Shogi

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[Matt Banks]

Hi there,

My brother trains in a dojo in London called the ''Budokwai''. Its one of the oldest (if not the oldest) dojo in europe. It was primarily a judo dojo but it also teaches jujutsu etc. Anyway the president of the (massive dojo) is a man called Trevor Legget. And he is a 6th dan and a 5th Dan in SHOGI. When I heard this I thought arrrrrr ''whats all this then?'' For those who dont know it is Japanese chess, although its nothing like chess. It translates as ''The Generals Game''' and it was played by japanese generals in feudal times(a very old game). What interested me was that it is a fully registered martial art, with a grading syllabus with kyu and dan grades. The idea is it improves your fighting stradegy etc etc. Anyway chess as you and I know should really be called international chess, as its a westernised version.Aparently all chess variants came from a game in india.
So the game the board is diffrent from normal chess ,diffrent pieces and the movements they can do. The main cool diffrences are the following.
1) The pieces came kind of 'parachute'' in on certain parts of the board.
2)Once you capture a piece its not dead but you use it on your side.
3) pieces can be promoted to do more damage.

The thing is that I never liked normal chess as towards of the game it got slower slower ''normally'' and there were often draws. Whereas with shogi its almost impossible to draw. So the game always ends with a crushing victory, which is more exciting. Plus its japanese and you can pretend your a samurai general instucting his army. (woops I sound pathetic''.

Anyway I want to get more into it. Has anyone else played it ,and what did you think of it?




Matt Banks

[akiy]

Thread moved to Chit Chat forum.

-- Jun

[Nick]

I've read the rules of Shogi, but have no board and nowhere to play it, so I've never actually played a game. I am, however, infatuated by Go, which is older than either chess or shogi. Unless I'm mistaken, Go was the first to use the kyu/dan system, starting with Honinbo Sansa, though my books aren't in front of me. The amateur ranks go to 7th dan, and it's said that an amateur 7 dan is equal to a professional shodan... you can get on the online server and learn the rules (as well as buy a board and helping books) at http://www.kiseido.com . If you see someone on the server named Nick, say hey to me :-).

Back to shogi-- heard of it, roughly know the rules, and would like to learn to play it...

Nick
28k on Kiseido Go Server