Rated Comments for a Single Item

I make go boards chungi sets and shogi sets and have found your site
invaluable in helping me get clear on the finer points of the rules. I
have been making the chungi for a while and have only just started making
shogi sets and have not started to sell them yet. I only decided to make a
shogi set after viewing your site. Like fergus Duniho I have tried to
westerize the pieces for easier play, I had done a similar thing with my
chungi.
The almost 2 completed shogi sets have taken for ever to and i will
probably have to put a fairly high price on them. I make them from maranti
wood with a pacific maple board and am going to try and sell the three
(go, chungi, shogi) on e bay. I sell a small number through game shops in
melbourne australia but with their 100% mark up I dont sell them
regularily and dont make much money. I would like to send you a picture of
the shogi set i have almost finished if that is ok but it will take a bit
longer. I also thought i had played the most exciting chess when i played
chungi, but shogi is probably even better and just gets so dynamic towards
the end as pieces are dropping in etc, i love it. I dont have a computer
so please dont be offended if i do not reply for a while. Once again
excellent site.
Tori watson. [email protected]

Russian Shogi pages: 
'Shogi In Russia' - http://www.shogi.sp.ru/; 
'Byelorussian Shogi Assotiation' - http://shogi.at.tut.by/default.html
download Cut-out shogi set(pieces, board) + english version; 
'Assotiation Russian Shogi Players' - http://shogi-arsi.narod.ru/;
'Ukrainian Shogi Federation' - http://shogi.in.net.ua/ download cut-out
shogi pieces;
'Vadim Filippov's Shogi Page' - http://www.go.hobby.ru/shogi/

Does anyone know, are there Zillions of Games saved-games files (*.zsg) of
interesting, classic, instructive Shogi games available here or elsewhere
on the net?  Would this be a worthwhile project?  It's hard (for me, at
least) to see a list of Shogi game moves and follow it--especially since
I
have to work so hard to recognize the Japanese characters. This is my own
problem, of course, but I wonder if others feel the same way, and if
Zillions saved games provides a solution?  Thanks.

Shogi is an entertaining game, indeed, but I lack a link to play this on
the  computer. It's hard finding people to play against on the other
side
of the planet, especially ones who speak or read japanese. And I'm too
lazy to do that. Mendoukusai na, if you know what I mean.
Do you have a link to an online version of shogi?

About the program Todai Shogi 

   Hello,

I have Todai Shogi program but all the menus are in Japanese.
Anybody would have the intructions note (comment help) translated into
English?
Either can you advise me a means to understand the menus of this 
software?

            Pierre Jason

Thanks for the information!  Manabu Terao, thank you also for the link.

I have never heard of the Invisible Ink Composition, the moves of which
for the shape of a letter or ideogram.  Wonderful idea.

That is one reason why investigation of chess variants is good for the
mind.  New ideas, different cultures, change of perspective.  Thank you.

http://www.unicode.org/cgi-bin/GetUnihanData.pl?codepoint=7389

But what should shock you is that knight is not honorable horse but a 'cinnamon tree-horse' and lance is 'perfume-chariot'. names probably chosen by phonetic reasons rather than those of meaning

Shogi, is of course, an excellent game. But here is what is interesting: In
relation to another CV comment, seemingly unrelated (i.e., Fergus's
comment to research a certain player to see he (Fergus) had no
double-identity).. Well, I did research that player and found out he was
in Tokyo and had a Shogi link which was quite interesting.  He also
mentioned a site where you could play Shogi in real-time.  So, I went to
http://www.kurnik.org and in minutes won my first 10 minute on-line speed
Shogi game... quite fun.  I was then crushing my opponent in a second game
when a most terrible thing happened.  I went to move the Rook, but then
realized I could drop a pawn instead and win a Lance for the pawn.  When I
clicked to drop the pawn, my Rook moved to that square instead... so,
instead of winning a Lance, I lost a Rook... oh what sorrow due to a
mechanical issue.  Anyway, it is fun to play real-time Shogi... and thanks
to the rating system double-idntity issue, a real-time Shogi site was
found.

Shogi is on the XBox 360!

I just saw this on XBox Live Arcade. Shotest Shogi has been released for the XBox 360, and able to be obtained through XBox Live. It contains both traditional and symbolic notation.

You can learn more on it here:
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/s/shotestshogixboxlivearcade/
http://previews.teamxbox.com/xbox-360/1917/Shotest-Shogi/p1/

I rate it good, because finally a console gets Shogi.

Shogi is an excellent game. Like Chinese Chess and western Chess, it probably evolved from the Indian Chaturanga. Despite being very different from Chinese Chess and from western Chess, it has too many similarities to them to be coincidence. The main evidence for the direction of evolution is that (1) it is a huge improvement over Chaturanga, and (2) its main differences from Chaturanga are not seen in other regional Chess variants. One of its main differences from other regional variants is its drop rule, which allows players to drop captured pieces back on the board as their own. Despite still having some slow-moving pieces like Chaturanga has, this rule greatly speeds up the game. because a captured piece can (with some restrictions) be placed on any empty space on the board. It also makes the game more dynamic. Instead the game being decided by a single-Pawn difference early in the game, there is a greater chance of material shifting between players, and the outcome depends more on the quality of play throughout the game. Shogi remains superior to Chess variants, such as Chessgi or Crazyhouse, that have added a similar drop rule to Chess. The reason for this is that its piece set is better-designed to work with the drop rule. In general, the drop rule works better with weaker pieces than are found in Chess. For example, the Chess Knight can be a formidable piece to drop, possibly forking several pieces, but the Shogi Knight can move in only two directions. Although it does include one Rook in the game, it has replaced the two corner Rooks with Lances, which move forward only. Also, unlike Chessgi and Crazyhouse, the Rook is the most powerful piece that may be dropped. In those games, you can drop a captured Queen. Shogi is also superior to Shatranji, my own attempt to apply the drop rule to the weaker piece set found in Shatranj. Besides the regular Chess Knight, Shatranji has a Ferz and some Elephants, which are both short-range diagonal moving pieces, instead of the Gold and Silver Generals. The two Generals, while being weaker than the King, both have the ability to change color. Also, like the Lance and Shogi Knight, they are more powerful going forward than backward. Having greater power for forward movement improves the offensive ability of pieces while weakening their defensive capabilities. Giving greater power to several pieces that reach the back three ranks also favors offense over defense. This favoring of offense over defense helps make Shogi more decisive and less drawish. Overall, Shogi is a fun, dynamic, and decisive game that can hold interest throughout the game, it is a huge improvement over Chaturanga, and among regional variants, it is my favorite.

Once each side has a little development completed, Shogi games are action-packed as a rule.

A simplified valuation scheme, as given by Grimbergen (see Shogi wiki entry) is: P=1; L&N=3; S&G=5; B=8; R=9; PB=12; PR=13.

I'm facing a problem: I want to open a game in which it is my move. Immediately I get an error saying I can't drop a pawn on a file where I already have a pawn.

Yes, I do already know that I can't drop a pawn on a file where I already have a pawn. Especially when I haven't even made any move.