the best place to learn shogi; they're where I learned to play and I would never recommend anything else as a starting point. If you watch his whole "How to Play Shogi" series it should bring you to about 15-kyu (or 10-kyu in Japanese rankings). His "Shogi Exercises" series is also a great resource if you are unable to import tsumeshogi and tesuji books from Japan.

If you want to study shogi, even if you choose not to become as serious as you are with igo, I recommend you join the forums on The 81-Square Universe, which you can find here. It's basically the L19x19 of shogi, and although it's not as active as L19x19 seems, it has many players who are more than happy to give advice.

By the way, if you plan to start a shogi club in person, you might be interested in my Incentive to start American shogi clubs. In a nutshell, I'll personally buy your club a shogi set if you start a club of 5 or more members, and another set at 10 members, 20 members, etc. I'll also buy your club a copy of "Shogi for Beginners" by John Fairbairn if your club reaches 15 members. Unfortunately, at the moment, this offer is only for American clubs.

mohsart wrote:You may want to check out this page.
Also here is a place to play on the net (also Xiangqi and Janggi), turn based, Swedish site.

/Mats

In general these days, I wouldn't recommend Shogi.Net to beginners, since it's a very old and hard-to-navigate site. I may be a little biased, but I think it would be better to refer new shogi players to The 81-Square Universe instead.

Hi !

I'm learning shogi too (thought very, very part-time). I'm finding it very hard to get material for it and playing online is extremely frustrating because I always get crushed in games. The only positive point I get is that a colleague of mine plays withme about once a week and he's as bad as I am ! We've only had 2-3 games up to now, though, and we're pretty much evenly matched.

I play on brainking.com. I played a few games on playok.com but there doesn't seem to attract many new players so players come in, crush me and leave. Let's just say I miss the KGS Teaching Ladder.

I even have a shogi blog but there isn't much in it since I never got hooked on the game as I thought I would for the reasons mentioned before. Anyway, if you play on brainking, send me a game invite ! Or tell me when you're available on playok.

Hi Solar Bear! Nice to run into you here, too.

I'm sorry to hear you haven't gotten as hooked on the game as you would have liked. If you want, I can give you one-on-one lessons in the future, including reviewing all of your games like I did with the one game I commented on in your blog.

- Later, learn some shogi proverbs, like "tokin is worthing 3 generals"

I think you've mixed up two proverbs. "A tokin is worth 1,000 golds" and "A horse's defense is worth three generals." Here's a list of shogi proverbs: http://wiki.81squareuniverse.com/index. ... i_Proverbs

I will explain one thing from the behalf of all the Go players in the world - Shogi sucks! Go rules!

I don't think either should be compared to the other, since they're both very different games. I love both games, although I'm a bit more serious about shogi than igo.

(BTW, as far as taking a break once in a while from go, I believe even Honinbo Shusai play shogi for fun!)

Permament Meijin and 3-Crowns Yoshiharu Habu is an avid player of igo and chess as well.